Final Free Inquiry Arts Reflection (#8)

Wow! This has been an adventure, there has been great success as well as bumps in the road but I would not want to change that process.

It started with the introduction to the arts inquiry where I listed a few ideas for each week’s mini project. I also included a very long list of topics that I thought I would cover in the write-up aspect of each post. I found within a few weeks that answering all of the questions I had listed was not realistic so I adapted and tried to hit a few of them each time but not all in every post.

(#2) Perspective Drawings was an activity that I found in my L2P class and I immediately fell in love with it. The activity itself is incredibly simple and does not require many materials but it can be used in so many ways. It can be used to talk about diversity, culture, understanding differences, political electoral parties, and so much more. This is one thing that I can see sticking with me throughout my career and I am very excited to get to run through it with my own class one day.

(#3) The Art of Cake Decorating was definitely not the smoothest or easiest project. It did not turn out the way I was hoping, but I still inadvertently learned quite a bit, like don’t freeze your cake before icing it, don’t use thick and heavy cake without a thick icing that will hold its shape, shape the cake layers before you start icing, and last but not least CAKE DECORATING IS NOT AS EASY AS IT LOOKS. Even with all these bumps in the road, the process was fun, and I will pat myself on the back for the fact that, although ugly, that cake tasted delicious!

(#4) I Don’t Know What To Do Paintings were inspired partly by the fact that I was doing a lot of random painting events around the time of this post, and I genuinely did not know what to paint. The other aspect behind this topic was me saying, “I don’t know what to do for this blog post.” To be honest, I made this topic up on the spot and ran with it, and I am glad I did. There are a few aspects from this post that I do think would make a great art project and teaching lesson. That being the random things/eye spy painting. I think that it would be great to teach kids that when you don’t know what to do, you just have to start and continue until something strikes inspiration; plus they get a fun eye spy game they can take home.

(#5) Art For Kids Hub is genuinely one of the best and one of my favourite art resources that I couldn’t recommend highly enough! It is great for all ages, easily accessible, and the kids love it. This post was definitely one of the shortest ones, but I believe it is fine because the topic mostly speaks for itself. It was also my favorite one to do because it meant I got to set aside time to do a few drawings myself which is something I do not usually have time for.

(#6) Origami is a topic that can be tricky for kids, especially when they are expecting their first try to look like yours, who has been doing it for years, but it is still worthwhile, in my opinion. It teaches perseverance and strongly emphasizes listening closely and following instructions. I also find that for myself, doing origami serves as a fidget, just like a squishy ball or a sensory toy. Once I have learned how to make something and have memorized the steps I do not always have to look at what I’m doing to make my creation. It is a way to keep my hands busy and my mind free when sitting and listening to a lecture or when I am stressed out; plus, you get a fun little animal or object when you are finished. I hope by teaching origami to students, some of them will also use it as a tool to calm down or demonstrate productive fidgeting.

(#7) Card Making on Canva was a fun project that ended up being adapted from my original plan, which was physical card making with scrapbooking and watercolour elements. I found that I didn’t possess the resources/materials or time that I would have wanted/needed to dedicate to this as a physical project. So I turned to technology, and I am glad I did because this was a fun, calming project to do amongst all the assignments due and coming due soon. Another cool thing I realized when designing the cards is that I could still incorporate watercolour and scrapbook aesthetics due to Canva’s vast design options. This would also be so fun to do with students, provided you have a Canva account and the technology to run it.

I also wanted to attach a few of my favourite pictures that I took during this project below.