Blog #10: Community Arts Project

The word of the week is texture!    
     My group decided for our Community Arts Project to promote a Fun In The Sun Day in the Toronto District Elementary Schools to help raise awareness for skin cancer. We wanted to emphasize the importance of wearing sunscreen and for parents to put on sunscreen themselves. If parents put sunscreen on themselves they are being role models for their children by showing how sunscreen is important. It is especially important for children to begin using sunscreen at a young age and to be informed about being safe in the sun. The Fun In The Sun Day, would be a day filled with outdoor activities and providing information for the children about the importance of wearing sunscreen and being smart in sun. This great day will be filled with activities that will allow them to be outside all day and learn how to be safe in the sun with stations that include a: hydration station, games station, sunscreen station and a relaxation station in the shade. We also researched informational websites that helped us find out more information and so that we could provide information to the parents for other resources. Our main organization that will help our day be successful is the Canadian Cancer Society. Some of the other resources that we are providing to the parents are; The Canadian Dermatology Association, The Ontario Sun Safety Working Group, Environment Canada's UV Index and Health Canada. We also contacted the Toronto District School Board to suggest the idea.

            To help advertise for our 'Big Idea' we made posters that would be put around the school for children to hear about The Fun In The Sun Day that is informing children to be aware of the dangers of the sun so that they use proper protection, beginning at a young age. These posters will catch the children's attention and help them to begin talking about a topic that is not commonly discussed with young children. The pictures in this blog are the different posters that will be displayed around the school. Our project is a Social Justice Issue because Sun Awareness is usually not focused on at a young age. Usually people start to find out once they are older the dangerous amount of sun damage that may be a result from sun exposure over the years. This prolonged exposure may lead to skin cancer.    

             Overall, I believe that our presentation went well explaining our Big Idea about our goal to promote skin cancer awareness and sun safety by having a Fun In The Sun Day in the Toronto District School Board. I feel we presented our idea clearly and enthusiastically. I believe the posters were a major contribution to demonstrate our idea. The use of creativity should draw the children's attention to the posters in the school. We also handed out Sun Cookies so that the spectators that came to hear our Big Idea had cookies as a reminder of the importance of sun safety and awareness. I believe one thing that we could have improved our presentation would have been props. It would have been fun to wear beach clothes, sunglasses, sunscreen on the nose and wear hats. I think this would have added to the presentation of our Big Idea. In general, I believe that we did a great job on our Community Arts Project and our group worked together well with each member equally doing a great job on their part. This allowed the presentation to go smoothly.   

    The word of the week is texture. The poster Be a Fungi Don't Be Burnt demonstrates that texture can be bumpy, dull, coarse and granular and raised and lowered (Schirrmacher & Fox, 2009, p.144). When I look at this picture, I am drawn the the texture of the tree that is behind. If I could touch it I know it would have been rough, coarse and granular. that I mentioned above. I also believe that the other 3 pictures use texture as well. Overall, texture "refers to the surface quality of a work of art" (Schirrmacher & Fox, 2009, p.144).     

     This is a great Big Idea that will benefit children's health in the future. Children need to understand how to properly apply sunscreen, wear hats and sunglasses beginning at a young age so that they can keep their skin healthy. It is important that schools provide this information to children. Children can also teach their parents about sun safety. I thoroughly enjoyed creating this project and I believe it will help me in the future with teaching, if I want to start a fundraiser or for presenting information to my class. 

Schirrmacher, R., & Fox, J.E. (2009). Art and creative development for young children (6

th Ed.). Belmont, CA: Delmar.