Kindergarten Art – A Joy to Teach

Posted on September 18, 2014 by Mama Cormier

….so far the biggest surprise at school has been how much I enjoy teaching the little ones art

I have to admit that I was a bit skeptical about teaching art to Kindergarten children but it has been very rewarding and so far it’s gone pretty smoothly. It really helps having the ECE teacher with me. There are 29 JK and SK students in that class and without her help I think it would be next to impossible to run the class without chaos.

Our first class involved making ‘dots’ or circles for International Dot Day and we learned a little bit about Wassily Kandinsky and how to use watercolours and oil pastels. In our second class we discussed the different types of lines that artists can use and I introduced Primary Colours. On a large piece of paper the children drew 4 or 5 different lines with black pastels and then using only primary colours painted in the spaces created by the lines.

Their teachers and I think they did a fantastic job. I’m also grateful that the two kindergarten teachers have hung the work for all to enjoy.

International Dot Day – Sept 15th

Posted on September 12, 2014 by Mama Cormier

…yes you heard correctly, there really is a day to celebrate the dot

Peter Reynolds ‘The Dot’

Every year in September I start my art program by reading Peter H. Reynolds’ book The Dot. This year I discovered that there was a special day to celebrate the dot and it came about because of the book.

I’m not teaching as many art classes as I have in the past but all four of them started the year with painting circles and dots. We also looked at Wassily Kandinsky’s painting that featured a series of concentric circles. My kindergarten class made wonderful circles with oil pastels and watercolours. I will post examples of their work next week. Their teacher put them up in the hallway in time for our Meet the Teacher night this week. They were a big hit.

All of my grade 2 and grade 3 classes created dots using watercolour, marker, pastels and collage. The grade three class finished their dots in time to put them on a large tree in the hall. This week they started to make their own Kandinsky tree that they will be able to take home after they’ve been on display for awhile.

Back to School…..

Posted on August 25, 2014 by Mama Cormier

….I’m procrastinating

I should be at school getting my classroom ready but I’m really procrastinating this morning. Knowing what awaits me is keeping me here in front of this computer screen. It has to be done though, so I’ll put in a few hours this morning and then head off to my dentist appointment. Wow! Two exciting, fun events on the same day. No wonder I’m procrastinating.

Got to do it. See you later.

Cheers!

Done – Time to Relax

Posted on July 4, 2014 by Mama Cormier

… finally finished cleaning the library

If you walked into my library right now you’d think I was off my rocker making a statement like that. There are boxes of books everywhere.

Believe it or not that’s what I had to do. Over the summer a new carpet is being put down in the library and the books on the freestanding shelves had to be taken down so that the shelves can be moved.

I also had to clean my office so that the caretakers can get in there and clean the floor and the counter. I was really stressing about not being able to get in there and get things off the floor and the counters.

I spent two extra days at school this week to get the job done. While there I started to purge and threw away a lot of paper and old outdated documents. It was a slow process but worth it in the end. I can now enjoy the rest of my summer without worrying about the state of my office.

Now I hope when I return that the carpet will be down and that my office will still be uncluttered. I suspect that many of those boxes will end up in. It’s the one area that’s not being carpeted.

The big challenge is to keep my office like this all year.

School’s Out but I’m Back Next Week

Posted on June 28, 2014 by Mama Cormier

…..just couldn’t finish in the library

Normally the children are finished with school one day before the teachers but this year everyone had to stay in school right up to Friday. The last day for teachers is usually a clean-up day where teachers put away as much as possible so that the care taking staff can do a thorough cleaning in the summer.

Many of us found it very difficult to get our rooms to that point and despite staying for a couple of hours after the children had left some of us need to come back next week to continue with the purging and tidying. In the library I had one extra job that needed doing this year. I’m having new carpet tiles put down and in order for the workers to move the free standing shelves and the book carousels I had to empty them all and box the books again (same job as last year). I had children in all day who tried to help me with this task and we still didn’t finish.

As I wrote earlier the last two weeks of school have been very busy and stressful. I’ve mentioned before that stress and weight gain go hand in hand for me. Not only that but all week children and parents have been bringing in chocolates, cupcakes and cookies. We had a pizza lunch with the book club, a BBQ with the grade 5s, our staff party and our principal treated us to breakfast (muffins, Danishes, bagels, croissants) all in the same week.

This morning I put myself on the scale thinking that I had gained back all the weight I had lost recently plus more. I did gain four of the five pounds that I had lost but I was relieved that it wasn’t more. Now that most of my stress has been lifted for the summer I’m hoping to get back on track and drop all the weight that I’ve gained this winter.

I started the morning with a healthy breakfast and then went for an eight kilometre bike ride. For the rest of the day I’m going do some gardening, get out for a walk and drink lots of water. I’m also hoping to get up to the cottage this weekend to open the place up and then I’ll come back to finish up in the library. With any luck I should be able to get the job done in one day.

