Hello artists and families!
Thanks so much for stopping by the art blog "Mrs. Miller's Makers!" It has been wonderful getting to know each of the artists even more and I have already seen growth in each of them over the first month of school :) We have crammed a lot into the month of September! I'm a bit tired and they are probably too!😜
For a typical blog post I will include pictures of each grade level showing what they have been working on. I will also include some descriptions or captions to describe the art making processes. For this update, the students participated in many of the same activities as we started the year. We are now branching out into art lessons unique to each grade level.
In September the artists:
*Created Mystery Artist Sheets
*Matched a masterpiece to choose their seats
*Played a board game or spinner game to review art room expectations
*Created sketchbooks and some started designing the cover (kindergarten)
*Designed a one of a kind house (at Thorson) for a collaborative art display
*Created an imaginary animal in teams (Parkview 2nd grade)
Mystery Artist Sheets: This year I designed artist sheets on Canva to fit the detective theme. It was a fun way for the students to share their unique personality while getting to know other students AND staff! :) The kids LOVE looking at the information and then peeking under the slip of paper to see who the Mystery Artist is. My favorite feature was the likes and dislikes! Some were surprising and others made me laugh!
A few staff sheets...
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| Mrs. Millers :) |
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| Mrs. Sheppard's (she has some serious artistic talents!) |
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| Mrs. Fleischmann (our new 2nd grade teacher :) |
Some student Mystery Artist Sheets...
Masterpiece Matching: This year we tried a NEW method of getting our seats! We borrowed a brilliant idea from Ms. O'Reilly (Parview art teacher) and used a game of matching the masterpiece! For the older students (grades 2-5) I took artworks (some famous and some lesser known) and made a copy that looked like it was magnifying a small part of the artwork. The students picked a magnifying glass when they came in the art room and then needed to find the match like a detective. Not only did they like the challenge of it but it also taught them about various artworks!
The littles (kinder and 1st) enjoyed a simpler version of the game by finding the match to their smaller artwork. All of the students did a great job with this and it made the seating chart process much faster! :)
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| 5th Grade (Westlawn) |
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| 5th Grade (Thorson) |
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| 4th Grade (Westlawn) |
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| 4th Grade (Thorson) |
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| 4th Grade (Parkview) |
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| 3rd Grade (Westlawn) |
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| 3rd Grade (Thorson) |
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| 2nd Grade (Westlawn) |
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| 2nd Grade (Parkview) |
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| 1st Grade So sorry... no Kindergarten pictures of playing the game, because well... they need all the hands on help they can get the first week! 😂 Our kindergarten teachers are amazing to do it all day! |
Sketchbooks: Every one of my art students continues the tradition of making a sketchbook from a paper grocery bag! A HUGE thanks to Piggly Wiggly for generously donating bags! Another HUGE thank you to the Manning family from Westlawn for cutting the bags to prep the sketchbooks! The students created the outer body of the sketchbooks (minus the cover design which will come later), and then added the inside features.
Each sketchbook includes an individualized list of drawing prompts and a handmade pocket made from the paper bag scrap. Students also get to choose three specialty papers to add along with their white papers and look at how artists can make toned or color ground drawings with a colored base. We spend some time discussing why a sketchbook is a valuable tool and look at many example sketches from famous artists, architects, designers & decorators, and more. After all the time making the sketchbooks it is important the students feel inspired, motivated, and free to explore a variety of art making processes in their sketchbooks, not just drawing.
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| We painted pod podge over our designs to protect our cave walls from smearing. Okay, that part is not historically accurate, but that's okay! |
Thorson Houses Project: Ms. Penkwitz created a super fun collaborative artwork for the start of the year... "A Beautiful Day in the Thorson Neighborhood! Students were able to design their own house with all sorts of unique features and thoughtful details. We also cut open their front door and added a miniature self portrait inside! The students did a fabulous job with their houses and the whole Thorson neighborhood is on display in the AMP hallway :)
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| 4th Grade (Hoerchner) |
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| 5th Grade (Retzlaff) |
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| 3rd Grade (Ziestma) |
Parkview 2nd grade Imaginary Animal Project: The Parkview 2nd grade students have an AWESOME opportunity this year to collaborate with the CHS Photography Class! We had the students work in teams to design an imaginary animal! We started the project by having the students write down their favorite animal with them unaware that we would be drawing names and putting them in teams. The students then needed to work together to create a drawing of their animal which included parts of each of their animals, as well as color and texture. The teams then completed a description of their imaginary animal on the back of their drawing. This proved to be a challenge for many, but was a great learning experience and lots of fun! We cannot wait to send our animals to the high school and receive back a realistic version that the high schoolers create using Photoshop! :)
