Light Unit Art Integration!

If you ever want to give kids a project that they are so excited about that they are daily pestering their homeroom teachers to know if it is an Art day, this is it.

Oooh. Aaah.

Presenting, Magic Wands in grade one, a lesson on integrating Science and Art; a lesson that brings the science to the art-minded and art to the science-minded in equal proportions.

An aside: 

The truth is, I was afraid of science for a long time. It said it wasn't "my thing," but really, I was scared because I didn't understand it. Very few teachers along the way presented science to me in a way that made me feel motivated or confident. So, if you are an art teacher reading this, and you are feeling scared of the science in this lesson too, hang on. I gotcha, and we are going to make this okay.  You will love it. You will learn along with your students. That it isn't just "okay" for kids to know you are learning too- it's actually awesome and brave to model life-long learning.

Back to the project:

The first graders have a comprehensive light unit. For the most part, this is a part of science that we art teachers actually do feel comfortable talking about. The light unit covers shadows, light sources, and how permeable different materials are to light.

So that was where we began in the Art room, while during the homeroom science time they did work on the same area. On the white board I wrote the above vocab words, then students sorted materials using a flashlight to see how much light came though- none, some, or all. Students tacked up those materials under the word they felt was a best fit.

Here is the part which, until a few years ago, I found intimidating: How would we turn on our own lights to explore? Circuitry can seem mysterious, but it is actually pretty straightforward, enough even that my first graders can tell you the basics now.  So can this fabulous dynamo celeb kid, Sylvia. To listen to her explain electrical circuits in just a couple of minutes, watch this video, beginning at 3m15s.

Here is how we made our circuits: Hang tight, you can do it too!

Red/Green/Blue LED

This tiny light bulb is a slow color-changing LED, which rotates colors by having red, green, and blue bulbs inside. Here is what they look like in action:

 I purchase mine directly from China on eBay. They are marvelous, and they cost $5 for 100 pieces.  If you look carefully at the photo above, you can see the legs of the LED, called leads, are twisted around a piece of wire. I did that part for the kids, because little fingers have a hard time making that strong connection. It helps that I soldered this connection as well, but you don't have to- twisting them is enough. I attached black to the negative (short) lead of the LED, and red wire to the positive (long) lead.

This is what it looked like- two wires, around 12" each, twisted to an LED

The other thing kids need is a battery. I use a standard button cell, coin-type battery, but don't use those with kids younger than kindergarten, or children with special needs. They cannot go into mouths. These came from Amazon.com, and cost about $0.20/each.

On the first day, the kids spent time with those two objects, just exploring what they might be. The class' thoughts that first day were amazing to hear, as they helped each other investigate ideas:
It's a little light, maybe.
I think this is a shiny magnet that stops the light from turning on.
These are batteries, I think.
Yeah, put it against the metal I think.
It's not turning on. I think it should turn on.
Twist it like this.
No, you don't have to twist it.
If I hold the the wires really hard I can make it blink!
Put the black wire on the not-word side and the red one on the word-side of the metal thing.

That's all there is to it. The black touches the negative side of the battery, and red touches the positive side of the battery. Pinch it, and it lights up!

If you have got this far, you are golden. Tape the LED to the top of a stick or dowel, and wrap the wires downward, as in this photo below. Kids taped the black wire to the negative battery side, and left the red wire free to be the off/on switch.

Make sure to tape the battery and black wire to the dowel, leaving part of the positive battery side exposed. Turn it off and on by pressing the red wire under your thumb, and then releasing the pressure. That is your pressure switch!

Now, make that thing look a little more magical. Class #2: Wrap it in yarn and cover that wire! We leave the battery uncovered so that kids can troubleshoot if their tape comes loose.

In class #3, we experiment with transparent, translucent, and opaque materials to make a cover for the bulb. In the photo above, the student wrapped clear tape around her fingers (sticky side out), and stuck it into foil confetti in the shape of stars and moons. She slid it off her fingers and taped it on right around her LED, wrapping it again in tape to hold it in place. It is both translucent (the tape) and opaque (the foil pieces).

The top of the ones above and below are made of tin foil, which the artists poked holes into it to let the light out, as foil is opaque. It's pretty nifty, because when it is on, it casts little dots of light.

Did you see those feathers and flowers and tulle? These artists really went to town on the opportunity to make theirs look magical!  Here are several more beauties- this is a great place to explore making the wands extravagant with feathers, fake flowers and leaves, your best ribbons, etc.

Surely for a wizard of the forest.

One important thing to know is that when you send these home, include a little warning/educational note about the small parts and battery. You can never be too cautious, honestly, and they still look lovely.

Here is the note up-close:

One of my groups takes theirs home TODAY, just in time to add some serious wow to their Halloween costumes. These students are suddenly finding themselves the envy of every older kiddo in school, who are asking, Can we go back to first grade?! 

