The Next Wave of Snow is Upon Us

Posted on February 8, 2015 by Mama Cormier

…..last Monday we saw more snow than predicted but still no ‘Snow Day’ in Toronto

Luckily everyone else stayed off the roads so driving to work on Monday wasn’t as bad as it could have been. About one third of our students stayed home and made their own ‘Snow Day’. All the other school boards around Toronto closed schools for the day. We only cancelled buses. It’s funny how conditions for school buses are too dangerous but it’s okay for teachers and parents to get out in their cars to get to school. Go figure!

Anyway, I didn’t intend to rant about last Monday. Today we’re experiencing more snow but I’m not sure that we’re going to get as much as predicted. I’m trying to get out and walk more so late this afternoon, when the snow started I went out for a walk and on my way home I took a few photos. They’re a little grainy because it started to get dark but some of that graininess is the snow that’s coming down.

I went out again a little while ago to walk the dog but she wouldn’t go further than around the block so I think I’m going to be about a thousand steps shy of my 10 000 step goal. Maybe I’ll go out one more time without her and shovel some of that snow.

some of

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

Crazy Hair Day

Posted on February 2, 2015 by Mama Cormier

…..fun day at school

Last Thursday we had Crazy Hair Day. I wish I had more photos but my iPhone ran out of juice. The kids love it when the teachers play along. A couple of scrunchies and presto you have ‘crazy hair’.

Many of children used the spray that adds colour to your hair and some of them discovered that the colour runs when it gets wet. During dance class a few students had coloured sweat running down their foreheads and a couple of students stayed in during recess because it had started to snow and they were afraid that their hair creation would run onto their snow suits.

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.

Kindergarten Winter Owls

Posted on January 7, 2015 by Mama Cormier

….a two part lesson using pieces of cardboard and their thumbs

Before Christmas I wanted to create a winter scene that used a minimum of paint but would still be fun for the children without making too much mess. I found a great assignment on Kids’ Artists.

The background is a dark blue or purple paper so that it contrasts with the white trees and looks like a night sky. The trees are created by dipping the edge of the cardboard into the white paint and dabbed onto the paper to form the trunk and branches. Then thumbs are dipped into the paint and stamped onto the branches to make the owl bodies. When the paint is dry the details are added with a fine tipped Black sharpie.

The children loved this project and some of them couldn’t stop stamping owls onto their trees.

Small Stones – January 5, 2015

Posted on January 5, 2015 by Mama Cormier

….the first day back to work

A New Year

The car instinctively knew where to park

Making its way into a spot that really wasn’t a spot

But the lot had become too small for our growing staff

And no one car pools.

The cold Arctic air bit my face as I gingerly placed

My feet on the icy surface

Hoping that my boots wouldn’t let me down, literally.

The cold easily penetrated my thin inadequate gloves

But I knew that the walk to the door would take less than a minute

Sweet Miss M greeted me, as she does every morning

Opening the door to a warm and welcoming place

This gesture was even more appreciated today

As I had forgotten my swipe key

Had I really been away for two weeks?

The morning was already busy with excitement

Children eager to share their stories and

Teachers busy, preparing for their day

The New Year begins, a new day, just like any other

But with renewed hope and promise of good things to come.

© rgb for “On Dragonfly Wings with Buttercup Tea”, 2011 – 2015

What are small stones?

A small stone is a short piece of writing (any style) that precisely captures a fully-engaged moment for you. The process of discovering small stones is as significant as the finished creation. Searching for small stones encourages you to keep your senses on the “alive and alert” status. Involve yourself with a new set of eyes, ears, nose, mouth, fingers, feelings and mind. In short … OPEN, OPEN, OPEN!

My Year of Art in Photos – Part 2

Posted on December 11, 2014 by Mama Cormier

….continuing with the writing challenge

April & May – students creating masterpieces for the Fun Fair Silent Auction

June – Painting My Garden – an on-line course, my birch tree painting on wood and warm-up contour drawings for the first Summer Art Camp assignment

August – Summer Art Camp kept me very busy

Thanks to Word Press for this challenge. Stay tuned for part 3.

