The school that I teach at decided to hold a school-wide “Cardboard Challenge“, inspired by the youtube video “Caine’s Arcade“. There were many reasons why we decided to take on this challenge, but one reason is that it meshed well with the kind of learning and goals put forth in the new British Columbia curriculum; much of it using inquiry, group work, engineering and working with a specific material.  The students’ enthusiasm for the project was evident in the creativity and construction that resulted:

Air hockey table with a real fan inside,

Hogwart’s style castle village,

Scenes from the Lorax,

Cardboard city

Ball-shoot arcade-style game,

Just the beginning of many learning “challenges” to come, I’m sure!

My students have been beyond excited to learn about the first Canadian Explorers, especially the stories, the risk and the adventure.  I came upon this book, called Northwest Passage, written and illustrated by Stan Rogers.  The students were so intrigued by the voyages of John Franklin, including the extreme conditions and mysterious disappearances.  The book has such powerfully painted illustrations which inspired us to paint as well.

The project took a total of three lessons.  The students started by painting the background with cool colours, after observing the colours and brush strokes in the artwork of the book.

Next lesson, after the paint had dried, the students did practice ships and sea animals, by looking closely at examples from the book.  When they had a picture that they liked best, they drew it with pencil on their paintings, then outlined with sharpie.

When finished, they used brown and white paint mostly to add colour to their ships.

To finish it off, if they wished, the students used glue to add blue sparkles to their oceans.

They look fantastic on display and the students are proud of their work!

A great lesson that I would recommend trying!