Thursday, September 8, 2011

I Love ART DICE




Found a giant pair of red neoprene dice at the dollar store about a billion years ago and couldn't resist.  I knew I would use them for something school related one day and that one day finally came.  A little white gesso and black paint transformed them into "art dice".  I won't lie.  I shamelessly (stole) borrowed this idea from Tinkerlab.  
I like to start the year out with something simple and something "line" related.  It was great.  Little kids loved rolling the dice to create their designs and we reviewed line quality including direction words:  horizontal, vertical, diagonal.  We took a short break to review classroom rules and expectations while the paint dried and then I let them color with crayons.
Third graders let their designs dry overnight.  They will paint them with primary colors during our next class.  Here are some shots of kids working and their results in progress.
Thank you TinkerLab...fabulous idea!










I found this project gave me a great opportunity to check out how kids are holding the crayon and give a little guidance on writing grip vs. drawing grip.  Back up a little and straighten out the forefinger a bit.  Use the arm to color, not just the fingers.

11 comments:

  1. What a clever idea! I haven't seen this done before.

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  2. This is so awesome! I love seeing how you interpreted the project in a classroom setting. The bold painted lines are wonderful, and I can see why you'd want to do this as a first project. Glad to know about your blog -- I'll be checking back often! (I read back into your archives and see that you're in Vermont -- so sorry to hear that you all lost so much in the Hurricane).

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  3. What a fantastic project to teach students about lines.

    The students did a great job interpreting the designs.

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  4. What a great idea. Thanks for sharing.

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  5. I'm loving your posts and will be adding your blog to my blog reader. Thank you for the inspiration! Just wanted to say hello:)

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  6. I really love this idea! My son is big into dice right now. He would really enjoy it.

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  7. What a fun way to introduce the concept of line!
    Thanks

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  8. What a great idea. Now to find a set of giant sized dice to use!

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  9. Fabulous idea, even though the die were bought so long ago. Get a set of unfinsihed wooden blocks and draw the lines with Sharpie markers…and roll, roll, roll!
    PS, found you out on Pinterest!

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