Alpha better letters
Filed Under Stuff | February 22, 2008
What happens when a dedicated Kindergarten teacher and VSB Early Literary Mentor and the VSB Resident Artist have a vision for what the children they teach can achieve? Well, some pretty cool art is just one offshoot of the collaboration.
Last year Heidi Clark – the teacher – and the Susan McCallum – the artist – worked together to teach Clark’s Kindergarteners how to draw in perspective, scale and three dimensional shapes, and when they saw the increase in the kids’ self confidence this wrought, they had an idea to take it one step farther. Their goal was to have the class (and we’re talking five-year-olds here remember) create a set of alphabet flashcards.
Clark put a grant proposal together and began prepping her kids. First they learned about lines
– horizontal ones, vertical ones, diagonal one and curved ones. Then they embarked on serious study of the alphabet – brainstorming words for each letter, creating lists and acting out their favourite words. McCallum then entered into the fray, teaching the kids’ how to draw people, portraits and objects in perspective. The kids began to draw, deciding by consensus which images they wanted for each letter, and every student had a drawing chosen for at least one letter. Once everyone had signed off on the art, McCallum added in the letters and words for the finishing touch. Adults will admire anyone who can achieve consensus and collaboration with a group of five-year-olds and kids will identify with the set of magical, endearing and whimsical flashcards.
So if you’re looking for some flash cards and you want to support ingenious initiative you can by buy a set of cards through the Vancouver School Board. They cost $6 per set, or you get a frieze for $20. Call 604.713.5053 for more details. Alas, you can’t see them online, so we’ve included more images than usual to give you a feeling for them.
We can’t wait until the alphabet book Mrs. Clark’s class has on the go this year comes out!
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