….a few more art projects done by my grade 3 classes
This last assignment on drawing faces has to be one of my favourite projects. If I ever get called back to do supply work in an art class I’ll definitely pull this one out of my bag of tricks if I have to come up with my own lesson plan.
….children’s art always brings a smile to my face …. I hope you agree
I combined a few lessons with this assignment but I got most of my inspiration from Pinterest.
….Gustav Klimt created beautiful patterns using gold leaf along with red and black paint
My kindergarten class created their own prints with inspiration from Gustav Klimt. I gave each student a sturdy piece of cardboard. Last year one of my parents donated a whole box of these 9 x 12 pieces of cardboard. You might remember that the grade 3s last year made looms from them and created amazing woven wall hangings (Weaving Our Way to Happiness).
On the first day I gave each student shapes, (i.e., squares, rectangles, circles) cut out from foam board and red, black and orange paint. They painted the shapes and then randomly pressed them onto the cardboard. Once they were finished we put them away to dry.
On the second day I gave them lids and corks and stamps that I had made with students in another class. I also introduced silver and gold acrylic paint. I encouraged them to stamp the new colours inside the shapes they had printed the week before. There’s something about metallic paints that children love.
On the third day we talked about adding texture and detail using a fine tip black Sharpie. Their work went from wonderful to WOW. Here are a few of the finished prints.
another class
….Mies Van Hout has illustrated and written a wonderful book called Friends
Image borrowed from:http://cache1.bdcdn.net/assets/images/book/medium/9781/9359/9781935954231.jpg
This week I read Mies Van Hout’s book Friends to many of my library classes. I shared the book with my kindergarten class and instructed them to create and draw their own monster. We started with a free hand blob, turned it around and decided which end was up. They then added eyes and any other features they wanted to make a unique monster. They were encouraged to add a lot of colour using oil pastels. Considering that these children are only 3 to 5 years old I think they did a fabulous job. Enjoy!
….in kindergarten we collected leaves and created these wonderful leaf ‘people’ and creatures
Lois Ehlert has written and illustrated a wonderful children’s book called the Leaf Man. She is a collage artist and writer and has illustrated the entire book with the use of leaves. Using her book as our inspiration the kindergarten children created their own leaf people during art class. They really enjoyed the process.
Lois Ehlert has illustrated and written many children’s books. This cute video is narrated by a little boy name Jonah. He’s actually reading The Leaf Man. Enjoy!
Do you love to dance, sing, write, sculpt, paint, or debate? What’s your favourite way to express yourself, creatively?
People who have been following me for awhile know that I love to paint and experiment with new art forms. I loved drawing when I was in elementary school, especially when one of my teachers took the time to teach us about perspective and shading. It opened a whole new world for me.
The unfortunate part is that once I went to high school I no longer took art classes. There was no room in my timetable for it. I knew at an very early age that I wanted to be a Family Studies teacher. That meant taking a lot of science classes in high school and of course my one and only elective I had went to Family Studies classes.
Once I started teaching I spent the next 17 years working side by side with the art teachers because we shared an open concept space or were only separated by a door. At the time all middle school students took Unified Arts, which included visual art, shop and family studies. I loved watching the creative process that happened in all three disciplines but I didn’t venture outside my own comfort zone and try my hand at woodworking or painting.
Once my own children approached adulthood the yearning to paint grew stronger and in my late 40s I took my first art class. I loved it. I started with folk art and then moved on to watercolour. In recent years I’ve experimented with acrylics and just recently tried oil painting. This year past I also took a pottery class and loved that as well and last week I attended a 6 hour workshop on dyeing fabrics with indigo dye and of course I’m crazy about that too.
As you can see I need to try new things all the time. Recently I took on the job of teaching art to grades 2 to 5 along side my library duties. I have the best job, books and art. What a perfect combination.
