Project Based Learning Electives provided by the Berrien Springs Virtual Academy
All students must complete a project for these classes.
GVNCP: Art Classes Spring 2025
- All students must complete a project for this class.
- Teacher: Zoe Elrick galienvalley@gmail.com
269-612-8172 - Galien Valley Nature and Culture Programs Website
- 8 weeks, 2-hour class periods
- Ages 5+
***Please email instructor that you registered for this class through Berrien Springs Partnership.***
Backyard Art Zoom
Format: Online Zoom
Date/Time: Tuesdays 3 PM - 5 PM (January 21 through March 11) or
Thursdays, 10 AM - Noon (January 23 through March 13)
Class is mostly indoors, but students will visit their outdoor backyard too. This class is both informative and fun! Explore your own backyard. Draw nature and things in your backyard. Start or expand your Art Journal. Drawing the things of nature helps people to learn about nature. This is a drawing class, a nature class, and a show-n-tell class. On Zoom, talk with classmates about your art, nature journal, and nature in your backyard. In September to November, students will make art related to the fall season. In class, we’ll draw things such as sticks, leaves, autumn scenes, tracks, animals, the backyard landscape, backyard map, etc. Each day of class, there will be a few different drawing activities, indoors, as well as one or two nature-exploration activities, outdoors, in your backyard. There will be a lot of free-hand sketching, as well as some tracing too. Recommended: during class, at least for the first few days of class, parents should assist students with Zoom and the class, for students who are under age 12.
Course Materials:
Teacher provides web page with sheets for student to print out at home.
(Required) Required to bring to class (provided by student/family):
- Smart phone, iPad, and or computer (laptop or desktop) with Zoom software. Computer is ideal.
- Dress for indoors, and have outdoor apparel handy, class is mostly indoors, with visits to the outdoors in the backyard.
- Digital camera or smart phone to take outdoor photos. Be able to email about 4 photos to instructor, each week. Photos are not necessarily taken every day of class, but it's good to be prepared.
- Printer to print out sheets of art projects. Every week, print about 4 new sheets, before the class period starts on Thursday.
- clipboard
- 3-ring binder for art journal / nature journal and a hole puncher
- lined paper 8.5 x 11”
- unlined paper 8.5 x 11” (printer paper)
- tracing paper 8.5 x 11” (25 sheets)
- pencils,
- colored pencils
- colored pens
- markers
- optional: an assortment of soft and hard artist pencils (e.g. 2H, 2B, 4B) - just a 4 pencil set or a set with more pencils. Or just the 2B pencil. Optional: especially the 2B pencil can be used in class.
*Please note: it is important to make as informed a decision as possible when choosing your student's Community Resource classes. Most locations will allow a student to drop a class after one meeting, at no charge if it wasn't a good fit for the student, but not all. Some classes plan ahead based on the number that have signed up and have purchased materials, hired teachers, etc. and there might be a fee for class time or materials given to the student if the student drops after one or two meetings. The school cannot pay for classes that students do not complete, so choose wisely; if you do not take the class off of your student's schedule by the deadline, you may be asked to pay for the class time incurred prior to dropping the class.
Teacher of Record: Lisa Van Plew-Cid
