A Visiti to the Aquarium Inspires This Art Class

Posted on March 29, 2015 by Mama Cormier

….a watercolour wash, crayon resist, and playing with salt

The kindergarten classes made a trip to the new Ripley’s Aquarium here in Toronto. They researched marine life before going on the trip and I brought library books to the class to use as a reference for their fish drawings.

We started with a crayon line drawing of the fish and surrounding sea plants. I showed the class how to make a wash for the background and while the paint was still wet we sprinkled it with salt to give the water an interesting texture. We also used white crayon to create bubbles in the water and some of the children wrote their names with the this crayon. The last step was to add colour to the fish themselves and the plants. I think they did a wonderful job.

Happy Penguins

Posted on March 27, 2015 by Mama Cormier

….tell kindergarteners that they can dress up their penguins and they instantly become ‘happy’ penguins

We started our project by painting our background with ribbons of watercolour. The only restriction was ‘no’ black or brown paint. While the paint was drying they drew and then cut out their penguin bodies, eyes, beaks and feet. This pretty much took up the entire first class.

In the second class I showed the class how to draw an ice flow so that it had some dimension and then I instructed the students on how to put everything together. When the penguin was glued into place with all parts intact the students then had the option of making hats, scarves and sweater from some scrapbook paper that I had.

The inspiration for this assignment came from Deep Space Sparkle.

Share Your World 2015 – Week 12

Posted on March 25, 2015 by Mama Cormier

….some unusual questions this week

When was the last time you sat on a park or garden bench for more than ten minutes? Describe the occasion.

The last time I sat on a garden bench was two summers ago. My cottage neighbour had built a bench on the beach for anyone to use. I used to love going down to the beach early in the day to have my morning coffee. Unfortunately the powers that be decided that all things left on this ‘public’ beach had to be removed. When we returned last summer the bench was gone.

Would you ever be interested in observing a surgery or do you turn away when the nurse brings out the needle?

When I attended university I had thought about being a doctor but teaching became my chosen profession. I actually contemplated about taking a gross human anatomy class where I would dissect a human body. A 400 level floral design class won out. I used to watch live surgeries on TV but I do turn away when the needle to draw blood comes out.

Where’s your favorite place to take out-of-town guests?

If people are coming from another country I like to take them to Niagara Falls. For my Canadian out-of-town quests I like to take them to the AGO (art gallery) and treat them to any special exhibitions that are featured during their visit. Luckily most of my friends like art.

If my guest come in the summer and they like a rustic setting I might suggest that we go to the cottage for a few days.

If you had an unlimited shopping spree at only one store, which one would you choose? Why?

It might seem strange that I would choose a discount store but Marshall’s has it all for me. Beautiful designer clothes that fit me and suit me, shoes, purses, kitchenware, gourmet food, dishes, and children’s and men’s wear. What could be better?

Bonus question: What are you grateful for from last week, and what are you looking forward to in the week coming up?

Last week I was grateful for being treated to a trip to the new Aga Khan Museum, here in Toronto. My friend, D, is a member and we spent the morning walking through the galleries. I really enjoyed looking at the old Persian vessels, art and tapestries. When so many artefacts are being destroyed in the Middle East because of war and acts of terrorism I was grateful that these treasures have been preserved for all to enjoy.

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After exploring the entire museum and checking out the gift shop we had a very nice lunch at the restaurant located in the museum. The space was decorated with beautifully carved wall panels and mirrors and the food was attractively presented and very tasty.

I’m also grateful for slightly warmer weather and sunny days. On Sunday we had the family over Sunday lunch and game day. My husband made an incredible Irish meal in honour of St. Patrick’s Day (only a week late) and A and J brought Zeppole for dessert in honour of St Joseph’s Day.

This week I’m looking forward to doing more art, not only my own personal art but also art with my students. I’ve already started some interesting projects with the kids and today my kindergarten class made wonderful art with objects from nature (last 4 photos). The first six photos are mine. The owls are samples I created for my older students. They are designing their own owls and then transferring the design onto a foam plate and then colouring it and pressing it onto paper. I’m really looking forward to seeing what the kids can do.

Weekly Photo Challenge – Wall

Posted on March 14, 2015 by Mama Cormier

…this week’s WPC lends itself to many interpretations.

Old Wall

New Wall

Wooden Wall

Glass Wall

Wall of Contemporary Art

Wall of Children’s Art

Check out hundreds of photo submissions for the word ‘wall’ by clicking click.

Happy Valentine’s Day Gift to my Readers

Posted on February 14, 2015 by Mama Cormier

….children’s art always brings a smile to my face …. I hope you agree

I combined a few lessons with this assignment but I got most of my inspiration from Pinterest.

Kindergarten Klimt Patterns

Posted on February 7, 2015 by Mama Cormier

….Gustav Klimt created beautiful patterns using gold leaf along with red and black paint

My kindergarten class created their own prints with inspiration from Gustav Klimt. I gave each student a sturdy piece of cardboard. Last year one of my parents donated a whole box of these 9 x 12 pieces of cardboard. You might remember that the grade 3s last year made looms from them and created amazing woven wall hangings (Weaving Our Way to Happiness).

