Letting Their Creative Juices Flow

Posted on March 6, 2013 by Mama Cormier

….or how grade 2s paint when left alone

Yesterday in my art class I worked closely with my grade 3s while I asked the grade 2s to work more independently. In the last class the grade 2s started a monochromatic multimedia painting. They were instructed to find black and white pictures, puzzles, headings and text from the newspaper that represented a theme (e.g., numbers, words, sports, puzzles, love, money) and glue them onto a piece of paper in an interesting pattern. Then they had to choose one colour and using water colour paint they created a wash over their pictures and words.

In yesterday’s class they continued adding more paint and detail to their art work. I allowed them to use acrylic paints, stamps and sharpies. The only instruction I gave them was to bring the paints to me so that I could squeeze a small amount onto their plates. They were very excited about using acrylics for the first time.

As I was helping the grade 3s with their quilting project the occasional grade 2 came to me to ask for advice. No one brought the paint to me. I should have been suspicious about their use of the acrylics but I was so caught up in the sewing project that I didn’t check how the acrylics were being used. I was totally oblivious until one of my students came to me to tell me that the brand new tube of white acrylic was empty. What????????? I couldn’t believe it.

I couldn’t really fault the grade 2s for using too much paint, except that the only instruction I gave they chose to ignore. In the end I love the finished projects. Some of them need a little more tweaking but they are 90% done. Only one student didn’t quite get the monochromatic theme but I liked how it turned out and it is mostly green.

Some of the students finished early so I gave them an old floppy disc that we had gessoed in an earlier class. I showed them some pictures of famous paintings for inspiration and then gave them free reign to create anything they wanted. They loved it. Here are some of their masterpieces.

Hearts and Paper Quilts

Posted on February 14, 2013 by Mama Cormier

…. “are we making Valentine’s?”

I sometimes forget that the younger students still want to make crafts or cards for special occasions and holidays. So earlier in the week I was caught somewhat off guard when one of my students asked if we were making valentine cards in art class. I guess I thought their homeroom teacher would look after that. Well luckily I came across an art lesson that involved hearts and when I found out that I would be teaching 30 grade 3s at the same time It seemed like a perfect project. We used the art sheets that we had created weeks earlier, I was able to teach the children a little bit about Romero Britto and Andy Warhol and the kids created a ‘Valentine’s ‘ project.

All of this took place after I taught the original lesson I had in mind. The grade 3s are learning about Canadian pioneers and pioneer life so I gave them a quick lesson on how early settlers made quilts. Before we actually work with fabric I had each student make a quilt block out of construction paper and then I pieced them together to make one large quilt. In the quilt pictured here I didn’t have the students add any embellishments. The class that did the same project the next day added stitch lines with a black Sharpie.

The paper hearts project was a big hit. I love how the textured papers make such interesting hearts.

This heart project came from We heart art. Happy Valentine’s Day! Hope all of you had a great day.

More Doodle Painting

Posted on February 13, 2013 by Mama Cormier

….this project has been more popular than I thought it would be

When the parents start asking if their child will be doing the same project, you know you have a winner.

Today I thought I was teaching half a class because the older students in this split grade were going skiing. Last night I found out that the these 12 students were being combined with another class and my total numbers for this class went up to 30. A little tricky when they only have 20 desks in the room. One of my colleagues who only teaches half time in the morning offered me her portable for the afternoon. She has nice big tables and more importantly, 30 chairs.

The grade 3s are studying Pioneers so I’ve decided to make small quilts with them. Today we started by creating pattern blocks out of construction paper. When they finished that I let them make an art piece using hearts in honour of Valentine’s Day. More about these projects tomorrow.

One Point Perspective and a Whole Lot of Fun

Posted on February 12, 2013 by Mama Cormier

….it’s amazing what young children can do when challenged

I introduced this lesson to my students in grades 3, 4 and 5. In previous lessons we had discussed foreground, background, horizon line and overlapping to create depth. The lesson came from Natalie over at Smart Class. Don’t let one point perspective scare you away. This lesson is so well laid out that success is almost guaranteed. For some reason the boys really liked this lesson. I’m very pleased with the finished products.

