When Art, Technology, & Classrooms Come Together

This year our class has been very fortunate to have participated in many different activities that have spanned many different facets outside the classroom.

Our latest endeavour is being part of Jennifer Wagner's (@jenwagner) Picture It! 2014.  This is the second project by Jen that our class has taken part off (we earlier stacked Oreo Cookies as part of the O.R.E.O. Project 2014) and it is a very interesting project.

It works as each class involved is separated into groups, with 24 classrooms involved in a group.  A picture is decided upon - this year's picture is Van Gogh's Starry Night.  Each classroom needs to colour a section of that picture and mail it to the other 23 schools participating.

Our classroom has been busy colouring section three of our group's rendition of Starry Night and the kids have used alot of their creativity.

In addition to colouring, each school sends along an All About Us brochure telling the schools involved about their class, including how many students, what they learn, and interesting things about the school, and most importantly where they are from.

My kids have been very interested in where each of these schools are and what they do.  Each time we get a picture (to this point we have received four), we post it up on our board and paste the parts together.  Each time we get a piece of the picture, the kids want to know who coloured it and if they are Grade Four or not.

They are even so amazed if it's coloured by a Grade Six (to which point they go, I can colour better than a Grade Six, ahaha!)

This project not only shows the impact of art, but also of technology and classroom integration.  It incoroporates colour, line, shape, and texture in art and also the idea that the world is much bigger than just our classrooms.

My students have been amazed by it and are really waiting in anticipation for the school in our group from New Zealand to send their picture! (especially since there are only three schools in our group not from the United States - including us).

A big thank you to Jen for her hard work organizing such an enormous undertaking and making it fun!  Make sure to visit her website, http://projectsbyjen.com/calendar.htm to find out more about her yearly projects!