Grade 3 and 4 African Drumming Workshop

Grades 3 and 4 participated in a high-energy African drumming workshop with visiting musician Fana Soro. Fana is an internationally-acclaimed musician from the Ivory Coast. He taught the girls the “djembe”, West Africa’s most popular drum.

Part of the French program is to learn about French-speaking countries around the world. This workshop allowed the girls to use French to communicate with someone from another country while learning how to play the “djembe”. Fana also shared his call and response songs in his mother tongue of Senoufo.

It was fun interacting with Fana in French, and to laugh with him while discovering his culture. Merci Fana!

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Gr. 4 students want to know, “How Well Do You Know Vancouver?”

On Tuesday, June 5, Grade 4 students presented their two-part interactive museum with Gold Rush perspective and question boards about landmarks and events in Vancouver.

As an extension of their Science unit on electricity, students worked with Makey Makey and Scratch coding to make interactive paintings that helped to share different perspectives on the British Columbia Gold Rush. The paintings were inspired by First Nations Artists Jane Ash Poitras and George Littlechild. When visitors touched conductive materials on the boards, a recording of students’ voices would sound sharing an individual’s unique perspective.

Students also created question and answer boards about special places and events that helped to shape the city. They used their new knowledge about electricity and completing a circuit to test visitors on how well they know our city. When visitors matched the question to the right answer a light bulb would light up. Visitors enjoyed following a map of Vancouver and stamping each landmark as they completed the questions! The girls did a great job of creating an interactive and engaging exhibit. Well done!

Grade Four Teachers, Madeleine Abbott and Danika Murray designed and led this project, and Science Teacher, Lela Ling, and STEAM Coordinator, Jennifer Ford Sharpe assisted with the electricity component of the project.