Studio 3

For this weeks Studio Project we were second graders. We talked a lot about sequencing and the depth that is in pictures. I decided to make my collage the part of Rosie's Walk where she is walking past the trees. I decided to make this scene because I knew that I would be able to at least semi-successfully recreate this picture. The materials we used for this project included: construction paper, fancy paper, glue, and a piece of paper for the back drop. We went through Rosie's Walk twice and then put a series of pictures in the order of the story. We looked at a multitude of different photos, from various different artists. and discussed the different sizes of the items in the photo. This is what determines where the objects are within the picture. In my picture I made the grass the biggest object because it was closest in the picture. Next, I made the fox, chicken, and trees a medium size to showcase that they were in the middle of the photo. Finally, I made the clouds the smallest because they are in the sky and the farthest away in the photo. My photo is from the middle of the story when Rosie walks past the trees.

Standards used:

LT: Identifies or creates the sequence of a story.

AC: Describes the beginning, middle, and end of a story.

LT: Represents a part of a story.

AC: Illustrates a specific event in the beginning, middle, or end of a story.

LT: Locates a key figure or objects in space.

AC: Places important character or setting elements close by sizing large, and far by sizing small.

LT: Uses collage techniques.

AC: Cuts smoothly and glues securely.  

I think that this assignment joins perfectly with all the standards chosen. This assignment requires the students comprehension of the story and their ability to produce that into a picture. I feel this is something that is quite important for second graders to accomplish. Just as well, this requires them to focus on their fine motor skills. Fine motor skills require the students to be able to cut their paper smoothly and affectively. This is a skill that requires practice and perfecting for the students.

I do not really see there being any issues with this project. However, I could see the concept of the items being near and far, to represent distance, to be a challenge. The only reason I say this is because I feel as if children in second grade are still working on gaging objects by size. Therefore, this could take them some extra practice to really understand and be able to produce.

Attached below is the picture of my collage from class:

Art Tech Task #3

The tool I decided on for this week is called Voice Record Pro and I downloaded it from the App Store on my iPhone. I recorded myself reading a childrens book, written by Jamie Lee Curtis, that is called Today I Feel Silly and Other Moods That Make My Day. This is an app that you can use to record yourself.

I found this tool to be particularly interesting because it is so easily accessed on your phone or iPad. Within the app you can add different notes to whatever you have recorded, export the recording in multiple different ways, and everything is set up easy to navigate through. Below I have embedded a couple pictures of the apps layout. The first picture is my "list" of recordings. I obviously just downloaded this app, therefore, I only have the one recording thus far. Next we have a picture of what the app looks like as you are recording. This shows you how long you've been recording for, where you can add notes to your recording, and your ability to complete your recording or simply pause it for a moment. The final picture is a picture of what the app looks like once you click on one of your already completed recordings. This is shows you a lot of the different exporting options.

Children are getting phones and tables earlier and earlier these days. Therefore, you could very easily leverage using this app to entice children's interest. They would be able to complete an assignment/assessment anywhere using this app. Just as well, if their email is hooked up to their phone then they are just as easily able to export it to your anywhere as well. I would most certainly use this app within my classroom. To be completely honest I probably will use this within my classroom and hope that it is as big of a hit as I think it is. I would love to use this app as a way to assess children's fluency or reading level. By this I mean that I would have then complete a reading and listen to it played back. This would be great because I could do this type of assessment listening to these recordings at home. I wouldn't have to waste time, within class, individually assessing each child. Rather I would have them complete it and then send it to me so I could listen to what they read and assess from there. Just as well, I would love to use this if the children were required to write some type of report. I would have them read their report out loud, to themselves, as a way to edit their papers. This is immensely helpful because one can catch a lot more errors in their writing by reading it out loud. Just off the top of my head there are a number of things I could see myself implementing this tool for. 

This tool could most certainly be used for the children to create their own artifact. These could use this for a number of different audio artifacts. This is not just limited to reading. I honestly do not see this app being challenging for the children at all. The only thing I would suggest is using this app for older students. By this I mean, I wouldn't use this app if my students were in first grade or younger. 

