…..produced by my grade 3s
This time of year I’m always looking for art projects that are easy to learn and quick to finish. Carla Sonnheim has come up with a great tutorial that shows you how to create this fabulous art.http://www.carlasonheim.com/abstracted-flowers/ It incorporates watercolour, gesso, sgraffito and stippling.
The kids loved it. Here are a few examples of this fabulous art projects.
…..I may not be able to answer one of these questions
Regarding animals would you prefer not having them around or having domestics pets, farm animals, or seeing them in nature or the zoo?
I love animals and love having them around. I’m very much a dog person but we have owned a cat, gerbils, hamsters and budgie birds. I also enjoy seeing wild animals on my walks or seeing them in my backyard. 
I know that a lot of people don’t like zoos but I’ve always had a soft spot for zoos. Over the years they’ve become better and for some the only way they would ever see some of the exotic animals that only a zoo can house.
Are you a collector of anything?
I used to collect teddy bears but the collection became too large so I stopped asking for them. In the last few years I’ve been giving away some of my least favourite bears.
If you could know the answer to any question, besides “What is the meaning of life?”, what would it be?
Hmmm, I really have to think about this. I’ll come back to this one. Later…..How do you answer this question?
If you were to treat yourself to the “finer things” what would you treat yourself to?
I would treat myself to extra fine sheets made from the best Egyptian cotton, the loftiest down comforter, and the best bed money can buy. I must be tired because I’m thinking only of sleep.
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 my oldest daughter helping me put some finishing touches on the grade 5 project so that it would be ready for the silent auction. I’m also happy that my girls’ soccer team won the West Conference Finals and are now moving on to the City Finals. Lastly I’m grateful for the support from the kids and their parents for our annual Jump Rope for Heart fund raiser. So far they’ve raised over $6000. this year.
This week I’m looking forward to working on my report cards …..NOT. Actually I am looking forward to finishing them for the last time this school year.
For more Share Your World posts check out http://ceenphotography.com/2014/06/02/share-your-world-2014-week-22/
…..all on the same day
To say it was a busy day is an understatement. Our soccer games for the West End Conference Finals were moved up to today because of a scheduling conflict within the organization. At school we had already booked our assembly and Jump Rope activity for the same day.
At first I was a bit upset because I’m also the coordinator for the Jump Rope for Heart activity and one of the soccer coaches. Luckily my principal is very generous and understanding and she suggested that I go with the girls in the morning for soccer and return in the afternoon for Jump Rope. If the girls moved on after their first game my colleague and the second coach would stay with the girls.
As it turned out the girls did win their first game. They begged me to stay for the next game so I agreed to stay for the first half but then I really did have to leave. When I walked toward the car during the second half the girls were ahead by one point but as I drove away I saw that the other team scored. I knew that if they lost this game they would be back at school within the hour.
When I got back to school I watched part of the assembly and at the end of it I took the photo of all of the Future Aces winners. Then I set up the tent for the music equipment and the prizes that I had for the skippers. As soon as the children came out for recess we started skipping and continued for a good hour. Teachers chose students who were working extra hard and sent them to me for a prize. Some of the older students performed their favourite songs with the microphone and near the end of the hour we had a jump off where specially selected students jumped for a short period of time while teachers and student helpers counted how many times they turned their ropes. We had 3 different age categories to make it more fair. All in all it was a great event.
…..and guess what? The soccer team didn’t return within the hour. In fact when they did return they ran over to me and declared that they had won all their games and were going to the city finals in two weeks. Yeah!
…..paintings that is
Today the grade 5 students in my art class managed to finish painting all the circles and background of their art project for the silent auction. After school I started putting a second coat on some of the areas that needed it. Tomorrow I’ll pull a few more students out of class to go over the background one more time and then I’ll redraw the black lines around and inside the circles.
The two canvases that the one grade three class designed and painted had the finishing touch ups done today. Tomorrow I’ll have all the students sign the back of the canvases and they will be good to go. The first one actually has a grey background. I’m not sure why the colour looks so beige.
