Tag Archives: iPad

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

 

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.

20120624-060640.jpg

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

iPad Alphabet Photography for Fourth Grade

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Armed with camera-equipped iPads and iPods, our fourth graders spread out in our school garden in search of alphabet letters. Each student was assigned a letter to photograph.

Letter O

It was interesting to see how they completed the assignment: some students found letters in the branches of trees, some created letters from stones and twigs. Some poured water on the pavement to draw their letter. If they were absolutely stumped (get it?) , I let them use a letter from the garden signs. I asked students to take 5-10 photos of their letter.

I am happy to report the fourth graders LOVED looking for letters. They were completely engaged, and helped each other.  I heard a lot of shouts of “I found a T! Who has T?”

This week, students used their devices and the Pic Collage app to turn their best photos into a photo collage. I asked them to zoom in so that we could really see the letter – aim for making a letter so clear a kindergartener could recognize it. They emailed me their files and we reviewed them as a class.

Great work fourth graders!

Our fourth graders are in a pilot 1:1 iPad program, and it is a huge success. The goal is to turn all the photos into a free digital book downloadable through Apple’s iBooks store.

Inspiration for this project came from www.alphabetphotography.com.

UPDATE: see the completed whole-alphabet collages in this post.

High Tech Famous Artist Scavenger Hunt

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This year our art show featured a famous artist scavenger hunt – with a special twist : we used smartphones and QR codes to discover facts about famous artists.

We added square black and white QR (Quick Response) codes to all of our famous artist displays.

What are QR codes?

Some of you reading this are very familiar with QR (Quick Response) codes, but many are not. QR codes are square, black and white, pixellated computer-generated images. You need a smartphone (or camera-equipped iPod touch or iPad) plus a free scanner app to read a QR code.

Teacher uses a smartphone to scan the Modigliani QR code.

What happens when you ‘read’ (scan) a code with your smartphone?

Your smartphone opens to a new website, or displays text of your choice.

How To Read a QR code:

  • download a free scanner app (we use Red Laser) to your device
  • scan the QR code

Example:

Our QR (Quick Response) code for Pablo Picasso.

 

Here is the text you get when you scan QR code 8 above:

‘Pablo Picasso was born in Spain. He painted every day of his adult life. He is famous for his Cubist artworks. Kindergarteners made collage portraits inspired by Picasso’s unusual portraits.’

If you are reading this and own a smartphone, pull up this post on a laptop or computer and give it a try. I was actually able to scan my own computer screen using the Red Laser app.

How to generate your own QR codes (its easy and free):

Google ‘QR code generator’. We liked the websites http://qrcode.kaywa.com/ and http://www.qrstuff.com/

The generators allow you to add your own text. We entered a brief 250-character statement about each famous artist, and then generated the code.

Why?

Our school is piloting a 1:1 iPad/iPod touch program in the 4th grade.  The entire grade is utilizing the devices in the classroom. I thought the QR code scavenger hunt would be a fun way to integrate technology with art education, to get parents involved with technology, and just to have a fun family activity at the art show. Many parents were completely unfamiliar with codes – it was great to see kids showing their parents how to read them.

Learn More about QR codes and art ed:

I originally learned about QR codes in art education from The Teaching Palette and Mini Matisse. Thanks!

 

What about those famous artists? Check out our scavenger hunt form:

Completed scavenger hunt form.

We studied 10 artists this year. Click on the links to see the lesson plans.

1. Dale Chihuly 2. George Seurat 3. Alexander Calder 4. Claude Monet 5. Diego Rivera 6. Amadeo Modigliani 7. Wayne Thiebaud 8. Pablo Picasso 9. Wassily Kandinsky and 10. Henri Matisse

Thanks to:

Two (awesome!) fourth graders, Max and Arman, generated the QR codes for all 10 famous artists for  the 2012 art show, our 4th grade teachers, and fabulous parent volunteer M.B.G., who prepared all the forms and signage for the scavenger hunt.

 

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