A Few More Portraits and New Animal Sketches

Posted on March 31, 2016 by Mama Cormier

….the grade 2s can’t seem to get enough art assignments

After Easter, when some of my students returned from extended holidays the last of the artist portraits were finished and I promised that I would post their work on my blog. So here goes:

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For the students who finished earlier I introduced them to to doing line drawings of animals and then filling them into with pencil and erasing parts to highlight light areas, markings and fur or skin texture. I had learned this technique from Carla Sonheim. I like to challenge this class because they are so open to trying new things. I showed them my samples of the elephant drawings I had done using this technique and then I provided them with photos of a variety of animals that they could choose to draw.

We started this last week and it was suppose to be a filler activity for those students who had finished all their work but at the end of this week’s class almost every student had made at least one of these drawings. Can you tell that Easter just passed when these were finished?

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Grade 2s Loved the Portrait and Doodle Assignment

Posted on March 19, 2016 by Mama Cormier

….my grade two class always embraces my lessons and can’t wait to start

This is the same assignment that I gave to my grade one classes but I asked the grade 2s to add some colourful doodles around their portraits. Dali, Picasso and Warhol never looked better.

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Challenging Grade One Students

Posted on February 24, 2016 by Mama Cormier

….I was hesitant to teach this lesson to the little ones

How much can grade one students do? How far can I push them to try something new and something somewhat difficult? I found out today.

I thought I would try teaching my class how to draw portraits from photos. This was actually an assignment that I was given this week in Carla Sonheim’s on-line class Y is for Yellow.

I printed up several photos of some famous contemporary artists, including Picasso, Dali, Frida Kahlo and Warhol. I showed the class very quickly how to use the negative space around the photo to start drawing and how to lay out some points on the paper to help guide the pencil from one area to another.

Most of the students were very excited about starting and many of them chose to draw Dali. One student, however, was not happy with the assignment and didn’t even want to start it. I asked her what she was going to do because this was the assignment. After a few minutes and some gentle encouragement she asked me if I would help her. She chose the Andy Warhol photo to copy and I helped her with placing some of the key points onto her paper. Once she started she quickly found success. Here are a few examples of their work:

Pablo Picasso

Salvador Dali

Frida Kahlo

Andy Warhol

Share Your World 2016 – Week 7

Posted on February 18, 2016 by Mama Cormier

….thanks Cee for hosting Share Your World

What are you a “natural” at doing?

I think I’m a natural at teaching art to young children and reading stories to them.

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Would you prefer a one floor house or multiple levels?

I like multiple levels in a house. I find climbing stairs helps keep me fit. Maybe as I get older I’ll prefer a one floor house.

What was your favorite subject in school?

In school my favourite subject was Family studies. I’ve always loved practical hands on classes.

Complete this sentence: If only the rain..

….would happen only at night.

What are you grateful for from last week and what do you look forward to this week?

I’m grateful for my daughter’s wonderful wedding a week ago today. It was a beautiful and simple ceremony at City Hall. Afterwards we walked to a very nice bar down the street and toasted the girls with Prosecco. Dinner wasn’t until 6:00 so we stayed at Drake 150 for about an hour and then we headed to Terroni’s for the reception. The guest list was very intimate with only 26 family members and very close friends in attendance. The food was fabulous and a wonderful time was had by all.

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On Saturday I paid a visit to my friend Maria and brought her some goodies for her birthday, Valentine’s Day and Family Day. On Sunday my husband treated me to a very nice lunch at Snug Harbour in Port Credit to celebrate Valentine’s Day. The meal was fantastic.

This week I’m looking forward to pyjama day at school, the dance for the kids on Friday and hopefully seeing my granddaughter on the weekend.

Birds of a Feather

Posted on January 21, 2016 by Mama Cormier

…..just add a beak to a scrap piece of paper and voila you have a bird

I got this idea from Carla Sonheim and I find that it works with all age groups. I’ve used it with kindergarten children and children in grades 1 to 5.

This year I had the children create a tree by printing the shape with the edge of a piece of thick cardboard dipped in brown paint. While we waited for it to dry I had the students practise drawing a variety of leaf shapes and then deciding which one they would use on their tree.

