Goldfish in the Fall

Owen and Mzee

Mr. Mason's grade ones painted 

Owen and Mzee 

using watercolour paint, acrylic paint 

and pastels.  

Covered Bridges

Mrs. Moore's grade five class painted Covered Bridges, using watercolour and pastel,

 as part of their study of Canada. 

  In 1900, Quebec, New Brunswick and Ontario had an estimated 

1000, 400 and five covered bridges respectively.  

By the 1990's there were 98 in Quebec, 62 in New Brunswick and one in Ontario. 

 The Hartland Bridge (click on Hartland for pictures) is the longest covered bridge in the world.  The West Montrose Covered Bridge is the last wooden covered bridge in Ontario.  The Marchand Covered Bridge (click Marchand for more info) is the longest covered bridge in Quebec (click Quebec for pictures).  

 These paintings represent an imaginary historical covered wooden bridge

 somewhere in Canada.

 The students worked on illustrating a rocky river shoreline lined by trees, a stone wall, a gravel road, a painted wooden bridge with light reflecting off the bridge to create reflections of the bridge and the trees in the water.

 One of the questions brought up through the study was why were the bridges covered?

Through researching the answer it appears that the main reason was to prevent the bridges from premature rotting.  Covering and roofing them protects them from the weather, and so they last longer.

Catch a Star

Grandmaman had a wonderful morning with a group of very talented four year old artists.  We began the morning with a story about a little boy who wanted very much to catch his very own star, "How to Catch a Star" by Oliver Jeffers.

Logan listens to the story and makes a plan of how to catch his very own star.

Logan prepares his paper by choosing where to put his star stickers, pushing them on and then painting the watercolour paper with water.

Logan's "Catch a Star"painting

Brief steps for the project:

Tape watercolour paper to a board to create a border.

Lightly draw a horizon or beach line (curvy or straight).

Using the edge of a tealight for wax, trace over the horizon line.

Place a large star sticker where the sand will be.

Place a variety of star stickers in the sky. 

(Choose a number and size of the stars to focus on.)

Using the edge of a tealight for wax,  make wax streaks in the sky for shooting stars.

Paint the sky with water, then paint over with your choice of sky colours with watercolour paint (wet on wet technique).

Paint the sand area with water, then paint over with your choice of sand colours with watercolour paint (wet on wet technique).  Sprinkle salt on sand.

When the painting is dry remove the star stickers and the tape.

It is January 2014 now and Sadie invited Grandmaman to her nursery school to paint stars. These little artists were three, four or five years old. Before we began our painting we read the story "How to Catch a Star" by "Oliver Jeffers" and then we sang "a twinkle song" to the tune of "Frère Jacques".

Twinkle, twinkle,

Twinkle, twinkle,

Little stars,

Little stars,

Catch me if you can,

Catch me if you can,

In the sand,

In the sand!

Sadie paints around her stars.

Sadie proudly shows off her "Catch a Star" painting.

Today we used larger stars with a focus on the number five.

We talked about the different formations we could place our stars.

Oliver, at 18 months decided that he would like to create a star painting as well.  He chose big stars and little stars and with a little bit of help from Grandmaman to take the backing off the stickers he placed them on the watercolour paper.  Once he had placed them on the paper, Oliver had fun pushing hard on them to make sure they were well "stuck".

 Next Oliver took a tealight (wax) and made marks all over the paper to create shooting stars
 (wax resist technique).

 

Finally Oliver painted the whole paper with water.  Once the paper was wet he painted some areas with yellow watercolour and other areas with different hues of blue(wet on wet technique)

A Crooked Christmas Tree

This art project is a wonderful way to extend learning after reading "The Little Crooked Christmas Tree" written by Michael Cutting and illustrated by Ron Broda.

Art Project: Christmas Card

1.        Prepare watercolour paper by cutting or tearing to size (ripple watercolour paper is a good choice).  The card can either be a single sheet to be attached to a card later on or a folded piece of watercolour paper.

2.       Tape to a board using green painter’s tape. 

3.       Demonstrate each step of the activity before the children do each step.

4.       With a pencil sketch a curved line the length that you want the tree.

5.       Give each child a length of thin green painter’s tape.  Attach small pieces of tape to the curved line from top to bottom.  The pieces will get progressively longer.  At the bottom attach a trunk.

