Art with Mrs. O'Neill

Our school has a tradition of celebrating the International Day of Peace with our annual pinwheels for peace ceremony. It is always a big hit and a great way to remind students to be peacemakers on a daily basis. I use the pinwheel lesson to teach using symbols in art to show meaning. We talk about the many different symbols that are used to express peace and also symbols from other cultures.The music teacher leads our students in song and sign language and we plant our pinwheels in front of the school for the day. Here are the pictures from this years event.

Every year we celebrate the International Day of Peace (September 21st) by creating an art installation of pinwheels in front of our school. Every student creates a pinwheel. Our wonderful PTO helps students assemble them and our music teacher works with students to learn a song of peace and sign language. It is a great event and our school district made a video this year. Here are some of the pictures and the link to the video. http://cmcssfocus.net/2015/09/23/pinwheels-for-peace-at-rossview/

Students are working hard on their pinwheels for peace & other peace day projects. One of the activities the students are enjoying is this interactive bulletin board. Students are writing on a post it note what peace means to them & then placing it on our bulletin board. They have had some great responses! 

We've been working hard on our pinwheels for peace project. I've used this unit to teach about the international day of peace and what peace truly means to us in our everyday lives. It's  sad that some understand what war means more than the meaning of peace. Students looked at symbols from around the world that meant peace and we created artwork with peace doves and artwork based on Picassos petite fleurs. 

This mornings ceremony went fantastic! We had just enough wind for the pinwheels to spin and the rain held off. The kids are always very excited about this project and it is beautiful to hear them sing about peace. We have about 1,200 pinwheels spinning this year!