Busy, Busy, Busy…..

Posted on December 5, 2014 by Mama Cormier

….the month of November has been incredibly busy but very enjoyable for the most part

It seems that the number of cultural events that I get to experience are few and far between but lately I’ve been going to quite a few shows. As they say ‘when it rains it pours’.

The month started off, sadly with my aunt’s death and her memorial gathering six days later. On a happier note my daughter celebrated her birthday and my son came home for a short visit from London all in the same week. I also attended a show called Between the Pages with a group of friends where we were treated to readings from the top five books that were short listed for the Scotiabank Giller Prize. All the authors were there and we listened to them answer questions that were given to them by the evening’s host, Carol Off.

In the following week we celebrated Remembrance Day at school on the 11th. It is always a big deal at our school and the children and staff prepared a very moving and memorable assembly for the community. Two days later I attended an afternoon concert at the Edward Johnson building where the Dover String Quartet played to a full house. They were the winners of last year’s Banff Springs String Quartet competition. It was an amazing concert and received rave reviews from two newspaper critics. The concert was sponsored and hosted by the Women’s Musical Club of Toronto.

A week later on the 20th, my husband and I saw the show, The Book of Mormon at the Princess of Wales Theatre. It was a very funny show. Just what the doctor ordered. We needed a good laugh after getting the news that my husband will need another surgery to remove the other half of his thyroid. They discovered that the nodules were cancerous. Apparently cancer of the thyroid is very slow growing and as his doctor put it, it’s not the illness that he’ll die from. None the less, the news was discouraging and the play helped alleviate some of his despair.

Courtesy of: http://torontoist.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/20130506_bookofmormon.jpg

Two days later, our good friends, D and D called us and invited us to brunch at the restaurant, Frank, at the AGO. The art gallery was featuring works from Michelangelo and Rodin so after our meal we decided to take in the show. I have to admit that I found the Michelangelo pieces somewhat underwhelming. Many of the works were very small and people moved into the the pieces way too closely for my liking but I can understand why.

The Rodin pieces on the other hand were all sculptural and much larger. I enjoyed seeing the sculpture, The Thinker, up close and personal. It was also interesting to see how large Rodin made the extremities of his figures. The hands and feet of many pieces were massive.

On the 25th I received a phone call from my friend L and she informed me that our friend, C had put her back out and couldn’t use her tickets for the ballet the next day. She offered them to us and so the next day we headed downtown, had dinner together and then went to the Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts to see the ballet, Nijinsky. It was an incredible performance. I was mesmerized by the slow motion action going on in the background and the shear physicality of the lead dancer’s movements. How that man isn’t black and blue all over is beyond me.

Courtesy of: http://rt.com/files/opinionpost/33/5b/f0/00/nij-2014-26-_300_.jpg

Finally on Friday, November 28th we were guests of our friends D and D at the University of Toronto production of Gilbert and Sullivan’s HMS Pinafore, It was charming and fun to watch.

As I said earlier ‘ when it rains, it pours’. So much to see and do. I’m exhausted just writing about it. Now that we’re into December I’m sure things will not slow down but for different reasons. November was truly a month for the arts.

Picasso Portraits as Seen Through the Eyes of Children

Posted on November 18, 2014 by Mama Cormier

….my kindergarten class just finished their Picasso portraits

After discussing faces and the different parts and how to draw them I introduced Pablo Picasso to my kindergarten class. We talked about the difference between reality painting and abstract painting and how Picasso could do both. I had photographs of some of Picasso’s abstract portrait paintings and then I drew an oval shape and divided it with a vertical line down the centre. I encouraged the children to use curvy or zigzag lines and to add more than one.

The next part was the fun part. They could draw as many eyes, noses and mouths as they wanted. They could use any colour for skin and hair. Each child was given a black Sharpie to draw a shape for the face, the lines within the shape and then all the facial features that they wanted to add. When they were done with that they took crayons and coloured in their Picasso faces and some of them coloured the background as well. I was amazed at the detail that they added. They really took the time to examine some of Picasso’s portraits and you could see how they tried to incorporate some of his design details in their own work. I think they’re fabulous. You be the judge.