VISUAL ARTS
Games that are used in the art class help kids to practice the required skills and build the ability to identify and construct meaning in their visual expression. Particularly, technology-based games work as a medium in which kids can select and use to represent ideas in new ways.
GAMIFICATION RESOURCES TO ENHANCE ART LEARNING...
1. Guess the Scribble
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Grade Levels: 1-3
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Warm-up games for lower grade levels
Curriculum Connections:
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This activity is for kids to learn different shapes and basic drawing skills.
Meaningful Implementation:
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1. Draw a scribble on the board.
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2. A student comes up and turns it into an object.
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3. The first student to correctly guess what it is gets to go next.
2. Weavesilk
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Grade Levels: All!
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For students at all grade levels, the activity works as a good introduction to technology in arts class.
Curriculum Connections:
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This activity is a great way of making connections and visualizing.
Meaningful Implementation:
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It is essentially an online interactive generative art. Students go to the website and draw something intuitively.
3. Painting Puzzles
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Grade Levels: All!
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This game provides rich materials in arts history.
Curriculum Connections:
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This activity is good for kids at all levels to learn arts history.
Meaningful Implementation:
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Students will solve the puzzles of paintings from famous artists in the world.
4. Light Prints/Photograms
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Grade Levels: 1-3
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It is a fun game to engage little kids in arts class.
Curriculum Connections:
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This activity is great for younger students.
Meaningful Implementation:
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The art teacher will take old photo paper and do a brief, age-appropriate explanation of what the paper was actually used for, and then the students placed their hands over the paper and let them develop in the light of the classroom to create “artist hand photograms”.
5. Shadow Drawing with Sidewalk Chalk
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Grade Levels: 1-3
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It is a very engaging activity for arts class.
Curriculum Connections:
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This activity is good for a quick and fun lesson in lower Grades.
Meaningful Implementation:
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Students take turns tracing each other, then “dress and accessorize” themselves.
6. Art Bingo
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Grade Levels: All!
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Teachers can adjust the complexity of the words to the levels of the students.
Curriculum Connections:
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This activity is a good fit for group collaboration and can be applied at all levels.
Meaningful Implementation:
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The whole class come up with a word bank of 30 to 40 words (depending on time and age group). The art teacher writes the word bank on the board. This word bank generally consists of objects or people that are relatively easy to draw. Students then choose 16 of the words from the word bank. They write each word at the bottom of a space, then go back and illustrate the words.
FURTHER SUBJECT-SPECIFIC RESEARCH...
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Bain, C. & Newton, C. Art Games Pre-Service Art Educators Construct Learning Experiences for the Elementary. Art Education. 56 (5). 33-40.
