No User Name Required ...

... in Art.

On Monday Richard Byrne posted "Seven Registration-Free Drawing Tools for Students" in his blog Free Technology for Teachers. Make sure to read his blog post, the drawing tools are really cool. Best of all these are web-based and students do not have to have a log-in to start drawing.

The one that I liked the most was Bomomo. When you go to that web site, you have a blank screen with circles moving around. Your mouse controls the circles. At the bottom of the screen are all sorts of patterns that you can use to create art. As you choose different patterns, different colors are chosen also. 

Below is my art from Bomomo. I think it turned out pretty well.

One of the really cool things is that after creating your art work, you can then save it. I uploaded this art into PicMonkey and added my name to the artwork. (By the way, PicMonkey is another website that you don't have to register for and parts of it is free!)

Go and find your inner artist!

Is a Tall Tale really tall?

Recently a Wonder-of-the-Day from Wonderopolis really got me thinking (but I guess that is what it is supposed to do): Why do they call it a "Tall Tale"?

Focusing on reading genres, like Tall Tales, was something I really enjoyed when I was in the classroom. We would do genre studies where we would explore many examples of a certain genre type and then talk about the similarities and characteristics we found. I also liked to introduce a variety of vocabulary words that could be associated with the genre. Wonderopolis has done a great job of pulling all those thing together! I could have used their help several years ago when I was trying to do all that. :)

I did a search on ReadWriteThink to find resources on Tall Tales:

• A lesson plan: Thundering Tall Tales: Using Read-Aloud as a Springboard to Writing
• A tall tales booklist
• A writing rubric for students to provide evidence that the stories they have written contain elements important in a tall tale
• A sequencing activity: Did Paul Bunyan gouge out the Grand Canyon before or after he dug the Great Lakes? Students create a life-sized timeline showing the sequence of events in this tall tale.
• A podcast: Gifts come in all shapes and sizes, and the characters in these four tall tales have plenty of unusual gifts to keep you reading all winter. Listen in to hear about them and to meet Ingrid Law, the author of Savvy and Scumble.

I also searched for Tall Tales resources on ArtsEdge:

• Tall Tales Today: Where have all the heroes gone?
• Exploring American Tall Tales: What can our tall tales tell us about the American spirit?

*Wonderopolis, ReadWriteThink, and ArtsEdge are all Thinkfinity Content Partners!!

image from http://www.flickr.com/photos/65172294@N00/4285640113

Fun Interactive Art Sites for Students

I came across theses sites while I was looking for some resources that can be used with either a SMARTBoard or ActivBoard in the classroom. All of these are fun, creative, interactive sites for students to express themselves through art.


Destination Modern Art: This is a website that helps children ages 5 to 8 to learn about Art by participating in an interactive journey through New York's Museum of Modern Art (MoMA).
Students will learn about the art works of MoMA by investigating the works of art, learning about artists, their techniques, and their inspirations. Students have the ability to participate in the online activities at school or at home.

NGA Kids: National Gallery of Art. A complete interactive site that allows students to create and learn about Art. Students are able to create their own artwork in the Faces & Places, Art Zone, Brushter, Photo Op, NGAkids Jungle, Collage Machine and Flow. The site also offers a Calendar of Events of exhibits, as well as interactive lessons for students from the NGAClassroom link.

Curious Corner: Art Institute of Chicago. A website designed for children and students ages 3 to 12 to help them to learn and understand the world of Art. Students will be able to investigate artworks from around the world and then be able to connect them to their own experiences through interactive activities.

Learn About Color: A website created by The Metropolitan Museum of Art to help children learn their colors. Students are asked to color in William the Elephant with the primary colors. In the site students are asked to mix the colors together to make as many new colors as they can.

These are just a handful of sites to help your students to learn the painters and sculptors of the worlds most famous artworks and to bolster their knowledge of what Art has done through out history. These websites can easily be used with your Interactive Whiteboards or stand alone computers in your classroom or computer labs with your students.

It's about the Arts: Jazz, Dance,Theatre & More

Several schools in the WSFCS school system offer an impressive list of arts related courses. For example courses offered include Jazz band, dance and theatrical courses beyond the basics. Resources for teachers teaching the art, students participating in the arts and even parents encouraging student participation are available via the Internet. Consider visiting the following website to find historical information, digital media and lesson plans:
http://artsedge.kennedy-center.org
http://www.arts.gov/
http://www.tagart.org/
http://www.pbs.org/jazz/
http://www.smithsonianjazz.org/http://
www.neajazzintheschools.org/home.php
To learn more about the Arts Education Foundation for the Arts, visit their website at National Endowment for the Art. To learn more how the information in relevant to the North Carolina curriculum visit the NCDPI website.

Coloring pages: Creating visual art

Coloring pages are an underestimated resource. However, several parents and teachers alike use them for fun activities. Even more students tend to enjoy coloring them. During the process preschoolers may develop skills, like coloring within the lines. This favorite past-time also lends itself to teachable moments when discussing plants, animals, and when learning the alphabets using relatable objects.

The internet provides teachers’ access to several coloring page websites in which a good number of them are free. One such website, Crayola offers coloring pages with lesson plans. In the classroom teachers of K-2 students may find this website as well as the ones listed below useful when teaching visual arts.

http://pbskids.org/coloring/
http://www.coloring-pages-kids.com/
http://familyfun.go.com/printables/coloring-pages/
http://www.fisher-price.com/us/fun/coloring/