All Blog Posts (22)

2014 started off at full speed at a new school. I am working with art teacher Ms. Maas and two first grade classes, one fifth grade class and an honors art class!  Ms. Bane's first grade class made scientific drawings of the life cycles of frogs and butterflies,   Ms. Krzak's first grade class are drawing landscapes.  The fifth gade class are working on an anti bullying campaingn, and the honors class are working on cartooning!

A lot to do...and a lot to post!

We all got together and finished up the project for the lobby.  We all took turns painting, making a sign, and finishing up what ever had to be done.  It is placed in the conference room ready to be displayed for the fall. The summer cartooning program was a success.  The first week was very packed with students.  The second week, which was around the 4th of July, had less students due to the holiday and traveling.  It was nice to be able to give more students personal attention on the…

Adan_Alton cartoon summer camp 2013!

Watch them describe their animation techniques!

Click the link!

Today is the third day of the Cartooning Camp/second week.  We have two projects going on at the same time.  The students are working on ashcan comic books by folding the paper into quarters and creating an eight page comic book. Also, Mr. Mike interviewed Aidan and Alton yesterday abut their animation projects that they worked on since the last cartooning camp. Mr. Mike took the time to put it on CD last night.  They will get their own copy. Mr. Rinderle is heading on the 3-D cartooning…

Today is the first day of the second week of cartooning.  Most of the students that we have are repeating from the first week of cartooning.  Each student worked on creating a character to be used when creating a story on the story board format.  Mr. Rinderle has taken one of the cardboard walls (7ft. by 6ft.) and drew two students standing with their arms on each others's shoulders.  It was drawn, traced, and cut out.  The students will begin painting it on Wednesday.  We are focusing on no…

Today is the last day of the first week of cartooning. Some students will be gong on vacation next week. We had a very fun day today. Paul showed us a small animation piece that he created last night. The students created and made thier pins.  Each group got together and created a creature. They had to draw it and figure out the habitat, predators, prey, and adaptations. Each group came up to describe, show, and talk about their creature using the elmo.  The week turned out to be very…

Today we started out with a CD of animation pieces that Aidan and Alton created. They learned from this class how to create their own animations. WOW!!! There was music and credits too! Scott, who is in 7th grade, came in and surprised us. He showed us animation pieces that he made on his camera. He was in the cartooning classes a few years ago.  Once again-look what these kids have learned from this summer cartooning class that they have taken away and used!!!  We created another animation…

We started off the day finishing up our flip books.  We also caught up two students that were not here yesterday. From there we went into watching a funny short clip on a cartoon character trying to get rid of a cat. It  was a good example of animation without dialogue.  Mr. Mike brought up a clip on the computer that showed two men fighting over a flower.  It was such a fabulous introduction into filming and movement to created a short animation piece with people.  The students lined up and…

We started out the day by reveiwing the concepts of squash and stretch when cartooning. Mr. Mike showed a short video on someone drawing  from 100 years ago.  It showed Winsor McKay's  hand  drawing and sketching.  Then he made the sketches look like they were moving.  He made 4,000 drawings in one month.  It shows how animation began. The students loved this old film.  Harry Hausen is another artist to look up if you are interested in drawing and animation.  We have four new students today.…

Welcome to our first day of summer cartooning.  Mr. Rinderle and Ms. Kraus went out yesterday to get some yummy snacks for the students.  Today we made name tags/ created corporation groups in which they will have to do certain tasks. Today they had to come up with a logo for their group.  The Chunky Cheese Corporation came up with a jingle and dance to show the class. They were great!   Swaginators, Five Crazy Guy and One Girl, and The Moustache Smileys are the groups names so far. We have…

