5 Creative Uses for QR Codes in the Elementary Classroom
Help your children to discover this fascinating period of History with our Victorians Pack! It includes a HUGE eBook that can be used for shared reading and independent research, along with a bumper collection of teaching, activity and classroom display resources.
Wander and Wild have created some FREE printables for our community of little explorers to celebrate 'Heal Country' for NAIDOC week in 2021 and inspire and help your little ones to learn about our sacred Indigenous culture and encourage discussions about our traditional Australian landowners. We collaborated with Sheri from Bigi Nagala to create these printables. She is a proud Bidjara woman who tells Indigenous stories through her paint creations. She took our idea and ran with it to create the most beautiful paintings of Indigenous symbols which we’ve turned into FREE printables for you and your family to use and engage with.
Well, Hello there! Welcome to the High Shoals Elementary School Art room blog. Come on in and see what we are up to!
How to Create Audio QR Kids using Seesaw
Waldorf Window Stars A Simple Craft in Paper Folding IN WALDORF SCHOOLS, window stars are often displayed throughout the lower school grades to brighten the classrooms. Making one for your home can be a wonderful at-home craft to do with your little ones. What you'll need: Kite paper. We purchased ours from A Child's
One of my absolute favorite days from this school year was our Poetry Cafe. We completed a poetry unit in March this year. Yes, I know it's a month early, but it is what worked out best for our schedule! We spent the first week studying poetry and learning literary elements. My students were introduced to a lot of new vocabulary including: rhythmic pattern, rhyme, personification, alliteration, imagery, and many more poetic words. We spent each day during reading studying a certain element, and then in writing, trying it out. We kept all of our poems in a Poetry Folder. During reading I would present a type of poem, or poetic element during a mini-lesson. Students would then "search for" this element in poems that I gave them, highlighting examples. In the afternoons, my students would attempt each strategy. There results were amazing! The poet language was incredible. Even my struggling writers enjoyed the process. They loved trying different styles of poetry. My students created Alliteration Poems, Repetition Poems, Personification, Similes, Imagery, and Onomatopoeia. After practicing each strategy in isolation, they also attempted poems that included many strategies. One of my favorite lessons was on Color Poems. We used Hailstones and Halibut Bones as our mentor text. We attempted a shared class poem, and then students went off and attempted on their own. The results were amazing. Students descriptive language was incredible. One student poetically writes, "Yellow tastes like a cinnamon roll dancing on my taste buds." Another child says, "Red feels like a soft beautiful blanket that keeps me toasty warm." Yet another student shares, "Blue is the blueberries that cool my lungs. Blue sounds like peaceful music. Blue feels like the wind on my face. Blue is a magical thing!" Each student was able to beautifully describe a color using imagery and descriptive language. This was then translated into their other types of writing. After completing our study, my students turned blank books into a Poetry Anthology consisting of ten original poems, and two of their "favorite poems" by famous poets. As a culminating activity, we had a Poetry Cafe in our classroom. All family was invited into the classroom on a Friday morning. Students were asked to dress in black, and could bring in sunglasses. I (with the help of my mother, thank you mom!!) created berets for each child out of black fabric and pipe cleaners. Our Poetry Cafe was presented in true Beatnick Style. "During the 1950's and 1960's a style from the "Beat Generation" where poetry readings at small coffee shops were popular. People often dressed in black, wore sunglasses and berets, and recited poetry into microphones. Jazz music was also popular to play during the readings. Audience members would listen and snap to show appreciation of the poets." I transformed my classroom into this style with black tablecloths on the tables, a black backdrop, and silver and gold decorations with battery operated candles for ambiance. The day of the big show was incredible. We had over forty family and friends come to watch our Author's Celebration. Each child read an original poem from their completed poetry book. A PowerPoint Presentation accompanied the event. Students then read a shared class poem that I created from their definition of "What is Poetry?" It was a truly magical event, and the parents and children absolutely loved it. I believe it will be an event remembered by my students for a long time! A Class Poem created by the students in my