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.

What a Difference a Day Can Make

Posted on February 10, 2013 by Mama Cormier

….. temperatures were holding steady around the 0 degree (freezing) mark

It was a lovely balmy day and the ice and snow on the sidewalks and roads are now melting away at an alarming rate. By tomorrow we should have a slushy mesh as the temperatures rise to six degrees (well above freezing).

The good thing about the warmer temperatures today was that the roads had cleared enough to make driving doable and bearable. I drove downtown to meet up with my daughter, A and her partner, J to check out the Junction Flea Market. We’re not quite sure why it was held in the Queen West area when the Junction is north and further west but the Great Hall housed the affair and the turn out was good.

After a coffee, a few Asian dumplings and purchasing a couple of old record albums, some flowers and a vase we headed north to the AGO (Art Gallery of Ontario). The girls wanted to see the Evan Penny show and today was the last day.

While we were there I discovered a great lookout from the fourth floor and took a few shots of the city from an angle I’ve never seen before.

To the left is OCAD, the university of art and design and in the middle is the CN Tower.

More Snowy Pictures

Posted on February 9, 2013 by Mama Cormier

…. I couldn’t believe how much yesterday’s storm took out of me

When I was curled up on the couch last night I tried to catch up on some of my reading but I just couldn’t keep my eyes open. After awhile I put the book down and decided to work on yesterday’s post. All went well, until I tried to read some of the blogs that I follow. I woke up a couple of times with my laptop literally resting on my lap so I finally gave into my fatigue and went to bed.

This morning my husband almost went for the morning walk without me because I was so sound asleep. When I did wake up I slowly made my way downstairs and discovered that both K and Frances were ready to leave. They kindly agreed to wait for me (well my husband did… the dog on the other hand had no choice) while I got dressed and had my morning coffee.

I’m glad I made the effort to join them. It was a beautiful morning. The snow was so deep at the rugby pitch that I don’t need to head to the gym today. It was quite a workout just walking through the new snow to get to the other side. You really had to lift your knees. Snowshoes would have come in handy today.

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.

Highlight of My Week

Posted on February 2, 2013 by Mama Cormier

……I’ve always wanted to take students to the Daily Bread Food Bank

On Thursday I told you I had misplaced my camera and the two school cameras. Luckily they had been put away for safe keeping in the office as I had suspected and hoped.

Fifteen years ago when I taught middle school I tried to plan a trip to the local food bank so that students could volunteer and experience first hand how the Daily Bread Food Bank in Toronto worked. At the time, most of my students were underage and not allowed to visit the warehouse. Imagine my surprise this year when one of our primary teachers was able to organize a field trip to the new facility for our grade 3 to 5 students. My principal knew how much I had always wanted to do this so she asked me if I wanted to accompany the students to the warehouse. I jumped at the chance.

On Thursday, Mme M and I, along with four parent volunteers, escorted 29 enthusiastic students to the Daily Bread Food Bank. After registering at the front desk, the kids dropped off 150 pounds of food and then awaited instructions for their next task. A load of fresh carrots and onions had been delivered that morning so our job was to bag the vegetables into net sacks that held five pounds.

The kids couldn’t get over how big these carrots were. The parents thought that a trip to a farm was in order.

I helped bag these onions. We prepared 200 five pound bags. That’s 1000 pounds of onions.

Talk about throwing yourself into your work.

It was dirty work but the kids loved it. Some of them even said it was the best field trip, ever.

After finishing our task we were treated to a snack and given a tour of the facility. In the end, our hard work provided fresh vegetables for 200 families in the Toronto area.

January 2013 Photo a Day – Grow

Posted on January 30, 2013 by Mama Cormier

…..people do it, plants do it too… get creative and take a photo of something that grows.

I don’t know what I’m doing wrong but the rest of my pictures wouldn’t upload. Maybe Jeanne will have more photos at http://www.nolagirlatheart.wordpress.com

January 2013 Photo a Day – Together

Posted on January 28, 2013 by Mama Cormier

…… there are many definitions for together. One is: In or into a single group, mass, or place. Take a photo of together, whichever definition you’d like to use

Best friends for over 20 years, together to celebrate B’s birthday.

A pair of earrings. One just wouldn’t cut it. You definitely need two together.

Young love!For more ‘together’ photos check out http://www.nolagirlatheart.wordpress.com

January 2013 Photo a Day – Landscape

Posted on January 27, 2013 by Mama Cormier

…..step back and take a photo of a landscape near you. Or even take a little trip just for the photo. Would be nice to explore your town for a beautiful photo

It was pretty overcast today and there was a grey hue over the entire city. I have lots of landscape pictures in my files but I feel I have used some of them once too often. There’s a large bridge close to my house and I often see photographers at the top of it taking pictures of the city. I always wondered what the attraction was so I drove over and parked the car on the wide shoulder and took some panoramic views. The bridge goes over the rail lines and downtown Toronto and Lake Ontario are off in the distance.

After taking pictures from the Islington Bridge I decided to drive over to one of the bridges that spans over the highway into to city. This bridge was a bit scarier because the railing was lower and the speeding cars below were intimidating.