"The Dot" Project

Have you ever wondered where you were going to get your next big idea? Or what might inspire you to do some new project?

Well, I was sitting in a Techie Tuesday in September and I found my idea. I was taking some time to read through Twitter and I saw a post about 2nd graders. Of course, it sparked my interest.  The Tweet was about the book, The Dot by Peter H. Reynolds and it was accompanied by a cute video.

Thanks to +Darin Swenson, an educator from Minnesota, who I met at EdCamp Omaha a couple of years ago thanks to my friend +Brent Catlett I now had a great idea! 

I began the project of course by reading the book, The Dot.  My students were very excited to make their very own "dot" artwork just like Vashti in the book. We started by tracing 1 large dot, then 2 smaller dots, next 3 even smaller dots and finally 4 more small dots. Students were able to choose the placement and color of all their dots. The artwork looked great, but it was missing something. That's when I decided to marble paint over the top of the art pieces. This was the final step needed to make the art look even more spectacular.

 

 For the next part of the project I showed my class a video from Kid President. Kid president always wants to inspire kids to think deep and to DO something! My students then brainstormed ways that they could be AWESOME! There were some really good responses and some silly ones too. They wrote up their responses and were ready to make a video.

A Pep Talk from Kid President

I really liked how the video posted by +Darin Swenson had the artwork behind each student. I knew that is what I wanted to do but knew that would require use of a green screen, which I didn't have. So, being the crafty person I am I "Googled" images of green screens and read about how to make one. This lead me to my decision to just use fabric. I made my $10 purchase of 5 yards of bright green fabric. I used cardboard rolls taped together, a staple gun to attach the fabric and now I have two green green screens to use in my classroom.  Each is about 45" wide and 2/1-2 yards long. They can hang from the ceiling by hooks and string when I want to use them and then they roll up for easy storage. 

     

I had my students stand in front of the green screen and I used my iPad to record their video. Then I used the app Green Screen by Do Ink to layer the artwork and the video together. I then dumped all the videos into iMovie to make the final production. I added some credits to the beginning to make the video complete. 

  

The Dot Project by Mrs. Brown's Class

And just think. . . if I had not been sitting in the Techie Tuesday reading through Twitter. . . I would have possibly missed seeing this idea and never completed this fun project. 

Now, I am looking forward to using the green screen for even more projects in my classroom!