Art Activity #1: A Sign of Gratitude
All around the world people have started showing their appreciation for health care workers and other essential employees by applauding and cheering out their windows at 7pm each evening. You may have joined in, cheering out your windows with your neighbours and greater community. People have also been making signs, videos, donations, and posts to share and to show their appreciation. For today’s art activity we will be making our own signs!
An example of a sign made by people in Wisconsin
Here’s What You’ll Need:
paper (any kind, though bolder brighter colours will draw more attention, and white will make your message stand out more)
pencil, pens, or markers
tape
Before you begin, think about who you want to thank in your sign. There are many essential workers to be grateful for: doctors, nurses, pharmacists, grocery store workers, food service workers, delivery drivers, mail carriers, bus drivers, restaurant owners, dentists, janitors, taxi drivers, paramedics, and so many more. Who do you want to thank in your sign? You can always make more than one sign if you have a lot of gratitude to share, or use a more general term like “essential workers” or “first responders” to refer to multiple jobs.
Here are the steps to follow:
Find the right words to show your appreciation. Limit your sign to 3 to 8 words to make sure you can write big enough that people can read it from the street. You can write your sign in whatever language you prefer, as there are essential workers who speak all the languages you do. Here are some ideas in English, feel free to come up with your own!
Thank you healthcare workers!
We are grateful for all essential workers.
Thank you for keeping us safe.
Thanks for all you do.
You are our heroes!
Write your message in big, bold letters with darker colours. We want to make sure that people walking and driving by to their jobs can read what you have written. If you write it small and in colours like yellow it will be hard to read!
Once your message is big and clear, you can add decorations to it, like hearts, stars, polka dots, whatever you like! Just make sure to decorate around your message to keep it clear.
Show your sign of gratitude to someone in your home, and ask for permission to display it in your window. You can tape it to the glass, or lean it against the bottom of the window. Just make sure your message is facing outward so that people can read it from outside your house!
Share your sign with your classmates and teacher through Microsoft Teams in your digital classroom. Send me a copy too and I will share it here if you like!