On the first day I gave each student shapes, (i.e., squares, rectangles, circles) cut out from foam board and red, black and orange paint. They painted the shapes and then randomly pressed them onto the cardboard. Once they were finished we put them away to dry.

On the second day I gave them lids and corks and stamps that I had made with students in another class. I also introduced silver and gold acrylic paint. I encouraged them to stamp the new colours inside the shapes they had printed the week before. There’s something about metallic paints that children love.

On the third day we talked about adding texture and detail using a fine tip black Sharpie. Their work went from wonderful to WOW. Here are a few of the finished prints.

another class

A New Milestone – 1000 Posts

Posted on January 20, 2015 by Mama Cormier

…..I can’t believe it

Thirty three months ago when I started this blog I couldn’t have imagined writing 1000 posts. When I first hit the keys I wanted to record and track my weight loss journey, write about my past, share recipes and have a platform to air my feelings about retirement. Well here I am almost three years later and I’m still going strong.

My focus has changed somewhat. I managed to lose 32 pounds and today I’ve kept a good chunk of it off but it’s a struggle every day. I don’t share many recipes. Others do it much better. I’m still working and I don’t bring up retirement very often. My colleagues won’t hear of it but I have to admit that I am getting closer to that day. I don’t talk as much about my past and most of my personal posts reflect what’s happening in the present.

What is surprising is how my blog has morphed into an art and photography journal. I started teaching art to more classes shortly after starting the blog and I started to share my student’s work.

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I also started to do more of my own art and I took a number of on-line art classes.

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I’ve always liked taking photos but recently I discovered that I was pretty good at it. I enjoyed experimenting with my little digital camera and later my iPhone and I started to participate in a lot of photography challenges here on WordPress.

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I also started to dabble in writing poetry. For someone who hated poetry in school I’m somewhat surprised that I enjoy writing free verse and Haiku as much as I do. I guess I like writing in general.

When I look back on my first dozen posts, I wonder what kept me going. There wasn’t a lot of feedback. Many of my first posts had no likes what so ever. Reading over them I couldn’t fault the writing but there were only a few photos in the beginning and I didn’t always ‘tag’ those pieces. Some of them I wrote for my children so they would have a record of their mother’s past (here, here, here, and here).

The one thing that I was pleased about was that many of my early followers are still with me. Hats off to Michael Lai, oneanna65, Domestic Diva, MD, Uthamz, The Ranting Chef, Lesley Carter, Ellis Nelson, Conor Cullen, Dorothy, Anne, Paul. Beth, Baz, Dina, Island Traveller, Bert, Lee, Jeanne, Maia, Frizz, TK Morin, Masqua,Leanne, Art Expectations, Rosemarie, Viveka, Donna, Michael, T.J., Melissa, Ann, Neal, Woolly, Mrs. Euken, Dan, Mark, Brenda, and in the last year many more followers have come my way. Here are some of the regulars: Cee, Megan, Lisa, Ab, Jennifer, Joe, Rachel, Chris, Geraint, Miranda, Trisha, Janaline, Hello, Fig, Elizabeth, Marsha, Ayse, Folly Girl, Judith, Sarah, Ronovan, Seb, Audrey, B, Kimmi, Conrad, CJ, Boeta, Peggy, Debbie, Colline,……

A special thanks goes to the people who like to comment on my blog, a lot,……Dorothy, Viveka, Rosemarie, Leanne, Colline, Judith, Cee, Elizabeth and Mark and my sister Chris. I know that my FaceBook friends also read my blog and when they comment it’s usually on FaceBook. I’m sure I’ve missed a few people and for that I apologize. I am about 40 people shy of reaching 1000 followers and I hope by my 3rd anniversary in April I can reach that goal as well.

Cheers!

Travel Theme: Laughter

Posted on January 11, 2015 by Mama Cormier

…this week’s Travel Theme: Laughter comes at a time where the world needs a little laughter amidst the grim news in Paris

Nothing like children’s art, silly faces and gestures and the perseverance of that squirrel to bring on a little chuckle. Hope these photos have lightened the mood for a brief moment in time. Carol

Filling in the Negative Space

Posted on January 10, 2015 by Mama Cormier

….an art lesson that focuses on the negative space

When I took the on-line course called Table Top: Drawing and Painting by Diane Culhane I knew that I wanted to do one of the assignments with my grades 2 and 3 classes. It was a great lesson on contour drawing and positive and negative space.

I gave the students a variety of bottles and vases to arrange into a pleasing still life. They used a fine tipped black Sharpie and drew a contour drawing of their still life. Then they divided the negative space into smaller areas and filled them in with pencil crayon. They left the positive space blank.

Grade Threes Have Fun With Colour and Line

Posted on January 8, 2015 by Mama Cormier

…..in this lesson I introduced a variety of lines and the difference between warm and cool colours

To start the lesson the students were instructed to draw a straight line, a thin line, a thick line, a zigzag line, a broken line and a loopy line. They were encouraged to draw the lines in different directions (horizontal, vertical and diagonal) and to extend the lines from one side of the paper to the other.

Then they had to choose two warm colours and one cool colour or two cool colours and one warm colour. Before they started to colour I suggested that they add more lines inside some of the shapes that they had created so that they had smaller blocks of any one colour and they could add some additional marks for added visual texture and variety.

This is a great lesson to leave with a supply teacher.