In-School Art Workshops

Spring 2026 Visual & Media Art Workshops

For inquiries about these activities or to register your class,
please contact: learning@arts-on.org

“WHO WE ARE” CLASSROOM MURAL

Grades: K-5
Duration: 1.5 hours
Requirements:

  • Indoor space with desks or tables and chairs for every child.

  • Empty floor space (min. 5x10’) for arranging students’ tiles into one art piece.

  • If desired, bulletin board or open wall space for displaying final piece.

  • Instructor will need access to space 30 minutes prior and 15 minutes after workshop.

Price: $12 per student
Instructor: Beth Hume
Availability: Tuesdays & Wednesdays, 10:00 am & 12:30 pm

  • This workshop offers students a structured but flexible way to explore identity and community through collage. Each student creates an individual collage tile using colours, shapes, and textures that represent their interests, traits, or experiences, as well as the qualities they see in their classroom community. Once the tiles are complete, the class works together to arrange them into a unified mural. With guidance from a professional art instructor, students notice how lines, colours, shapes, and patt erns relate across the group’s work and make collaborative decisions about balance and overall composition.

    The workshop aligns with curriculum Big Ideas across the primary and intermediate grades by supporting exploration of personal identity, encouraging purposeful artistic play, and helping students understand that the arts are a way to communicate ideas and connect with others. It introduces symbolic thinking and basic design principles in an age-appropriate way, and it gives students a collective outcome that reflects both individual voices and shared classroom culture.

    Each class will finish with a meaningful, visible artwork that can remain on display as a record of learning and community building.

    • Produces a visible collaborative artwork that highlights both individual and community identities.

    • Introduces design principles and symbolic thinking in an accessible way.

    • Supports social-emotional learning through sharing and classroom connection.

  • KINDERGARTEN TO GRADE 2 CURRICULAR COMPETENCIES

    BIG IDEAS ARTS EDUCATION:

    • People connect to others and share ideas through the arts

    • People create art to express who they are as individuals and community

    • Creative expression develops our unique identity and voice.

    • Dance, drama, music, and visual arts are each unique languages for creating and communicating.

    BIG IDEAS ENGLISH LANGUAGE ARTS:

    • Everyone has a unique story to share.

    • Through listening and speaking, we connect with others and share our world.

    GRADE 3 TO 5 CURRICULAR COMPETENCIES

    BIG IDEAS ARTS EDUCATION

    • Creative expression is a means to explore and share one’s identity within a community.

    • Creative experiences involve an interplay between exploration, inquiry, and purposeful choice.

    • Dance, drama, music and visual arts are each unique languages for creating and communicating.

    BIG IDEAS CAREER EDUCATION:

    • Confidence develops through the process of self-discovery.

    • Strong communities are the result of being connected to family and community and working together toward common goals.

    • Effective collaboration relies on clear, respectful communication.

Register

DRAWING HIDDEN FOLK (GRADES K-5)

Grades: K-5
Duration: 1.5 hours
Requirements:

  • Indoor space with desks or tables and chairs for every child.

  • Instructor will need access to space 30 minutes prior and 15 minutes after workshop.

Price: $12 per student
Instructor: Ewan Green
Availability: Tuesdays & Wednesdays, 10:00 am & 12:30 pm

  • This workshop connects students with their local environment and encourages them to design, create, and share small “hidden folk” character artworks. Students work individually to come up with qualities for an imaginary forest, beach, or riverside creature, sketch simple poses, add details and colour, then cut out and take their finished characters home with them, with encouragement to place them in a special outdoor spot of their choosing.

    With guidance from a professional art instructor, students consider how place shapes a character’s form, materials, and story. The instructor will use age-appropriate examples from local and global traditions that feature nature spirits and small folk, inviting students to invent their own symbols and characters rather than copying cultural icons.

    This activity is suitable for a single class or grade-level group and builds visual literacy (shape, line, colour, texture; pattern and repetition), symbolic thinking, and thoughtful decision-making about where and how to present art for an unknown audience.

    • Encourages imagination and place-based learning linked to local environments.

    • Strengthens visual literacy, narrative thinking, and character design skills.

    • Uses drawing and environmental exploration to support cross-curricular learning.

    • Activity can lead to documentation or writing extensions.

  • KINDERGARTEN TO GRADE 2 CURRICULAR COMPETENCIES

    BIG IDEAS ARTS EDUCATION:

    • People connect to others and share ideas through the arts

    • Engagement in the arts creates opportunities for inquiry through purposeful play.

    • Creative expression develops our unique identity and voice.

    BIG IDEAS ENGLISH LANGUAGE ARTS:

    • Stories and other texts can be shared through pictures and words.

    • Everyone has a unique story to share.

    • Curiosity and wonder lead us to new discoveries about ourselves and the world around us.

    GRADE 3 TO 5 CURRICULAR COMPETENCIES

    BIG IDEAS ARTS EDUCATION

    • The mind and body work together when creating works of art.

    • Creative experiences involve an interplay between exploration, inquiry, and purposeful choice.

    • Dance, drama, music, and visual arts are each unique languages for creating and communicating.

    • The arts connect our experiences to the experiences of others.

    BIG IDEAS SOCIAL STUDIES:

    • People from diverse cultures and societies share some common experiences and aspects of life.

    • Immigration and multiculturalism continue to shape Canadian society and identity.

Register

FLIP-BOOK ANIMATIONS (GRADES 4-7)

Grades: 4-7
Duration: 1.5 hours
Requirements:

  • Indoor space with desks or tables and chairs for every child.

  • Digital projector or TV requested
    At time of booking, please advise if either will be available.

