Best of the Fair: Famous Artist Group Art

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Happy summer! I just visited the youth art display at the San Diego County Fair. I saw three fabulous murals you might want to try with your students. All the artworks were made using the downloadable materials available at Art Projects for Kids.
The Van Gogh-inspired murals look completely different from one another. Each used different media. The bottom mural was made using oil pastel.
The assembled Miro-inspired mural was entirely covered in little balls of colored tissue paper. I have never seen anything like it! It looked like a carpet.

Unfortunately, I did not see the names of the teachers who made these wonderful projects with their students. If you know who did – please leave a comment!

P.S. – I am a big fan of the APFK downloadable murals. I did the Seurat mural with two 4th grade classes, and wrote about it in this post.

iPad Alphabet Photography Collages

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Just finished the fourth grade iPad Alphabet photography collages.

I am thrilled with the results!

Our fourth graders shot color letter photos in our school garden, using camera-equipped iPads and iPod touches. I wrote about the first two days of this process in this post.

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On Day 3, students brought iPads to the art room (note: make sure your tables are super clean!). Students partnered up to help each other during the photo selection and editing process. First they selected their single best photo. Using the basic photo edit in the device, the students cropped their photos, changed them to black and white, then saved to the device’s camera roll.

Next, students emailed me their best single b&w photos.

I used a Mac computer equipped with iPhoto to sort the photos. Whatever photo editing application you use, I highly suggest creating a folder for each letter.

To create the group collages, I used the free website Pic Monkey. It was easy to create a grid and upload the 26 letter photos for each collage. I even added a frame and text before saving the photo. Note: Pic Monkey requires Flash and cannot be used on an iPad. Also, if you use Pic Monkey, plan on filling that grid in one sitting as you cannot save work to the site.

I’m not going to lie – the whole process took a lot of time. I did the collages at home after hours. I am not a photographer, and there was a lot of trial and error.
I will teach it differently next time, specifically:

Model cropping,
Model saving as a black and white image,
Model emailing photos to me with a correct email address, and subject line including name, teacher and letter.

I will also seek alternate iPad apps for the students, and photo collage apps for me.

Have you taught a photo project using iPads? Please share!

UPDATE: DONE! I finished the iBook for this lesson plan. It contains all the alphabet photos and collages.

You need an iPad to read it. Here is the link

 

 

 

Check out this book on the iBookstore:

Cover Art

iPad Alphabet Photography

Rina Vinetz, Cara Spitzmiller & Angie Tremble

Category: Education

Roar! Lion Paintings (and a book) for First Grade

First graders love lions. They are sure to enjoy this fabulous painting lesson from the John Post website.

I allowed two 40-minute sessions for the drawIng and painting. After the paint dried, students glued pieces of colorful yarn onto the mane.

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Inspiration for the yarn mane came from Splish, Splash, Splatter.

If you have extra time after gluing, you may want to read a book to the class. I like the website www.wegivebooks.org. It features full length, full color children’s books online to read for free. It works great with the computer and projector in my art room. We recently read Tinga Tinga Tales -Why Lion Roarrrs!

Ocean Week Comic Contest Winners – the Beginning and End!

Today’s comic contest winners represent the beginning (kindergarten) and end (6th grade).  Please enjoy “The X-Shark” by Tyce C. (6th grade) and “The Adventures of Starfish Woman and Sharkman” By Cash B. (kindergarten).

 

"The X-Shark" by Tyce C.

"The Adventures of Starfish Woman and Shark Man" by Cash B.

That wraps up this year’s Ocean Week Comic Contest. Other winning comics are in these posts: 1st grade, 2nd grade, 3rd grade, 5th grade, grand prize winner/4th grade.

 

First Grade Comic Contest Superheroes!

First graders rock! Our Ocean Week comic winners are both from the first grade.  Please enjoy “The Adventures of Awesome Angler and Shadowy Shark” by Jack C. and “The Adventures of Strike the Shark” by Lucas C.

"The Adventures of Awesome Angler and Shadowy Shark!" by Jack C.

"Awesome Angler, Hero of the Deep" by Jack C.

"The Adventures of Strike the Shark" by Lucas C.

(hmmmm…..in my experience, seven-year old boys and sharks go together like peanut butter and jelly!)

Lots more Ocean Week Comic Contest winners here, here, here, and here.

Tune in next time for our very last Comic Contest post!

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