Mr. Mills Blog

After running the marathon in summer like heat this past Sunday, it is hard to believe that fall actually decided to show up this week. Wild…

Above, you can see some of the aliens the students have been working on over the earlier part of the year. These should be up in the hallway soon. Now, the students are working on their flip books. First, each student created a storyboard. Then, they got a 20 page flip book to transfer their storyboard pictures on to. We talked about how each “picture” is called a frame and most cartoons that they watch use 30 frames every second.

The fourth grade students are still working on their contrast portraits. They have finished using permanent markers to fill in the shapes of their face and are now adding Halloween themed tissue paper around their face. The last piece of the puzzle is creating a scary story to accompany their picture.

The fifth grade students have finished their weavings. Above, you can see some of the students working on their weavings. Now, they are going to create a three-dimensional structure using Google SketchUp. It is a free program that allows you to make (very quickly I might add) buildings, houses, restaurants, and basically any three dimensional thing you can think of. The great thing about this program is that it is very easy to get started with it and begin making something immediately. You can download the program directly from my blog here if you would like to use it at home.

The sixth grade students are in the middle of creating their Frank Lloyd Wright inspired tiles. They are finishing adding black strips and will soon use watercolors to create the “window” portion of their tiles. We have talked about craftsmanship and how this project looks better if they spend time putting it together.

Until next week…