On Tuesday, grade 10 students had the opportunity to experience an En Plein Aire Day. En Plein Aire is an outdoor experience replicating the mood of artistic expression practiced in the 19th century, known as the Romantic period, which developed as an artistic response to Industrialization. Romanticism is presented as a reaction to political, social, and philosophical developments. While some students created landscape paintings with Mr. Mulhern, other students rotated through other activities.
One of these activities was line drawing with Mr. Smyth. They created both landscapes and detailed drawings illustrating their observations of the natural surroundings. Another learning experience was the opportunity to create poetry inspired by their surroundings with Ms. McNulty. The students were asked to draw on the aspects of Romanticism that they have talked about in class. They designed their poems to include rhyme scheme, meter, and at least ten lines.
For their third experience, students explored ideas of diversity and conservation with Mrs. Borsack. Discussions included what daily activities we are involved in that use our natural resources, like water, and how we can contribute each day to help in the conservation efforts to conserve our natural resources. Lunch consisted of wonderful sandwiches prepared by our café and we all enjoyed our cookie surprise, as well. After lunch, some students enjoyed creating sand castles on the beach. The day ended with everyone enjoying ice cream pops generously donated by one of our parents, Ms. Olsher, in honor of the day and Jack's birthday.