Once the paint dried I instructed the students to tear small pieces of coloured and patterned papers and then glue them to the tree branches. With a pencil or a black Sharpie they started creating their birds by adding a beak and then an eye. After that they could add as much or as little detail as they wanted. Once the birds were done they were instructed to draw the leaves in the open spaces and colour them in.

I love how these turned out. The following are examples from my grade two class.

Christmas Delights

Posted on December 25, 2015 by Mama Cormier

…while many of you are busy preparing for Christmas dinner I’m having a little down time

Our big Christmas celebration took place last night on Christmas Eve. My husband has long enjoyed the German tradition of opening gifts on the 24th since we first met 42 years ago. Now that our children are grown and have significant others we only prepare Christmas dinner every other year and this is that year. Later today we will be driving to Hamilton to enjoy a dinner prepared my daughter and her husband.

I thought I would take this time to share some of the highlights of this years Christmas season. As many of you know I’m a teacher librarian/art teacher. I essentially teach every student in the school for library and I have four classes that I do art with.

The week before Christmas I started receiving gifts from students and their families. There’s always one gift that stands out for me and this one brought a huge smile to my face and I couldn’t wait to share it with my colleagues and friends.

One of my grade one students brought me a small box that he had clearly wrapped himself and very proudly handed it to me. When I unwrapped the paper I discovered that the box was from Juicy Couture. When I read the name out loud, T very quickly declared that the box had nothing to do with what was inside. When I opened the lid I couldn’t help but smile for inside the box lay an angel that he had clearly made himself.

He used masking tape, paper and marker to create this little gem. Today it sits prominently on my Christmas tree, just below our angel tree topper. Aren’t kids wonderful?

Hopefully I’ll have more stories to share throughout the week.

Merry Christmas to all and happy holidays.

Carol

Imaginary Creatures Created From Sidewalk Cracks

Posted on November 24, 2015 by Mama Cormier

….I can’t tell you how much my students loved going outside and sketching the cracks in the pavement

Today my grade two students took their favourite sidewalk crack and using it as the starting point drew an imaginary creature. I can’t take credit for this idea. I’m taking an on-line class with Carla Sonheim called Imaginary Creatures and one of the assignments was to pull out images from cracks anywhere you could them.

Here are some of the creatures that my grade two class created today. I included two of the original cracks that inspired the finished project. I hope you enjoy them!

Blindly Drawing Lines to Create an Abstract Masterpiece

Posted on November 21, 2015 by Mama Cormier

….with their eyes closed my students started to draw lines randomly across their paper

I didn’t want students to have a preconceived idea of what they wanted to draw so I asked them to close their eyes, and start drawing one continuous line all over their paper. When they opened their eyes they were allowed to add some more line if there was a lot of untouched space or if some of the shapes that they created were very large.

They rotated their paper to see which way they wanted to orientate their design and then they chose a variety of pencil crayon colours. I encouraged them to start with one colour and fill in spaces in different areas of the paper. Then they moved on to the next colour and then the next. When they had used all their colours they re-examined their work and decided where more colour was needed and determined if it was balanced.

After all the colour had been added I suggested to some that they go over some of the same areas again so that the shapes were fully covered. Once that was done they were allowed to take a black fine point Sharpie and start adding some line detail to their shapes. Some students found animal shapes and added eyes, noses and scales, while others made random lines and dashes.

I think they did an amazing job. These samples were done by my grade 1 and grade 2 classes.

Starry Nights in Oil Pastel and Watercolour

Posted on November 9, 2015 by Mama Cormier

….children in grades one, two and three create their own version of Van Gogh’s Starry, Starry Night

Once again I was inspired by Carla Sonheim’s Free Kids Online Art Classes. In week two Diane Culhane introduced the kids to a crayon resist night sky.

The children loved how the watercolour brought up the crayon designs, especially the white marks. They also loved sprinkling salt over their creations. The concept of cutting out a black silhouette of a city or country skyline was a bit more challenging, especially for the grade ones. Here’s a collection of paintings created by my grade two class.

Warm and Cool Picasso Dogs

Posted on October 10, 2015 by Mama Cormier

….this will be the last group of Picasso Dogs that I post

Carla Sonheim has inspired me to teach my students about Picasso. Each grade level was approached slightly differently to meet the curriculum expectations for that grade. This gallery of Picasso Dogs was done by my grade three class and the emphasis was on cool and warm colours.