Teaching the Art Elements with Google Slides

In June we were on a two-days-a-week schedule. It was kind of tricky because the specialist classes had to be scheduled in. Some specialists also had MYP classes, and the upper school was on a different schedule which added to the trickiness.

The art teacher asked for some extra time, so I offered her a class period thinking she would come in and teach. I was wrong and was given a lesson plan. Don't assume anything!

The lesson was on art elements. Students were to make rectangle art with colored paper, using the elements of art to make an art piece.

I don't know what happened - actually I do know - but the student quality was not good and most students were just slapping paper together somewhat randomly. They were not into it.

So I decided to give it another try. But the second time I wanted to use Google Slides. I thought it would be more engaging for the students and could show them some new skills like aligning and centering shapes, but also students were using coolors.co to look for color palettes and they needed devices.

The new directions were:

1. Find your slide in the Google Slide deck
2. Go to coolors.co and choose a palette
3. Make rectangles on your slide taking the space element of art into consideration.
4. How can you add texture?
5. Color the background with one color from the palette (Show how to change the background color using the HEX color)
6. Color the rectangles using other colors (Show how to add HEX color to shape)

When you are finished, add a screenshot to Seesaw and answer the questions:

1. What did you do differently this time compared to last time?
2. What elements of art did you use and where are they in your picture?

Results the second time were much better. 


Students were able to show their art (if they selected it to show) at the student led conferences. 

A Lesson in Color Mixing

Our school doesn't have a dedicated art teacher. In my 2.5 years here so far, I have incorporated a fair amount of art into my lessons, but I often use it as an add on to the lesson rather than the focus. This year, we are in the second year of the two-year cycle (or is it the first year? It's the second for me.) and we have a unit that is specifically about the elements of art.

Today my class learned about paint mixing.

I was imagining students would have these little pieces of work that showed mixing. Ideally, I wanted to see some sort of a color swatch.

Usually, I create a model for students the day before, but I didn't have a chance this time. So I thought I could do it the day of the lesson - again, I was foiled.

What I assumed some student work would look like.

When I was presenting to the students, I showed them a color swatch. I can't show it here because it is a copyrighted image, but it was one that had the colors lined up in columns.

Photo by Copper and Wild on Unsplash

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Showing ratios when mixing paint #mrhammerlund

A post shared by Thomas Hammerlund (@thomashammerlund) on Jan 23, 2020 at 11:12pm PST

The student work wasn't terrible, but it could have been better. Next time I would do a few things differently.

Student work

Warn About Mixing Dark Colors First

This is something I had been warned about before starting, so I was about to warn my students about it before we started. If I were to do this again, I would emphasize it more.


Mixing with Sticks

The popsicle sticks should stay with the colors!

I only gave the students a very little paint at first and they each got a popsicle stick. That was good. But, I forgot to remind them to just keep a stick in color.

I did tell them that they would need to mix their paints in the paint cups and most did that. You can tell when they don't by the amount of pain on the paper.

The class layout and the colors at each table

Focus More on Ratios

The ratio portion of this lesson was quick. If I were to do this again, I would go more in-depth into ratios.

One way to do this might be to have them use the site Try Colors. This site could show students the effect of adding more of one color.

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Just in case the Instagram post is ever deleted. (That's happened to me before.)

Photography in the Classroom

I first bought a digital camera when I came to Japan in 2003. Since that time I have gotten more serious and have spent a fair amount of money on it.

I have also changed the way I use the pictures I take in the classroom.

I started out taking pictures of the students in action and putting them up around the room or outside of the classroom. I still do that, but I have extended it to taking pictures for other teachers in the school as well as in my own classroom.

I also decided that the one page my students get in the yearbook did not come close to accurately

Let's Dance!

I just came across this picture I took earlier in the year.

This is a picture from one of my favorite days this year. On this day, some students in the grade 5/6 class organized dance lessons for the other elementary students.

The session was run during recess by a fifth grader who brought together those students interested in learning some dance moves. It was amazing to see how interested in dancing the students were - even the more energetic boys enjoyed it without the shenanigans.

The dance instructor for the day led the students through some moves, and then at the end she put it all together. It was great to see students taking action. I loved that this student had a passion that she wanted to share with others - and then she did it.

What can I do to encourage my students to better follow their passions next year?

What Kids Say

Today I was showing my kids some pictures from our sports day yesterday, and one boy commented on this photo by saying, "It's good but it's all boketeru [blurry]."

I tried to explain to him that the blur was a good thing because it makes it easier to see the subject.

He just smiled at me.

The Power of Music

I love music. I have been listening to music and have enjoyed singing for as long as I can remember. I picked up the guitar in college, and for several years in my twenties, I was in a band. Music has played a significant role in my life.

I know the power of music and I wanted to incorporate it more into my teaching this year. I have done more singing and dancing with my students, but wanted to write some memoriable and catchy songs related to our units. Easier said than done.

Now we are looking at the Earth and learning about the continents. The studnets had been having trouble remembering their names and suddenly I remembered that there is a continents song. I went on Youtube and found it. I am amazed at how much they like it, and how quickly they remembered the vocabulary.

I really need to write a song for my next unit.

The Story Behind the Abstract Art in the Hall

Last June we had a morning where the students went to their future teacher for the morning.

To prepare for that morning, I asked the art teacher to draw something on a big piece of cardboard I had. She drew a scene with dinosaurs in it.

I then cut the cardboard into different pieces to make a puzzle. During the "carousel morning", we painted the cardboard pieces.

The students did not know what the puzzle was, so they had no inhibitions about how they painted the parts of their puzzle; all they could see were some lines.

I wanted to have them put the puzzle together on that June morning, but the paint did not dry in time. 

The puzzle turned out to be a good first day activity. It was great to see them all [all 6 of them at the time we are now up to 7] working together to put the puzzle together. Unfortunately when I went to take a picture for the blog, I tried to shoot through the Tumblr app, but I had internet issues and I did not even think to simply take a picture with the iPad camera.

It's too bad, it was a great sight.

After they put the puzzle together, I wondered what I would do with it. I wanted to put it on the wall, but it is fairly big so I did not want to use precious bulletin board space on it. So I taped it together in the back.

Then I thought of hanging it outside my room since there was nothing out there yet anyway. Somehow I got the idea to use these heavy-duty magnets with hooks I have laying around. I used two for the base, and two to hold the top.

At least it is colorful.

Expressive Translation

Before we go on our field trip on Friday, we had to explain to the students how to make the jewelry out of rocks.

The first time I had them draw designs, they were too complicated to make and would take forever. I brought in a woman from the office to help explain to them what to do.

Puppets

My [non-native Japanese] students are creating puppets to use in a movie to practice some of their grammar and to talk about themselves.

I love how the boy with the yellow background took the time to cut as close to himself as he could. It really makes a difference.