15 | May | 2016 | Mama Cormier

…..a cold weekend but a few minutes of sun now and then

Thanks Becca for hosting Sunday Trees. It was definitely a strange weather day for the middle of May. It was cold and windy and then the rain started, off and on for most of the day. I jokingly asked my husband if he was expecting more snow because our snow shovel wasn’t put away. He scoffed and told me not to even think like that. Too late. An hour later we experienced snow and hail. Luckily it didn’t last long.

Later in the afternoon I took the dog for a short walk. It was still cold but the sun made brief appearances between the clouds. I like the light in the late afternoon but I had to act quickly if I was going to get that perfect shot today. The trees are starting to sprout their leaves and I love that light yellow green of spring.

Same tree, taken minutes apart and at slightly different angles. Not exactly the perfect shot. The light that I like disappeared very quickly behind the clouds.

….a great lesson for symmetry and using oil pastels

My grade 1, 2 and 3 classes were given a quick introduction to Georgia O’Keefe’s flower paintings. I had some beautiful calendar pages that featured some of her florals. I pointed out how she blended colours and how the whole page was filled with her flower image. Most of the classes had studied symmetry in their math classes so I showed them an example of symmetry in nature and one that was man-made.

For this lesson I wanted them to try and create a flower that had at least two lines of symmetry. I showed them how to divide their paper into equal quarters and then I started the flower from the middle. I demonstrated how to blend colours and over lay colours using oil pastels.

Most of the students got the concept and many loved adding more and more colour. When a student didn’t like their colour choices I showed them how to add white or peach to lighten or soften their picture. They were so open to trying this technique and most came back with a completely different picture and much happier with their project.

The first slideshow is work from my two grade one classes and the second one features larger samples from my grade two class.

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