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Turn Old Prints Into New Puzzles

February 10, 2010 by Hillary Andrlik · 1 Comment 

I’m fortunate to have some duplicate copies of fine art prints — most were freebies from conferences and workshops. Originally, I divided a few prints into rectangular sections for grid drawings but after inheriting a felt board I started using them as a puzzle (click image at left to enlarge). When students had free time they loved working on these giant puzzles. And I loved finding a new purpose for existing materials that can do double duty and extend learning. Below is how to create each activity.

Group Grid Drawing Pieces

• Select a duplicate print to cut up into pieces. Remember you can use posters from inserts in publications like School Arts, your state art education publications, National Art Education Association publications or vendor freebies.
• Use a paper cutter to divide the art print into even sized pieces. Each art print will measure slightly differently due to its size. Cut up a large supply of blank paper the same size as the art print pieces for students to do their grid drawings on.
• Glue directions on the back of each art print piece and number them (see example). Having the directions on the back of each piece allows students to work independently when they finish regular assignments. Click here to print Art Puzzle Directions for students.
• Laminate all the art print pieces and cut them out. Remember cutting out laminate is a great job for student helpers in the art room (see odd art jobs).
• Store the art print and blank paper pieces in a gallon sized zip-lock plastic bag. On your storage bag record the artist, name of the artwork and the number of art print pieces. (Knowing the number of pieces makes clean-up and sorting easier.) Zip-lock bags are on the student supply lists at my school. I asked a home room teacher for an extra box to use in the art room. Check with the teachers in your building.
• Introduce the group grid drawing activity to your classes and store the pieces in a box, basket or container that they can easily access when they complete their regular work. Make sure to create a place to turn in completed grid drawings as well as store drawings still in progress.

Art Puzzle Pieces

• Take the newly created art print pieces for grid drawing and add Velcro or magnets to the back of each one. This is another great job for students (see odd art jobs). What you use depends on your preferences and what you have on hand.
• Velcro is great on felt boards and carpets. Kids can easily work on a puzzle in groups in a carpeted area. If you don’t have a carpet area you can take a piece of the Velcro’s hook side to a discount store and find an inexpensive throw rug. Local flooring companies might be willing to donate carpet samples or remnant pieces. There are also lots of inexpensive ways to construct a felt board. Here is a link to one creative solution I found. How to Make a Felt Board.
• Magnets are a perfect option for any classroom because almost everyone has a magnetic chalkboard or whiteboard surface that can be immediately utilized. If you have art on a cart or travel to another building you’re almost always guaranteed to have a magnetic surface at your disposal.  Other options to consider are magnetic dry erase easels, magnetic paint or even cookie sheets depending on the art puzzle size.
• Store art puzzle pieces in a labeled zip-lock bag along with the blank paper for the group grid drawings and place in an area easily accessible to students.

Below is a short video of kindergartners using an art puzzle.

Can’t view this video? Try this link.

“Shhh” Noise Control

January 29, 2010 by Theresa McGee · 1 Comment 

I love the buzz and energy of an art room filled with students actively involved in the creative process.  Because of this, I allow my students to talk during art production, as long as they remain on-task and the noise level doesn’t become disruptive.  However, some of my classes have a harder time with this freedom than others.  Enter . . . “Noise Control“. This iPhone app has been very effective during times when I need students to keep noise down and raise concentration. While I can’t promise this will forever solve noise issues, a little extra help never hurts.  Watch the video below to see how it works:

Can’t see video above? Click here.

Here’s a few tips to get started:

Download Noise Control from iTunes (if you don’t have a personal iPhone, it’s worth it to find someone who will part with theirs for a few hours)

Adjust noise level and sensitivity and plug into external speakers.

Project “Shhh” app using a document camera – the extra visual makes a BIG difference by allowing the students “see” their noise level. If you don’t have a document camera, consider this low-cost option.

Use positive reinforcement to mold behavior. For example, see how long the class can go without “Shhh” activation – every 10 minutes earns minutes toward an open studio day.

Magic Garbage

January 8, 2010 by Hillary Andrlik · Leave a Comment 

When your students are working on messy projects that leave tons of paper scraps on the floor consider using the Magic Garbage technique to motivate a super fast clean-up. I learned this tip from my colleagues in my masters cohort and it works beautifully with my elementary students.

When it’s time to clean up, explain to the class that you picked one piece of garbage on the floor to be the “Magic Garbage”. Who ever picks it up while cleaning will earn a prize!

A prize can be anything that’s motivating to your students such as candy, stickers, stamps, free time, computers or line leader. In my room we use a ticket system where students earn a ticket. Each ticket is placed in a box and after a few art classes several tickets are randomly drawn from the box like a raffle. The students with winning tickets drawn from the ticket box get to select a price from the prize box.

Now here is were the magic comes in. You really don’t have to mark a particular piece of garbage with a sticker or anything else. You simply watch the class as they busily clean and then award the ticket to the student you think worked the hardest at cleaning. Sometimes I award the ticket to a student who worked really hard on their art for the entire class period. Of course, if you want, you can mark a particular piece of garbage with a sticker. The risk with doing that is if a student immediately finds the sticker there’s no extra motivation for the whole class to keep cleaning.