  • Instructor will need access to space 15 minutes before and after workshop

Price: $11 per student
Instructor: Ewan Green
Availability: Tuesdays & Wednesdays, 10:00 am & 12:30 pm

  • In this workshop, a professional animator introduces students to foundational animation concepts through the creation of simple flip books. Using only sticky notes and drawing tools, students learn how movement is built frame by frame and how anticipation, timing, and transformation create surprising and engaging results. The format gives students immediate feedback and a finished piece they can take home and share without relying on technology.

    Students begin by viewing a short classic cartoon sequence (e.g., Road Runner & Wile E. Coyote). With guidance from the instructor, they observe how anticipation sets up an action and how comedy often relies on subverted expectations. The class discusses what happens in the moment before a character’s fall or impact, and students generate their own ideas about how an action could be delayed, exaggerated, or transformed.

    Students then choose an action for their flip book: this could be an impact moment such as a baseball hitting a bat, an object rotating through space, or a creative transformation such as a character appearing or disappearing. They then choose an element of surprise, and get to work!

    Throughout the session, the instructor teaches age-appropriate animation principles including timing, spacing, ease-in and ease-out, and the role of silhouette and shape clarity in readable motion.

    • Introduces media concepts using basic materials.

    • Gives immediate visual feedback that builds confidence and understanding of process.

    • Teaches core animation concepts that support sequencing and visual communication.

    • Appeals to students who enjoy hands on work, humour, and movement based ideas.

    • Supports both collaborative discussion and individual creation.

  • GRADES 4 & 5 CURRICULAR COMPETENCIES

    BIG IDEAS ARTS EDUCATION:

    • Creative expression is a means to explore and share one’s identity within a community.

    • Artists experiment in a variety of ways to discover new possibilities.

    • Exploring works of art exposes us to diverse values, knowledge, and perspectives.

    BIG IDEAS ENGLISH LANGUAGE ARTS:

    • Language and story can be a source of creativity and joy.

    • Exploring stories and other texts helps us understand ourselves and make connections to others and to the world.

    • Questioning what we hear, read, and view contributes to our ability to be educated and engaged citizens.

    GRADE 6 & 7 CURRICULAR COMPETENCIES

    BIG IDEAS ARTS EDUCATION

    • Engaging in creative expression and experiences expands people’s sense of identity and community.

    • Artistic expression differs across time and place.

    • Experiencing art challenges our point of view and expands our understanding of others.

    BIG IDEAS LANGUAGE ARTS:

    • Exploring stories and other texts helps us understand ourselves and make connections to others and to the world.

    • Exploring and sharing multiple perspectives extends our thinking.

    • Questioning what we hear, read, and view contributes to our ability to be educated and engaged citizens.

Register

Spring 2026 Performing Arts Workshops

For inquiries about these activities or to register your class,
please contact: learning@arts-on.org

STAGE MAGIC & JUGGLING (GRADES 4-7)

Grades: 4-7
Duration: 1.5 hours
Requirements:

  • Indoor space with desks or tables and chairs for every child, as well as open space for each child to practice juggling.

  • Instructor will need access to space 15 minutes before and after workshop

Price: $10 per student
Instructor: Sean Whittaker
Availability: Wednesdays & Thursdays, 10:00 am & 12:30 pm

  • This workshop introduces students to stage magic and juggling as creative art forms that rely on collaboration, audience awareness, and purposeful practice. Through demonstration, discussion, hands on instruction, and guided experimentation, students learn how magicians and jugglers use various communication skills to shape an audience’s experience.

    After a brief and engaging overview of the history of these art forms, the instructor draws the class in with a short magic performance that centres the audience as active participants. Students discuss how magicians collaborate respectfully with spectators and how shared experiences make a performance memorable. The instructor then teaches a simple magic trick that demonstrates the idea of “magician’s choice,” and students work together to explore how they can personalize the presentation to reflect their own interests and communication styles.

    The remainder of the workshop focuses on foundational juggling techniques. Students are introduced to basic patt erns, movement principles, and strategies for steady practice. The focus is on rhythm and coordination, and learning to celebrate incremental improvement no matter how challenging the skill may be.

    The workshop concludes with time for questions, encouragement for continued practice, and guidance on where interested students can learn more about these and related forms of performance.

    • Offers a blend of performance, physical activity, and creative thinking.

    • Strengthens coordination, focus, and resilience.

    • Teaches communication and collaboration.

    • Supports diverse learning styles and abilities.

  • GRADES 4 & 5 CURRICULAR COMPETENCIES

    BIG IDEAS ARTS EDUCATION:

    • Engaging in creative expression and experiences expands people’s sense of identity and belonging.

    • Dance, drama, music, and visual arts are each unique languages for creating and communicating.

    • Exploring works of art exposes us to diverse values, knowledge, and perspectives.

    BIG IDEAS ENGLISH LANGUAGE ARTS:

    • Language and story can be a source of creativity and joy.

    • Using language in creative and playful ways helps us understand how language works.

    • Questioning what we hear, read, and view contributes to our ability to be educated and engaged citizens.

    GRADE 6 & 7 CURRICULAR COMPETENCIES

    BIG IDEAS ARTS EDUCATION

    • Through art making, one’s sense of identity and community continually evolves.

    • Artistic expression differs across time and place.

    • Dance, drama, music, and visual arts are each unique languages for creating and communicating.

    BIG IDEAS LANGUAGE ARTS:

    • Language and text can be a source of creativity and joy.

    • Developing our understanding of how language works allows us to use it purposefully.

    • Questioning what we hear, read, and view contributes to our ability to be educated and engaged citizens.

Register