Hello! Happy Tuesday :)

I wanted to share with you what I'm teaching my 2nd through 5th graders. Pixel Art!

I work at a Visual and Performing Arts Magnet school, and my kiddos are surrounded with the arts every single second of every day. As many other schools are doing, we've gone completely virtual. We are doing Hybrid now, but we still have many virtual kiddos. But this means that every student now has a device. The kids need to learn how to properly use their device to get the most out of school, so I've been given them lessons on all of the Google Suite. These past two weeks, it's been on Google Sheets creating Pixel Art.

It's super simple. I know many people are intimidated by Google Sheets, but it's become one of my favorite tools. I've made videos for the kids to follow, broken up into four steps. The trick is to use Conditional Formatting. I've used this tool for years to collect and color code data for my classroom. It's also great for when you want to keep track of different things, lists, who has turned in what, etc. Conditional formatting is when you set conditions (rules) for the computer to follow when you've input something. In this case, when you enter a number the cell turns a color.

For my 2nd and 3rd graders, I gave them a template with the rainbow colors already set up. I've given them a Slide deck with some example pictures they can recreate. I do teach them how to change the colors if they want to.

For my 4th and 5th graders I've taught them how to create a new Google Sheet and resize the columns and set up the conditional formatting. They also get to find an example of Pixel Art to try to recreate.

Here are the videos:

Step 1: 4th and 5th Grade Step 1: 2nd and 3rd Grade

Step 2: 4th and 5th Grade Step 2: 2nd and 3rd Grade

Step 3: All grades

Step 4 All grades

Here is a copy of the 2nd and 3rd grade Template, already set up! Click HERE!

And a copy of the Examples slide deck: Click HERE!

After they are finished, I teach them how to take a screen shot snippet on the Chromebook (CTRL + Shift + the windows key, which is the key above the 6 on the keyboard, looks like a square and two lines). Their mouse turns into a crosshair and they click and drag around the pixel art they want to take a screenshot of. For Windows computers, it's usually Shift + Windows + S. I make a slide deck, with a slide for every student with their name on it. They go and insert their picture on their slide.

I am so proud of my kiddos and their artwork. Take a look at some of the slideshows:

Have fun!

Jessica

Jessica 9:09:00 PM 1 comment

Hey guys! I wanted to share what I've been doing with my Kindergarteners during this crazy weird alternate reality version of the world we are living in right now.

We are in the middle of our Hybrid learning phase in my district. Half the kids (who didn't opt for 100% virtual) come on Monday and Tuesday, the other half Thursday and Friday. So there's only like 10-13 students in each class.

I'm teaching Tech Tips to all of them! So with my virtual Kinders, I've had to be creative because I don't want to put too much on the parents to do. I made this simple drag and drop activity for them to create their own robot.

I also post a video to show how to do this, so the parents can understand and the kids. Here is the video if you'd like to watch!

Here are some of their wonderful creations!

Grab a copy of this activity HERE.

For my face to face kiddos, we are using the LEGO WeDo Robots. They get to build with their hands and then we will begin coding once their tablets come back to school. Each student has their own WeDo kit, so there's no worry about sharing materials. This past week I just let them build whatever they wanted. We talked a little about the "brain" of a robot, and I showed them Milo the Science Rover and how we code him to move around. They were super excited!

We start on October 5th going all five days with alllllll of our face to face kids. How are you handling this school year so far? Know that I'm praying for all of you! Have a great weekend!