Mr. Mills Blog

This was a good week to try a couple things. The 4th, 5th, and 6th grade students all finished their first projects this week. The 4th graders rhythm sponge paintings are hanging in the hallway near the cafeteria. They are also up on Art Sonia. The 5th graders finished their tint and shade collages. Some students also wrote a song, story, or poem to accompany their collage. They are hanging on the second floor near the library, and they are on Art Sonia. The 6th graders finished their emotion paintings. Some students wrote a short story to describe why they feel the way they feel. They are hanging near their classroom.

Since we were completing projects, I took those classes to the computer lab this week to try a couple of programs. I love digital artwork, illustration, and graphic design, so I wanted the student to experiment with a couple programs. The 5th and 6th graders used a completely free and powerful program called Inkscape. On Inkscape, you can create an illustration and edit every single part of that drawing after you initially draw it. I hope to use it more later in the year. I just wanted the kids to try it out first to see if they liked using it. You can download the program for free here. This is a safe site. I have used it many times myself. The 4th graders used Windows Paint which is available on almost any Windows computer. We went through the different tools and experimented with how they work. I will be using this program later in the year.
The 3rd graders began working on symmetrical aliens. Since symmetry is something normally talked about in math class, I wanted them to see how it is used in visual arts. We talked about how a human is “almost” symmetrical and began drawing and cutting out the outline for their alien.

We are also continuing to blog. Instead of talking about them, I’d like to see people look at it more. Click here to go to the blog main page and read some of the entries. Some really great work is going on here.

Until next time…