class, describing what poetry is, using one line from each child. I was amazed by the insight from these seven year old writers. Poetry Is… Poetry is like a song that has no music. Poetry is words that you can sing. Poetry is as gentle as a flower. Poetry is not in paragraphs, it is in lines. One or more words can be on a line of a poem. Poetry is to me, learning about writing. Poetry is something I enjoy. You can write about your life or everybody in your family. Poems have imagery, personification, rhythmic patterns, and word choice. Poetry is joyful to my ears. Poetry is just a soft sound. Poetry is like rhyming sounds just calling your name. It is your own story that you make and can keep it as a treasure forever. Poetry is action, poetry is description, poetry is me, poetry is love, poetry is inspiring, poetry is music to my ears. Poetry is my soul, my dreams, my love, and makes me control my heart. I love poetry and poetry loves me. Poetry makes me sing and dance. Oh wonderful poetry. Check out the pictures of Poetry Is...Definitions, Literary Elements, our Poetree (of blooming poems), and completed Poetry Anthologies for students to read. An article posted about Poetry Cafe in our Pinellas County Schools Newsroom: http://newsroom.pcsb.org/ Young poets shine in the spotlight April 2, 2012 First, the second-graders studied various poets and their works. The second-grade students learned about imagery, alliteration, personification and other poetic elements before creating books of their own poetry. Then, they used some of the writing techniques and strategies they’d learned about to create a full anthology of their own poetry. And on the Friday before spring break, students in Suzie Lak’s second-grade classroom at John M. Sexton Elementary School in St. Petersburg took center stage and read their original works to a classroom full of visitors. Lak’s classroom was set up like a mid-20th century poetry cafe. The kids wore black clothing and berets made out of felt. They started with a shared, class reading, went through their original pieces of poetry and ended with a poem that the students created together. More than 40 family members came out to celebrate the students’ writing.
The popsicle stick creations of NDSU architecture students scrape the sky in the Museum atrium. On display April 7 - 12.
Fine Arts Night has been a Dolvin tradition since before I started teaching there in 1996; it's a night that celebrates art and music in our school. It has grown by leaps and bounds and it is so rewarding to see families enjoying and talking about our year's work. This year marks my 20th show! Forgive the boxes in this shot - I snapped this during set up and got too busy to get another shot, but you can get the idea of the professional quality of the display set up by Artome. They do all the framing, setup, and breakdown, offering parents the convenience of purchasing the frame, with a percentage going to our art department. The art, of course, belongs to the artists and is all returned after the show, so no pressure there. Students are proud to show off the work they chose as their favorite of the year, so lots of variety. Another activity was an adaptation of the Token Response game, which I renamed "smARTie stickies" - families can respond to a variety of artworks by placing color coded stickies with their name and comment on the works. Always fun to see the variety of responses - our principal was taken with the Seurat, because it looked peaceful during this busy time of year. Thank you to my trusty volunteers, who greeted, answered questions and helped families find their art and make purchases. Couldn't do it without all of you! We got lots of great feedback about our Artsonia site, which is new to us this year. We had a slideshow running from our page and a QR code posted for those families not yet signed up. The photo wall was a spot on our FAN Family Scavenger Hunt, which encouraged families to take pics of their FAN experiences and hashtag them on Instagram and Twitter with #dolvinFAN, or comment on our teaching blogs. Fan letters were available for friends and family to write a note of appreciation and admiration for the artist, which will be delivered next week. These letters can be found at my Teachers pay Teachers store - https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/Mrs-Knights-Smartest-Artists The chorus concert, American Pop Forever, was live streamed from the cafeteria to the big screen in the art show as well, so we were able to see and hear from the other end of the building - gotta love some technology! Here are our talented and sometimes silly music teachers... Thanks again to the student artists, the teacher volunteers and school leaders, the Artome company, and especially the Dolvin families for continuing to make this night a highlight every year!
Make a Korowai (feather cloak) with paper feathers! Korowai are taonga (treasures) that are often worn on special occasions.
