Toronto Teacher Mom

Le jour du Souvenir - Book Creator

Sunday, November 10, 2024
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Google Drawings Portrait Art Activity

Google Drawings Protrait Art - Angelina Jolie

Everyone who knows me can attest to how much I love being a Core French teacher. I knew as young as 10 years old that I would become a French teacher and I still recall the thank you card I wrote to one of my elementary French teachers who inspired me to pursue my passion. A few years ago, I took a break from the classroom and joined the SIS Project to become a teacher-trainer. Once the term of my position ended, I ended up taking a position where I taught Core French for half of the day and French Specialty (French Immersion) for the other half, since there weren't any full-time Core French positions available in my area. Visual Arts was one of the French Immersion subjects I taught to grade 5, 6 and 8 students.

Google Drawings Portrait Art - Angelina Jolie

As much as I love art, I struggled to find ideas that worked within my schedule given the time constraints, especially seeing as I had to travel from class to class. Luckily, I knew of a number of digital art activities that I had come across over the years. One such activity was the use of Google Drawings to recreate portraits, which I had learned about at a 2016 Google Summit workshop with media specialist George Barcenas (check out slide 4 for an animated gif demo). He demonstrated how you can insert a photo onto one side of the Drawing canvas and trace over parts of the head and face using the curve line. The trick is clicking multiple times as you draw the line until you reach the starting point to close the shape. You can then right-click on the shape to edit any of the points (or double-click on it), format the colour of the line and shape fill/gradient, and even add a drop shadow.

Google Drawings Portrait Art - curve line edit points

Then move it to the other side of your canvas. Thinking in terms of layers, it is recommended that you begin with the head and hair since they will be the lowermost layers, and then draw the facial features, since every time you add a shape, it becomes the topmost layer. Or, you can simply right-click on the shape and click on Order to change the layer.

As you can see in the photo above, there are many different layers to the eyes and mouth but a tip I shared with my students was to choose a face that was somewhat symmetrical since, once they make one eye, they can duplicate it, right-click on it and select Rotate to flip it horizontally. This avoids having to start from scratch and they can always edit the points if need be. It's the same technique I used for the teeth. I created one tooth, duplicated it and adjusted the points. I used this activity in my grade 8 class and was truly impressed by their work!

Additional Tips:

Use the eye dropper tool to create custom colours that match the original photo.
Use a basic circle shape for the iris and pupil, layering them underneath the eyelids.
Click on a shape to activate the Format Options menu (or right click on a shape) to add a drop shadow, which helps create a sense of depth, rotate a shape using precise degrees or to lock aspect ratio.

Saturday, October 19, 2024
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2024-2025 French Digitial Calendar and Weather Board

EdTech

Wednesday, August 21, 2024
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French Resources: Le Carnaval de Québec 2024

Carnaval de Quebec

Salut! Long time, no blog, it would seem. As a little update, my role in our school board's SIS project ended in June and now I'm back, teaching français! I happened to notice that an old blog post on French resources for the Carnaval de Québec that I published back in 2013 is getting more hits than usual. Makes sense, given that we are right in the middle of Carnaval season, bien sûr! It's definitely time to give it a little refresher, n'est-ce pas?

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A post shared by Diana Mancuso 🍎 (@torontomom)

This year, our school had our own festivities in honour of the Carnaval de Québec, thanks to our student council volunteers and teacher leads. We had theme days, such as tuque day and red and white day, as well as school-wide bingo over the PA system. We also had a different staff member wear la ceinture fléchée on each of the five days and students had to write down their names on a ballot for a chance to win a prize. On the last day, we had a volunteer dress in a Bonhomme costume and take pictures in front of a Carnaval themed background I had designed.

In my grade 5 class, I showed them a YouTube video of les meilleurs moments du Carnaval 2022 and then we read a little paragraph about the Carnaval. I turned it into a texte qui disparaît activity, which I had first learned about from Richard Smith, a retired AIM French teacher. It's so much fun! The text is repeated on multiple slides but each slide has more and more words removed, with only the first letter remaining. The students really seem to enjoy the challenge of trying to recall the missing words. I then showed them the video of one of my favourite Carnaval songs - Salut, Bonhomme! Then I take out des cuillères and teach them a simple folkloric rhythm that they can use with their hands or to test out when I hand out my wooden spoons. TIP: I added both videos to the Google slidedeck to avoid any ads. Click here if you'd like a copy of the slidedeck above.

Diana Mancuso Cricut Design Space - Carnaval de Québec Projects

And if you own a Cricut machine, check out my Design Space page by clicking the image above. I have created three Carnaval themed projects using basic shapes and free images, which means you can make them without a subscription:

Joyeux Carnaval 2024 Pennant Banner
Palais de glace sign
Palais de glace - Extra Large (This is a modular design that fits on letter-size cardstock.)

For those who do not have a Cricut machine, I have created a PDF of the Joyeux Carnaval banner, which can be printed directly on to cardstock or regular printer paper and cut out by hand.

Of course, you have to visit the official Carnaval de Québec website, which has links to their social channels for those who like to follow along from afar, including the carnavaldequebec YouTube channel where you will find a variety of video montages and highlights from over the years. The site also has a teacher's corner where you can download free levelled educational kits containing worksheets. In addition, you can order old effigies, which make great prizes.

As always, feel free to share ideas on how you celebrate at your school by leaving a comment below.

Joyeux Carnaval!