September Art Update!

Hello artists and families!

Welcome to "Mrs. Miller's Makers" where you get an inside look at what our amazing young artists are making and learning in art class!

It has only been a month since the start of school and we have learned and accomplished SO much already! 

Here's a quick summary of what each grade has done during the month of September:

• Students took part in their first mini artwork for an all school collaborative display "Forget Waldo... Where's Our Mascot?" Students enjoyed reading the book "Cedarburg" written by Barbara Joosse and illustrated by Renee Graef as inspiration for the animal self portraits. We also looked at "Where's Waldo" books and did a mash up of the two books for our first artwork! At Thorson, students have been searching for Mrs. Pawsitive, at Parkview, students have been searching for Parker the Bull Pup... and stay tuned for Westlawn's display, as it is going to be a permanent installation in triptych form! It will be ready for viewing later in October :)
• Students enjoyed exploring options for Free Choice Art in preparation for their first class reward when their palette fills up!
• Students played a board game as a fun and engaging way to review all there is to know about art class!
• K-4th graders created sketchbooks from paper grocery bags (THANK YOU Piggly Wiggly for once again donating paper bags - with handles - for all our art students)!!!
• 5th grade began designing Monogram letter designs for their unique and elevated (both literally and figuratively) sketchbook covers! Handmade paper pulp will be pressed over their 3-D letter designs to make an impression as a Monogram.
• Grades K-4 added features to the inside of their sketchbooks including: a folded paper pocket, a sketchbook inspiration checklist, and a "cheat sheet" with the 5 criteria for a sketchbook entry.
• Grades K-4 read through their sketchbook inspiration checklist (nicknamed "Golden Checklist") to discover what 20 drawing prompts are on their grade level list! Students had so much fun creating their first sketchbook entries and then doing "show and tell" at the end of class :)

Kindergarten

Kindergarten animal like self portraits!

Mrs. Fry's Class Portraits

Mrs. Sheppard's Class Portraits

Mrs. Rocky's Class Portraits

Exploring Free Choice Art Stations!

Playing our super fun "getting to know the art room" game! Students spun the wheel and either had to DRAW something (like Pictionary) or FIND an important feature of the art room as seen on the card.

Making our sketchbooks and creating our first sketchbook entries! :)

First Grade

First grade animal like self portraits and added features for the background display! :)

Mrs. Carpenter's Class Portraits

Mrs. Spaeth's Class Portraits

Mrs. Robert's Class Portraits

Exploring free Choice Art Stations!

Playing our super fun "getting to know the art room" game! Students spun the wheel and either had to DRAW something (like Pictionary) or FIND an important feature of the art room as seen on the card.

Making our sketchbooks and creating our first sketchbook entries! :)

Second Grade

Creating our animal like self portraits for our "Where's (the Mascot)" collaborative art display!

Mrs. Abrahamson's Class Portraits

Mrs. Huber's Class Portraits

Exploring Free Choice Art Stations!

Playing the super fun team board game to familiarize ourselves with the art room! Students rolled the dice and could land on a space that asked them to DRAW IT - FIND IT - or - ANSWER A QUESTION! They learned so much and had a blast doing it. The winners could choose to add an extra color to their class palette, sit back and not do their clean up job, or get a fake tattoo (a stamp of their mascot  ;)

Making our sketchbooks and creating our first sketchbook entries! :)

Third Grade

Creating our animal like self portraits for our "Where's (the Mascot)" collaborative art display!

Ms. Ingham's Class Portraits

Mrs. Tutas's Class Portraits

Mrs. Anderson's Class Portraits

Exploring Free Choice Art!

Playing the super fun team board game to familiarize ourselves with the art room! Students rolled the dice and could land on a space that asked them to DRAW IT - FIND IT - or - ANSWER A QUESTION! They learned so much and had a blast doing it. The winners could choose to add an extra color to their class palette, sit back and not do their clean up job, or get a fake tattoo (a stamp of their mascot  ;)

Making our sketchbooks!

Fourth Grade

Creating our animal like self portraits for our "Where's (the Mascot)" collaborative art display!

Mrs. Butzler's Class Portraits

Mrs. Smith's Class Portraits

Mrs. Sherill's Class Portraits

Creating our animal like self portraits for our "Where's (the Mascot)" collaborative art display!

Exploring Free Choice Art!

Playing the super fun team board game to familiarize ourselves with the art room! Students rolled the dice and could land on a space that asked them to DRAW IT - FIND IT - or - ANSWER A QUESTION! They learned so much and had a blast doing it. The winners could choose to add an extra color to their class palette, sit back and not do their clean up job, or get a fake tattoo (a stamp of their mascot  ;)

Making our sketchbooks and creating our first sketchbook entries! :)

Fifth Grade

Creating our animal like self portraits for our "Where's (the Mascot)" collaborative art display!