Happy magic-making! 

Monochromatic Scenes in Silhouette

 
   Let's be honest. You almost didn't read this post. The name for this project is terrible. Monochromatic Scenes in Silhouette? Hardly rolls off the tongue, and kids will look at you oddly when you say it.  Even though I wanted to call these landscape/seascape/cityscape/ or-sky-only paintings simply scapes, to ease matters, I couldn't. Because scapes  are a whole other thing, and here in Vermont, kids actually know what they are.

Garlic scape. Obviously.

And the kids would wonder, why are we silhouetting the flowering tops of garlic plants in the moonlight, Mrs. Elliott?  That's nonsense. Delicious in pesto and stir-fry, however. Try it sometime.

Anyway, now I am stuck with this dumb name for their amazing projects. If you have a better one, please recommend it. Moving on.

Monochromatic sky and hills

Students in fourth and fifth grade began this project by creating a color they loved, and using only white+the custom color to create a sky. We began with white at the light source, gradually adding hints of color circling outwards. Some students created only sky, while others added water, hills, and mountains.  To do that, students had to consider if the color of the hills showed atmospheric perspective (paler in the distance, darker in the foreground), and if adding water, did it reflect the sky?

That was the first class (or for some, the first and second). During the next class, students experimented with both collage and ink, to see which they preferred for creating objects in silhouette. Once they were comfortable with their choice, they began on their painted background paper.

Some artists created cityscapes, such as these. Do you see that tiny laundry line on the right-hand image? 

One of the hardest parts of making art is knowing when to stop. We have been talking about salting your food as a good metaphor for this. No salt might be bland, a little is delicious, and too much is just overwhelming, and not yummy anymore.

The classes have been working on telling one another when to stop, before it goes overboard. Our mantra has been Just because there is space, doesn't mean you need to fill it.

In other words, when giving constructive feedback to each other, resist telling your friend to fill all empty sky space with planes, UFOs, hot air balloons, and a thousand birds. Pull back a little, and focus feedback on how the artist can improve what is already there. Our mantra has been helpful enough that two students actually thought they had gone too far, and elected to come in at a recess to begin again.

The results have been overall pretty wonderful, although the ink can be difficult to control, drips easily, and therefore requires flexible thinking about what to do if you make a mistake.

The artist who made the picture above did that task beautifully. He dripped quite a lot of ink in the upper right third of his painting, just when he was nearly done. Bamboo brushes are both magical and tricky like that. After gathering feedback from peers, he decided to turn it into the dark smoke stream of a jet.

You know a project is great when kids are so proud of their blending, their ideas, and their product that one shouts "I feel like a real artist!" Now the lesson just needs a better name!

Dot Day 2016!

Happy Dot Day!

International Dot Day is a favorite holiday of my, besides, of course, Halloween. I have a passion for celebrations that include a big, artful, creative mess.  

As you can see, students clearly do not share my sentiment on the fun of mess. No, sir. Fun-free zone.

This year, students collaborated to create four huge murals, beginning with those awesome fifth graders you see here. I celebrated Dot Day all week, with all of my classes, during which time we read Peter H. Reynold's book The Dot, which some classes also read in Library.

Thanks to having a projector in my room (yay!), students were able to see the book pages, big!

Each class received a prompt to get their thinking started. Materials and prompts were different for each class, all week. The first group was given tempera paints, and I suggested they allow themselves to think abstractly. Not a mandate, just a jumping off point for ideas, to give them a little courage if they were afraid to begin.

A finished dot from that first class of the week.

Subsequent classes made emoji dots, landscape dots, symmetrical dots, food dots (mmm, donuts are so round), mandala dots, and more. 

Close-up of a 4" mandala dot

One group made miniatures in colored pencils. These ones were full of sweet moments, like gnomes under mushrooms, and this mountain scene.

That miniature landscape dot is just about 1" across!

Surrounding the big dots, the background was painted black, and covered with more dots, applied with both cotton swabs and little fingertips.

As children always are, students were full of endless good ideas. The panels used watercolors, tempera, markers, oil pastels, glue, and, of course, glitter. The very last group had the prompt to "make it shine." They took their job very seriously, outlining dots they loved in glitter, and adding zillions of tiny glitter dots to the background.

Mural 1

It was a blast all-around, and the result shows the confidence, collaboration, and creativity of EES students.  Here are the other three completed panels!

Mural 2

Mural 3

Mural 4

If you are in the building, make sure to check out the fabulous student artwork, which is gracing the walls of the Kindergarten/Grade 1 hallway! It has been a great start to an artful next year.

Creating and Making and Learning!

