Miss Miller's Gallery

In this project, we used both shaving cream painting and symbolism to create windsocks. We first learned about symbolism and were shown some examples of symbolism art work. We were also given a history of windsocks and how they were first used and how they are used now. Then we created symbols that represent each of us and drew them with Sharpie. After that, we marbled paint colors in shaving cream and placed our papers on top. Then we used small pieces of cardstock paper to scrape off the shaving cream leaving the swirled paint design behind. We added crepe paper for tails and string to hang it with.  For an extension activity, you could use this in a history class when talking about some of the European war history. Many windsocks were used in battles to show where armies were and each army had their own specific design or color. You could have students recreate these windsocks.

In this lesson, we learned how to use clay and how to create something out of it. We first learned how to get all the air out of the clay (which is extremely important if you are firing the clay). This involved kneading the clay and working it in your hands and throwing it down onto the table. Once we felt that most the cracks were smoothed out and clay was soft and workable, we rolled it into a slab and cut it into a square shape. We used the extra clay to create additives, where you add clay, and used a small tool to create subtractives, where you take away clay or create an indent. We also learned about scoring and slipping to add our clay pieces onto the tile. In order to do this, you created small scratch marks (scoring) on both the piece you want to stick and the piece you want to stick too. Then you add a small amount of water over scoring (slipping) and the two clay pieces will stick together. In order to complete the project, we had to have our initial on the tile, at least on...

For this art project we used the technique of printmaking. Before this lesson I had never done printmaking so I found it really fun to learn something new and also learn the things that are created using printmaking and that it was used a long time ago to make copies of things. In this specific lesson, we learned about the Day of the Dead and then used this as inspiration for our own printmaking. Once we had our drawing, we placed it on top of styrofoam so that we could create an outline in the styrofoam. Then we used a roller to cover the styrofoam in ink. We then transferred our design to paper by again using a roller to press the ink into the paper leaving the design behind. An extension activity for this could be using this in a history class. This was how copies of something were made so you could tie this into a history lesson that talks about jobs early in America. This was probably someone's job to recreate a poster, flyer, or other piece to be distributed. You could talk...

The project that we did in class was using paint and sponges of different shapes to create a rainbow. We were required to use a minimum of three different shapes and must keep the colors in the order of the rainbow. We learned about the different shapes and also got the opportunity to share what some of the colors made us think of. For example I had yellow which makes me think of the sun and blue which makes me think of water.  An extension activity for this lesson could be to use the paint and shapes to create a new image. So for example, you could make it simple and make a big square out of many small rectangles. For older children, you could use the example of pointillism-an image or picture that is created out of little dots or circles. 

For this lesson, we studied how superheroes were drawn. How the eyes and mouth were usually larger (the eyes being the largest) and the nose was smaller. They also typically have a larger head than their body and specific hairstyles. We then practiced making our superhero faces. We did this by first drawing the oval head, and then creating guide lines (one line that ran vertically right through the center of the head and the other that ran horizontally and slightly above the middle of the head). We used these lines to help make sure that our face was symmetrical. After we practiced, we created our superhero faces that had to have three qualities of a superhero face as well as look similar to us. Then we traced and colored bodies for our superheroes and gave them names and superpowers. An extension activity for this lesson could be using this to create superheroes out of historical figures. The students would need their superheroes to look similar to the actual person and create super...

In this art project, we first learned some history about Vincent Van Gogh and more specifically the painting he did called "Starry Night." We did a project on evaluating work as if we were going to write a paper on it. For the background of our own versions of "Starry Night," we used torn up tissue paper and Modge Podge to create the colorful sky. Then we used oil pastels to create the swirls and lines like Van Gogh had in the sky of his "Starry Night." We also used black construction paper to create our own skyline silhouettes. An extension activity for this project, I would use this to have the students create silhouettes of different biomes. For example, a grassland would have grass, smaller trees, and some deer or a desert would have sand dunes and camels.