22 posts tagged “art”
I'm not sure I would want to show my students how to burn things with a magnifying lens, but this set of instructions for how to engrave things with sunlight has me wondering what items I have that might just hold up against a few char marks.
Perhaps I should be more worried about what my wife would say. ;)
Photojojo has a neato article entitled Turn Your Photos into Gibberish — How to Convert Photos into ASCII Art. (via Craft Magazine)
This sounds really cool, but when I tried it and downloaded the results, they included lines that say "CopyRight@photo2text.com" and "You are not allowed to remove the copyright text."
Wait a minute - it's my photo, so why are they now claiming the copyright? Why can't I further edit a photo that was mine to begin with?
Perhaps this is just a big misunderstanding on my part, but I couldn't find any explanation on the web site about it. Perhaps I should use the hidden link to "create [my own] personal search engine" and search for the explanation that way? I think not.
Granted, they seem to be slapping a copyright onto a poor quality ASCII version of my image. Who cares, right?
I care, because they didn't ask first.
My point is I don't recall giving them permission to do that, and I wouldn't have tried their service had I known they would try a cheap trick like that. I don't even recall seeing a TOS page for me to click through without reading, so they can't even use the excuse that YouTube has if they resell your original content without giving you a cut of the profits. (They can do that, you know - it's in the YouTube TOS.)
Anyone have more information on this? I would love to hear that I've just misinterpreted everything.
Specifically: "how technology helps people, how food gets from a farm to stores, how builders get wood to make [a] house, [and] ways to communicate."
So I'm going to go in there and show off my laptop. I'm going to (show &) tell kids about all the cool things that can be done with computers when you use them as communication tools. I'll probably even show them a video or two I'll make just for them, because I can.
It's going to be like a conference presentation, but with an audience of 1st graders instead of teachers. (Ok, the classroom teacher will be there as well. I'm sure she'll be listening in.)
But I need an art component to this art lesson, don't I? That's the part that makes me unsure.
I'd like to have my students "build" their own laptops. Sure, it'll be construction paper, glue, and a preprinted keyboard (I am NOT having 1st graders draw qwerty keyboards when there are free, printable versions available), but it's what's on the screen for their fictional video chat that will be important.
If you could use computers to talk to any (living) person in the world, no mater how far away, who would it be?
I anticipate a lot of "I don't know" answers here, but I hope to get them thinking.
And drawing.
And that, in an oversimplified nutshell, is my job.
Of course you can always tear/cut apart an existing envelope and trace it, but why not try out this printable template from Jessica Jones?
I like her idea of printing it on patterned paper, then cutting it out. (Hm, I've got some extra card stock lying around...) I think I might even go one step further and print it on the back of some photo paper, of course with a photo on the other side.
Those of you who know my program know that I'm supposed to teach art lessons that reinforce the lessons my kids are learning in their other subjects.
My first graders right now are learning about "how technology helps people."
As a tech geek I think this is awesome, but now I have the difficult job of picking which technology to showcase. There's so much cool stuff!
People wonder why I surround myself with empty containers. Well, you never know when you'll want to make a windmill out of a Pringles can, airzooka/smoke-ring generator out of a Folgers Coffee can (or trash can), or any one of a number of fun toys.
C'mon, you know you want to make one too...
My days as a bachelor ended almost 6 years ago, and while I don't really miss them I think it would have been cool to make some furniture out of cardboard.
... hm, I do have some large boxes ....
No, I need them to pack up our winter clothing.
Just when I was afraid that I might have too many cardboard tubes, Kids Craft Weekly posted a lesson on how to turn them into cute little sheep with a handful of cotton swabs and "Q-Tips" or their generic equivalent. (Don't tell my mom about this lesson - she's a little obsessed with sheep.)
If you scroll down you'll also find a great lesson for making "dirty dogs." I'm not sure I'd use a paper plate since I buy paper by the ream, but the idea of adding the dirt using fingerprints of glue is kind of neat.
Every now and then you need a quick and easy lesson on dinosaurs. Like this one from the Creativity Portal, for instance. Cut it out and add a couple pipe cleaner legs like they show you to get a simple sculpture, or leave it on the paper & add a cool background. It's up to you!
I have a better idea for my background though. A while ago when I was cleaning my office (don't die of shock - sometimes I actually do that) I found a box chock full of styrofoam trays. They're just like the ones kids use for lunch in my schools, except they don't smell like ketchup.
With the use of a pencil, some tempera paint, and a brayer, you can turn a chunk of styrofoam into a great printing plate. It's basically just a larger version of this video lesson.
OK, so you can make them bigger than a matchbook - the thing is that it's shaped like a matchbook, and it's kind of easy to do.