Creating some fun 3-D elements for the background display!

Ms. Mertens's Class Portraits

Mrs. Wilde's Class Portraits

Mrs. O'Leary's Class Portraits

Mr. Hartling's Class Portraits

Exploring Free Choice Art!

Playing the super fun team board game to familiarize ourselves with the art room! Students rolled the dice and could land on a space that asked them to DRAW IT - FIND IT - or - ANSWER A QUESTION! They learned so much and had a blast doing it. The winners could choose to add an extra color to their class palette, sit back and not do their clean up job, or get a fake tattoo (a stamp of their mascot  ;)

Designing Monograms for the cover our sketchbooks! The pencil sketches will be turned into 3D low relief sculptures made of a variety of materials. The students need to know how to design it backwards so it will make an impression in the paper the correct way (facing forward) like a print! They are doing SO well with this and are having so much fun! :)

May-June Art Update!

Happy LAST day of school for the 2022-2023 school year! 😎 It has been my pleasure working with your children this year and helping them to grow as young artists. I sincerely hope each of you enjoy the summer time with your family, creating new memories, and embracing the present. Here's to hoping for good weather, relaxing days, and well behaved children 😉

Here's a snapshot of how the school year ended in art class...

See you in the fall!

Sincerely,

Mrs. Miller

Kindergarten artists completed their final artwork, "My Brave Year of Firsts Self Portraits!" We read the book "My Brave Year of Firsts: Tries, Sighs, and High Fives" authored by Jamie Lee Curtis and illustrated by Laura Cornell. The heart warming and humorous book gave the students inspiration for their own artwork, as they were asked to write three things they did for the first time this school year! The artists also enjoyed creating a self portrait to capture their likeness by using paper, colored pencils, and paint. They did such a great job with this and especially liked accessorizing themselves with headbands, bows, backwards hats (this year we even got some Mario hats;)! They're each one of a kind, just like our kinders!

First grade artists revisited a project that was started earlier in the year... Matisse Inspired Mobiles, after artist Henri Matisse! Earlier in the school year, the students read the book, "Painting With Scissors," and designed their own shapes with paper and paint. In order to create the mobiles, the students took a foam plate that was cut into either a spiral or ring and were given the fun challenge of attaching their shapes to it using only hole punchers and colored wire. The students enjoyed the challenge and quickly learned all of the fun ways they could twist and shape the wire! :)

After completing our mobiles, the students had some extra time to enjoy some more sketchbook entries! :) A favorite that they selected off the "Golden Checklist" was Draw... my teacher as an animal! :)

Second grade artists enjoyed finishing their "Pop Art Paints" as their last project of the school year! The project involved many types of art making including: the relief printed background, the paper mache paint tubes, and the air dry clay shaped into the "paint" coming out of the tube. The students had SO much fun with each of the art making processes and oddly enough one of the FAVORITE parts for many students was naming their paint tubes! The students chose two names and wrote them with sharpie. There were some clever ones... "bluey & pinky," "red hot," "seaweed..." The process and the end products were equally awesome!

Third grade artists finished their Clay Canopic Jars (with the exception of WL 3rd graders who will paint next year)! The students had such a fun time creating their unique toppers and impressed themselves (and their art teacher 😉) with their clay building skills! I wasn't sure how the project would go, and it proved to be not only engaging for the students, but also a great opportunity to grow as artists! The project involved so many clay making skills such as: slab making, pinching, building, carving, texture, and more! 

Fourth grade artists completed their Clay Coil Vessels! The students (and myself) were so excited to see how they cam out of the kiln after they were glazed. The students had many color options and were free to glaze their pieces how they wished. If their vessel was designed to hold liquid they needed to glaze the entire inside. It was fun to see the students test out the function of their creations by putting things inside, such as water, markers, etc.)!

Fifth grade artists of course had their big 5th Grade Fine Arts Night! Thorson's F.A.N. slideshow was shared in the last art blog update, so HERE is Westlawn's slideshow! Following the big celebration for our 5th graders, some of the students had time to create Father's day cards! The students also spent some time writing reflections of their 5th grade year in art. We topped it off with some clean up jobs in the art room (some of the kids are seriously good at cleaning/organizing but they would probably hate that I am sharing that information) and of course a competitive game of "Speedy Sketchionary." They will do great in middle school and please remind them that their elementary teachers love when they come back and visit! 💗