TeachersFirst - Featured Sites: Week of Aug 11, 2019
Here are this week's features. Clicking the tags in the description area of each listing will present a list of other resources with this topic. | Click here to return to the Featured Sites Archive
CurriConnects Booklist: The Artist's Eye - TeachersFirst
Grades
K to 12tag(s): artists (77), colors (65), drawing (60), perspective (11)
In the Classroom
This list will be a natural fit for anyone teaching art whether in elementary, middle, or high school. Use the books to introduce concepts in art and have students create digital sketchbooks about the styles and concepts they like. Replace the paper journal or sketchbook with one that can be accessed anywhere and never left behind. Use a digital "idea bin" collector like Padlet, reviewed here, that offers tools for creating shelves or grids to organize information about the concepts learned and post ideas and photos. Be sure to share this list of CurriConnects books about art with parents on your teacher webpage.You must be registered and logged in to add items to your favorites.
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ABCYA Paint - ABCya!
Grades
K to 4tag(s): digital storytelling (142), drawing (60), painting (55), preK (254)
In the Classroom
Share how to use this site on an interactive whiteboard or with a projector then allow students to explore on their own. Have students create drawings to demonstrate math problems, share science experiments, or draw scenes from a story. Include students' drawings in a digital portfolio like Seesaw, reviewed here. Seesaw offers tools for uploading images and creating an audio recording to share their reflections on their work.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Of the People: Art and History of the White House - Discovery Education
Grades
6 to 12tag(s): art history (85), presidents (120), video (256), white house (15)
In the Classroom
Before viewing this video, challenge students to brainstorm what a curator's job is and what kind of artifacts they might find in the White House. After viewing, extend learning by having students create a simple infographic of important White House artifacts sharing their findings using Venngage, reviewed here. Ask students to curate their own collection of items such as things found in their room at home, a collection of items from your school, or a collection of artifacts from your hometown. Create a book featuring these items using Ourboox, reviewed here. Ourboox creates beautiful page-flipping digital books in minutes, and you can embed video, music, animation, games, maps and more truly redefining learning.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Pencil Code Gym - David Bau
Grades
K to 12tag(s): coding (87), computational thinking (41), critical thinking (112), digital storytelling (142), drawing (60), geometric shapes (135), musical notation (35), problem solving (225)
In the Classroom
Create a link on classroom computers for use as centers. Use the text options for students to use with digital storytelling. This site is perfect for differentiating different levels of coding skills. Allow students to explore at their own pace, then share their creations with classmates. Extend learning by challenging students or groups to create videos explaining their creations using Adobe Creative Cloud Express Video Maker, reviewed here, and share them on a site such as TeacherTube, reviewed here. Be sure to add a link to your class website for students to practice at home.Comments
Great resource for all ages, more appropriate for middle school and above.Melissa, , Grades: 0 - 5
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Philadelphia Museum of Art Teacher Resources - Philadelphia Museum of Art
Grades
K to 12tag(s): art history (85), artists (77)
In the Classroom
Bookmark and save this site as a resource for art projects throughout the year, especially if budget cuts have taken away your art teacher! Use this site as a way to get students interested in art and its relationship with other subject areas and its relevance in our life.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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I Am an Artist - RTE and the National Centre for Technology in Education
Grades
K to 5tag(s): colors (65), crafts (50), creativity (92), design (82), drawing (60), makerspace (41), painting (55), sculpture (21)
In the Classroom
Become art smart with resources from the I Am an Artist site. Use the collection of videos to flip your art instruction. Search through the lesson plans and activity sheets to provide hands-on, minds-on activities for your students. Use the videos or the slide shows as an anticipatory set or "activator" to introduce a unit or lesson on a projector or interactive whiteboard. Have students or groups collect ideas and thoughts from the slides using Padlet, reviewed here. Use a visual blogging tool such as Telegra.ph, reviewed here, to upload the students art work - no registration required! If you are teaching younger students try using Seesaw, reviewed here. The students can blog about their work, upload their artwork, and even create an online portfolio. Browse through the resources to see what can be used in your makerspace. Host an art show at your school for families and the communities to showcase the students' creativity. Your students can describe their work as visitors explore the gallery. Use the activities as stations during your art show for participants to create their own art. Many of the lessons on the site are cross-curricular.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Artyfactory - Artyfactory.com
Grades
1 to 12This site includes advertising.
