spring breaking 2016!

One more week of break left! Currently, I am putting off packing for a camping trip that we will leave for in a couple of days...

I shared some stop motion shorts in my last post, but I didn't get to share the very last one we did. My last class on the Friday before break was a kindergarten class. I started class with a quick introduction to Mondrian's Broadway Boogie Woogie. We identified our primary colors and the geometric shapes we knew, then I talked about how the painting was inspired by the city the artist was living in. How he captured the feel and energy of a bustling city. I then revealed that we would be making this painting come alive by creating a movie with Legos and voices. The kids were pretty excited at the idea. To do this, The class rotated through centers in groups of 4 during that last hour of the day- duplos, Legos, dominoes, free drawing, wood blocks, and stop motion. Before heading to centers, we briefly looked at how each of those materials might be used to create motion. Each group had about 5 minutes at each center. With the stop motion, kids took turns adding a brick to the composition and once it filled up, they took turns removing bricks. I showed each group how the stop motion app worked and they got to see their part in motion when their 5 minutes were up. Once everyone rotated through all the centers, we talked about city sounds and took a minute to practice making some. I then recorded the kids making their city sounds to complete the movie.

While we have been on spring break my kids and I having been experimenting and playing with a couple apps that I would like to integrate into my curriculum and center options once we get back.

The first is Bloxels Builder. This combines hands on pixel building of characters, settings, details, that can then be shot with a tablet and worked on digitally in the free Bloxels Builder app. You can then animate any of the items, and turn your creations into a video game. We've played with this one a lot! It combines elements of storytelling, game design, and the language of art. I think the kids are going to be quite engaged with it. I'm thinking that for our annual art exhibit in June, there will be a interactive area where kids can play games other kids have created. Extra cool tidbit- my gofundme project to purchase a 5 pack of the hands on boards, has been fully funded!

Another app we have been exploring is Gravity Sketch. It's a 3D modeling app that can be used to create files for 3D printing and it can also be used as a practice tool for hands on 3D projects. I'm going to work this in as a choice center option and I may try it as a sketching tool for the 5th graders when they do their clay project later this year.