OK Go in the Art Room

I'm a big fan of OK Go... I think I've even shared a video or two here before, but today when I saw they put out a survey* to see how their videos are used or educational purposes and to get ideas for being even more helpful, I remembered that I'd been wanting to do a blog post about it.

*If you use OK Go videos, please take the survey here: https://t.co/DDMTUfToE7

I've used OK Go videos with all grade levels and they are pretty much always a hit. Here are some of my favorites to use and how I use them.

1. Three Primary Colors- I first used this video when teaching elementary but have since shown it to my high school students for both stop motion animation and color theory. This is a great one to sing along to. :)


2, 3, & 4. The One Moment, Upside Down & Inside Out, This Too Shall Pass
I showed these videos to my advanced class last year and posted a question in Google Classroom asking them to think about the videos as art and discuss. There was a cool documentary about Upside Down & Inside Out on Netflix but I'm not sure if it's still there and I can't remember the name! I will try to find it later and fix this.

5. Last Leaf- This video, as well as Three Primary Colors, are two of my favorites for when I introduce stop motion animation in my computer graphics class. I can't even guess how many pieces of toast they had to make!


I know I'm not the only one to have made a list like this! I just saw one that the Art of Education posted a while back and they had a couple videos I hadn't seen before. Which video is your favorite?

Primary Lines

In the second half of the school year my Kinders needed to review lines and primary colors. We had been using the vocabulary, but I realized I probably hadn't been as explicit about it after the first introduction. Sometimes I forget how much repetition the students need when they only have art class once a week (if we don't miss school). This lesson plan is available on The smARTteacher.

On the first day of the project we reviewed lines and the students made a composition using many different kinds. This was also a good time to reinforce paintbrush technique and care. I showed how to make thin and thick lines by turning the brush different directions and talked about trying to go in one diction to make the lines smoother. They sure like to go back and forth to smooth out a line and end up making the lines fuzzier AND thicker.

On the second day when the black paint was dry, the students were given the primary colors and white to mix tints. The students watched the Sesame Street music video by OK Go while I filled paint palettes. 

I've been doing something a little different with a lot of liquid tempera painting projects. Instead of putting out water, which usually ends up getting added to the paint making it less opaque and dirty looking, I ask students to try to use all the paint on their brush before switching colors and then to just wipe on a paper towel before "dipping the tip" into a new selection. It works really well most of the time and saves a lot of headaches.

If a student missed the first day, I let them choose if they wanted to draw lines with sharpie or paint black lines and wait until the following class period to use colors.

On the third day some students decided to add collage elements or do more painting. Many started new projects and kept on going with the liquid tempera and mixing colors. 

 This would be a great beginning of the year project, but it works equally well for review at the end.