…..one is almost finished and the other is just started
It’s been a busy couple of weeks. Assemblies, trips to feeder schools, soccer tournaments, field trips and a school council meeting. The grade 3s abstract painting is undergoing a second coat and will be finished by the end of the week. The grade 5 project has been delayed because the class missed art one week and this week I was at the soccer tournament with the grade 4/5 girls (we won by the way) when the same class had art. When I saw the class in their library period last week I told them I was taking inspiration from previous projects they had done and applying some of their designs onto our massive set of canvases.
Today some of the students asked if they could help start the project after school. I had painted up a rough copy of what the project might look like and most of the class liked what they saw. We agreed to keep the background one colour and I’ll conference with a small group to decide on the other colours. One of the girls from the class was able to stay for quite awhile and together we drew the design onto the canvases and I started painting the background.
Hopefully I’ll be able to take a small group at a time out of class to work on the project. Ideally I’d like every student to paint a portion of the project. If you can’t tell from the photo the entire piece is quite large. There are four canvases measuring about six feet in length.
I also introduced a new project to my grade 3 art classes today. Carla Sonheim gives a free tutorial on how to paint crazy flowers using watercolours, gesso and pencil. It’s a fun project and very textural. 
….now if only I could do that every day or at least every other day
I started this long holiday weekend with a long, 8.6k walk. Last Sunday I managed two walks totalling 9.0k but in between I didn’t walk at all. Granted it was a busy week at school and when I was on yard duty I purposely kept walking for the entire 15 minutes. On Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday I was out with the girls for soccer practice and on Wednesday night I went with the junior choir to the baseball game at the Rogers Centre where they sang the national anthems at the beginning of the game. They sang beautifully but the Blue Jays lost miserably against the Cleveland Indians, 15 to 4. It was a very late night and I didn’t get home till 11:30. I was also out on Tuesday night with friends and on Thursday I had one final appointment with the oral surgeon after school. Everything on that front looks good and I’m ready to be fitted for my dental crown next week.
All of this of course is extra over and above my regular teaching day. I also met with the board designer to have the library measured up for some renovations and the assembly that I organized for this year’s Jump Rope for Heart took place Friday morning. It always feels good to be able to check another thing off the ‘To Do List’ this time of year.
This brings me back to walking. Last week I installed a new app onto my iPhone called Strava. It tracks my distances, times, calorie output and maps out the routes that I’ve taken. I just push start at the beginning of my walk and stop when I’m done. It does all the calculations for me. I love it and on Mother’s Day, A and J bought me an armband to put my iPhone into when I’m running so I don’t have to carry the phone in my hand or worry about it falling out of a pocket (if I have one).
If you click on the link you’ll notice that it calls my walk a run. I haven’t figured out how to change that to walk but I did for the first time in a long time run part of today’s walk. It wasn’t far, maybe 1/2 a kilometre but it’s a start. During the walk I stopped a few times to take some photos of the birds in Sam Smith Park. There’s a bird sanctuary there and it is nesting season so there’s lots of activity there. One of the highlights for me on today’s walk was seeing one of the male swans building up the nest and the female sitting on her eggs. It was a bit cool today so she never got off the eggs but the last count had her sitting on five eggs.
I have to admit that I got a bit carried away with today’s walk and completely lost track of time. I was gone for over two hours and my husband called me on my phone to make sure I was okay. The nice feature about Strava is that is only records the time you are actually moving.
When I did finally get home it was time for lunch and then I spent about two hours working in the garden. Our beautiful White Pine has died and it is slated to be cut down in the near future. One of the jobs that I tackled today was removing the river rock that surrounds the tree. We’re having the stump removed right away so everything around the bottom of the tree has to be cleared away. It’s a much bigger job than I thought and I’ve only removed about half of the rocks. My husband was building a new raised garden bed today so I volunteered to start tossing rocks (literally tossing them across the path and into the side garden).
Here are a few more photos from my morning walk. Enjoy!
…..all the classes in the school are preparing an item to be sold at this year’s Fun Fair
For the 15th Anniversary of our annual Fun Fair the parents have asked all the teachers to prepare an art piece to be auctioned off at the Silent Auctions on May 31st. Since I teach art a couple of the teachers asked me to help them come up with something for their classes.