What do you get when you put about sixty art, science, library, and classroom teachers into a Maker workshop for a week?  Things like this!

An arts-integrated way to study the stars and planets?!  Yes, please! 

(And I made a gif?)

The class is called CreateMakeLearn, and was hosted at Generator in Burlington. The projects folks made were super, like this little wonder:

This Makey Makey water piano was rigged up by my amazing friend Tracy Truzansky, of Vermont Afterschool.  She is in charge of integrating STEM education and professional development for afterschool staff, and was inspired to rig up this marvel in time for her daughter's birthday.

Her enthusiasm is completely contagious!

Okay, I hear you- So, this looks an awful lot like play... what serious, scholarly learning did you do?

The crux of the week was about Design Thinking. Design Thinking has been written about extensively, but what it distills down to is thinking about solving problems empathetically and creatively. We began our week by considering the needs of a specific person, and designing a chair for that person's needs. One group designed for an astronaut, another for an elderly person, another for a rambunctious toddler, and so on. The group was given a list of the user's needs, and followed precise steps to define the needs, develop ideas, and quickly prototype designs. The end goal is to eventually test out a design, then go back and tweak it for the user.

The Chair exercise.

We made out chairs as a group, and every member in the group of five had to make the same design out of a different material. Designs were drawn, cut out of cardboard (no tape!), squished from play-dough, twisted from pipe cleaners, and built out of toothpicks.

Three ideas for a chair for Maggie Simpson.

The best part of the exercise was seeing how other groups responded to their prompts, and the kind and copious feedback participants on one another's designs. It served as a fantastic ice-breaker for a group of adults only just meeting one another.

After that initial all-group morning, we broke off into several days of amazing workshops on tools, materials, and approaches. The first I attended was learning to use a Makey Makey board, which serves as a conduit for attaching everyday stuff to the computer. Anything that is conductive, like Tracy's water cups, or the fruits in the photo below, can be used essentially as a controller to run the computer.

Playing virtual bongos by tapping an apple and a banana!

But what does that have to do with art?  Isn't this a blog about art education? The most amazing connections can be made to an arts curriculum with a tool like this. Sculptures and drawings made by students could be used to operate applications and programs on the computer. Kids could code little games in Scratch, and control them with a drawing. How do you control it with a drawing? Paper isn't conductive! So glad you ask.

First, taking a class like this inspires lots of play and creative thinking. So at night, my sons and I played with the tools I acquired and tried to figure out what was possible. Here, my son made a controller out of paper, pipe cleaners, aluminum foil, and graphite. Graphite, as in pencils.

Watch carefully, and you'll see that when he taps the word "Piano," written in pencil on his paper, it actually plays the virtual piano on the computer. Crazy. So students would be able to make elaborate drawings and tie them into a circuit to control anything on their computer.

Bunny chick!

3D printing has been around a while now, but this was my first time trying out 3D software to design things. The potential art connections are immense, and likely go without saying, as this is the sort of technology used for models, architecture, and many other fields.  I used Tinkercad to create this goofy little toy.

The week was actually full of toys and play. There was a toy-hacking session, which yielded beeping, whirling oddities like this one:

Ben Matchstick, co-deisgner of Pinbox 3000, led us in making our own working pinball machines, out of cardboard. Learning engineering through play?  How natural, and very how missing from our curriculum.

My own city-themed pinball game underway.

The most outstanding quote from the week was from this slide Ben showed:

"Cut twice, measure once. Fail faster."

There is strong focus in my class on flexible thinking and failure as a path to building creative solutions, so this is a brilliant phrase to repeat often to my students. Cardboard is cheap, easy enough to cut, and a perfect avenue to fail-and-try-again.

Did you say cardboard is easy to cut?  Baloney!

Ben showed us what might be my favorite tool from the week. Art teachers, take note: This cutter is a total gift, and practically impossible to hurt yourself with. My students always get exhausted hands trying to cut cardboard with scissors, and xacto knives are a total no-go with my littlest students, so I have ordered a dozen of these, called the Klever Kutter. Amazingness.

The biggest personal learning experience for me during this course was a vastly deepened understanding of parallel circuits. Stop yawning. Yes, you. Electricity adds an undeniable wow-factor to everything students make. A simple circuit with one battery and one LED can light up a single bulb, and in a series circuit you would quickly need more power.  But with one battery and a parallel circuit, look what you can do!

"Press to light up Orion"

This is a huge new thing for me to learn, because electrical project get expensive really quickly, and batteries are pricey. But LEDs are super cheap. My fifth graders study stars and planets, so I am thinking that this could be both a natural tie-in to their science unit, and also could blend into Greek mythology to learn a deeper understanding of the stories attached to our constellations. To do it, my aim to to teach fifth graders how to solder this year- here's the lesson plan I created. I can't wait!