Looking for a seasonal craft that you can do with your family? Maybe you want to create some home crafted gift tags or holiday cards? This stained glass tree project might be just right for you.
All by Jennifer Roberts
Notice. Wonder. Make. Grinch Trees
It’s that time of year when snowmen come to life and reindeer come out to play. And the tree? Well, a little crooked, but we can make that work. If you haven’t seen Grinch Trees all over your Pinterest feed or community artboard, these fun crafts are easy, customizable, and unique to each creator!
The Held Question - How do the arts support critical thinking?
Before we can explore this, it seems a good idea to back up and explore first: what exactly is critical thinking? Why is it such a hot topic currently?
Critical thinking is the process of thinking systematically, utilizing cognitive skills to listen, learn, think, understand, question, retain, justify, and evaluate. Critical thinking has less to do with intelligence and more to do with a process of sifting through and evaluating new information.
Notice. Wonder. Make. Pumpkin Paper Craft
Looking for a seasonal craft that you can do with your family? This paper stain glass pumpkin craft will brighten up your home (without having to dig through pumpkin guts!)
This series of fun educational activities and projects aim to help you cultivate curiosity and creativity in your children using arts-based learning, inspired by the same learning techniques and activities used in the award-winning ConocoPhillips Hub for Inspired Learning program.
Clown Musings - Part two of Clowning in Calgary
I find there is an honesty demanded in clowning, a brutal honesty and a commitment to each fleeting moment- each fleeting impulse that drives the clown’s antics. You can’t lie in clown- well, I mean you can, but the audience will know, and they will not find you funny. They will not even find you sad. They will not connect with you, if you lie- you have only the truth, no matter how selfish, childish, ugly or hilarious the truth is. The clown is the soothsayer, the rune reader of the immediate moment and present company. I suspect that this is what makes Clowns both funny and scary.
Clowning in Calgary
“The clown’s come out when the world is ending”
As I consider these words and I look at the state of the world, it strikes me that the thing holding me together, that is currently keeping me from sliding off my kitchen chair and into a puddle of existential despair is this knowledge that the clowns are coming. When things go dark, someone somewhere finds a way to make you laugh. I mean the kind of laugh that makes your belly ache and tears flow and... well, you know, who hasn’t accidentally- you know, while laughing too hard?
Musings on Being Creative – Process and Product
In just a few days, after weeks of preparation, teachers will return to classrooms all over Alberta to inspire learning in thousands of students. Lesson plans will unfold, and many teachers will work with their students to create something new through brainstorming and collected ideas. It may sound simple but perfecting the process of creating a work with a group of students is no easy task.
Asking Beautiful Questions
It seems to me if you ask a good question, you will get a good answer. My name is Jennifer Roberts, and my role at Arts Commons is to work with teachers and students to design and then implement an immersive arts-focused session or a week-long field study. A large part of how I go about doing this is through asking questions.