Lesson idea from Art. Paper. Scissors. Glue! 3rd graders started a conversation about what textile arts are by reading the book "Tar Beach" by author and artist Faith Ringgold. We talked about how the book and its illustrations were actually inspired by a story quilt that Ringgold created (the original work is pictured in the back of the book I had). The story in the book brought up the themes of both inequality (which works well since February is Black History Month) and imagination. The book's main character 3rd grader Cassie Louise Lightfoot discovers she has the ability to fly and in doing so, finds a sense of power and ownership over whatever she flies. She flies over the George Washington Bridge (a structure her father helped to build), an ice cream factory, and the Union Building (a building which housed an organization her father was not allowed to join because of his skin color). After reading and discussing the themes in the book, I asked my 3rd graders "Where would you go if you could fly (real or imaginary) and why?" This question was the inspiration for our very own patches on our 3rd grade story quilt. Students created their own "story patches" by creating a border using squares of 1.5"x1.5" decorative paper along the edge of a 12" x 12" piece of white drawing paper. Students then attached a strip of grey paper to the bottom of their picture squares and wrote about where they would go and why. Then in the remaining space, they used colored pencils to illustrate their ideas. I got a huge range of responses from Candyland (naturally to eat a ton of candy), to Columbia (to visit friends and family), to the Twin Towers in New York City (which prompted an entirely difference conversation). Students really enjoyed working on this project (which took between 4-5 class periods -- including one day for sketching ideas). I really love the finished product - and even more so when they are all hung together to make a giant story quilt! :)
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A display of kindergarten abstract masterpieces. These paintings were created at the very beginning of the year during our line and color study. We coated them with glossy Modge Podge to help the colors pop. Well, my helper moms and I can finally sleep in! The school-wide, hang-up-and-display-everything-we've-made-all-year art show is ooooo-ver. I'd like to thank the kids for their hard work, my amazing mom-helpers who put in countless hours hanging masterpieces, my former student teacher Lauren who worked for hours on the day of the show and my dear mom who drove down from Indiana to help and cheer us on. It was a huge success...one that will be hard to top next year. I thought I'd share with you the two-dimensional artwork from the art show. This is a photo-heavy post...and just the tip of the masterpiece-iceberg. Stay tuned for the upcoming episodes of In the Art Room: Clay Display and, not to be missed, our Walk Like an Egyptian program performed by our Super Second Grade Stars! But for now, sit back and enjoy these fabulous works of art. I'll provide a brief description of each. Feel free to leave a comment with any questions or thoughts below. Enjoy! These sweet kindergarten self-portraits were on display along side photos of the artist. The self-portraits were created on flesh colored construction paper with oil pastels. These were cut out and glued on top of bubble printed paper the kids had made. Hair was then painted. Finally, construction paper that we had cardboard printed was placed on top as a shirt, complete with collar and name tag. Kindergarten display of collage cats, winter landscapes, and fall printed trees. For this kindergarten winter landscape, we began by learning about tints and shades and painting the sky and snowy land. From there we collaged trees and houses. Finally we used metallic oil pastels to enhance the sky, the trees and the house. Because I have my classes for 1/2 hour, I had to think of a quicky project for my wee little ones. They were able to create this butterfly relief sculpture in just the nick of time. Egyptian collage landscapes by my first grade artists. You can read all about this lesson here. The idea of using the first grader's weaving for the body of a crocodile originally came from pinterest. But art teacher Lauren came up with the genius idea to create crocodile puppets. Here's the lesson. Love those teeth. The first graders also created these abstract collages at the beginning of the year. We did some leaf rubbing and painting. From there, we tore the painting into strips and glued them down to a larger piece of white paper. This was a great lesson on positive and negative space. In the second grade gallery, we have our circle loom weavings which we attached our Sculpey beads to, our Egyptian profile portraits, leafy prints and our golden tree paintings (not pictured). I also have the students write an Artist Autobiography every year that is placed along side a framed photo of the artist. Leafy Print Lesson can be found here. Our third grade gallery includes our sarcophagus, foil leaf reliefs, cardboard weavings and our haunted trees. Not pictured are our photos and bios. You can read more about our sarcophagus lesson here. A close up of one of the third grader's cardboard weavings. This year we tried our hand at adding beads to our weavings. We attempted to hide the cardboard with some scratch art paper designs. I hope this artist is able to find a good place for tacos while she's artin' it up in Paris! When painting our sarcophagus-es (sarcophagui? We eventually took to calling them our sarcopha-dudes), some of the early-finishers tried their hand at optical illusion drawing. This lesson was pulled from pinterest and was so simple, that I just wrote out the directions on the board and the early-finishers followed the steps. Fourth grade awesomeness: framed photos and bios, Mona Lisa group project photo (seen on the far left) Egyptian prints, cartouche, moon-light paintings, woven pouches, and Egyptian god portraits, Egyptian god portrait lesson here. The kid's all time favorite thing in the whole wide world to do: weave! Once the fourth graders get a taste of weaving, there is no turning back. I have one sweet girl who has woven 12 pouches now for her family members in Mexico. All the time and hours spent are immediately forgotten when you get a sweet note like this the following day...love it!
Kids love these engaging biography research projects with ready-to-go writing templates and hands-on biography activities!
Art museum activities encourage children to explore art and express their own creativity. Try our art museum activities with your kids!
Teach kids empathy and compassion through mindful, fun lessons, discussions, and activities that build social awareness and community.