A Crazy Week

Posted on June 25, 2014 by Mama Cormier

…..so much has happened at school this week and we’ve got more to go before signing off for the summer

If anyone tells you that nothing happens in the last month of school don’t believe them. This week alone (the last week of school) we’ve had rehearsals for the grade 5 farewell, the actual farewell assembly, the book club’s all day activity event for 50 students, field trips into the community, training for next years Peace Keepers, the kindergarten play day and final printing of the report cards.

Yesterday I emceed the farewell assembly for the grade 5s in the afternoon and then spent time after school getting the materials ready for today’s Forest of Reading Extravaganza. In the morning we split up the group of 50 children into two groups and sent one group to the drama workshop and the other group stayed with me for the book making workshop. After recess the boys and girls rotated to their second activity so that everyone had an opportunity to participate in both activities. After the morning activities we served them pizza, water and Freezies and the staff that helped us all year as expert readers joined us for lunch.

When lunch was over we had Allan Stratton who is the author of Curse of the Dream Witch come to the school for an hour to read to and talk to the children about being an author. The children asked him wonderful questions without any prompting from their teachers and he skillfully kept the children engaged with his many personal anecdotes about writing and how they could become writers.

After the last recess of the day some of the children returned to their classrooms but many stayed behind to finish their handmade books. There was a fair bit of cleaning that needed to be done but the grade 5s were more interested in getting their yearbooks signed. I’d put them off all day while the activities were going on so during the last period of the day I gave in and signed most of their books.

It’s been pouring rain since I’ve left school and it hasn’t stopped for over five hours. I’m afraid that it might affect tomorrow’s play day at school and the grade 5’s excursion to the pool and the park for lunch tomorrow. I’m not sure if I’m going to that but I think that the teachers who get prep from me tomorrow were given their time today. If all goes as planned we will go swimming in the morning, go to the park for a barbecue lunch and then head over to the golf course for a round of mini putt.

After school we have our staff party at the home of our gym teacher. It is usually our last day with the students but this year we all have to return to school on Friday. I suspect that many of the students won’t show up especially since they get their report cards on Thursday. On Friday we have an assembly in the morning and in the afternoon teachers will be madly trying to straighten up their classes with their students present. It should be an interesting day.

I have a feeling that I will be going into school next week to tidy up the library. As much as the students want to help me it often ends up being more messy than when we started.

Cheers!

Share Your World – 2014 Week 25

Posted on June 23, 2014 by Mama Cormier

…..almost half way into the year….yikes, where does the time go?

What is your favorite type of dog? (can be anything from a specific breed, a stuffed animal, drawing, cartoon or character in a movie or TV show)

As much as I love our current dog, Frances, I’d have to say that my favourite breed of dog is the Golden Retriever. Before adopting Frances we owned 2 Goldens over a 23 year period. Our first dog died way too soon, just before she turned eight and our second Golden lived to be 15 years and 40 days old. My husband says now that the Goldens were my dogs and that Frances is his.

This is Scully at the cottage when she was 15 years old. As you can see she only has one eye. She lost her eye when she was only two but it certainly didn’t slow her down. She hated having her picture taken and would usually run away when she saw the camera. I suspect in her last year or two her sight in her one eye was starting to fail.

Frances is a mixed breed of Dachshund and Australian Shepherd.

Name one thing not many people know about you.

It’s a weird thing to admit but I have a deathly fear of bears. I’ve never had an encounter with a bear or even seen one from a distance. My sister thinks it has to do with a book our Aunt gave us when we were kids about bear attacks. Last year a family of bears swam across the lake and now live on the island where our cottage is. I’m actually afraid to go for walks in the woods now.

Have you ever gone scuba diving? If you haven’t, would you want to?

I’ve never been scuba diving but if I went to a sunny island in the Caribbean I would probably like to try it.

What was the most important event in your life last week? (anything goes it can be a good nights sleep, finished a reading book,winning the lottery, or getting married)

Last week was extremely busy and I had a lot of late nights. For two nights in a row I didn’t get home until 9:30 and 10:30 and on one of those nights I couldn’t sleep right away so I stayed up and painted and didn’t get to bed until 2:00 in the morning. The following day I went to lie down right after dinner because I was feeling a little off and I didn’t wake up until after midnight. I changed out of my clothes and into my PJs and surprisingly fell asleep without any difficulty. I woke up shortly after six in the morning. Sleeping for over ten hours on a school night and finally getting the rest I needed was the most important event of last week.

One of the paintings I was working on.

