Tag: biographies

5-8, 6-12, Apps, Art, Creative Thinking, Education, Fun Friday, Student Products, Teaching Tools, Videos

Making Art and Artists Come to Life

Terri Eichholz

I can’t believe it’s already Phun Phriday!  This week has flown by!  Despite being super busy,  I managed to collect enough bits and baubles to use in the next ten Phun Phriday posts, so I may be doubling up for the next few weeks!

I saw a tweet about this yesterday, and thought it was such a neat idea for using the Morfo app.  @mrszickartchick shared this YouTube channel of videos her students created where the artists tell you their autobiographies.  It’s a creative way to present that I am definitely going to share with my students.  Even if you don’t plan to use the app, your students would get a kick out of learning about famous artists this way!  Several of the students did their best, even, to use accents and vocabulary that you would hear from each artist, making the videos even more enjoyable.

Screen Shot from Grant G.'s Leonardo da Vinci Morfo presentation
Screen Shot from Grant G.’s Leonardo da Vinci Morfo presentation

And, speaking of artistic impersonations, I wanted to share this, “Famous Works of Art Halloween Costumes“. (Some might be considered inappropriate for young children, so please preview before sharing.)  I really wish I could do this Magritte one this year – but the party I’m attending has a Medieval theme.  Ideas anyone?

image from: http://flavorwire.com/339132/famous-works-of-art-halloween-costumes/
image from: http://flavorwire.com
Creative Thinking, K-12, Language Arts, Motivation, Student Products, Teaching Tools, Writing

Six-Word Memoirs

Terri Eichholz

A couple of years ago, a fellow Gifted and Talented teacher, Michelle A., introduced me to these brief biographies by showing me the book Not Quite What I Was Planning.  I was immediately intrigued, and went out to buy my own copy.  There is something deeply moving about the power of six words to tell an entire life story, and I looked for ways to incorporate it into my classroom.  Apparently, Michelle and I weren’t the only ones who saw the potential of this writing technique.  It has taken classrooms by storm.  On this site, a teacher explains how she used the idea with her second graders, and gives instructions for the classroom activities. (Be sure to click on “Expand to Read More”.)  And at Smith Mag, there are lots of examples and ideas – even 6-word questions.  And Daniel Pink has a variation on this idea, as well, with “What’s Your Sentence?”.   I would not recommend that you set younger students loose on any of these resources, as there are some mature topics discussed, but you can gather plenty of appropriate ideas to jumpstart their creativity.