This is a great system for those situations where there is a time crunch. It also works in any setting where cleaning will be a big job. Magic Garbage is a simple technique that encourages a fast and through clean-up anytime you need it.

(Side note: Some of my cohort colleagues had different names for this technique like lucky trash, secret garbage or prize piece of trash. If you have used this technique or start using it soon, leave a comment and let us know what you named it!)

Museum Manners

November 18, 2009 by admin · Leave a Comment 

Art museum visits and art history discussions can be great learning opportunities for students.  However, it just takes a few negative student attitudes to change the experience for the entire class. The following Art Institute of Chicago (AIC) video addresses many art conversations and museum etiquette issues in an entertaining format directed at tweens and teens.

Can’t view YouTube video above? See it at the AIC website.

Possible Discussion Questions:
1. What did you learn about visiting a museum that you didn’t know before?
2. Why might each artwork have different meanings to different people?
3. What type of art do you like best? Why?

Artsonia: More Than Just An Online Art Gallery

November 4, 2009 by Theresa McGee · 1 Comment 

If you’re an art educator, chances are that you have heard of or even have been using Artsonia as a place to “digitally hang” student artwork.   When I started using Artsonia six years ago, I knew it would be good for my students; what I didn’t know at the time was how it would become an amazing art advocacy tool.

Artsonia has become better than any student art show I could host; it reaches more family and friends, regardless of geographic distance or busy schedule, communicates art concepts in project descriptions, reinforces student technology use, and generates funds for your program. It does all that . . . without all the staples and tape.

The benefits breakdown:

Generates funds for your art program.  Artsonia is completely free to use and 15% of the revenue from purchased products, featuring your student’s artwork, goes back to your art program. (via Dick Blick art supplies credit or check to your school art program)

Artwork stays online forever! The vision of Artsonia is to someday have your 2nd graders show their artwork to their children and grandchildren by way of their Artsonia gallery. Older students love looking back at how they have grown as an artist over the years.

Communicates your art objectives for each art experience.  When parents understand what their child is learning it validates and builds support for your art curriculum.

Motivates children to do their best in class when they know hundreds of people could see their artwork from around the world.

Fan Clubs reach family members and friends who might otherwise never see student art, updating them via email each time an artwork is added.

Comments left for artists from visitors are a great self-esteem boost!  All comments must be approved by parents so it is completely monitored (by someone other than you).

Ok, sounds good but. . .
. . . well here are some of the nuts and bolts to help you get you started.

Can’t see video above? Click here.

Permission slips. Depending on your school policy, you may be required to get permission slips for participating artists.  Make your own or download and customize one of these templates: Casual or Formal (Microsoft Word format). Be sure to include a space for parent email addresses on your permission slip. Increasing participation from family and friends is the key to success in Artsonia.  It is worth the extra time to enter emails – parents get an email each time artwork is published or comments are posted, continually keeping them in touch with the learning going on in your classroom.

Volunteers. I started using volunteers to help me last year (I don’t know why I waited so long).  I keep a bin to hold artwork ready to photograph along with a binder holding class lists, and a camera (with extra batteries).  When artwork is ready, I send out an email to my volunteer list.  The first volunteer to “Reply All” agrees to photograph and digitally crop the artwork.  The only step left is uploading – something I still prefer to do myself, but certainly doable for a volunteer.  In the fall I do a training session and provide this Photography Tip Sheet and Guidelines for volunteers to reference.

Start slow and set a goal. My first year participating in Artsonia I promised to put up one piece of art for each student.  I ended up adding more, but I felt like I didn’t raise any expectations too high for the students or myself.

Do you use Artsonia?  Please add your school page and any tips in the comments area below.

LiveBinders to Manage Digital Clutter

October 10, 2009 by Theresa McGee · 1 Comment 

I try to organize all the paperwork that lands on my desk, but somehow sculptural forms (OK . . . I’ll just admit it, piles of paper) take over.   I’m not sure I am going to change the way my desk looks anytime soon, but I have found a great tool to get my electronic resources in order.

LiveBinders is a free service that helps you gather and organize your web links, documents, and videos into one tidy place. A LiveBinder is particularly useful when you want your students to access specific web-links for research or you’re teaching about a particular media, technique or artist and need to gather all your resources together. I created the following two LiveBinder links to use as extensions for early finishers and at home engagement:

The video below explains how easy it is to create your own LiveBinder :
(can’t view video? click here)

Create your own LiveBinder and share it with us in the comments area below!

Whole Brain Teaching

October 1, 2009 by admin · 6 Comments 

The following is a guest post written by Katie Jarvis. She has been teaching art for nine years and currently teaches at Cameron Elementary in Alexandria, Virginia.

At the beginning of every year, art teacher’s everywhere make up a “rules poster” to review with students on the first day of classes. Throughout the year I would find that the students would claim to forget or not know the rules. While researching art room rules last year I came across a teacher on Youtube, Chris Biffle, a college professor who taught what he called Whole Brain Teaching.

