…..Carla Sonheim gave us as assignment to go out and shoot 100 photos in the neighbourhood
I love this type of assignment. It gets me out walking and it makes me really look at a my surroundings. Once we took the photos we were to share our favourites. Here are 68 of mine.
….as recorded by my camera
….next to trees I love photos of water
….despite coolish temperatures Spring has officially arrived
I mentioned in an earlier post that there were signs of spring here in Toronto if you take the time to look. On my walk today I purposely  photographed as many signs of spring as I could. Enjoy!
…..owls, Â ferns, cacti, Â fish, Â fungi, tulips and bikinis
I’m almost at the end of my 31 day challenge for drawing simple objects with Lisa Congden on Creative Bug. Here are a few more of my drawings:
…..just add a beak to a scrap piece of paper and voila you have a bird
I got this idea from Carla Sonheim and I find that it works with all age groups. I’ve used it with kindergarten children and children in grades 1 to 5.
This year I had the children create a tree by printing the shape with the edge of a piece of thick cardboard dipped in brown paint. While we waited for it to dry I had the students practise drawing a variety of leaf shapes and then deciding which one they would use on their tree.
Once the paint dried I instructed the students to tear small pieces of coloured and patterned papers and then glue them to the tree branches. With a pencil or a black Sharpie they started creating their birds by adding a beak and then an eye. After that they could add as much or as little detail as they wanted. Once the birds were done they were instructed to draw the leaves in the open spaces and colour them in.
I love how these turned out. The following are examples from my grade two class.
…..another great art idea from Carla Sonheim that I introduced to my kindergarten art class
You may recall a post where I shared some art that I did with scraps of paper. By simply adding a beak, eyes and feet you can make fun bird shapes. I turned them into cards  and small framed gifts that I gave to friends and family.
A couple of weeks ago I introduced this concept to my kindergarten art class. They made a very simple tree shape with 5 to 6 branches and then on each branch they glued a scrap piece of paper and then drew on the details to create their birds. Here are some of their creations.