Today is the last day for Mr. Mike to draw with the 5th graders. I never saw the Regular 5th grade class so quiet! They LOVED drawing Oliver Hazard Perry.  I heard students bragging about their work!  This piece of work really focuses in on using many regtangular shapes/lots of erasing!  They turned out great!  I wish we had more time to hang these. I believe-Mr. Mike also did this exact lesson up in 6th grade too.  Mr. Mike went down to the 3rd grade classrooms to promote the summer…

Today is May 29, 2013.  Mr. Mike is here teaching the 4th graders. This is their last class with Mr. Mike for the school year.  Ms. Easly, the 4th grade Reading teacher, has been teaching The Battle of Lake Erie through the book-Victory Erie, The War of 1812, and The Battle of Lake Erie.  Written and Illustrated by Cornell Green.  Young Readers Edition The celebration of Perry 200 has been going on starting out with a big Memorial Day parade.  I have been teaching various subjects of Erie…

Today- April 26th in 4th grade and 5th grade we are celebrating Earth Day Week.  Mr. Mike is teaching the students to draw a dragon carrying the world like Atlas!  The kids had a lot of fun!  Remember-Earth Day is Every Day!!

Parent night was a big success on April 18th. Mr. Mike taught a drawing class with adding adaptations to an organism. Even the parents joined in to draw.  It was a great success.  A parent ,who is a teacher for the Erie School District, couldn't wait to go back and use Mr. Mike's lesson for his own Science lesson. How about that!!!  The next day the LTR program along with Harding students was posted in the Erie Daily Times. It was a nice article!! Hurray! 

Thursday April 18th

Today was an exciting day. We had visitors from all different place.   Arts Erie-Amanda Knox, Mr.  Matt Cummings from Erie School District-PR , Ms. Hutchinson-the principal,   Erica Erwin-Erie Times Newspaper, and Mr. Millette-the photographer and Grayson's father.  The 4th grade honors class -all 29 of them-were learning to draw landscapes.  Aidan,Alton,Hannah, and Shea were interviewed by Erica Erwin for the newspaper. It was a fabulous lesson on Landscaping. All…

Today is April 4th and besides Mr. Mike and Mr. Cummings visiting, we also had Ms. Fuchs. She is a fabulous drama artist. She is going to start to work with the 6th graders to create a film piece to be shared with Harding Elementary School.  We are so happy and excited to have her on our team!  Ms. Fuchs will be blogging what she has to share with us all real soon.

Today is April 4, 2013  We have Mr. Cummings observing Mr. Mike today. He is interested in doing a piece with the newspaper on the ArtErie/LTR program here at Harding School.  Mr. Mike is working with the 4th graders on drawing a stream/ labeling the parts/ and the land areas.  The students have been taught vocabulary/ modeled a making of a stream-tributary/ and now they are drawing and labeling. What a fantastic way to go into more depth about what they are expected to understand with the…

Today is March 20, 2013  and we are studying Brine Shrimp within their Environmental Module.  Mr. Mike is helping the 5th grade draw Brine Shrimp.  Brine Shrimp are only 1/2 inch long.  They lay eggs that stay dorment as long as 3 years.  Brine Shrimp LOVE salt!!  It is so fun to take something so small and draw bigger.  They also are called "sea monkies".

3/15/2013

We had four winnners out of six winners for the Erie School District Scienticif Drawing Contest!! Tony and Hannah from 4th grade honors took first place. Grayson from 4th grade honors took 2nd place. Shea Miller from Harding took 3rd place.  These drawings and others from Harding Elementary will be displayed at the Bayfront Convention Center at the Home Show.  These students had a lot of drawing influence from Mr. Mike and the program! Hurray!   By they way they had…

3/14/2013

Welcome! Today Mr. Mike is here from 12:30 to 1:40 working with 5th grade students. These students are so excited that Mr.Mike had to tell them that he can't look at all the drawings as he is drawing. They drew two shapes and insisted that Mr. Mike come see what they have done. This class has a difficult time focusing. This is such a thrill for them when he comes in.  The students are studying Environmental Factors-living and nonliving things that effect an…