Be prepared to lose hours of your life to doodling once you click over to Draw a Stickman. How could you use this in the classroom? To teach and reinforce vocabulary for ELL students, to assess the following of written directions for children with disabilities, to inspire a reluctant writer, to teach young students how to use a mouse, to practice the drawing of [read more…]
Inspire your artists and your writers
Today’s pick works well for any age and has great potential for differentiation. Storybird is a unique website bringing artists and writers together. Artists submit collections of their art and authors can use it to create storybooks for themselves or to share with others.
My own children love to create stories using clip art but the images are mismatched and often detract from the story rather than enhance it. You won’t have this problem with Storybird. In fact, you will find that you end up with a product that looks ready for publication!
Small children will love creating stories on the site; the images are varied and include monsters, animals, and fairy tale characters. Storybird is also a great [read more…]
On-line collages
If you are looking for a quick formative assessment or a way to let your artistic students shine, you have to visit Photovisi. Students simply select a template, drop the photos into place, and print to create their product.
Photo collages can be quick alternatives (or supplements) to an essay or quiz. Or for a student with a disability, they can be part of a larger assessment and used to highlight key skills a student has acquired over a period of time (e.g., photo of student learning to use [read more…]
Treble clef music stations
If you have read Differentiation Daily at all in the last year or two, you know I love using stations to differentiate instruction in mixed-ability classrooms. I especially love seeing stations in classrooms where we don’t often see them….like in the music teacher’s lesson plans. For this reason, I had to feature Mrs. King Music Class for the idea about [read more…]
Gorgeous sugar skulls
How about a cool seasonal project on the day before the month ends? These sugar skull art projects are beautiful, offer great opportunities to teach and learn about The Day of the Dead and they require few materials. Teacher/blogger Patty Palmer even includes some ideas about teaching and supporting younger learners or those with fine motor problems. She knows that all students may not be able to draw the skull outline without support so she offers coloring book templates and sits down with individual students who may need help [read more…]
An all-ages painting party
I stumbled onto Art with Mr. E and began to look for posts about differentiation. I intended to browse for five minutes and thirty minutes later I had to snap myself out of a trance and return to writing my own blog posts. There was just so much to explore on this colorful site! I could have picked several ideas to feature, but I was most inspired by this fabulous post about a [read more…]
Got any Impressionism?
Today’s idea will help art teachers build community in the classroom while allowing students to express their individual viewpoints as artists.
Students at Becker Middle School created artist trading cards. While learning about color, line, and texture, they created 2.5 by 3.5 inch cards to showcase elements of art as well as their own [read more…]
Collective (and recycled) art
I love art that is collaborative in nature because it builds community and a sense of togetherness while allowing different students to contribute in different ways. Some students may draft the picture, while others organize the roles and responsibilities of the artists, for example. This bulletin board is especially cool because it created entirely from plastic bottle tops– fabulous, right?
Want more cool art ideas or additional [read more…]
“All about me” for everyone
Anyone in the midst of an “all about me” unit? If so, you will want to visit Mrs. Lee’s Kindergarten blog. Not only does she share a whole host of ideas, she includes several photos of the lessons. This unit contains lessons and activities that will speak to every type of learner. She has name pictures for [read more…]
On-line collages: art and assessment
If you are looking for a quick formative assessment or a way to let your artistic students shine, you have to visit Photovisi. Students simply select a template, drop the photos into place, and print to create their product.
Photo collages can be quick alternatives (or supplements) to an essay or quiz. Or for a student with a disability, they can be part of a larger assessment and used to highlight key skills a student has acquired over a period of time (e.g., photo of student learning to use communication device, photo of student working with peers).
Finally, you can use this tool to [Read more…]