6.      With a tealight rub a section at the bottom of the card which will resist the paint and become snow.

7.       Put a circle sticker in the sky which will be a full moon.

8.       With a large watercolour brush paint the entire card with clean water.  Before it dries paint the card with the desired colour.  I used blue but other colours could be used.  More than one colour can be used but choose carefully.  Also if two colours are used the children need to be extra careful not to paint, paint, paint, paint over and over.  Muddy paint can be made  this way.

9.       Sprinkle salt if desired.

10.    Let dry then take off all the tape and the circle sticker.

Paris 2012

Voici les photos que j'ai pris et les mémoires que j'ai fait pendant mon aventure à Paris en septembre 2012 avec mon mari.  

La tour Eiffel

L'Arc de Triomphe et Le Louvre

Versailles

Giverny  My favorite day was a day trip we took to Giverny, 75 km west of Paris, Giverny was Claude Monet's (1840-1926) home in later life (1883-1926). It was here that he worked on his "series paintings" where he depicted the subject matter in varying weather and light conditions. There are two main gardens, a flower garden called Clos Normand in front of the house and a Japanese inspired water garden.

Montmartre et Sacré Coeur

O Canada

• Lyrics O Canada (English version)

O Canada!
Our home and native land!
True patriot love in all thy sons command.

With glowing hearts we see thee rise,
The True North strong and free!

From far and wide,
O Canada, we stand on guard for thee.

God keep our land glorious and free!
O Canada, we stand on guard for thee.

O Canada, we stand on guard for thee.

• Lyrics O Canada (French version)

« O Canada! Terre de nos aïeux,
Ton front est ceint de fleurons glorieux!

Car ton bras sait porter l'épée,
Il sait porter la croix!

Ton histoire est une épopée
Des plus brillants exploits.

Et ta valeur, de foi trempée,
Protégera nos foyers et nos droits.

Protégera nos foyers et nos droits. »

• Lyrics O Canada (Bilingual version - non official)

O Canada! Our home and native land!
True patriot love in all thy sons command,

Car ton bras sait porter l'épée,
Il sait porter la croix!

Ton histoire est une épopée
Des plus brillants exploits,

God keep our land glorious and free!
O Canada, we stand on guard for thee.

O Canada, we stand on guard for thee.

Sidewalk Water Painting

Just came back from a visit with the grandchildren and discovered a wonderful warm weather activity.  Imagine painting with no mess.  The only ingredients needed are a container of water, a brush, an outside surface and imagination.

Soft brushes or foam brushes are easily damaged when used on the hard concrete or asphalt surfaces.   Try sturdy brushes such as inexpensive house painting brushes found at the dollar store.  Older children have fun watching their painting evaporate.  

A Year of Logan's Art

Logan went to three year old nursery school this year and loved the art he did with his teachers and friends.   He asked Grandmaman to take pictures of his art and make a slideshow.   Here is   "A Year of Logan's Art".   Logan loves being an artist.

Polar Bears/ Les ours polaires

Polar Bear
Watercolour
May 2012
Reegan and Grandmaman

Reegan and Grandmaman painted a polar bear walking on a bright polar icescape.   Reegan is three.  We learned that polar bear's fur has yellow in it. 

We learned how to paint the paper first with water from left to right, just like when we read and write. 

  We learned how to make marks with wax and when we painted the paint didn't stay where the wax was. 

We learned that hair dryers are noisy but can help make the paint dry faster.

Polar Bear and Northern Lights
Watercolour
May 2012
Ethan

Ethan painted Northern Lights in the background of his Arctic icescape.  He added claws and facial features with a sharpie and painted shadows under the polar bear's paws to ground him.

Windmills

Ethan, Tristan and Reegan had fun painting windmills and tulips.  I think one day they would like to go to Holland and see the windmills there.   Click on the words below to see-

How to Draw a Windmill

Windy Mills
Watercolour
May 2012
Ethan

Red Windmills
Watercolour
May 2012
Reegan and Grandmaman

Windy Valley
Watercolour
May 2012
Tristan

There are windmill farms in Southern Alberta.  They take the energy from the wind and turn it into energy we can use.

Tristan had fun making a model windmill at the Telus Spark Science Center.