Fine Arts Night '14 is in the books, and I think it was the best one to date - so much to hear, see, do! This music and art celebration is a tradition every year, but this time around the music teacher and I added a few new exciting components as you will soon see, starting with a push for families to share on social networking sites to expand our audience. We placed posters all around with our blogging, Twitter, and Instagram accounts posted with QR codes for quick access (#dolvinFAN). We set up a live stream of the chorus concert for families to watch from wherever they were, and we could watch live from the art show at the opposite end of the building - very cool indeed. We set up several group art stations around the show - it was really fun to see the enthusiasm for creating among the kids and parents - here are some of the stations: This graffiti stitching station was such a hit and it really thrilled me to walk by and see a half dozen kids at once, sitting around this burlap sheet sewing together! Such a great skill to know and a wonderful tradition to honor in this age of technology. Free Art Friday station - yes! Next week I will be posting the details on this one, but basically we organized a bunch of saved recyclables in the art room and the kids made themselves a kit to take home to build a monster, which will be "dropped" next Friday for our event. See the sidebar label "Free Art Friday" for a breakdown from last year. The Selfie Spot was stolen from the Thomas Elementary Art blog and the kids were filling them up faster than my 17 yo daughter Kinsey could crank them out! We also tried a grid collage mural based on Chuck Close and Paul Klee's works - this one needs a little editing before I post the result ;). I cut all of our painting mats from the year into 3" squares for this and I fell in love with them - maybe I'll wallpaper my powder room? Artist Fan letters were also fun - I expected parents to write them, which they did, but it surprised me to find a number of very sweet friend-to-friend notes, including one above for a friend in the hospital. Lainey always has the best ideas. **update - these letters are available on my Teachers Pay Teachers store - http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/Mrs-Knights-Smartest-Artists. The chorus concert was called Disney Spectacular, and we all pitched in to paint a Mary Blair inspired backdrop, a premiere illustrator for Disney. I love the Mary Poppins figure flying over the moon and here are a couple of chimney sweeps that stopped by the art show post concert. I will end the post with some pics from the art show itself and a few other shots. The frames are provided by the Artome company - they really make a professional looking show. Frames are available for purchase for $25, although the art is not for sale - it belongs to the artists! Thanks so much for being a part of our online audience!
Are you looking for something fun and memorable to teach your students the vowel diphthong ou and ow? This fun phonics craftivity will help your students remember what sound the "ou" and "ow" diphthongs make. This resource includes bandage pieces and "ow" and "ou" word cards with pictures. Students...
bits of bone, wasp nest, beach glass and pottery, seed pods and silk worm cocoons. What do you collect?
A few years ago, our school implemented "voice levels" as a way to help at assemblies, in hallways, and within our classrooms. This has really helped with consistency across the grade levels and made the first few weeks of school even easier when introducing these concepts. In our school, if a teacher needs to get students' attention, he/she will hold up our hand in the shape of a zero. If kids are working in small groups and are getting a little noisy, I would hold up two fingers to remind them it was "Voice Level 2". When we create presentation rubrics, we always include "Voice Level 3" as an area to focus on. In the beginning of the year, when we are making our Daily 5 Anchor Charts around expectations, Voice Levels 0, 1, and 2 always make an appearance. I have loved thinking of Voice Level 1 (whisper) as "Spy Talk"! In the past, I have used the fingers-on-the-voicebox trick~ if it vibrates, it's not Voice Level 1~ but the idea of talking like a spy is soooooo much more fun! This year, I ask my Teacher's Assistant to help be my Voice Level Monitor. If they feel it is getting too noisy, they will assist me in showing the appropriate voice level with our finger(s). Here is the file for the poster (I recently changed over my font, so it looks slightly different). **UPDATE: If you like this idea, you will love my new Voice Levels Management Pack available on TpT! Be sure to download the Preview to see everything that's included and read my updated post HERE for more info! Enjoy!
Today we have found 6 Matariki star crafts. Matariki also called the Pleiades is a group of stars that signals the Māori New Year which is commonly celebrated in New Zealand. The group of stars rises in New Zealand's midwinter, normally during June or early July. In recent years Matariki has become a way to celebrate
Have you ever thought about using wordless videos in your speech therapy lessons? It increases engagement! Start with these videos...
What was your inspiration for the project/work you completed today? What was the biggest challenge you encountered on the project? How does this project tie together previous exercises and concepts…
These four simple tips can help your student get a good start on writing projects.
