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

 

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CurriConnects Booklist: The Artist's Eye - TeachersFirst

Grades
K to 12
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This CurriConnects features books about artists and their style and Caldecott winning authors who have unusual or beautiful layouts. Treat your students to the possibility of exploring...more
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This CurriConnects features books about artists and their style and Caldecott winning authors who have unusual or beautiful layouts. Treat your students to the possibility of exploring color and its power to communicate feelings and ideas, that art can be in the eye of the beholder, finding art (and joy) in the shapes of nature, different ways to look at perspective, and much, much more! This thematic list includes fiction and nonfiction, interest and grade levels, ISBNs for ordering or searching, ESL levels and Lexiles (where available) to match with student independent reading levels to challenge, not to frustrate.

tag(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.

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ABCYA Paint - ABCya!

Grades
K to 4
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Engage in digital storytelling using the many features included at ABCYA Paint. Choose from the included tools to spray paint, draw, add stickers, and more. When finished, save as a...more
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Engage in digital storytelling using the many features included at ABCYA Paint. Choose from the included tools to spray paint, draw, add stickers, and more. When finished, save as a PNG file to your computer or print.

tag(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.
 

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Of the People: Art and History of the White House - Discovery Education

Grades
6 to 12
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Go behind the scenes for an in-depth video discussion of the art and history of the White House with White House Curator William Allman. The actual discussion begins after the ...more
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Go behind the scenes for an in-depth video discussion of the art and history of the White House with White House Curator William Allman. The actual discussion begins after the 14-minute mark on the video with an interview led by a high school student.

tag(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.

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Pencil Code Gym - David Bau

Grades
K to 12
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Code your own art, music, and interactive fiction with Pencil Code Gym. The main language is Coffescript, but you can click the word Reference in the upper left corner to ...more
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Code your own art, music, and interactive fiction with Pencil Code Gym. The main language is Coffescript, but you can click the word Reference in the upper left corner to use HTML for writing tags in your code. Pencil Code also supports Javascript and CSS. Follow instructions to code using drag and drop blocks or text. Toggle back and forth between the two formats to view the different formats. Click the pencil in the upper left corner to see several resources including Materials for Teachers, Teachers Manual, Printable Activities, and several others. The wide range of activities make this site perfect for use with students of all levels of coding abilities. When complete, share finished projects on "GymStage", the sharing portion of Pencil Code Gym.

tag(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 12
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This tool is a great lesson plan resource for correlating art with other curricular areas! First, scroll down to Featured Resources, Resources by Subject Matter, or Resources by Grade...more
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This tool is a great lesson plan resource for correlating art with other curricular areas! First, scroll down to Featured Resources, Resources by Subject Matter, or Resources by Grade Level. Curricular Areas include Language Arts, Mathematics, Science, Social Studies, STEAM, Social Justice, Critical Thinking, and several others. Click the resulting lessons to view a PDF that includes links to artwork images at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, Common Core standards, and a detailed lesson plan.

tag(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.
 This resource requires PDF reader software like Adobe Acrobat.

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I Am an Artist - RTE and the National Centre for Technology in Education

Grades
K to 5
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Bring art alive for young students. Paint and color, clay, fabric and fiber, drawing, construction, and print are the six strands of visual art covered by I Am An Artist. ...more
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Bring art alive for young students. Paint and color, clay, fabric and fiber, drawing, construction, and print are the six strands of visual art covered by I Am An Artist. Click on a strand to view short videos, about six minutes in length, designed to keep your attention. Each strand also has a "Look and Respond" stimulating slide show with discussion questions. The "Can You?" section under each visual strand provides steps for a hands-on explanation. I Am an Artist allows you to explore the visual arts with various materials and tools, allowing students to express their world in a visual, tangible form. The "For Teachers" section on each strand page provides child-centered lessons developed to foster creativity and design with printable activity sheets. The site also provides weblinks and interactive games on a wide range of visual arts topics. Explore the I Am an Artist Gallery for examples. Find information about how to submit your own work to the gallery. The content for I Am an Artist has been created in consultation with Irish teachers.

tag(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.
 This resource requires PDF reader software like Adobe Acrobat.

