Exploring Ottawa Art Trail

PED 3114 Art Trail Cards.pdf

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I created this trail around my schools’ neighbourhood, Sandy Hill, as a fun way for students to explore the area. I expect this trek will take about 1.5 to 2 hours for the students to complete. The art trail consists of 7 stops – (1) MacDonald Gardens Park, (2) The water fountain, (3) The bridge, (4) Strathcona Folly structure, (5) Embassies, (6) Le Cordon Bleu and (7) Laurier House. I have attached a PDF called Art Trail Cards and each student will get their own set of cards. Everyone will start at the first location (MacDonald Gardens Park) before the trek begins so we can discuss the plan for the day. I will remind students of their responsibilities and tasks while exploring the city. These include being mindful of other pedestrians, being responsible for our actions, watching for cars, listening to peers/adult, how to use the cards etc. Even though I took the pictures in the winter season (now), ideally, I would like to take the class on this art trail in the spring or autumn seasons so they can collect pieces of nature and admire the foliage/flowers. This art trail incorporates both art and language while they are travelling from stop to stop. While creating this, I also kept multiple intelligences in mind such as kinesthetic (walking around, collecting items), visual-spatial (taking pictures, drawing, reading maps), naturalist (through the parks), interpersonal (conversing in small groups) and intrapersonal (relating questions to themselves).

Students will be split into groups of 5 or 6 and with a volunteer. This way there are more chances for students to stop, take breaks and admire the neighbourhood without feeling peer pressured by the whole class to keep walking. There is a map for the trail which we will discuss before students are split into groups. Before this art trail excursion, they will have already learned how to read maps and use compasses which will help to navigate the city.

Each card number corresponds to the map number (ie. 1 on the map is 1 card - Macdonald Garden). Each card has a picture(s) of the location, the name and a serious of questions, instructions, and directions to help students navigate their way through the trail. Parents/volunteers are there to supervise and help if needed, but I will encourage the students to try and follow the directions themselves. Questions and instructions and in bold font while directions are in italicized font. Some cards instruct students to collect items for art while others ask students to think of adjectives to describe certain structures. The students will either receive printed cards and bring their journals/notebook for extra writing space or carry a tablet with a digital copy to flip through while exploring (if there is enough for each student, it would depend on the school). If there are not enough tablets for each student, hopefully, there is enough for each group, so they are able to take pictures. I can bring any devices from home or volunteers could to take pictures if there is not enough technology. Additionally, tablets can be used by the students who need this accommodation to help them succeed.

When the trek is finished everyone will meet at stop 7 (Laurier House) and we will walk back to school together. At school, students will have a chance to talk about their experience with their peers. Then as a whole group, we will discuss the positives and/or negatives of the art trail and if we should do a scavenger hunt with clues next time.

Extension Activities

Language Arts Curriculum Writing 1. generate, gather, & organize ideas & information to write for an intended purpose & audience

2. draft and revise their writing, using a variety of informational, literary, and graphic forms and stylistic elements appropriate for the purpose and audience 3. use editing, proofreading, and publishing skills and strategies, and knowledge of language conventions, to correct errors, refine expression, and present their work effectively

1.1 identify the topic, purpose, and audience for a variety of writing forms

1.5 identify and order main ideas and supporting details and group them into units to develop a summary, using graphic organizers

2.1 write more complex texts using a variety of forms

2.2 establish a personal voice in their writing, elements that convey a specific mood

2.4 use sentences of different lengths and structures

3.4 use punctuation appropriately to help communicate their intended meaning, with a focus on the use of: the apostrophe and quotation marks

3.5 use parts of speech appropriately to communicate their meaning clearly: common and proper nouns; verbs tenses; adjectives and adverbs; subject/verb agreement; prepositions & conjunctions

The Arts Curriculum Dance A1. Creating and Presenting: apply the creative process to the composition of movement sequences and short dance pieces, using the elements of dance to communicate feelings & ideas A1.1 translate into dance a variety of movement sequences observed in nature A1.4 use the elements of energy and time in a dance piece to communicate an idea

Music

C2. Reflecting, Responding, and Analysing: apply the critical analysis process communicate their feelings, ideas, and understandings in response to a variety of music & musical experiences

C2.2 identify the elements used in the music they perform, listen to & describe how it’s used

Visual Arts

D1. Apply the creative process to produce a variety of 2D/3D works, using elements, principles, and techniques of visual arts to communicate feelings, ideas, and understandings

D1.1 create 2D/3D art that express feelings/ ideas inspired by their interests & experiences

D1.2 demonstrate composition, using principles of design to create narrative art works/theme art

D1.4 use a variety of materials, tools, and techniques to determine solutions to design challenges

D2.1 interpret artwork & identify the feelings, issues, themes & social concerns that they convey

To extend the art trail into language arts, students will produce a creative writing piece. Along the trail, students were asked to use adjectives to describe certain places or structures. They are given free will to write a story however they please, but they will use the adjectives or sentences within their creative writing piece. In addition, they must also integrate two stopping points within the story. For example, “When we were crossing the bridge…and an alligator appeared out of nowhere”. Students will first organize their thoughts and ideas including the setting and characters in a graphic organizer which will also help to plan a beginning, middle and end of the story. Then they will need to check for grammar, punctuation, sentence structure and voice. Students will use the text-to-speech function or type their stories on a Chromebook, and we will display them in the hallway for other students and staff members to read.

Students will also create a brochure for the National Historic Site of Canada. The brochure will contain information on the two prime ministers, Sir Wilfred Laurier, and William Lyon Mackenzie King. It will also include two to five key facts that the students believe are important for the public to know and may intrigue them to visit the museum. In addition, students will make it visually eye-appealing and can hand-draw or use apps such as Canva or Microsoft Word to create their brochure. To tie into Mathematics, students can pretend they are a part of a council and their purpose is to choose a winning brochure for the museum. We will have a vote on the top five in the class. Each student will receive “$10 dollars” to put into the competing brochures. They can choose however they want to spend their “money”, which may be all $10 to one brochure or divided evenly etc. The person whos’ brochure with the most “money” gets to mail it to the site along with a short paragraph explaining how their brochure got chosen. As a class activity, we can dive deeper into math by calculating how much it would typically cost for a business to create brochures. This could include the cost of a graphic designer, printing, and mailing. This would be a great way to relate schoolwork to real-world scenarios and I think the students would be interested to see the actual process of producing a print.

After we can have a discussion to tie into social studies and their contributions to Canada, along with any social justice concerns.

To tie into the arts, students were asked to take pictures of anything they found intriguing. This may be a nice pathway, some trees, flowers, the bridge, any structures, houses etc. The students get to choose one of their pictures to recreate in an art piece. I will have extra pictures and artefacts in case students need them. Furthermore, from the trail, students collected various items that they will incorporate into their art piece. The students will draw their photos using oil pastels ensuring they incorporate the elements of design – lines, shape and form, space, texture etc. After they will choose one song that best represents how they felt while drawing – this can represent the piece itself, their artwork, or the emotions it evokes. In a few sentences, they will describe how the piece of music creates a certain mood or feeling.

Lastly, this trail is the perfect way to extend to dance as the Grade 4’s can create a variety of movements observed in nature. The students will be encouraged to take what we have seen from this trip and incorporate it into their own piece such as the river flowing, leaves blowing, bugs crawling and more. But they are not limited to this, they can also add other elements to it too.

Overall, there are many subjects that can be tied into this trek and the students will have an amazing time exploring the city.