Studio #2

The artwork that I created, for this assignment, is a picture of my family. We are at my lake house eating dinner. This is a birds eye view of my back deck and yard of the house. The materials that were used for this project were a piece of heavy white paper, oil pastels, a giant paint brush, and water colored paint. We drew our picture, with the oil pastels, first and then painted over them with the secondary color of our choice. I decided to combine blue and red to make purple as my secondary color. I have seven people in my family, including myself. I drew us all sitting around the table on our deck. Unfortunately I got a little ahead of myself and drew everyone as a blonde girl. However, in my family, this is not the case. I also realized after I started drawing that I needed to have done it in a different way. I needed to draw the picture looking at it in front of me instead of as a birds eye view. I should have done this so that I could have the different depths to the picture. If I were to have done it this way you would have seen my family up front where the table would have been. From then, you would have seen the house behind us, the roof of the deck above us, and the other items on the deck next to us.

This studio project is definitely age appropriate for first graders. I say this because it goes just beyond what they would have learned in kindergarten and expands on it. It allows them to take what they already know and develop their knowledge further. I particularly liked that the lesson include not only a multitude of different vocabulary words for the kids to learn, such as, above, below, beside, behind, in-between, etc.. But just as well, it required them to experiment to make their secondary colors. Finally, this activity is great for further talking about detail and how to expand on your descriptive skills. The children can observe what has happened to the oil pastels now that they have been painted over and what the picture now looks like. 

The standards state:

LT: Identifies and shows a main idea in a work of art.

AC: Describes and draws family members and setting for art.

LT: Identifies locations in a composition.

AC: Describes parts that are above, below, behind, and in-between in a work of art and own art.

LT: Creates an oil pastel resist with secondary color.

AC: Mixes orange, green or violet watercolor wash over oil pastel drawing.

I believe that every single one of these standards were clearly met in this particular lesson. Just as well, I believe that were not only met but expanded on and well presented.

I honestly do not really see many issues with this lesson. The only thing I can really think of is how irritating it was to continuously remake the color I wanted to use. It ran out really quickly so I kept needing more. this made things difficult because every time it was a different shade of purple and that was making me very angry. I could definitely see children being angry about this aspect of the lesson.

Art Tech Task #2

The website I decided to use this week is called Chogger. This is a website that allows you to create your own comics. These can be set up in a multitude of different ways. When you get to the website you just sign in or make an account. At this point, you can browse other comics that people have already made or create your own. There is a button that literally says "BUILD A COMIC NOW".

At this point the website gives you the options as to the layout of your comic. Once you pick a layout it will ask you to add images. This can be done by google search, upload, take your own, or draw. You can also write on your comic to add in text and name it. Once you have completed the entire thing you press finish!

I searched this website on the app store and it is not an app. 

This tool could be real great because you could do a lesson on comics and what they are or how they look. Just as well, have the children research comics and their origins or what different ones are like. Once you have done this you could have the children create a project on this website for a different subject area. For example, I tried to create one on the life cycle of a butterfly to use in a lesson. you could have the children pick a specific topic and let them create their own comic. I find that they would most likely enjoy this because it is something they just got done learning about and then they get to create their own. I would most likely use this tool not only in my own lessons but also to have the children create their own. This website is not an app, however, my students could definitely still use it to create their own artifacts. 

I found this website decently easy to navigate and use. However, the only issues I found were with uploading pictures into my comic. It kept telling me that I couldn't upload them or it would never load so that was quite frustrating. So this may be an issue for students in regards to making their own artifacts. This may require them to be patient and play around with the site a little bit. 

Because of the difficulties that I had with this site I'm not sure that I would actually use this site in my classroom. I enjoyed the site until I actually tried using it and then found these issues. 

I was unable to make my comic because the site would not load any of the images I saved or searched. However, I am still attaching the layout of the site, in picture form, to give you all a better visual of the layout!