Kindergarten on the iPads

I braved using the iPads with kindergartners to start the Percolator Gumball Machine project today. I feel so fortunate that my colleagues were willing to let me borrow their iPads for the day! I will be doing this again with kinders twice next week, and starting with second grade next week as well. If anyone has an easier way of doing all this, please let me know. Here's what I did. . . 

My colleagues started dropping their iPads off right away in the morning, even though I didn't need them until after lunch. I used that to my advantage, and logged into Dropbox on each of the iPads. I then downloaded one child's artwork (which I had already photographed and put into Dropbox after loading them to Artsonia) to each iPad. I put a Post-It note on each iPad to let me know which child's image was loaded. I even went into Percolator and loaded the child's artwork to the iPad. After my demo, all the kid had to do was turn it on and start manipulating the image. 

I had one more iPad than I needed for the kids (it's a small grade level), so I used that to project on the SmartBoard and show the students how to change the different parts of the image. I then set them to work and as they finished I showed them how to save it to their camera roll and keep working. Most kids had more than one image saved-one even had eleven!

When the kids left, I went into each iPad individually and uploaded the images to my Dropbox. I changed the name of the image to the artist's class code followed by their name so that when the computer reorganized the photos the whole class would be together. Next, I logged out of Dropbox on the iPad and deleted all my students' work because they are not my iPads. If anyone knows of a way to change the image file name on the iPad, I am all ears as that would have been a huge time saver today (and even more so next week, when I'm doing more than one grade level!).

When I had all the images transferred, I was able to download them in one large group and load them to Artsonia. I love putting iPad artwork on Artsonia. Not only is it impressive looking, but it's so easy with no editing needed!

These images are all from the same class. I am thrilled with the variety of results and debating about making photo collages like the one at the top of this post to load to each kid's Artsonia account. It would be a fun triptych, but lots of work.

Pop Art, Pointillism, and the iPad

Pop Art & Pointillism Kindergarten Unit

by Wayne Thiebaud

My kindergartners are finishing up their Pop Art Gumball Machine a la Wayne Thiebaud this cycle. They used printmaking to create the gumballs and collaged it all together. I really wanted to use the Percolator app with them but needed to find a way to link our Pop Art work with Percolator. I decided this is the perfect opportunity to introduce the concept of types of art and specifically Pop Art and Pointillism. I found this great gumball machine worksheet on Mandy's Tips 4 Teachers and printed them out so they could get right to painting after my intro. 

Next, I created a video, as I will be having a sub coming in to teach this to two of my classes while I am off at Art Ed Conferences. This video took me for.ev.er to make. So I'm sharing it here so that all of you can enjoy the fruit of my labor without the intensive work! 

When they are done with their Pointillist Gumball Machines, I will be borrowing the school iPads to use Percolator with them. I am already taking photos of all the work for Artsonia, so I will load those in folders according to class in my dropbox account. This will make them available on the iPads. I will have to spend my lunch break loading each iPad to an individual image as I'm sure my kinders aren't ready for that, but Percolator is pretty easy to use, so once the images are on there I'll give a quick demo on the SmartBoard and let them get to work. I'll have to circulate around the room sending the completed images back to my dropbox. I'll be sure to post when we're done and let you know what I learned about using iPads with kindergartners!

Printmaking & Collage

Pointillism

Technology