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.
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.
At the start of our morning walk (a happy moment in itself) we ran into our neighbour J. After talking to J for a few moments you can’t walk away without a smile and a laugh. J is one of those people who is always happy and sees the good in every situation. He also has a sharp sense of humour and that twinkle in his eye can light up a room.
J and his partner own a small business in town where they design and manufacture the Buddy Belt, a great harness for dogs of all sizes. When we got Frances six years ago they started giving us Buddy Belts to ‘test drive’. I guess you could say we’ve become part of their consumer test group for their product.
Today Frances was wearing one of her original belts (as a puppy she chewed through her first one after we forgot to take it off) and J decided it was probably time for a new one. K jokingly said something about St Patrick’s Day coming up and the look in J’s eyes told me he was searching his memory for a green belt. Wouldn’t surprise me if one is hanging on our door knob in the next day or two.
The second happy moment took place this afternoon. My husband and I needed to get out of the house so we decided to check out the new hardware store up the street. After looking around for awhile K was need of coffee so we headed over to one of our favourite bistros. Just before leaving I looked up and saw a former student and his mom. I couldn’t get over how tall he had grown.
When I walked over to their table they were both surprised and pleased to see me. EC was 6 foot 3 and very handsome. He wasn’t particularly tall when he was with me in grade 5 but now at 16 he stands out in a crowd. It was good to hear that he was doing well in school and the problems he had when he was in junior school had pretty much disappeared. I love it when kids experience success and are working towards attainable goals.
Yesterday I told you that my husband couldn’t complete the 3 day cleanse with me and I wasn’t sure I’d be able to do it without him. I’m happy to report that I completed my second day and it wasn’t as hard as I thought it would be. As an added bonus the smoothies were even better today.
Did you experience at least three happy moments today? Feel free to share them with us in the comment box. As you know those comments make me happy.
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.
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.
Last year I started my weight loss journey in April. Earlier in the year I had agreed to be one of the coaches for a group of 8 to 11 year old girls who wanted to run a 5k race. Little did I know how much I was going to enjoy running. My original goal was to walk the 5k but as I trained with the girls I found I started to run. It started with running 50 metres and then walking but gradually the running distances became longer. The day of the race I ran about half the course.
Today I’m happy to say that we’re participating in Girls on the Run again. This is a big deal for us because we really believe in the program. Not only does it promote fitness in young girls but there’s a huge emphasis on building positive self esteem and treating others with respect and kindness.
For me personally I wanted to start running again and I needed a venue to get me going again. As some of you know I’ve plateaued with my weight loss. Even though I’ve been sick I started walking again and it feels great. I’m also back on track with my eating.
Today I started with a two egg omelet with lots of vegetables and a cup of coffee. Lunch consisted of left over chicken from last nights dinner and a Brussels sprouts and spinach salad and dinner was oven baked salmon and sweet potato and a large salad. For a snack I had raw carrots and humus and 1 oz. of cheese. I also drank a lot of tea today to keep my throat hydrated. Drinking a lot of water and tea also helps keep your appetite in check. I’ve always known this but I’m not very good at it. Maybe being sick was a blessing in disguise because it forced me to drink more than I would normally.
My next fitness goal is to run the entire 5k without stopping. Wish me luck!
I sometimes forget that the younger students still want to make crafts or cards for special occasions and holidays. So earlier in the week I was caught somewhat off guard when one of my students asked if we were making valentine cards in art class. I guess I thought their homeroom teacher would look after that. Well luckily I came across an art lesson that involved hearts and when I found out that I would be teaching 30 grade 3s at the same time It seemed like a perfect project. We used the art sheets that we had created weeks earlier, I was able to teach the children a little bit about Romero Britto and Andy Warhol and the kids created a ‘Valentine’s ‘ project.
All of this took place after I taught the original lesson I had in mind. The grade 3s are learning about Canadian pioneers and pioneer life so I gave them a quick lesson on how early settlers made quilts. Before we actually work with fabric I had each student make a quilt block out of construction paper and then I pieced them together to make one large quilt. In the quilt pictured here I didn’t have the students add any embellishments. The class that did the same project the next day added stitch lines with a black Sharpie.
The paper hearts project was a big hit. I love how the textured papers make such interesting hearts.
This heart project came from We heart art. Happy Valentine’s Day! Hope all of you had a great day.
….this project has been more popular than I thought it would be
When the parents start asking if their child will be doing the same project, you know you have a winner.
Today I thought I was teaching half a class because the older students in this split grade were going skiing. Last night I found out that the these 12 students were being combined with another class and my total numbers for this class went up to 30. A little tricky when they only have 20 desks in the room. One of my colleagues who only teaches half time in the morning offered me her portable for the afternoon. She has nice big tables and more importantly, 30 chairs.
The grade 3s are studying Pioneers so I’ve decided to make small quilts with them. Today we started by creating pattern blocks out of construction paper. When they finished that I let them make an art piece using hearts in honour of Valentine’s Day. More about these projects tomorrow.
….it’s amazing what young children can do when challenged
I introduced this lesson to my students in grades 3, 4 and 5. In previous lessons we had discussed foreground, background, horizon line and overlapping to create depth. The lesson came from Natalie over at Smart Class. Don’t let one point perspective scare you away. This lesson is so well laid out that success is almost guaranteed. For some reason the boys really liked this lesson. I’m very pleased with the finished products.
…. 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
Mama Cormier 