Grocery Shopping with a Twist

Don't be afraid to go out on a limb. It's where all the fruit is.- Shirley MacLaine

Going grocery shopping with my mom is something that I have always been doing.  It is a chance for the two of us to bond and get away from the men! When I was younger it would always be a fun adventure, I would sometimes get lost and have to scream for my mom because I could not find her, but she always found me!  I have recently started to notice all the different colours that there are throughout the store and the different types of scents that each food gives off.

The type of food that I have chosen to focus on during my trip to the store is FRUIT! There are so many different kinds of fruit, that it is impossible for me to try every single one.  However I'm going to do my best to name all the fruits I can think of.  Fruits use to be my favourite food to eat, until recently I have developed a fruit allergy and it is something that I'm still getting use to and is very hard not eating fruit!

• Apples
• Strawberries
• Blueberries
• Grapefruit
• Grapes
• Oranges
• Peaches
• Plums
• Watermelon
• Kiwi
• Banana's
• Mango
• Pineapple
• Raspberries
• Tangerines
• Cherries
• Lemon
• Limes

One thing I love about all the different types of fruit are all the different types of colours that each fruit has and when they are all together they make a RAINBOW.  Looking at all the different types of colours that each fruit is, that is what makes me want to eat them! Colour is based on the visual sensation of light caused by the stimulating the retina (Shirrmacher & Fox, 2009, p. 136).  We colours because of the way certain objects reflect colour rays into our eyes (Shirrmacher & Fox, 2009, p. 136).

Fruits all take on different shapes and colours, which could be why they are so popular to draw! So I chose to sketch strawberries, grapes and oranges!

Orange

Grapes

Strawberry

For the educators:

Allowing the children to think of their favourite food and then be able to list them, is a great way to introduce all the different types of foods that are out there. Then allowing them to sketch their 3 favourite ones allows you as an educator to see how they see their favourite foods.  You can also allow the children to bring in some of the foods and during that day everyone can try them, and who knows you just might find a new food that you'll love!!  After all, who doesn't love food?!?!?!

Collaging With Scissors

Collages are made from other materials/forms to create something new.  A collage may be from newspaper clippings, colored paper,photographs, favourite quotes and other found objects,that are then glued to a piece of paper.

Collages can be used to express an idea or concept through learning; it can be used to express yourself.In this case having a collage to express your identity and understanding of the world is a great way for children, adults/friends to identify who they know and the things that are most important to them!

What you'll need!

1. Pictures of your family and friends
2. paper 
3. glue
4. scissors
5. Magazines

This is how it will start out!

What do I do?!?!

1)First the individuals need to go through different kinds of photo albums as well as whatever they saw that they feel represents them would be appropriate to add to the collage.  At this stage the indivudal can use their imagination.  

2) With the items the individual has found, having them cut them out and organize them how they should be displayed in the collage

3) Using glue the individual will paste the photos that were cut out in the collage creating the final product.

4) Once this is completed, the individual can write about the collage highlighting a few key concepts of why they choose to use certain forms and pictures.

The finished product!

The collage above represents my life the pictures show my life from an infant to my high school prom.  All of those events played an important part in making me into the person I am today.  The words that you can see in the collage above are words that are very important to me.  Making collages is something that I love to do and I always to to put my photo is something that I will be able to see everyday, rather than just sticking them in a photo album that may never get looked at for years.  Collages allow for me to express who I am and the people and places that are very important to me!

Art Word of the Week: Design and Composition


One of the questions that artist ask themselves once they are finished a piece of work is Is there a focal point, emphasis, centre of interest, or dominant spot that attracts and holds attention? Does it make the viewer want to return and admire again and again? (Schirrmacher & Fox, 2009, p. 142).  There could be one picture in the collage that stands out the most to the viewer and or the child, that they keep looking back at.  It could be because of where it was placed within the collage that allows it to stand out.


For the educator:


Collaging with children can allow you to see the events or even just the pictures that the children love.  It allows you to see events that you may not have known about if it wasn't for the pictures, which can allow you to get to know the children and their families better!  Collaging is a great way for children to learn about their classmates.  

Watch an "Art Film" and blog about it

I'm always anxious thinking I'm not living my life to the fullest, y'know? Taking advantage of every possibility? Just making sure that I'm not wasting one second of the little time I have.

Kate: What did you think of the movie?


Cathy: It was very thought provoking.  I had to really concentrate as to what was a dream and what was reality.  I quite liked it.  It reminded a bit of the Truman Show, which also stars Jim Carrey.  It was between reality and dreaming and sometimes you feel a dream is real, and you go back and things that seem to have nothing to do with anything suddenly pop up in your dream.  What did you think?


Kate: I honestly found it very strange; I had a hard time understanding the movie, and the plot through out it.  I also found that it was still very creative at the same time.  The way the camera angles were used to show that she was disappearing from his memories.


Cathy: I liked that too, and also liked how some of the images were blurry indicating that thy were in the dream but were not important.  It was funny that he knew enough to want to stop erasing her even in the dream.


Kate: It was really interesting to think that someone would want to erase someone from their memory, it makes me think how far I would want to go to erase someone from my thought.  Is it something that you would want to do?


Cathy: Never, I think that is what forms who I am.  It is all life's experiences that moulds a person.  I think he wanted to erase her because she had erased him.  Would you do it?


Kate: I'm not sure it is something that I would need to think about deeply because depending on the person I created these memories with i might want to erase them because of the pain that they caused me in my past and maybe in the future.


Cathy: But that is how you can earn to be a better person in relationships, we have to learn from our mistakes.


Kate: What did you think of the characters?


Cathy: I really liked the fact that Mary (Kristen Dunst) was also a patient.  That was a neat sub plot.  I also liked that Patrick (Elijah Wood) stole some of Joel's (Jim Carrey) way of courting Clem (Kate Winslet).  What did you think?


Kate: Well, I must say that I really enjoyed Joel, because it was a character that I could see a lot of people being able to relate to.  Well it was great chatting with you!

Art Word of the Week: Mass or Volume

Mass or Volume are appropriate criteria from critiquing three-dimensional art which has height, length, and width (Schirrmacher & Fox, 2009, p. 142).  Mass or Volume can be portrayed as: Open or closed, heavy or light, solid or open, opaque or transparent, geometric or organic, static or dynamic, angular or curved, hard or soft, large or little, stationary or moving (Schirrmacher & Fox, 2009, p. 142).  The one that I found through the course of the movie was stationary or moving because when Joel was  remembering all the memories between Clem and him, the objects that were in the memory started to move away from him.     

For Educators:

Who doesn't love watching movies, this is a great way to introduce films that the children may not watch because it doesn't look appealing to them.  However it can allow the children to step outside of their comfort zone. As an educator you can make it a fun day for the children by saying that they can come to school in the pj's and have some popcorn and watch the movie.  After the movie is over you can ask the children to draw something they saw in the move that stood out to them.