2015 East County TechFest

I am really excited about presenting a session in the East County (San Diego) TechFest. The TechFest will be held at West Hills High School, and I will be presenting a session on Enhancing Student Projects Through Digital Photography. Here is my presentation in PDF form. Just click on the picture to download the file.

During my presentation, I will share a video that my son created. I love this video because he uses so many of the basic skills that I will talk about in my presentation, such as the rule of thirds, getting close to your subject, leading lines, fill the frame, shoot from different angles and levels, and tell a story with your pictures. I hope you enjoy the video as much as I did. (Get your Kleenex ready!)

 
Fritz is born from Tyler Little on Vimeo.

During the presentation, I will share different ways to share your student's images. One thing you can do is have your students create a ThingLink.  After doing on a Photowalk where students looked for examples of texture, we put together a ThingLink with lots of links that take you to images taken by the students.




Another way students can share their projects is to create a collaborative video. Students could gather all of their pictures after a field trip to create a video in iMovie, Animoto, or Flipagram. Flipagram is what I used to created a video highlighting many cloud pictures that I have taken, as well as pictures that elementary students took during a PhotoWalk. I love the Flipagram app! It is so easy to use. Here is my "Cloudy" video.

Kandinsky Art - The iPad Way

I love art, but cleaning up afterward is not my favorite thing!  We did a really fun collaborative project in my classroom the other day that I just have to share!  To prepare for my lesson, my teaching partner found an old art print, you know, the large prints that we all have tucked away in a closet somewhere?  First, I took a picture of it so I could show my students what it looked like before I cut it up.  Next I drew lines on the back and equally divided it into 18 pieces.  After numbering each piece, I cut the pieces.

Wassily Kandinsky's "Man on a Horse"

 I chose to do my lesson on Kandinsky's "Man on a Horse."  The pieces weren't too detailed, so I felt like my students could accomplish the task without getting frustrated.    I taught the students a few details about the Russian painter Wassily Kandinsky, then explained that we were each going to try to re-create a small piece of his art work, then we would put our iPads together at the end of the lesson to see how we did.

I love how my teaching partner thought of showing the students how the art was divided into pieces on the Smart Board.

 

Using the app, Drawing Pad, students used the paint brushes to draw their part of the picture.

Since I had more students than puzzle pieces, I assigned two students to work on the same piece.  But only one of their iPads would be used at the end for the collaborative project.

After the students completed their piece we put the iPads together to see how we did.  As students brought up their iPads one student was assigned to wake up the iPads when they went to sleep.

Not bad for the first time, right?  Next time we will do even better since now we see the importance of:  1. All use the same background color   2. Put the iPads down the right way and not upside down (see the 4th iPad from the left on the top row)  3.  Draw the picture with the iPad the portrait way and not landscape (see bottom row).

 

Drawing Pad is an app we use a lot in my 2/3 combination class.  You can purchase it for $1.99 at the App Store.  We use it in math instead of little whiteboards.  When I demonstrate a new concept to the class, they do it along with me in Drawing Pad.  We also use Drawing Pad for art across the curriculum, to insert our own art work into our writing in apps such as Book Creator or Pages.  For the holidays each student created a picture in Drawing Pad for their parents that we put into small frames from the dollar store.  It was the perfect gift for parents!   

Have you used Drawing Pad in your classroom?  How do your students use their iPads to create art?

Pumpkin Project

Our class participated in an online pumpkin project, hosted by Jen at Pumpkin Seed Count 2012.  As a group, my class estimated the number of seeds inside a pumpkin that weighed four pounds.   Next we cut it open to check our prediction.  We also decided to count the seeds of a pumpkin that weighed 8 pounds, so we could compare the results.  We predicted that the bigger pumpkin would have more seeds than the smaller one.

Next, students took out 10 seeds at a time, and placed them on a small paper plate.  We took turns counting the seeds of both pumpkins, so that everyone would get a turn.

After taking out all the seeds, we each held up the paper plates with groups of ten so we could count by tens to see how many we had.  We found that the small pumpkin had exactly 370 seeds.  We were amazed with how many there were!

The larger pumpkin had 540 seeds!  Our prediction was right!  The large pumpkin did have more seeds than the smaller one.  As a matter of fact, it had 170 more!

We also did some fun pumpkin activities thanks to Sandy at the "Soaring Through Second" blog.  The activities are aligned to the Common Core Math Standards.  One of the activities was to predict the number of pumpkin candies in a jar, and then count them to see how close we were.  There were over 300 candies, so students got a lot of practice counting by fives and tens.

