FREE eLearning Resources

With so many of us shifting to eLearning, I thought I would share some resources I created. First, I am doing Arts Madness again this year. I crowdsourced it to create a field of 64 diverse artists. Each round participants fill out a Google form with the simple question of "Which is better?" in a series of head to head matchups until we get down to just one winner. You can check out the brackets and vote at my google site here.
The second resource I am happy to share with everyone is my Google Slide doc that gives different challenges kids can try at home. The beauty of the slides format is kids simply make a copy of the original, rename it and share it with me. They get a document with different options for them to explore, links to supportive resources like demonstration videos and a digital badge board to track their progress. As kids complete projects, they upload a picture of their work onto the appropriate slide, so I have a digital portfolio making it easier for me to see everything they have done and see trends in their work. I made this template for anyone to take, modify and use with their own students. Enjoy!

Comments

Arts Madness Round 2

I am about half way through the second round of voting in my Arts Madness tournament. It has been a tremendous success so far. I am seeing students come in asking about who is still in it and who has been eliminated, I hear students talking about who they think will win and discussing why they pick one work over another. I was really surprised by some of the giants of art history who were eliminated in the first round. Picasso, Warhol, Rembrandt and Pollock were all knocked out. Students were delighted when I shared that Pollock was actually eliminated by his wife, Lee Krasner. I didn't think of this when I first started the tournament, but it has provided a hook to get students more interested when I can share tidbits and connections among artists. My entry routine for a few years has been for students to come in and there would be a 5 minute student-led discussion about a work of art on the board. From now until the end of the school year, students come in and scan a QR co

A Better Way to Make a Hand Turkey

In November it seems inevitable that hand turkeys start creeping into the classroom. When I was younger it would drive me nuts. I used to ban the hand turkey from my classroom because it seemed too lazy to me. Of course, like most things I loathed when I was young, I have matured and come to realize I was looking at it all wrong. Kids make hand turkeys not out of laziness, but because they want to be successful and their parents often enjoy the cute hand crafted keepsakes if you will forgive my pun. Instead if trying to stop kids from doing what they like, I realized my job is to meet them where they are then help them elevate their work. If they want to trace their hands, why not use that tracing as a basis for a paper sculpture or cut the hand from a slab of clay and make it a keepsake their parents can enjoy for years (while also teaching hand building techniques ever ceramic artist should know). I created this video years ago to show kids how they can make a hand turkey paper s

Post Impressionist Painting

I'm working with my second grade students to create Post-Impressionist landscape masterpieces. One thing that I find helpful is starting by looking at some work by artists like Monet, then working through some Post Impressionists like van Gogh and finally I like to end with Matisse. As we compare and contrast, by the time we get to Matisse, kids are noticing how Post-Impressionists tend to have wilder color that is less realistic than the Impressionists. Once, kids make this discovery by themselves, I like to pose the question of why artists would choose to paint with such wild colors. The natural response from a number of kids tends to be something like "to be creative" or "to make it pretty."While these answers have some truth to them, I then like to expand on kids knowledge base. One of the things I think is under appreciated about Impressionism and Post-Impressionism is the role of technology in influencing their work. The camera came about in the mid to l

Wood Art Ed

Search This Blog