On January 19^th, 2010, a special guest came in our class. His name is Sylvain Rivard and he works for ArtsSmarts. He is an Amerindian (Native American). He taught us about art and he surprised me by all the new stuff he taught us.

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I will remember how the Natives were painting by crushing red ochre, black, yellow ochre and white rocks that make power and then they used bear fat and mixed it. | I didn’t know that we could actually make paint so easily. I thought that we had to buy it at the store. | What I remember from today is that we learned how to draw in Native American art … We actually got to paint the way people did a thousand years ago. It’s super cool. First we take coal that’s black. We crush the coal and make a colour black. So we crack the egg. We take the white water inside and put it on the coal. So after it’s a black liquid paint. | … it made paint and it was very smudgy and yucky and it was real paint. | Then we painted with our fingers and had to make a story with signs | My story was about a man who was hunting and he had caught a buffalo and cooked it on top of a fire and then he went to sleep and then the moon rose. | They used those colours because it symbolizes all the different coloured people in the world and they were the easiest rocks to find near them. | We learned how to do paint in ancient times with rocks. We learend symbols and how to read art. | Language – Something that surprised me is that there are only about 25 people in the world that speak his language which is Abenaki. | Sylvain Riard is a professional artist. | Sylvain showed us a lot of cool things. First he told us about cliffs with painting and engravings.

Then he sang a song at the end with a beautiful drum. | What would I remember 20 years from now of what Sylvain Rivard showed us? The drum and how in back it symbolizes the four elements. The drum itself symbolizes the world etc. | ….. after that he (Sylvain Rivard) played us a song on his drum. That was my favourite part. Here is a story that connects to my life. Last summer I went to Mexico and heard the same drum that the artist played for my class. I love the sound it made. Thanks a lot Sylvain. I hope to see you soon. | Another part that was so cool was when he was singing a song with his drums. | I learned that to be good at art you need a lot of practice but to be an Artist it’s not only art it’s a job. | It was so fun.

QUEBEC CURRICULUM

Visual Arts To appreciate works of art, traditional artistic objects, media images, personal productions and those of classmates

English Language Arts To write self-expressive, narrative and information-based texts

CCC Personal and Social To construct his/her identity

How To WRITE An Interview Post

When the tree is out of the box my sister and I put the tree together. The hardest part is the lights because we leave them in from the year before. So my sister and I struggle to put the right plugs together. After that we spend about 1 to 3 days putting up ornaments and the garlands.

There is only one tradition at my house for the tree. It is that no one puts the start on except for my dad!

One Christmas my pet bird Jumper’s cage was next to the tree so every now and then we heard a “tweet”. I was looking everywhere for him. So I sat down on the couch, looked to the side and saw him in the middle of the tree!

By the way the tree is taller than me – just about three inches taller.

It’s usually very gross and dirty so we clean it with a wet towel. After, we assemble it I have a lot of fun with that because It do it all wrong and my mom gets made at me then assembles it herself! The pieces are kind of heavy so when I pick them up well they usually hit me in the face because I can’t lift them, but I laugh. Oops I forgot the tree stand! Well, our tree stand is very old – I think from when I was a baby but maybe I’m just mistaken that it just looks old but isn’t. Anyways it usually breaks or the tree doesn’t fit in properly so last year we got a brand new one.

When I was a kid I remember that my cat used to hide in the tree or lay on the branches. IT was really funny so we took lots of pircuters.

Well back to the tree. I don’t really like it. It’s very small. I’m not as tall as it is buy could say almost. I doesn’t look that real. The needs are very dark green. I think trees should have a variety of green colour so it looks more realistic, but that’s just my opinion.

The tree is in three parts so there are some gaps that have no needles. It looks weird but I guess it’s kind of our little tradition -how it’s part of us.

I remember one year we got a real tree. I was so excited that for once in my life I got a real tree. They are so beautiful I would like to have a real tree for every year by my mom finds it annoying to pick up all the needles on the floor. I wouldn’t like that also but I would not care. I’d rather have a natural tree than an ariticial one.

Some people say that we shouldn’t buy real trees because it’s a waste of trees and we will have no more oxygen but in reality they are specially grown in a tree farm sot that’s not in a forest. The other people say it’s okay to buy natural trees and I do agree with them becasue I think it’s the one time in your life that you can have a nice beautiful tree for a month and you should take control of that. Just get what you want whether it’s natural or fake.

First my tree is green like every normal tree, except mine is a bit different because it is artificial. My tree was bought when I was born because the other one fell down. My father said that I always wanted to reach it. But it couldn’t fit it in our house so we had to cut it at the top. Usually it is my mom that decorates the trees. I forgot to say that I had two trees at my house. My sister does one down stairs and my mother upstairs.

The best year we did it was in 2008. I found it was the best year because I could go at the back of the tree. It smelled bad – I think like moth balls. At the back I found a picture of my great-great-grandfather. He had a long beard with no hair. He looked very funny. I find all the pictures look good on the tree.

We still have ornaments also on our tree. At the top of the tree there is an angel. It has a light built into it so it lights up. It is fun because at night we open the angel and it glows yellow.

We put it in a tree stand and water it every day. My mom puts a small carpet around the bottom of the tree. On top of our tree we have something that points up instead of a star. We don’t get an artificial trees but we use to have one a long time ago.

Last year it was my dog’s first Christmas and he always was going to the tree and sniffing it and tried eating it and even knocked down a decoration. My dog was so silly but at the same time bad. Maybe he just is not used to the tree but last year he could not do anything to the tree when I was at school because we had gates up. Did you ever have your pet mess with your decorations?

Interview with my dad

Me: How tall was your Christmas tree?

My dad: In 1979 my dad’s brother and himself selected a tree on a tree farm and they didn’t notice that tree was 18 ft. and the floor to ceiling was 8 ft!

Me: Was your tree real or artificial?

My dad:  My dad’s family has tried artificial trees but they prefer real ones because of the odour and appearance.

Me: Where did you buy your tree?

My dad: In recent years my family has purchased trees in Laprairie at the Farmer’s Market.

Me: What special moments did you have with your tree?

My dad: When my mom and my dad had their first German Shepard it ate all thelower decorations!

Me: Did your tree have a theme?

My dad: We tried having a theme of past and future.