A Few More Portraits and New Animal Sketches

Posted on March 31, 2016 by Mama Cormier

….the grade 2s can’t seem to get enough art assignments

After Easter, when some of my students returned from extended holidays the last of the artist portraits were finished and I promised that I would post their work on my blog. So here goes:

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For the students who finished earlier I introduced them to to doing line drawings of animals and then filling them into with pencil and erasing parts to highlight light areas, markings and fur or skin texture. I had learned this technique from Carla Sonheim. I like to challenge this class because they are so open to trying new things. I showed them my samples of the elephant drawings I had done using this technique and then I provided them with photos of a variety of animals that they could choose to draw.

We started this last week and it was suppose to be a filler activity for those students who had finished all their work but at the end of this week’s class almost every student had made at least one of these drawings. Can you tell that Easter just passed when these were finished?

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Grade 2s Loved the Portrait and Doodle Assignment

Posted on March 19, 2016 by Mama Cormier

….my grade two class always embraces my lessons and can’t wait to start

This is the same assignment that I gave to my grade one classes but I asked the grade 2s to add some colourful doodles around their portraits. Dali, Picasso and Warhol never looked better.

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Birds of a Feather

Posted on January 21, 2016 by Mama Cormier

…..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.

Grade 2s Love Their Picasso Dogs

Posted on October 2, 2015 by Mama Cormier

….same process as the grade 1s but we learned how to mix primary colours to make secondary colours

Thanks to Carla Sonheim’s free kids on-line classes for this terrific lesson.

Click on each image to get the entire picture.

I’m Okay, Crayon Prints on Fabric and Sure Signs of Spring

Posted on April 19, 2013 by Mama Cormier

….maybe I should have broken these topics into separate posts

After yesterdays post I’ve had people ask me all day if I was okay. I’m fine. I was literally, just tired. I need to get more sleep and it was after all an exceptionally busy day yesterday. The headache I complained about hasn’t returned and I feel much less stressed today. Now, the kids, on the other hand were more exhausting than usual and I wasn’t the only one complaining. Is there a full moon looming? I think it’s partially due to spring fever. We’ve had a couple of warm days and it is Friday as well.

I hope everyone enjoyed the those warm moments because the temperature is about to go down again. When I got home tonight my daffodils were in full bloom so I took a few pictures before the winds started. When I went out later I noticed that some of the flowers have already been knocked off the plant.

Yesterday I told you about a new project that I started with my grade 2 students. I had these fabric crayons given to me many years ago and I wasn’t quite sure how I would use them. I knew that there were quite a few students in my grade 2/3 class that had finished the last project and the rest weren’t far behind. I packed up all the fabric I had along with the iron and ironing board and hoped for the best. I hadn’t even made a sample or tried out the crayons to see if they worked…..not always a wise move.

We took the rough copy paper we had used on the last project and on the unused side I instructed the students to make a drawing using the fabric crayons. I gave the dimensions they were to work in but I gave them free reign as far as the subject for their design went. I demonstrated how much crayon they needed to use in order to get a nice print and I suggested that if they didn’t want to draw something realistic they could draw a doodle design and fill in the spaces with lots of different colours. Away they went. Creativity at it’s best.

When people looked at what the grade 2s had done, many thought that I had drawn the design and they coloured it in. Not so. From start to finish the entire piece was their own creation. Through trial and error we discovered that we had to use quite a bit of pressure with the iron and if we went over the piece several times the print would become more intense. The other thing that we learned was that synthetic fabrics produce a more vibrant print compared to the cotton fabrics. I liked both. Each had it’s own special quality. When you see the examples, I included the original crayon drawing and then displayed the one or two prints next to it. Enjoy!