My grade 3 class agreed to come up with some designs for a simple abstract piece where every child in the glass would have a section that they could paint. One student had finished all his work and set about to come up with a plan. When he finished the class agreed that they wanted to use his design and apply it to the 24 x 24 inch canvas.
On painting day we looked at the paints and changed the original colour scheme. We mixed colours and tried them out side by side. We finally decided to use grey, white, yellow green and fuchsia. Here is where we started and how far we’ve come. Next week we’ll finish this project and maybe even start a second one.
….after a stressful and frustrating couple of days, an act of kindness melts my heart
Today was much calmer at school. The children actually got outside for recess despite the overcast skies. We started the day with our Character Education assembly and two of the kindergarten classes entertained us with fantastic performances featuring the theme cooperation. Mr. J. presented the trophy to this year’s winning floor hockey team and handed out medals to the boys’ touch football team that came in second in the City Finals. Mrs. F’s grade 3 class performed a musical production on the Orff instruments, conducted by Ms C. In my opinion it was one of the best assemblies we’ve had this year.
Now that all the voting for favourite books in the library is finished some of my stress has been lifted. I managed to email the last set of votes before I left school today. All day during library classes the kids were truly interested in knowing how the vote went. In art class the grade 3s continued on their weaving projects. I’m really loving this assignment. It’s so relaxing and the kids really like it. One of the students who finished his project is working on a design for our class project that everyone will participate in. When it’s done we will donate it for the silent auction at this year’s Fun Fair at the end of May. I’ll keep you posted on our progress.
I started and ended the day with soccer tryouts for the grade 4/5 girls. A group of students wanted to help me in the library and I told them what I really needed was a clean office and clean art equipment. They were happy to take up the challenge. All I really wanted was to have the paint cleaned off the palettes and brushes from Monday’s class.
When I walked into the library after soccer practice the room was dark but I heard a few giggles and my three helpers jumped out from behind my office door and yelled surprise. Not only had they put away all the books but they cleared off my library/computer table, washed all the art equipment, polished the sink, tidied the counter and organized the table and surfaces in my office. If that wasn’t enough they brought me a tray of fresh fruit and made me a cup of coffee. What a great way to end the day. They made me feel very special.
….an exhausting couple of days
Yesterday my grade 5 class finished, continued and started their abstract paintings. It was a crazy art class with 30 students all working on canvases and acrylic paint. It was the first time that the boys made less mess than the girls and they were really focused on their work. The girls on the other hand were silly, messy and a little too free with the amount of paint they used.
Just as we were ready to start, an announcement for grade 5 boys and girls who were interested in trying out for shot put were called to go outside. All of a sudden about half the class left. The remaining half were pleased to have more space but it didn’t last long because after about 20 minutes the students returned.
A half hour later we were well into our paintings and wouldn’t you know it we had a fire drill. A few girls were literally up to their elbows in paint and I had to quickly cover their hands with towels as we made our way outside. I have to admit that I totally lost it with these girls, who are normally very responsible students but for some reason they turned into 5 year olds yesterdays.
When we returned to class we had another 20 minutes to work and then it was time to clean up. We started clean up a little earlier because last time we didn’t give ourselves enough time. A couple of girls volunteered to clean the paint palettes and they quickly went into my office where I have the only sink in the room. The boys quickly cleaned up their tables and put away their paintings.
The girls in the office seemed to be taking a long time to clean and when I went into my office I was assaulted with a mess like I’ve never seen before. The bell was about to sound off so I sent them to the bathroom to clean themselves. I didn’t really appreciate how bad the mess was until I tried to organize it. I found an empty bin and put all the dirty palettes and brushes into it and then cleared the counter and emptied the sink. There was paint everywhere….. the backsplash, counter, drying rack, cupboard doors and the floor. Even my kettle was covered with blue paint. I spent the next 20 minutes just clearing the paint from the sink.
