Snow Sculptures in Sage Creek

Before the Winter Break, Qualico approached École Sage Creek School, sharing with us the possibility of offering morning workshops on snow sculptures to two of our classes.  Mme Philippot and Mrs. Farrell’s classes were the lucky classes who had the opportunity to welcome artists in their classrooms.  David MacNair and Gary Tessier were the guest artists who came to offer the workshops to our students.  

Some of the information they shared with our students included:

1. General introduction on sculpting
2. Basic introduction to the tools used
3. Conversations on creative thinking, design ideas, etc….
4. Explanation on how to draw the design onto a grid.
5. Working on plasticine and learning the difference between modelling (adding material) and sculpting (removing material) as well as the different forms of sculpting ex: bas relief
6. Each student came up with their own idea, drew the design and students then worked on their plasticine sculptures.

As a follow up, David MacNair and Gary Tessier selected one of our student’s design ideas from the workshop and on Friday, January 13^th began creating a large snow sculpture in the square in Sage Creek.  On that afternoon, the students from the two classes had the opportunity to go visit the artists working on the full size snow sculpture.  This was a great opportunity to see the professional artists in action as well as the tools used for snow sculpting, all while working on an idea provided by one of our students!  Students were also provided with an opportunity to handle the tools in this authentic experience.  This was such wonderful opportunity that our students truly appreciated and enjoyed, all while learning various skills.  We encourage you to visit the snow sculpture at the corner of Sage Creek Blvd and Burning Glass Road.  We would like to say a huge thank you to Qualico for offering us this opportunity and another huge thank you to M. MacNair and M. Tessier for sharing their expertise with our students!