We are very excited to share with you, our ArtsSmarts experience!

During the school year, 2005-06, we were lucky enough to have been chosen to participate in the ArtsSmarts project. This gave us the means and opportunity to have local artists visit our school, sharing their knowledge and skills with both students and teachers. Over the period of a few months, we created three incredible projects while working with talented artists.

These are the results. Enjoy!

We chose a general theme of Helping Hands. We wanted to incorporate our desire and excitement to learn, with our need and love of helping others. Our projects clearly display the gratitude we feel for the ArtsSmarts program and our participating artists. Many hours and hands were put into each project. We are very proud to show you what we've accomplished!

The 3/4 Class made individual quilt squares, with local quilter, Lynne Townsend, which culminated in a beautiful wall quilt you can now see hanging in our school. Ms. Townsend shared skills and stories over several classes. The students learned a lot!

The 5/6 class wrote a book with the help of island author, Deirdre Kessler.

The story is about fictional children from eastern P.E.I. They have a fascinating adventure related to local stories about a well known tree, The Big Elm. Our treasured book is available to read in our school library. Ms. Kessler shared some of her own stories with our students, as well as teaching them how to write their own, through various activities and field trips. Each student wrote and illustrated a page each. What fun!

The 7/8 Class created a unique mural which now hangs in our library. The students created smaller helping scenes, which became part of the larger picture. The rest of the students in the school (grades 1 through 6) contributed to the mural, designing a helping scene on a hand. It was built in three panels. Local artist, Nancy Ching, shared her expertise and time to help create this masterpiece!

Eastern Kings Consolidated School would like to thank everyone who helped make this experience so amazing!

Thank you ArtsSmarts!!!