I had to stop cleaning when my kindergarten class came to the library for a story and when one of my colleagues arrived to continue with the class I went back to my office and cleaned for another half an hour. When the bell at the end of the day went off I went outside to do bus duty and when I came back I worked another hour cleaning. I left the brushes to soak and I bagged the dirty towels to take home and launder.
Today it rained all day which means that the kids had indoor recess all day. It was also voting day in the library. For the last four months we’ve been reading a selection of books written by Canadian authors. The program is called The Forest of Reading and at the end of April students across Ontario vote for their favourite books. Last week the entire school voted for their favourite English picture book and today the French Immersion students voted for their favourite French picture book. The older students (grades 3 to 5) belong to a book club that I run with the help of the staff and today was their day to vote for their favourite fiction, non-fiction and French books. Students came down during recess today and filled in a ballot and deposited it into the ballot box. A busy day.
By lunch time today the students were very restless and very loud. As I get older I find the noise unbearable and it makes me very grumpy. My class after lunch was no exception and after 3 warnings I told them they weren’t allowed to speak at all and they had to use sign language to communicate. I don’t know why it works but it was quiet in the art room for the next minutes. When they got too noisy again I insisted on the no talking rule again and once again it was quiet. This class was working on their weaving projects and they managed to get a lot done.
After recess I went to one of the kindergarten classes to pick up the class and take them back to the library so that they could vote for their favourite book. Like the rest of the school this class was busy and chatty but because I was changing up the routine they were anxious to clean up and see what they would do next. I explained to the class that when we walked to the library we were going to do some exercises to get our muscles moving and we were going to do it quietly. It was like a game of moving Simon Says. We organized the children into a line and I started doing lunges, high steps and large arm movements as we made our way to the library. One day I figured that it is about a 200 metre walk from the kindergarten rooms to the library. By the time we got to the library our hearts beat a little faster, especially mine and the children got rid of them of their pent up energy.
For the last period of the day I had the grade 5 class that I had for art yesterday. After voting I sat them down and complimented the boys for their cooperation and neatness during art and we discussed the problems that we encountered before, during and after the fire drill. I think the girls were a little uncomfortable when they realized that they were part of the problem yesterday.
At the end of the day my library helpers came in to help me clean a few more palettes and brushes, put away books, organize the shelves and count the votes. Before I left I was able to email the results of the votes to the Ontario Library Association. Tomorrow I’ll probably discover that a class forgot to vote or students who have been away want to vote. Oh well. C’est la vie!
Here are a few more finished abstract paintings and three finished weavings. When I see students’ finished work I can’t stay angry for long. In the end it all seems worthwhile.
….I don’t know about that monkey question
What are some words that just make you smile?
Words that make me smile? From my students….”I love art class”, from my kids “thanks, Mom”, from my husband “Wine?” and from my friends “Let’s get together”.
When you lose electricity in a storm, do you light the candles or turn on the flashlight? How many of each do you own?
We own dozens of candles and a couple of flashlights. We only use the flashlight to find the candles and lighter. We love candle light and light candles often, especially when we’re enjoying a special romantic dinner.
What is the longest book you ever read?
I think the longest book I’ve ever read was Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. It contains 870 pages.
Image courtesy of: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/7/70/Harry_Potter_and_the_Order_of_the_Phoenix.jpg
So you win a pet monkey at a fair, but this isn’t just any old monkey. It can do one trick for you whenever you want from getting a pop out of the fridge to washing your hair. What would be the trick?
I don’t know about winning a monkey. I don’t think there’s anything that a monkey could do that would make me want to own one, never mind washing my hair. Yikes! The thought gives me the creeps.
Ikea monkey. Photo courtesy of:http://i1.ytimg.com/vi/pZ80Zpi7N-E/hqdefault.jpg
Bonus question: What are you grateful for from last week, and what are you looking forward to in the week coming up?
I’m grateful for the sunny weekend and getting out for a long walk with the dogs on Sunday. I’m looking forward to a quick recovery after my oral surgery on Thursday.
For more Share Your World entries check out http://ceenphotography.com/2014/04/28/share-your-world-2014-week-17-2/
Mama Cormier 
