Using Minecraft in the Art Room

Using Minecraft in the Art Room! baby steps...

         and here's a link to Kyle D's castle!
Scott and Kyle S's castle

This was a sketchbook homework assignment for 5th grade.

Create a 3D castle (sand, Medieval, fantasy, outer space...) showing all the parts of a castle. Must include the elements of texture and value.

3 options to create:

• Minecraft,
• Google Sketchup 
• or traditionally drawn in sketchbook

Minds were blown. About half of my 5th graders (boys and girls) chose Minecraft. They spent hours creating their original castles and were so excited to share the final product with me.

Here are some ways they shared. The kids came up with these methods, btw. 

• sharing the screen via Skype (fyi: parents were present at home, and I had another teacher in the room with me)
• Video capture via Frap, delivered on a Flash drive
• Print screen images emailed to me
• photos printed out and hand delivered (less popular option)
• filmed on a tablet and phone which was brought to me for viewing

Some responses to Reflective Questions I asked:

Patrick's Magic Tower

• "If you had drawn this in your sketchbook, would you have spent this much time on it?"  Nope.
• "Would you have included all this detail and thought?" Nope.
• "How many hours did you spend on this?" Everyday for a week, for a few hours each day. 
• how much of that was chasing Creepers? I don't know...

Connor at work