Arts

What does A in STEAM mean? Art. But what does ART mean? I think of the arts as anything that enriches the world around us. Arts encompass any creative action, the obvious being painting, drawing, and sculpting but can also include music, acting fashion, gardening, and anything aesthetically pleasing. The video below discusses the importance of ART.

Canva.com: Canva has the honor of more than one place on this website. The ability to create on Canva is constantly evolving and You cannot miss out on trying what is available.

Project Beats

I absolutely LOVE music. It is one of my favorite things in life. One thing I have never gotten the hang of is creating my own music. Now this is not a solution to my problem but it certainly helps anyone who wants to try. I introduce you to two awesome sites that merge AI, coding, and Music. Code.org has an incubator where they are piloting Project Beats. which will teach you how to match beats and code the music. https://studio.code.org/incubator

In addition to this in the hour of code materials you can find a dance party where you can program your characters to do awesome dances to music. https://hourofcode.com/dance2019

Girl Jams

Girljams: https://studio.code.org/projectbeats

Girl Jams from Girls Who Code is an awesome AI tool. You get to pick a genre, a beat, the cover art, and give the AI a prompt that will write your lyrics for you. Take all of that drop it in a music editor add your vocals and maybe a few instruments and you have a new original song.

Google Arts and Culture: https://artsandculture.google.com/

This site appears in the Social Studies area as well. This site will give you access to museums, artworks, music, catacombs, and so much more! Spending a few minutes here will definitely spark ideas for future lessons or tie-ins to current lessons. Like I mentioned above I love music and this site really helps scratch that itch.

This link will let you hear a painting.

https://artsandculture.google.com/experiment/play-a-kandinsky/sgF5ivv105ukhA

Stained Glass Window Dupe

The image I have to the left was AI-generated. There is a lot of history involved in stained glass windows to explore. Making a faux stained glass image is easier than you think. This can be done with younger students with watercolors or tissue and simple supplies or scaffolded to older students. Here is an example of a stained glass bird project using very flexible plexiglass that can be cut with scissors, white glue tinted with food coloring, and black hotglue.

Paint Catapaults: This summer at TII I met Betty Jo Moore who has an amazing amount of ideas and I was enthralled with her thinking. One of my favorite things ended up being the mess of paint catapults. I will not lie it was fun and frustrating all wrapped into what we call education! I did this activity six times in one day and, each time I changed what I cared about. I was very diligent about building a catapult with the first group and throughout the day the catapults morphed into spoons flicking and eventually toward the end of every class it was throwing the cotton balls.

I took paint and watered it down so the consistency was runnier. I did this activity outside which was 1000% the best decision for me. They turned out amazing. The part I did not do that I wish I had was having the students make a drawing on top in permanent marker. One student did this and it was super cool.

Painting with Sphero Bolt

Did you know you can program a rolling robot to make a masterpiece? With Sphero Bolt. You can lay down paint and have your students roll through to make unique works of art. I would caution you, however, to do this in a raised, easily cleanable area and I strongly suggest outside. I use a small inflatable pool and a lot of patience!

https://edu.sphero.com/cwists/preview/39438x This activity is written for littles but you can easily amp it up and the big kids will love it too!

Augmented Reality/VR: VR is a really cool option if you have access to it. I do not know much about VR, however recently my son introduced me to Beat Saber. This game has physical benefits as you get moving but it also helps with feeling the beat, recognizing patterns, following directions, and let's face it VR is pretty cool. I am certain there are programs where you are able to visit faraway places or immerse yourself in a lesson.

I have tried some augmented reality in the past and there are a lot of possibilities. Solar System Scope is one I believe that you can put the solar system on your iPad using your camera the solar system is right there in the room. The last I used this was a few years ago. If I were to try this again I would project it on the board or have all the students in a gym area checking it out.

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