5th graders wearing the paper mache masks

You are invited to come to Miller School on Thursday, May 11, 2017 @ 5:00 pm. to celebrate with us and see the great cultural masks made by the 5th graders. Students are highly  encouraged to wear their cultural clothing for the Ethnic dinner.

On April 20, 2017, the third graders went on an art field trip to visit Detroit Institute of Arts. Students had a wonderful guided tour and enjoyed visiting different Art Galleries.

Check out some great photos of this visit.

On April 20, 2017, all third grade students visited the Artspace Lofts for the first time. Students enjoyed looking at the artworks on display, and got to see demonstrations by two artists: Ralph Parus and  Dan Gumina.  Students learned new techniques and had fun being exposed to artists demonstrating with different tools in order to produce great masterpieces. Well done artists for setting up your stations and showing them new ways of creating art. The students had lots of fun watching them.

At the end, the artists Carl George and Amy Libby gave the students a tour of the beautiful historical old City Hall building.

Thanks to Carl George and Amy Libby for providing the tour and showing the students a surprise on the third floor.  Students got to hear the story of the  Art project created by Dearborn  High School students and how they created it.

The following month,the artist Dan Gumina visited Miller students as a guest speaker and showed them a video about polishing and tumbling stones. He brought with him different stones that he collected over the year. The students looked and touched the stones. At the end, he shared with them that his love for collecting stones started when he was in elementary school. Besides learning where to look for unusual stones, they also, learned how to polish them using simple tools. The students loved this experience especially when the artist gave each one of them a special stone to keepfrom his collection.

The artist, Dan Gumina sharing with the students the art of tumbling and polishing stones at Miller School.

On Thursday, April 20, 2017, The third graders will be going on a field trip to  Artspace in Dearborn and the Detroit Institute of Arts.

Please remember to fill up and sign the permission slip and send it to school as soon as possible.

Art Show Opening is on April 19, 2017 @ 4:00 pm.

Art Show : April 19 – May 18

Selected Miller students will have their artwork on display in Dearborn Public Schools City Wide Art Show 2017. The Art show is open to the publicApril 19 – May 18, 2017. The Art show is in the Padziesky Gallery,which is in the Ford Community& Performing Arts Center located at 15801 Michigan Avenue in Dearborn. Congratulations to all the participants!

Students Passing the clay bowls to our superintendent and the board members

On March 13, 2017, selected Miller 5th graders attended the board meeting to celebrate the success  of the Empty Bowls Event. After reading a report about the success of  the event, Miller students passed some of the clay bowls that they made to the board members to thank them for their hard work.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank the students, parents and, staff who showed up that evening regardless of the ugly weather.

This year, four 5th grade classroom participated in making a clay bowl to donate in order to help the needy in our community.  Most of the students ended up buying the clay bowl that they made. They not only mastered the skill of creating a clay bowl, they learned a great lesson in caring for the needy in our community.

In Art, we read the book”Masks” by Ron Bacon. Students learned about masks and what are they used for. They noticed the difference between the cultural masks from around the world,

To tie our lesson to geometry, students are learning about 3 dimensional shapes or forms.  The paper masks that are created in art are three dimensional and  will decorated using both 2 and 3 dimensional shapes using to line of symmetry to make two identical shapes for both sides of the paper mask.  .

Last Friday, February 3, 5-7 was the opening night of the Collage Exhibit at City Hall ArtSpace Lofts ( located at 13615 Michigan Avenue, Dearborn MI 48126).  The show was intended for 1st , 2nd and 3rd grade classes because they worked on a collage in their art class. Thanks to  Miller teachers, families and students who attended this event. The kids were so  excited for your support and presence.

The artworks will be displayed in the community room at the City Hall ArtSpace until February 28. However, you may need special accommodations to enter the building.

Second graders learned about forms as we call them in art or solids as they call them in math.  Also, they learned the difference between 2 dimensional shapes and 3 dimensional shapes (forms or solids).

Students practiced  how to make a sphere, a cone and a coil with oil clay. Then they made  these forms flat.  The students who mastered the two steps were invited to the earth clay table to repeat the same process.  When the forms and the shapes were assembled , a rose was shaped and glued with slip (clay and water) to a 2 dimensional shape.

Students assembling the rose

Some of the finished clay roses

In this lesson, students  learned few clay terms such as slip,  coil and slab. They  were introduced  to few clay techniques to help them  glue the rose to a 2 dimensional geometric shape of their choice. Students were asked to write their name on the back and smooth out the edges with their finger.