Print Making With Grade 4

Posted on March 19, 2013 by Mama Cormier

….. each student designed a personal coat of arms

It took awhille to get it right but eventually each student in grade 4 finally experienced success designing their coat of arms, transferring the design onto a plate, inking the plate and pulling a print or two or three.

We applied colour to the plates using two different techniques. The first method involved colouring the plate with water based markers and then applying it to damp watercolour paper. The trick is to make sure that the paper isn’t too wet. The second technique involved rolling water soluble printing ink directly onto the plate and then pressing it onto paper. We used a variety of different papers.

I think they turned out really well. Our next step is to transfer the print onto fabric and then add some embroidery stitches and sew on some embellishments, such as buttons, beads, sequins and ribbon. Stay tuned.

My Happiness File – Day 9

Posted on March 18, 2013 by Mama Cormier

…. back to work … March Break is over

Some people may think that there isn’t much happiness in going back to work. As much as I loved the time off to rest and spend time with my husband I really do like my job and as soon as I walked through the school doors this morning I was greeted by people that I really care about.

The grade ones who came to see me this morning love being in the library. It makes my job so much easier when they’re enthusiastic about hearing a story and taking out books. It makes me smile when some of them want to do my job and scan the books in and out of the library. Today a small group of them worked very cooperatively together and there was no fighting over who got to use the scanner.

This afternoon I decided to bring my art class to the library. I really wanted to do print making with the six grade fours in the 3/4 class. I need water for this activity and their portable classroom doesn’t have a sink. The library on the other hand does have one in the office and there is a section of floor that is tiled so if ink gets spilled it’s easy to clean up. The grade 3s in that class are still sewing their quilts so they were able to spread out in the library and find a quiet spot to do their stitching. It wasn’t a perfect situation but the grade 4s finally produced some great prints and the oohs and aahs that came from their mouths when they pulled their plates made the experience worth the effort and the chaos we had to endure. I’ll post some photos of their prints tomorrow.

Finally I got to see the finale of The Biggest Loser tonight. I’m a big fan and I really liked all the contestants this season. It was great seeing how well all the players who had been eliminated early in the game had done at home. Gives me hope in my own weight loss journey.

Cheers!

A Sneak Preview

Posted on March 8, 2013 by Mama Cormier

…. our pioneer quilt blocks are coming along

I look forward to the art classes where we are working on sewing our quilt blocks. The boys and girls in grade 3 are enjoying the project but everyone is at a different stage. A few students only have one square sewn in place and a few more are almost finished sewing all their fabric pieces together and are almost ready to start their fancy stitching and adding embellishments.

I decided to take a few pictures of the partially finished blocks so that you could see how well eight year olds can sew.

Letting Their Creative Juices Flow

Posted on March 6, 2013 by Mama Cormier

….or how grade 2s paint when left alone

Yesterday in my art class I worked closely with my grade 3s while I asked the grade 2s to work more independently. In the last class the grade 2s started a monochromatic multimedia painting. They were instructed to find black and white pictures, puzzles, headings and text from the newspaper that represented a theme (e.g., numbers, words, sports, puzzles, love, money) and glue them onto a piece of paper in an interesting pattern. Then they had to choose one colour and using water colour paint they created a wash over their pictures and words.

In yesterday’s class they continued adding more paint and detail to their art work. I allowed them to use acrylic paints, stamps and sharpies. The only instruction I gave them was to bring the paints to me so that I could squeeze a small amount onto their plates. They were very excited about using acrylics for the first time.

As I was helping the grade 3s with their quilting project the occasional grade 2 came to me to ask for advice. No one brought the paint to me. I should have been suspicious about their use of the acrylics but I was so caught up in the sewing project that I didn’t check how the acrylics were being used. I was totally oblivious until one of my students came to me to tell me that the brand new tube of white acrylic was empty. What????????? I couldn’t believe it.

I couldn’t really fault the grade 2s for using too much paint, except that the only instruction I gave they chose to ignore. In the end I love the finished projects. Some of them need a little more tweaking but they are 90% done. Only one student didn’t quite get the monochromatic theme but I liked how it turned out and it is mostly green.

Some of the students finished early so I gave them an old floppy disc that we had gessoed in an earlier class. I showed them some pictures of famous paintings for inspiration and then gave them free reign to create anything they wanted. They loved it. Here are some of their masterpieces.

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.

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.

January 2013 Photo a Day – Stripes

Posted on January 27, 2013 by Mama Cormier

…. look for stripes in your everyday. They could be in the zebra crossing on the road, or in your outfit or somewhere else

I’m a little behind with these challenges and I’m trying to catch up this weekend. As for the theme stripes I seem to have a wardrobe full of them. Apparently teachers wear a lot of stripes. It has something to do with being organized or was it being conservative. Well I don’t really fit into either category but I do like stripes.

For more January 2013 Photo a Day check out http://www.nolagirlatheart.wordpress.com

January 2013 Photo a Day – What You Do

Posted on January 23, 2013 by Mama Cormier

…. do you go to school? Train elephants at the circus? Write at home? Play mum to your kids? Act as CEO to a big business? Paint in your spare time? Dance when no one is looking? Take a photo of what you do {something that makes you ‘you’} and share

In my professional life I teach library and art in a junior school.

In my personal life I love to read, paint, walk, shop, craft, can and take photographs.

Taking photographs while walking with my husband and dog

For more photographs of what other people do check out http://www.nolagirlatheart.wordpress.com

January 2013 Photo a Day – Round

Posted on January 14, 2013 by Mama Cormier

…. I thought this one was going to be easy

January 2013 Photo a Day Challenge – Mine

Posted on January 6, 2013 by Mama Cormier

….. I found this subject particularly challenging

My whole life growing up I heard my mother and father say that what’s mine is yours. When I married, my husband and I had a similar philosophy but I did notice that he (my husband) did have some things that he considered exclusively his. As I got older I realized that if anything happened to my husband I could be in trouble because I owned nothing in my own name. We bought the house together, our cars were in both names, the insurance was in his name, and all the credit cards were in his name. I had no line of credit to speak of and if I needed to get my own car insurance I wouldn’t be insurable because I’ve never had my own.

All that has changed. I have my own line of credit, my own credit cards and my car is in my name. Apart from photographing my credit cards, I wasn’t sure what else I could take pictures of that were exclusively mine. My husband of 37 years? After thinking long and hard I decided to share some of my art with you. It’s what I love to do. I am very much an amateur but my students consider me an artist. Enjoy!