The Orchard Garden

  CFE Day 7 - Tuesday, June 14, 2016 

      Today was raining heavily, so we took refuge in the education building and John showed us two fascinating National Film Board of Canada videos from the 1970's: Chairs for Lovers and Bing Bang Boom (https://www.nfb.ca/film/chairs_for_lovers and https://www.nfb.ca/film/bing_bang_boom).


Chairs for Lovers

      In this video, Stanley King leads Vancouver school students through a 3-step urban "Co-design" process. King is a retired architect who has involved audiences of all ages in the planning and development of urban spaces. In the video, children participate in the  first step of this process, called the "Draw-in" by imagining the different functions and elements found in their city. King then takes the process outside, by having children walk and observe their urban environment. Finally, during the "Design-in," students were given the opportunity to discuss and reflect on the benefits and challenges of city planning.


Bing Bang Boom

      This film documents Canadian composer and educator Murray  Schafer teaching a series of music lessons in a Canadian elementary school. Through the activities Schafer has the students notice and produce sounds and leads them to realize that sound is always present within and around us. Students then continue on to collectively create soundscapes.

 King and Schafer's drawing and soundscapes are effective methods for promoting creativity and engagement in school-aged children. They encourage children to be observers, critics and co-creators of their own environments.

A Day in the Life of a Bee and a Lupin

We then spent the afternoon creating a story from our Orchard Garden drawings and soundscapes. We decided on pollination as our theme and in particular the interaction between bees and Lupins over a 24-hour span. This activity required us to research the habits of bees and the lupin plant to create an accurate story. Through this process students become observant participants in their environment as well as visual artists, composers, storytellers, mathematicians, writers and scientists.

Claire Stormont, Cristina Moretti and Dana Mohiddin