tag(s): africa (137), art history (85), artists (77), bulletin boards (14), design (82), egypt (45), perspective (11)
In the Classroom
In the art classroom, find ways to add technology to instruction using your projector or interactive whiteboard and demonstrating different techniques found on Artyfactory. For project based learning in any class, share this tool as a resource to add visual impact to students' research projects. Social studies teachers can include lessons about making African masks during units about that continent. Include Egyptian Hieroglyphic Alphabet, Cartouche, and Gods during a unit on the Egyptians. Science (or geometry) teachers will want to explore the lessons on visual patterns in nature as a way to capture the interest of your visual learners. Use these tutorials to integrate visual arts into any topic. Encourage your artistically inclined students to explore on their own. Explore this site before a trip to an art museum or to find inspiration for a display or culminating project in any teaching unit. You may even find some bulletin board ideas for your classroom! Ask students to extend their learning and document the stages by taking photos of their art and editing them and making a collage with Photopea, reviewed here. Encourage older students to keep their work in a portfolio for future use with Spaces, reviewed here.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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The Color - TheColor.com
Grades
K to 2This site includes advertising.
tag(s): alphabet (51), animals (278), birds (42), colors (65), continents (32), dinosaurs (38), holidays (159), numbers (119), nursery rhymes (9), planets (111), preK (254), presidents (120), space (212), transportation (32)
In the Classroom
Bookmark this site as a resource for coloring pages in many different topics. Share a link to the site with parents for practice at home. Color pictures of the continents during geography lessons. Explore the dinosaur coloring pages during dinosaur month.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Coloring Squared - Cameron Krantzman
Grades
K to 6This site includes advertising.
tag(s): addition (128), counting (60), decimals (84), division (98), fractions (159), multiplication (122), operations (72), percent (58), place value (34), subtraction (109), worksheets (70)
In the Classroom
Not every math solution is black and white. Add some color to your teaching and review. Coloring Squared activities are great for station work, enrichment, or support. Students can write short stories using their picture for a cross-curricular activity. Final pictures are great for math bulletin boards. Looking for assignments for students to complete after their math work is finished? Coloring squared will keep the students engaged. Send this link home for students to use (and print) both in and out of the classroom.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Murder at the Met: An American Art Mystery - The Metropolitan Museum of Art
Grades
5 to 12tag(s): art history (85), artists (77), critical thinking (112), interactive stories (20), mysteries (19), thinking skills (14)
In the Classroom
Whether teaching art history or a unit on mysteries and deductive reasoning, students will learn from using this program. Though there is a place for students to keep notes, they should also keep their own notes about the clues, especially why they chose the ones they mark "highly suspicious." Replace paper and pencil by using a tool like Memo Notepad, reviewed here, for digital note taking. If you and your students liked this site you might also enjoy "Mysterious Places: Ancient Civilizations Modern Mysteries," reviewed here, with its lovely photographs to go along with the mysteries. A natural follow up would be to have your students write their own mysteries. Expository Escapades - Detective's Handbook, reviewed here, is just the place to give you some ideas! Challenge gifted students to create similar mysteries using subject matter in any science or social studies class.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Draw A Stickman - drawastickman.com
Grades
1 to 10tag(s): creative writing (122), digital storytelling (142), directions (12), drawing (60), interactive stories (20)
In the Classroom
Aside from just fun practice at following instructions, Draw a Stickman would be a great fictional story prompt. Students have the bones of a story and can fill in details, vivid verbs, adjectives, etc. to tell the story. This would be a good practice activity with writing sequences of "first, then, and next." Students can elaborate on their hero, the plot of the story, the details, the setting, etc. Students can write a moral for a story to add in the customized ending. These stories would be fun to share as a class...how wide a variety can come from the same basics? Share finished stories with a talking avatar using a photo or other image (legally permitted to be reproduced). The avatars can "read" the story. Use a site such as Blabberize, reviewed here. Teach story mapping easily with this activity: On an interactive whiteboard (or projector), students can go through the stick figure story together, labeling the different parts of the story (beginning, problem, climax, resolution, ending). This interactive can help students identify story elements, including setting, characters and plot. This site would also be perfect for ENL/ELL students for practice in reading and following directions or for speech/language students to practice retelling a story from the visual prompts. Another idea: use this activity for verb/vocabulary practice in a world language class.Comments
This will be a great fill-in activity when my students finish their assignments. I can't wait to use it!Beverly, TX, Grades: 6 - 12
Love this! So creative. I know the kids will love it too and I think the learning activities sound very promising too.Jeannie, MI, Grades: 0 - 5
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Science Coloring Books - NIEHS
Grades
K to 2tag(s): colors (65), drawing (60), environment (238), preK (254)
In the Classroom
Use this site as an engaging way to reinforce science concepts introduced in class. Share the printables with children to take home. Show children how the spectrum appears naturally in biology. You can also use the pictures as jumping off points for discussion. Another option that encourages creativity is a drawing game using javascript.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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