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

I am grateful that my daughter went into school with me on the weekend and helped me clean up my art area and part of the library. She also helped me organize the children’s prizes from the Jump Rope for Heart activity and together we took down all the art work around the school and returned it to the different classrooms. I knew that if I didn’t get it done on the weekend I’d be in big trouble this week. There is so much going on at school this week that I needed to get those jobs done ahead of time.

I’m looking forward to the end of school on Friday and to our staff party on Thursday night. Normally the children are finished one day before the teachers are but this year both students and teachers work right till the end of the week.

For more Share Your World posts check out: http://ceenphotography.com/2014/06/23/share-your-world-2014-week-25/

Rosestock or Rosethorn in the Rain

Posted on June 20, 2014 by Mama Cormier

….aka Rosethorn in the Park

Almost every year since I started working at my school we’ve put on some kind of year-end show. For most of the 15 years that I’ve been at Rosethorn we’ve rented a portable stage and parked it outside on the school grounds by the hill. For a few years we booked the local high school auditorium when the cost of the stage became too prohibitive.

There was always something very special about putting on the show outside on a warm summer evening. In all the years that we performed outside it never once rained during the show. Well the year we decided to bring back the show mobile we had rain. We were very optimistic and decided to go ahead with the show despite the forecast of potential showers. The sky was overcast for most of the day but the rain held off.

When we started the show there was no rain but after four classes had performed the rain began. When it looked like it wasn’t going to let up our principal gave the audience some options. Well actually she didn’t get past the first one which was to continue with the show. Everyone wanted to stay. The umbrellas came out and the children were pretty much dry under the roof of the stage anyway. Luckily the sound equipment and the operator were protected by a tent but our conductor/music teacher and the staff working with the children were exposed to the elements.

It rained for about an hour and stopped for the last few acts. Despite the soggy conditions the show was a hit and no one complained about getting wet. The teachers were glad that we didn’t have to come back the next night to continue the show and I think a lot of the families were glad as well.

High Tea With Mrs. Cormier

Posted on June 13, 2014 by Mama Cormier

….an item that was auctioned off at the Fun Fair

Today I hosted a high tea for one young lady and three of her friends. Her mother had bought the item, “High Tea With Mrs. Cormier”, for her at the auction. She was allowed to bring up to three friends. She chose one girl and one boy from her class and her older brother.

Two days ago I ordered special tea sandwiches that I picked up today during my lunch hour and I purchased cookies and squares. I set the table with my mother-in-law’s tea set from Ireland which I inherited over 30 years ago and I placed fresh cut flowers in the centre of the table. A couple of my teacher friends and my principal came into the room and surprised the kids by serving us our sandwiches and sweets and pouring our first tea.

Earlier in the week I told the kids that they had to dress appropriately and bring their best manners to the table. The girls changed into dresses at the end of the day and the boys put on button down shirts and slacks. They were all so charming and well behaved. One of the girls started the conversation by asking most respectfully how I felt about the outcome of the election that had been held the night before. Everyone participated in a very pleasant conversation for about an hour at the end of the school day. They were extremely polite and went through 2 large pots of tea, a litre of milk, three dozen sandwich triangles and about two dozen squares and cookies. When the second pot of tea was emptied and only a few squares remained the parents started to arrive and everyone said thank you and good bye.

Just before the tea ended the conversation changed direction and the children were discussing how they were going to do this again next year when they are in grade 5. Of course they assumed that I would offer it again and they assumed that there would be another silent auction. They planned out a strategy so that they would be sure to win the tea again. This year they had the only bid but after the success of the event they figured that more children would get their parents to bid on it next time. One strategy was to tell everyone that the tea was awful so that no one would want to bid on it but after I pretended that such an action would hurt my feelings and make me not want to offer it again they decided they might need to come up with another strategy.

Not only did the children have a good time but so did I. I would do it again in a heartbeat.

A Challenge – Doing Their Best

Posted on June 11, 2014 by Mama Cormier

….but it wasn’t quite enough

Today we drove to the east end of the city to participate in the Girls’ Soccer City Championships. The sky was overcast but for the most part the predicted heavy rain held off. It was humid and during the second game we experienced a brief light shower. Earlier in the day the two teams that we would face off later played against each other. The team that lost challenged us to play if we didn’t win our first game.

Unfortunately our first game was difficult. The team we played against was our toughest competition to date and we lost 3 to 0. It was our first lost of the season. An hour later we played the second team to determine who would come in second. We were pretty evenly matched. In the first half no one from either side scored. In the second half they scored first and then we scored. The game ended in a tie and went into overtime. Have I ever told you how much I hate overtime, especially ‘golden goal’. The first team to score would win. The girls fought hard but it wasn’t to be this year.

You’d never know from the photographs that the girls were disappointed. Their sadness was brief and they walked away knowing that they had come a long way just to get to the city championships. We, their coaches and parents, were very proud of them. Bravo girls!