Teachers First - Thinking Teachers Teaching Thinkers

Learn and practice vector design with Method Draw. First, choose from several games to practice using the drawing pen, creating shapes and colors, and understanding game settings. Then, use the Method Draw link to open a workspace to create your designs using the tools found in the practice games.

tag(s): design (71), graphic design (49), vectors (14)

This resource may not be one of the six resources available at this time. If it is featured you can engage in digital storytelling using the many features included at ABCYA Paint. Choose from the included tools to spray paint, draw, add stickers, and more. When finished, save as a PNG file to your computer or print.

tag(s): digital storytelling (147), drawing (58), painting (50), preK (289)

Create free posters in three easy steps without registration using DesignCap. Begin by selecting a template from the many offerings on the site. Use the tools to edit your poster's features including text, images, and background. Upload your images to use or choose from clipart available in DesignCap. When finished, share to social media using the provided link, download to your computer, or print your project. Registration isn't required; however, it gives you the ability to save projects to your online account.

tag(s): images (250), posters (42)

Combine math and art with this excellent Pi Day (or anytime) activity! Follow the easy instructions to draw, cut, and graph your way to represent the digits of Pi. Visual learners will enjoy the many images demonstrating how to create the skyline.
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tag(s): charts and graphs (166), pi (26), STEM (331)

Bring art alive for young students. Paint and color, clay, fabric and fiber, drawing, construction, and print are the six strands of visual art covered by I Am An Artist. Click on a strand to view short videos, about six minutes in length, designed to keep your attention. Each strand also has a "Look and Respond" stimulating slide show with discussion questions. The "Can You?" section under each visual strand provides steps for a hands-on explanation. I Am an Artist allows you to explore the visual arts with various materials and tools, allowing students to express their world in a visual, tangible form. The "For Teachers" section on each strand page provides child-centered lessons developed to foster creativity and design with printable activity sheets. The site also provides weblinks and interactive games on a wide range of visual arts topics. Explore the I Am an Artist Gallery for examples. Find information about how to submit your own work to the gallery. The content for I Am an Artist has been created in consultation with Irish teachers.

tag(s): colors (62), crafts (88), creativity (80), design (71), drawing (58), makerspace (38), painting (50), sculpture (17)

Oh Freedom! is an introduction to the Civil Rights movement through the art of the Smithsonian. The site provides educators with new ways to visually teach about the Civil Rights movement. Students will learn in different ways through interactive timelines, artists, and lesson plans.

tag(s): african american (117), art history (102), artists (84), black history (127), civil rights (218)

Sumo Paint is a free, web-based painting and photo editing application. Without even having to create an account, you can edit images from a URL or personal desktop file. Simply go directly to the site and begin editing images or creating work directly from a web browser, or download the app to your desktop. The painting tools included are layering, cloning, blur effects, a magic wand, shape tools, paint bucket, lasso selecting, filters, and the ability to add text. The photo editing tools allow for the adjusting contrast, hue saturation, and color balance. The application works with JPGs, GIFs and PNGs and saves work as a JPG and PNG format. The support tutorials provide tips on how to use these various features. Sumo Paint also serves as a global network of artists and is available in over fifty different languages. Without an account, you can view work but cannot share or post comments. Signing up for a free account will provide artists an opportunity to share their work, comment, view, and rate the work others artists. A free account also grants access to features such as the ability save the layer data incomplete artwork, back up files, and participate in collaborative image creation.

tag(s): design (71), editing (82), painting (50), photography (124)

Are school budget cuts cramping your style? Then look at this award winning, FREE drawing application! Tux Paint is an "open source" drawing software for young students (preK - grade 6) and is available to the public at no cost. If you are familiar with Kid Pix, you will feel right at home with Tux Paint. The design is straightforward, and easy to navigate. The center of the screen serves as a large canvas with drawing tools on either side. Beneath the screen is a color palette. A cute penguin cartoon character directs students through the program and provides helpful tips. Some of the features include a large, kid friendly mouse pointer, brushes, stamps, sounds, erasers, letters, numbers, "magic effects," and an undo/redo option. Save artwork directly onto a slide finder page without having to create a file name. The installation is quick and easy even for older computers. First, download the application itself, and then the stamp collection. The number of stamps and the variety of images is amazing! Feel free to install Tux Paint on as many computers as you wish. Tux Paint will work on a variety of operating platforms such as Windows, OS X 10.3, and Linux. The "Tux Paint Configuration" tool is a separate file found on the "Tux Paint" download page. Having the controls in a different location makes it difficult for students to adjust the settings. Simply open the Tux Paint Configuration file and a main control panel will come up. From here, the supervising adult can control the screen size, sound, mouse, print settings, and save functions. Adjust the settings and simplify the program for younger children. Choose from approximately 80 different languages to run Tux Paint.

tag(s): creativity (80), drawing (58), painting (50), preK (289)

See the many featured, twenty-first century artists and their work in slideshows and hundreds of streaming video clips that accompany the ninth season of this PBS series. The artists speak quite articulately about their creative process and messages they wish to convey.

tag(s): artists (84), creativity (80)

Take your art students on a virtual tour of the Metropolitan Museum of Art with this impressive retrospective highlighting the work of Childe Hassam, one of America's leading impressionist artists. Many oil paintings, watercolors, pastels, and prints are featured, depicting nostalgic views of well-known sites across America and Europe. Details of each image can be explored with a click, and descriptive captions are provided for each work. A lengthy chronology of Hassam's life is included. Portions of this site would be quite at home in an American history class! Be sure to investigate the "Learn with Us" link, which offers Learning Resources, #MetKids, a Timeline of Art History, and others.

tag(s): art history (102), artists (84), impressionism (5), painting (50)