Woodland Creatures – Children’s Art

Posted on February 5, 2013 by Mama Cormier

….. remember the large sheets of texture rubbings and paintings we did in my grade 2/3 class?

Well last week we took those sheets and designed and cut out Canadian woodland animals and birds and then placed them all together on a large background to create a wilderness mural. We included trees, grasses, flowers, a pond, rocks and logs. The children had a wonderful time putting it all together and were very excited to display it in the hallway outside their classroom. We need to add a few more finishing touches but I was also very excited about sharing it with you and couldn’t wait.

January Photo a Day 2013: One o’clock…somewhere!

Posted on January 10, 2013 by Mama Cormier

…. and paper, two challenges rolled into one

Yesterday my computer was giving me grief and I couldn’t post anything. When I finally got it fixed it was too late to come up with photos of paper. It just so happened that at 1:00 today I was teaching art to my grade 2/3 class and we were colouring and painting large sheets of paper. The lesson was on texture and they experimented with a variety of materials and techniques to create virtual texture. They loved it and I loved what they came up with. We will use these creations in future works of art.

Check out the other January 2013 Photo a Day photos at Jeanne’s blog…a nola girl at heart

A Few New Art Pieces to Share

Posted on December 21, 2012 by Mama Cormier

….before I send them home with the kids

In grades 4 and 5 we’ve been studying positive and negative space. We started with a Japanese art form called notan where you cut away a positive image and flip it so that the negative space becomes the mirror image and part of the design. I posted some of the students’ creations in an earlier post.

In the next class we studied winter trees and how the branches create Y shapes. On black paper the students had to draw a tree shape using white pencil or oil pastel and then extend the branches onto to a sheet of white paper and fill in the branches with black. This creates an interesting black and white, positive and negative image. The idea came from

http://en.paperblog.com/positive-negative-scratch-tree-335521/

It’s always a challenge to find something that can be started and finished in one art class, especially before Christmas. Field trips, science presentations and assemblies often cut into someone’s art period. When I found this project using ornaments as the focus of the lesson I was excited. It held the students’ interest and most of them finished it in the one class.

In this lesson the students learned how to create reflection of light using watercolour and how to paint, on wet on wet and blend analagous colours to create depth. I think the students in my grade 3/4 class did a great job.

The idea for this project came from http://www.artsonia.com/museum/art.asp?id=16233632&exhibit=465172&gallery=y

It’s Finally Friday

Posted on December 1, 2012 by Mama Cormier

….it seemed like the longest week ever

I’m sure that the full moon had a lot to do with it. The students were unusually chatty and restless. For the first time it was a struggle to get them to finish their work. Our mayor was found guilty in a conflict of interest case by the courts and stripped of his position. The teachers’ union made work to rule official and is threatening rotating one day strikes across the province. The minister of education is trying to convince the media that the government is putting students first and that the teachers are bargaining in bad faith. City council was caught in the middle of a shouting match between the mayor, with the aid of his brother and a few councillors on issues that turned out to be non-issues. A crazy week, all in all.

So if the mayor’s appeal is denied we might be looking at a by-election and the same judge that found the mayor guilty clarified today that he could run again in the by-election. He’s convinced that he would win again but I’m not so sure and the polls aren’t in his favour at the moment.

I had my fitness test this week and signed up for 24 sessions with a personal trainer and then the next day I found out we are be in a strike position and could be walking the pavement. Yesterday I cancelled the sessions with the personal trainer until things are a little more settled at work.

Last Friday I discovered I have mice in my library office. They’re living under the sink and have been chewing through my paint mixing containers. All week I’ve been throwing away containers that have big holes in the bottom. I haven’t seen them but there’s lots of evidence that they’re around.

