Museum School: May 13-17th, 2013

Ms. Ohara’s grade 3/4 class from Gibsons Elementary came for a week of Museum School – an immersion program where the class comes each day for a week to learn about the museum, meet community experts, and practice observation and contemplation using journaling and sketching techniques! Check out the photos:

On Monday our curator, Kimiko Hawkes, spent the morning giving the kids a ‘behind the scenes’ tour of the museum. She spoke about Hubert Evans and his handliner, Dr. Inglis and the legacy of Stonehurst, and Don Hauka’s inventions like the underwater submersible we have on display.

On Tuesday, Coast Salish master weaver Jessica Casey came in to share her skills and teach the class about the wonders of the cedar tree. The students were given cedar strips and twisted them into rope bracelets. 

Wednesday’s visitor was Artist/Illustrator Jan Poynter who made the beautiful mural on the front of our museum building. Jan explained the process that went into creating the mural and then let the kids have a try at scratchboarding.

On Thursday, Museum Assistant Matthew Lovegrove took the class on an adventure to draw boats in the Marina and check out the Stonehurst building that is now a heritage B&B.

When they got back, Gary Little was here to talk to the kids about early European explorers using some of the incredible charts that he collects.

Fitting for a Friday, we got loud and boisterous with Joyce Chong’s taiko drum lesson. Her and members of the group Tonbo Taiko started off with a demonstration performance of a song called Matsuri. The class was excited to try it out. Joyce taught them three “lines” from the song, starting orally with the words for the sound, and then on the drums themselves. Everyone had a blast!

Each afternoon, the class spent time looking at objects, drawing them, and writing about them.