Here is a small sampling of some of the art forms I’ve played with:
….these faces weren’t done by me but I did teach my grade 2s how to paint them
Today I covered a grade two class that should have had music but the music teacher was at the Kiwanis festival with two other classes and the class I should have had was one of the two classes at the competition. When the grade 2s came into the library I decided to turn the period into an art class. I thought that they could probably handle making faces using watercolour paints.
I demonstrated how to add the skin tones and face shape first and once that was dry we added the hair. I recommended that the facial features be done with marker. Some followed the instructions and others didn’t but most of them had a lot of fun and their faces were pretty good. Here is a gallery of faces for you to enjoy:
….no energy and children who don’t listen
We had our Terry Fox Run today. All the children were assembled in the gym and our principal read a short story about Terry Fox (first year she didn’t cry). We went outside and raised the special flag and then 400 children, all their teachers and some of the parents started walking/running around the school.
The walk/run lasted for about 30 minutes. It was a beautiful sunny day and the temperature had risen considerably since the morning. I was overdressed and walked most of the way. The children returned to class just before lunch. and we (the teachers) had our monthly staff meeting.
After lunch I taught my first art class of the the day. It was a grade 3. I explained the lesson in detail and sent the boys and girls off to create. When they returned to show me their rough copies I wanted to bang my head on the table. Many of them completely ignored the guidelines. My day ended with 29 kindergarten children. They were tired and I was tired.
I was glad when the day was over. My friend L suggested that we go to the nail spa and have our toes done. Just what the doctor ordered. A pedicure is such a treat. Is there anything better than purple toes?
….. this started out as a filler for students who had finished their last project
The last major project that I assigned most of my classes was a one point perspective landscape. It was very detailed and has taken some students three classes to complete. As is often the case there are always students who finish well ahead of their classmates and look to me for the next project. I found a great project that I felt reinforced and extended some of the elements of design that we’ve been learning about and allowed them to dabble in both watercolour and acrylic paints. It’s been so popular that most of my students wanted to make a ‘doodle painting’. Here are a few of the finished pieces done by my grade three students.
…why do I have such a difficult time seeing myself as an artist?
I love art, I teach art, I appreciate many styles of art and I occasionally create art. I’ve even sold my art; however I find it difficult to describe myself as an artist.
Today during one of my art classes with grade 3s and 4s I showed them some examples of work I had done to demonstrate an art technique that they might want to use in their first art project. The children oohed and awed over my examples and insisted that I was this amazing artist.
I showed them how easy the technique was and with practise they could produce their own amazing pieces. I feel all children have artistic ability. Some of them just need more encouragement than others.
I believe that children should be given a certain amount of artistic freedom but I also believe that it’s okay to show them how they could improve on what they’ve done. I give them suggestions and demonstrate techniques that they can choose to use or not. Often they come up with even better ideas.
Today I wanted to make the lesson about them and what they could do and were capable of. I didn’t want it to be about me. I think that I provided some inspiration for many of them today and much of the work that they produced was exceptional for 8 and 9 year olds.
The children used photographs of themselves in their art work today so I am unable to post them on the internet. The theme was “I’m a star because…..” and the children posed in positions that demonstrated what they were good at. They wrote, in a pre-made star, why they were a star and then filled it in with colour. The star and the photograph (trimmed around the student’s body) were glued onto a 8 1/2 x 11 piece of white card stock. The last step was to create a scene around the pictures. Some of the scenes included performing a dance on stage, meditating while sitting on the floor, slaying a dragon. doing the splits at a gymnastic competition and playing golf on a putting green.
Am I an artist? My students think so. My colleagues and friends think I am. Aren’t we all artists at some level? Here are a few of my pieces. I will try to capture some work done by my students without revealing their identity for another post.
16 x 16 acrylic, “Fern”
8 x 10 acrylic monoprint, “Autumn Grass”
5 x 7 acrylic on yupo paper, “Abstract Landscape”
8 x 10 mono print, acrylic, “untitled”
Mama Cormier 
