Mr. Mills Blog

First…an announcement. I am offering a video/technology after school class starting on October 7th. The class is on Tuesday and Wednesday and will last until after school ends in early March. If you need a permission slip, I have them. I hope to only give these to students who are interested. Have your student please see me.

Ms. Fischer is finishing up her second week of teaching. That is a picture of her working above. The 3rd and 4th graders are in the middle of working on their Alexander Calder contour line mobiles. This week, they began shaping wire into one of the contour line portraits they drew during the previous 3 class periods. The 5th and 6th graders are in the middle of creating their 3 artist trading cards. They are applying the skills they learned last week to the cards they made this week. I plan on putting all of these artworks on to Art Sonia next week.

Also, in case I did not mention it, I have a download page where you can download and install free/open source programs. These are all programs I have either used myself or checked out. In some cases, I have used them with the students. They should install easily on your home computer, so if you get a chance, check them out.

Until next week…

I’ve always considered this part of the school year the “busy season”. With ISAT testing less than two months away, teachers have a lot to do. Plus, it is good chance for us in the art department to start new projects…it makes for an interesting time of year.

The third graders have finished up their music paintings. Above, you can see some examples. Some of them are already on Art Sonia and we will soon be hanging these in the hallway near the art room with titles explaining which song they were inspired by. I’m very excited to see if the display turns out as I am envisioning it. This week, they began working on felt puppets that we will be using to create short plays with.

The fourth grade students are starting a project well they are eventually going to make public service announcements about global warming. As I have explained to the students, I am part of an organization called Chicago Arts Partnerships in Education (CAPE). They look at arts integration projects in public schools. As part of the project, we are supposed to document our work. Also, I am working with a teaching artist from the Hyde Park Art Center, Jessi Walsh. This week, we began our journey by looking at the difference of weather and climate, looking at average global temperature, and watching an animation about how greenhouse gases get into the air. It will be pretty intensive project that we have high expectations for.

The fifth graders are continuing to work on their foamcore houses. Some students this week started to add more decoration to their house with cardboard, sequins, cotton balls, etc. It looks like we have a little neighborhood in the fine arts room now.

The sixth graders are continuing work on their stop animation project. This week, some group are starting to take pictures of their animation. As we discussed in class, creating the parts for the animation can be difficult, but the picture goes relatively fast and smoothly. I’m looking forward to eventually getting to the computer lab to put these together.

Until next week…

I’ll keep this short since I know many of us are going to focus our attention on the upcoming winter break. First, here are some pictures from the assembly today. Myself and three students will be putting together a video of the event during January and February.

The 3rd graders are almost finished with their paintings inspired by different musicians. We will be putting the finishing touches on these when we return from break.

Above, you will see some examples of the inspiration pictures the 4th graders finished recently. They are on Art Sonia and hanging in the hallway. When we return from break, we will be starting a long project involving science, writing, and video-making. We will be working with Jessi Walsh from the Hyde Park Art Center.

The 5th graders are continuing to work on their foamcore houses. We did not meet much this week because they were practicing for the assembly, but we will complete this project in January. Even though this is a new process for the students, I have been happy about their patience and diligence.

The 6th graders are officially done with their embroidered pillows. Everyone has had their pillow sewn together and they should have gotten a chance to seal the opening with some thread this week. When we return from the break, we will be working toward beginning to take pictures for their stop motion animations.

Once again, have a great winter break!

With one quarter ‘almost’ in the books, we ended a lot of projects and are looking towards starting new projects.

Above, you will see some examples of the flip books the 3rd graders made. We just started creating landscapes using Windows Paint in the computer lab. The students are very excited about using this software and creating artwork with another medium. It can be frustrating at times since it is new to some of them, but we are making a lot of progress.

The 4th graders completed their high contrast pictures this week. They also wrote scary stories to accompany them. When we do write in fine arts, I focus them more on creating a creative stories instead of trying to fit inside a format. I’ve been very pleased with the stories I have read. Right now, we are creating origami cubes. It is a short project, so we will be starting something else very soon.

One of the 5th grade classes has finished the Google SketchUp buildings. I have a few examples above, but I will eventually be putting all of the projects on my blog. The students can download this program at home. It is free and I know a lot of the students really enjoyed using the program and we really only scratched the surface during this project.

Finally, the 6th graders have finished their Frank Lloyd Wright tiles. They are hanging on the first floor near the art room on the ceiling. I will keep them up all year long. We also just started creating embroidered pillows. This project will take us through the early part of December. It requires a lot of focus on the part of the students, but they are a lot of fun to work on so I am optimistic many of the students will find them fun.

Until next week…

For some reason, this is the first year these days off during the school year have really upset my schedule. With half days, we still tended to be on track with most of our projects during the school year. Since we have these full professional development days, it has been throwing off the schedule for some of my classes. So while it might seem that one class is “behind” another class…it is really just the days off making it difficult,. We are nothing if flexible…

The 3rd graders have finished or are finishing their flip books. Some students needed to take their flip book home so they could finish it, but most are already done. After finishing the flip books, we are heading to the computer lab to create landscapes using Windows Paint.

The 4th graders are finishing up their contrast portraits. These will be graded and hanging in the hallway by the end of next week. After finishing the portraits, we will be creating origami cubes.

The 5th graders are still working on their Google SketchUp buildings. Mr. Bynum’s class will be finishing them by the end of the first quarter, while Mr. Rowell’s class will be finishing them at the beginning of the second quarter. The projects that are finished will be on Art Sonia and on my blog by the end of next week.

The 6th graders are finished with their Frank Lloyd Light tiles. These will be on Art Sonia, graded, and hanging on the ceiling by the end of next week. After this project, we wil be making embroidered pillows. Please look out for a letter that will be going home next week about these pillows.

Also, I have scheduling a lot of lab time recently for the lab…that’s how it should be!

Until next week!