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Artyfactory - Artyfactory.com

Grades
1 to 12
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Learn to draw, paint, or design following step-by-step tutorials from Artyfactory. Discover basic techniques of drawing and painting through Still Life lessons. Practice perspective,...more
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Learn to draw, paint, or design following step-by-step tutorials from Artyfactory. Discover basic techniques of drawing and painting through Still Life lessons. Practice perspective, proportions, drawing animals and portraits, and more. Artyfactory's slideshows are an engaging way to increase your knowledge of art, art appreciation, and design.
This 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.

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The Color - TheColor.com

Grades
K to 2
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Find and choose from 100's of online coloring pages sorted into categories at The Color. Choose from holiday categories, colors, alphabet, occupations, continents, dinosaurs,...more
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Find and choose from 100's of online coloring pages sorted into categories at The Color. Choose from holiday categories, colors, alphabet, occupations, continents, dinosaurs, nursery rhymes, numbers, and much more. Click on an image to begin coloring. You can color online or print the page to color on paper. Share finished images via email using the link provided. Registration isn't necessary, but if you register you may save finished projects for later viewing.
This 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.

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Coloring Squared - Cameron Krantzman

Grades
K to 6
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Are you looking to add some color to your math instruction? Need a break from the black and white worksheet? Coloring Squared offers free pages to teach and review math ...more
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Are you looking to add some color to your math instruction? Need a break from the black and white worksheet? Coloring Squared offers free pages to teach and review math concepts. Determine the solution and color the squares based on a key found on every page to reveal a pixel art puzzle. While the math may be puzzling, enjoy coloring the squares to generate a fun, pixelated picture. Aligned to the Common Core Math Standards, the free pages offer supplementary materials for counting, addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, fractions, decimals, percents, and place value.
This 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.
 This resource requires PDF reader software like Adobe Acrobat.

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Murder at the Met: An American Art Mystery - The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Grades
5 to 12
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Find a mystery in art, and use art to solve the mystery. Tour American paintings, sculpture, and decorative arts that reside at The Metropolitan Museum of Art to solve the ...more
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Find a mystery in art, and use art to solve the mystery. Tour American paintings, sculpture, and decorative arts that reside at The Metropolitan Museum of Art to solve the murder of Virginie Gautreau AKA Madame X, painted by John Singer Sargent. The scenario is an evening gala in 1899, and you put clues together using either your mobile devices or a computer. Players must examine the art work since you are witnesses. There are possible weapons and crime scenes. There are three possible avenues to take to reach the solution, so the game can be played multiple times.

tag(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.

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Draw A Stickman - drawastickman.com

Grades
1 to 10
14 Favorites 2  Comments
 
Draw A Stickman is a delightful, entertaining site that encourages creativity and fun! This is a mini interactive story that has students reading and following directions, solving...more
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Draw A Stickman is a delightful, entertaining site that encourages creativity and fun! This is a mini interactive story that has students reading and following directions, solving mysteries, thinking creatively, and solving problems. Start by selecting an episode, then begin the adventure, you draw a simple stick figure and then bring him or her to life. Your figure is faced with several challenges; you must follow directions and draw several props for your stick figure to use. You will love the hero of the story (the character you created) and the villain (a dragon). Finished stories can be replayed or shared on Facebook, Twitter, or email. There is also an online gallery for students to explore and view others' creations.

tag(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 2
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These lesson plans and activities from the National Institutes of Health, Department of Health & Human Services offer both online and printable versions of coloring books and pages...more
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These lesson plans and activities from the National Institutes of Health, Department of Health & Human Services offer both online and printable versions of coloring books and pages on science and health topics: from personal hygiene to environmental awareness. After you give a brief introduction to the visual spectrum of colors, you can select to color pages or to print a coloring book. Topics include dental health, plants, fitness, weather, healthy eating, and more.

tag(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.
 This resource requires PDF reader software like Adobe Acrobat.

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