Covid Passion Project - Guest Blogger Rachael

Throughout the last two months of distance learning for my students, Passion Projects have been encouraged. Choosing to pursue a curiosity or create something meaningful is certainly more valuable and enjoyable than simply completing ten hours of prescribed tasks -- regardless of how engaging I attempt to make them. 

Wonderfully, several have embraced this challenge. Some explored this Canadian History Choice Board to spark their creativity. Their efforts have been posted to our class web page. One student has analyzed the deeper meaning behind the lyrics from her favourite songs, sharing her throughts through well-crafted essays and engaging Flipgrid presentations. 

Today, I present the work of Rachael, who has created fabric bookmarks for Mother's Day. She has also documented the  procedure through photographs and text and is a guest blogger on this site. Enjoy.

This is a passion project I did with my aunt. I was hoping it could contribute to my art mark. It uses the colour wheel and the elements of design. I have explained the processes and methods I used below.

For Mother’s Day, I made my mom, my grandma and my great-grandma fabric bookmarks. Because of the virus, we had to think of a creative way to make gifts, especially since we can’t go to the store and buy something.

I made a template out of hard, clear plastic, because I wanted the triangles in my pattern to be the same. I had to account for the seam allowance, and that’s why there's a smaller triangle within the template. The middle vertical line is to show where the bookmark loops around. The middle horizontal line is for the top and bottom half triangles that I needed for the top and bottom of the bookmark to ensure they had parallel edges with the pages of a book. The other horizontal line is for the seam allowance.

The last step in making the bookmarks was putting names on them.

Here are all the finished bookmarks.

As you can see, beyond the obvious engagement, passion projects have the following advantages:

• It is an activity that threads through multiple curriculum areas -- Art, Math, Writing & Media Literacy.
• Several Learning Skill expectations from the Ontario Report Card are addressed -- Independent Work, Initiative and Responsibility.
• Rather than just submitting work to a teacher, Rachael has chosen to share her work with an authentic audience.
• (a) The mothers in her world who receive the bookmarks and...
• (b) the people who read this blog.

Thanks for reading, any comments or feedback you provide here or through my social media accounts will be directed back to Rachael.