There's Only One You!

(I'm guilty of not posting for a while! This is a project that I did with my students last year.)

Inspired by the book 'There's Only One You', I decided to embark on another schoolwide project to help bring life to our school. I met with each of the classes and read Linda Kranz's book. We discussed the meaning behind it and how each one of us is different, just like the fish in the story. I then explained how they were going to contribute to our "fish tank".

This is the before picture of the "fish tank".

I had each child, from Kindergarten to Grade 6, draw their fish design on one of four templates that I provided. The only restriction they had was they were only allowed to use a maximum of 3 colours, excluding white and black for the eyes (if they chose those for eye colour). They were very creative with their designs!

Once their design was complete, they were given the same fish shape made out of canvas. They now had to paint their design on the canvas.

The students in Grades 5 and 6 were mentors to the younger kids and helped them paint their fish. Once all of the fish were painted, they were sewn together by the Grade 5 and 6 students. I used recycled material as the back of the fish, which also went with our school theme for the year on Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle.

These students were concentrating on painting the fine details on the canvas.

It was now time to hang all of the fish. Coincidentally, there were 8 windows that overlooked a main hallway that would make a perfect "fish tank". First, I cut and laminated waves to create the water and attached these to the window facing the hall. Then, I attached several chains of fish together with fishing wire and attached those chains to a wooden dowel which was hung at the top of the window. Once all of the fish were hung, I made sure that all of the painted parts of the fish were facing outwards before placing a piece of Plexiglas on each window to create a "tank" effect.

Testing out the design.

Samples of some of the designs.

More designs.

 The final step was to hang letters on top of the design to showcase our project.

This is the display that we get to look at every day. It is a big improvement over the picture at the top! 

This project lasted throughout the school year. It was quite exciting to see the children try to find their fish and see the glee on their face once they did. It truly showcases our differences and celebrates how we can all "swim in the same school".