Category Archives: Lesson plans

MORE Art Books to Read Online for Free

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Stop the presses!  I just discovered a FABULOUS source for online children’s picture books. TumbleBooks, available online for free through some Public Libraries in the U.S.

Some libraries require viewers to hold a library card, but some do not.

WANT TO TRY IT OUT? Google ‘Tumblebooks free’ or try my steps below.

STEP 1: 

Start by clicking  here and CLICK ON ‘Tumblebooks’ or this icon

 

STEP 2:

Select a book for computer or iPad

Here are three winners for young children.

1. Art’s Supplies by Chris Tougas.   Also available for iPad.

Art’s Supplies by Chris Tougas

2. Ish by Peter H. Reynolds

 

Ish

 

 

3. Purple, Green, Yellow by Robert Munsch and Helene Desputeaux

Purple, Green and Yellow

 

BONUS: SUB PLAN PLAYLIST FOR GRADES K-1

The three books are available as a ready-made playlist running 17 minutes. Project and go!

Go to your local library’s website and see if they offer Tumblebooks. Some school districts offer it as well – check out the school library’s website. Tumblebooks has some iPad books for kids as well (note: I was unable to read Tumblebooks on my iPhone).

Enjoy!! Leave a comment if this works for you. Do you have a favorite Tumblebook?

Want more? Check out these additional art books to read online for free.

p.s. Got an iPad? Our 4th grade photography lesson is now available as a free download from the iBookstore.

You need an iPad to view it.

Cover Art

iPad Alphabet Photography

Rina Vinetz, Cara Spitzmiller & Angie Tremble

Category: Education

 

Art Books to Read Online (for free!)

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Did you know there are a lot of art books you can read online for free? The Guggenheim Museum has 65 art books online, including a 1964 catalog from my favorite sculptor, Alexander Calder.

While we are on the topic of Alexander Calder, how about a book for kids?

This book from wegivebooks.org works great with a laptop or computer/projector.

Sandy’s Circus by Tanya Lee Stone is for primary grade students and is available in full color from wegivebooks.org.

Picasso and Matisse are lots of fun for kids. Storylineonline.net has lots of books for kids, all read out loud, including When Pigasso met Mootisse by Nina Laden.

How about a cool, retro how-to-draw book? You can read What to Draw and How to Draw It online.  The second graders loved drawing owls using the illustrations in this book.

Enjoy!

p.s. I heard about all four books via Pinterest.

Want more art books to read online for free? Check out this post.

Best of the Fair: Clay

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Everyone loves clay!  I went to the San Diego County Fair in June, and saw three fabulous clay projects in the youth art show.

1. The Golden Horses (Fifth grade and up)

Fifth graders made these horses. I love how the horse is balancing on tail and two legs.

 

These are made with some sort of clay on a wire armature.  I am not sure if it is air dry, polymer or regular ceramic clay. I think polymer clay on a floral wire and foil armature, oven baked and then sprayed gold would work. You could use all those horse calendars as reference photos, plus any model or toy horses if you have them (when I was growing up, some of my horse-crazy friends collected them).

 

Fabulous mane, tail and hooves.

2. Name Art Tile (Fifth grade and up)

Name art tile

 

Do you have a multi-slab clay cutter? I do, and it looks like this was made using two slabs. Gorgeous! Love the combination of incised and overlapping shapes. This would be a project that parents and students would treasure for many years.

3. Multi-Color Coil Bowls

Top view of the bowl

Top view of another bowl

Love the coil feet!

 

I don’t think I can guess all the steps that went into making these bowls. I will add you will have to add and dry those coil feet when the bowl is inverted – otherwise the feet will collapse under the weight of the bowl.

Happy summer!

Want to see more fair projects? Check out this post.

Best of the Fair: Famous Artist Group Art

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Happy summer! I just visited the youth art display at the San Diego County Fair. I saw three fabulous murals you might want to try with your students. All the artworks were made using the downloadable materials available at Art Projects for Kids.
The Van Gogh-inspired murals look completely different from one another. Each used different media. The bottom mural was made using oil pastel.
The assembled Miro-inspired mural was entirely covered in little balls of colored tissue paper. I have never seen anything like it! It looked like a carpet.

Unfortunately, I did not see the names of the teachers who made these wonderful projects with their students. If you know who did – please leave a comment!

P.S. – I am a big fan of the APFK downloadable murals. I did the Seurat mural with two 4th grade classes, and wrote about it in this post.

iPad Alphabet Photography Collages

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Just finished the fourth grade iPad Alphabet photography collages.

I am thrilled with the results!

Our fourth graders shot color letter photos in our school garden, using camera-equipped iPads and iPod touches. I wrote about the first two days of this process in this post.

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On Day 3, students brought iPads to the art room (note: make sure your tables are super clean!). Students partnered up to help each other during the photo selection and editing process. First they selected their single best photo. Using the basic photo edit in the device, the students cropped their photos, changed them to black and white, then saved to the device’s camera roll.

Next, students emailed me their best single b&w photos.

I used a Mac computer equipped with iPhoto to sort the photos. Whatever photo editing application you use, I highly suggest creating a folder for each letter.

To create the group collages, I used the free website Pic Monkey. It was easy to create a grid and upload the 26 letter photos for each collage. I even added a frame and text before saving the photo. Note: Pic Monkey requires Flash and cannot be used on an iPad. Also, if you use Pic Monkey, plan on filling that grid in one sitting as you cannot save work to the site.

I’m not going to lie – the whole process took a lot of time. I did the collages at home after hours. I am not a photographer, and there was a lot of trial and error.
I will teach it differently next time, specifically:

Model cropping,
Model saving as a black and white image,
Model emailing photos to me with a correct email address, and subject line including name, teacher and letter.

I will also seek alternate iPad apps for the students, and photo collage apps for me.

Have you taught a photo project using iPads? Please share!

UPDATE: DONE! I finished the iBook for this lesson plan. It contains all the alphabet photos and collages.

You need an iPad to read it. Here is the link

 

 

 

Check out this book on the iBookstore:

Cover Art

iPad Alphabet Photography

Rina Vinetz, Cara Spitzmiller & Angie Tremble

Category: Education
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