Another activity involved predicting how big the circumference is on three different sized pumpkins - a small, medium, and large.  Then we measured the pumpkins with tape measures to see the actual circumference of each pumpkin, and found the difference between our prediction and the actual measurement.

 

At another center, students predicted which fruits and vegetables would sink, and which would float.  Students marked their predictions on recording sheets, and then recorded their findings.

Have you ever tried bowling with a pumpkin?  That was one of the centers today!  Students took turns rolling a pumpkin and tried to hit toilet paper rolls with numbers on them.  Students added up all their numbers for their final score.

The last center was a matching game.  Students had to turn over number cards and try to find numbers that added up to 20.  It was a lot of fun for everyone, and good math practice.

Besides all the pumpkin activities we had a Spooky Sprint (Jogathon), and took class pictures of kids who wore costumes to school.  It was a fun, busy day!!!

A Nikon D300 camera with flash mounted on a light stand with umbrella was used for these pictures.

Can you tell I was a zookeeper?

The Life Cycle of the Painted Lady Butterfly

Every year now for many years my second grade students have studied the life cycle of the Painted Lady Butterfly.  But this year I tried something new - time lapse photography!  Using an iPod Touch, I recorded each stage of the life cycle from the first day they arrived in our classroom.  Using iMovie, I put together a 5 minute movie of what we observed.  It was amazing to my students to see the time lapse video going clear across the Smart Board.  What was once a tiny little critter in a jar was now a creature much larger than life, and very easy to observe.  The app I used was called TimeLapse, and it was very easy to use.  I put a lamp next to the jar or butterfly cage to see their movement after the sun went down and the classroom lights timed out.  It was also important to keep the iPod attached to a power source so the battery didn't die.  I loved using the time lapse app!  Check out our movie!

Time Lapse Movie

--> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=63B1lnqPa8k

Time Lapse Fun

If you have been following this blog, you know that Mrs. Patterson's class at Lindo Park School ended up with a Hermit Crab for a class pet.  After getting their pet, the students began having second thoughts about their choice.  Their hermit crab, Tater Tot Jack never moved during the day!  Boring!  So Mrs. Patterson set up her iPod Touch with a time lapse app to see what would happen at night, when everyone was home sleeping.  Here is what she found!  If you try this, make sure you plug your iPod in to a power source, or the battery won't last.  You will also need a lamp next to your subject, because when the lights go out, it gets very dark!

Opinion Writing - Choosing a Class Pet

2nd grade teacher Sandy Patterson taught her students "Opinion Writing" in a fun, engaging way.  "Opinion Writing" is one of the new Common Core Standards for 2nd grade.  She told her students that she was thinking of getting a class pet and wanted their opinion about which pet to get.  Watch this movie to see how she went about getting her students involved in the project by using iPods, QR codes, and graphic organizers for their writing. 

Choosing a Class Pet Movie

Creating Slide Shows in iPhoto

Are you ready for an exciting way to introduce a new unit?  Or do you want to share student work with parents on your class web page or at Open House?  Creating a slide show in iPhoto is quick and easy, and lets you do both of the above.  All you need are a few pictures loaded into iPhoto, and your Apple computer!  You can even export your slide show in different sizes, depending whether you are going to show it on your SmartBoard, or an iPod Touch or iPad.  Here is a slideshow I created in just a few minutes of some of the 1st place art that was submitted from Lindo Park School for the Lakeside Women's Club Art Show.  If you would like some quick and easy step by step directions on how to do this, just send me an email, and I'll get it right off to you.  klittle@lsusd.net 

Slide Show Example - Art Show Winners

3rd Grade Percolator Projects

Suzanne Tiedmann is a Pre K-5th grade art teacher at Brunswick Acres School in South Brunswisk, NJ.  Her students do some amazing art!  3rd Graders found their polar bear artwork on the iPads in the art room and imported it to the Percolator app. They explored various filters within the app, and applied them to their work. Next they saved their image to the photo gallery.  "Percolated" Polar Bears

If you need some art ideas, take a look at their online art museum.  It is amazing! 
Artsonia Art Museum. Parents can look at their student's work online, and even purchase different items such as mugs or postcards made with their child's art.  15% of the sales goes back to the school for art supplies.  This is something to look into.  What do you think?