How does it work? At the beginning of every class the students and I recite the art room rules. The rules have hand motions and each week we change the style in which we say them- squeaky voice, deep voice, sad, happy, fast, cowboy, etc. The kids love it! In fact if I try to skip over doing the rules even my 6th graders complain.

I created a video to illustrate how I teach these rules on the first day of art.  Trouble viewing video below? Click here.

There is also a scoreboard to help with classroom management. I mark “smiley faces” and  ”sad faces” on the board as the class earns them (see monkeys in image on left). When the class earns a smile they get to cheer. When the class earns a sad face everyone groans.  The points are tallied at the end of each class and a gold paintbrush is awarded for more smiles than frowns, a silver paintbrush for an equal number of smiles and frowns, or no brush for more frowns than smiles. Four paintbrushes earn the class a free art day. Each silver brush is worth 1/2 a gold brush (2 silvers = 1 gold)

The most effective tool I’ve learned from Whole Brain Teaching is getting the students attention. When I say “Class” they say “Yes!” I vary the way I say class to keep them on their toes. For example if I say “Classsity, Class” they respond “Yessity, yes!”

Whole Brain Teaching involves lots of hand gestures and verbal responses from students to keep them engaged and entertained. Using WBT creates a “peaceful classroom full of orderly fun”. Students have more fun following my rules, since I switched to Whole Brain Teaching, rather than ignoring them.

Art Room Showcase 2009

September 18, 2009 by admin · 4 Comments 

When we launched The Teaching Palette back on September 29, 2008 (almost one year ago), one of our goals was to create a place where other art educators could share their ideas and successes.  With the start of the new school year, we came up with the “Show Us Your Art Room” feature.

Well, here it is… the creative spaces submitted by art educators around the globe and assembled into one Art Room Showcase (2009 edition). We hope art teachers will be inspired for their own spaces!

In addition to any comments you leave here, we’d like to encourage you to also leave comments in the flickr art room gallery.  Below is a nifty Flickr widget highlighting some of the art room entries.  Click any image for a close-up.

Thank you to the following art educators who shared images of their 2009 art spaces:

1. Laura Carey (winner, as seen on our home page – the shopping cart)
2. Myrna Ellison (winner, as seen on our home page – the castle)
3. Matt Cauthron (winner, as seen on our home page – the digital studio)
4. Lori Wilson
5. Elizabeth Burns
6. Frank Curkovic
7. Brooke Nicholson
8. Tara Conover
9. Tricia Fuglestad
10. Denise Pannell
11. Jessica Houston
12. Emily Valenza
13. Tana Puppe
14. Susan Bivona
15. Katie Balla
16. Keith Chapman
17. Matt Cauthron
18. Amy Kratochvil
19. Kristen Grzemski
20. Carol Frueh
21. Katie Jarvis
22. Myrna Ellison
23. Christy Branham
24. Katherine Malone-Smith
25. Maria Smith
26. Laura Carey
27. Julie Vladika
28. Theresa McGee
29. Hillary Andrlik
30. Brooke Nicholson

Do you have an art space to share? We can add it to our Flickr pool! Email photos to info@theteachingpalette.com

Present your Classroom Rules

September 4, 2009 by Theresa McGee · 2 Comments 

The first week of school typically involves going over classroom rules and procedures.  However, making these rules “stick” is a year-long challenge.  The SlideShare PowerPoint below, created by an art teacher from Michigan, outlines her art classroom expectations and management solutions.  This presentation could be useful to play periodically throughout the school year, during quiet work times, or even as students enter the room and get settled.  Download for your classroom or use as inspiration for your own expectation presentation appropriate for your students’ grade levels. Click the green play button at the bottom of the screen to watch the presentation and hear the audio track.

Posts You May Have Missed During the Summer

August 30, 2009 by admin · Leave a Comment 

• Show Us Your Art Room – Have you set up your art classroom? Snap a picture for other art teachers to see!  (Don’t be shy, show us even a great corner of your room!) Submit by 9/15.
• A Great Solution for Bookmarking Web Images – Gather and tag images for instruction from any web source in one spot.
• The 30 Best iPhone Apps for Art Teachers – 3,500 page views in less than a month – guess you like it.  Can you add to our list?
• Review:  IKEA Dignitet Curtain Wire and Clips – A great review submitted by one of our readers, Anni Lyzenga.  Join us as a guest contributor and add your own review! Read other product reviews here.
• Delicious Denial – If your goal is to get organized this year, this bookmarking tool is the perfect way to start.
• An Alternative to Adobe: Avery’s Free Design Tools – No funds available to purchase Photoshop or Illustrator?  This online tool can help!
• The Art Institute of Chicago Launches Interactive Website – New on the scene this summer, the AIC offers this online game to teach art concepts.
• The Importance of Art in Education -  Watch a great art advocacy video and show it at your open house or curriculum night this year.  Links to helpful articles are included as well.

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