Grade 5 Creativity Shows Through Making, Inquiry and into Exhibition

June 5, 2020

Academics

GNS

Grade 5 classes have been knocking it out of the park with GO! These flexible learners have been using their skills as they inquire, make and get creative leading up to the IB PYP Exhibition.

Students were able to use their creativity with “Maker Tasks,” which were used to challenge their thinking throughout the term. GO! started to get their creative juices running with the option to make, hack, or modify within a framework. The students were given multiple aspects to their Maker Tasks to choose from:

Maker session: Do something creative.
Genius session: What are you curious about?
Being active: Both body and mind.
Fifteen minutes of service: Do something for someone else.

The students went above and beyond to showcase ways to make their learning creative. Using the ‘Design Cycle’ (ask, imagine, plan, create and improve) many students participated in learning and developing new skills. Diversity was the name of the game for them.

One student chose to learn Swedish on her own, using what she learned to write poetry. Some explored baking skills by making lemon cakes, macaroons, and experimenting with modifying recipes. Front rooms were turned into pickleball courts, and yards into outdoor movie theatres for neighbours (with social distancing rules in place). While some students made art by using felt and melting crayons, others learned to sew and knit. Digital and 3D art and drawing anime were also popular choices among the students.

With their creativity flowing, the students simultaneously embarked on an inquiry into poetry as a window into human perspective. Focussing on effective word choice, the students crafted poems and experimented with choosing interesting ways to illustrate them.

The pinnacle of their creative endeavours is taking place as the Grade 5 students meet the challenge of an online IB PYP Exhibition. Held each year, the Grade 5 Exhibition is the culmination of a student’s experience in the Primary Years Programme and marks their transition from the PYP to the Middle Years Programme (MYP).

Jacob, who is an avid sailor, has been experimenting with sails for his exhibition issue.

“I’m investigating the power of wind,” he said. “To test my sails I am building a wind tunnel and making different sails.”

Many of the students were part of the Beach Bee Garden throughout the year and their experience influenced what they wanted to do for a maker project. Tasha, for example, chose to plan and create a garden for bees in her backyard as her exhibition inquiry.

“I am going to use bee-friendly plants and design something to deter wasps,” she explained. “Right now I’m preparing to make a bee bath for the garden…I came up with the idea of the maker project because I’m in the Beach Bee Garden, so I’ve had a long history with bees. Also, my family has vegetable boxes so I thought if I did something like that but with flowers, it would work well.”

Sisters Elise and Evie, similarly influenced by their time with the Beach Bee Garden, are also making a garden for bees. Not deterred by the weather they have been out working rain and shine.

Nathan C, inspired by seeing clothes that grew with children (petit pli,), set out to make a child’s trolley that could convert into a scooter as the child grew. “I learned that when you use the right tool, most things are easy,” he said.

Alison has been repurposing a raincoat to create a waterproof shoulder bag for different uses. She designed it to maintain the main zip, which when undone, created two shoulder straps to distribute weight.

The seam of creativity runs deep in the Grade 5 students. They are inquirers and makers, with the souls of poets. Grade 5, Class of 2020—we salute you!