I started to mark some of the art projects. I have to use my time more wisely because as of December 10th we have to leave school 1/2 hour after the students leave. This will be a challenge for me and a few other teachers who regularly stay at school till 6:00 most days. After the 10th, no more field trips, sports teams, extracurricular activities, and anything that involves collecting money and administrative paperwork. I marked about 100 projects tonight. Only 320 to go.

Art classes will continue but displaying the work could prove challenging when I have to leave the building early every night. Some of the work may have to stay up longer than it would normally. Here’s what the halls look like at the moment.

Not everything was bad. At the school council meeting this week the parents put my new art cart on the top of the priority list of things to purchase. It was ordered the next day and arrived yesterday. It only has to be assembled.

On Thursday I went to the One of a Kind Show with my daughter and her partner. They made me a great dinner. I had a free pass into the show and parking was free (that’s never happened before).

The weekend looks promising. I’ll start the day with a walk with the dog, workout at the gym and then to an art show opening in the afternoon. My friend’s 91 year old father is exhibiting his work at the Moore Gallery in downtown Toronto. He is a very accomplished artist and has had many shows in his lifetime. Just a month ago he won another award for one of his pieces at the Watercolour Society.

On Sunday we may be taking a trip to the Niagara region and do some wine touring. This is what my daughter wanted for her birthday and it looks like it should be a nice day weather wise. With Christmas just around the corner and winter on our heels we need to make this trip sooner rather than later.

We had a dusting of snow today in the afternoon. By 4:15 it was already dark, partially due to the overcast sky. Of course for the next 21 days it will continue to get darker earlier in the day. How depressing but I can’t let the stress get to me.

Warm vs Cool

Posted on November 25, 2012 by Mama Cormier

……from one disaster to one triumph

Last week I had my first failed art class. Well half of it didn’t work out but the second half was more successful. I was teaching my grade 2/3 class about warm and cool colours. It was a concept they easily grasped. I had seen a great project that involved bleeding tissue paper onto white paper to create a beautiful new paper that was either in warm colours or cool colours. In the following class we were going to cut the new paper into pine tree shapes and create a landscape of warm or cool trees.

Unfortunately I didn’t do a sample ahead of time and I didn’t test the tissue paper we had to see if it would bleed. The colours were steadfast. The boys and girls created a colourful collage of tissue shapes using only water. When they dried very little colour came off the tissue. I’m not sure I can salvage this project.

The second project was somewhat more successful. After the children put their papers away to dry they chose warm or cool construction paper and cut out interesting shapes and created a 3D effect by curling or fringing or folding their papers before gluing them onto a black background. I’m hoping to arrange all the cool projects together and all the warm projects together to create two separate wall murals of warm vs cool abstract design.

The next day I was desperate for a new warm vs cool project for my grade 3 class. In the morning before work I got on the internet and googled ‘warm vs cool lesson’ and the first two sites that came up were youtube clips. The one demonstrated a lesson for painting a warm and cool city landscape. It was excellent. The instructor said it was foolproof and that you couldn’t make a mistake. She was right.

The kids loved this activity. The only part that gave them a little bit of difficulty was drawing in the windows. I had to show them several times how to angle the windows and doors so that the buildings maintained that 3D look.

More Art and DIY Arm Warmers

Posted on November 21, 2012 by Mama Cormier

…..going around in circles

The projects that I call “Going Around In Circles” are finally coming together and I’m starting to display them in the hall. These were done by my grade 3 class.

Lately I’ve had the urge to sew something useful and work with felted wool. I follow a blog called The Renegade Seamstress, created by Beth Huntington, and Beth recently posted a tutorial on how to make these great hand warmers.The Renegade Seamstress

If you’re interested in knowing how to make these great fingerless hand warmers check out her site. You might also be interested in making the felted clutch bag. Felted Clutch

Felted Clutch

I gave these hand warmers to my principal and friend who celebrated a special birthday today. She is always cold and she loved them. Happy Birthday, M!