✨Your Smarticles✨: Paper Chain Pixel Art

Here's How We Did It

Materials:

Pixelated image 25 x 25 squares
9 x 12 sheets of construction paper
Stapler(s)
Staples

It started by attempting to find an image that would fit the space we had available. I'm not much for creating my own Pixel Art, so I was able to find this image by searching for Bead Art on Pinterest

(If you are interested in making your own pixelated creations, try this AMAZING resource created by Eric Curts. It's a Google Sheet with formatting embedded that allows you to type a number in a grid and have a color appear)

The Process:

➡We began the project by picking our colors and pre-cutting strips measuring 2" X 8"

➡I found it VERY helpful to pre-draw the cutting lines on 1 sheet of white 9 x 12 paper and feeding blank pieces through so there were pre-printed cut lines.

➡Students then worked on each chain with a partner. Each chain represented a vertical column in the design. The first loop is a front facing loop and each front facing loop is a pixel in the chart. The next loop is side facing, I call these connectors. ALL of my connectors were white.

➡As students worked, one student would typically read the chart and line up the pieces, the other did the stapling. While they worked, they referenced the columns they were assigned ( I gave each group a number and wrote the number on the starting loop) . We pinned each completed strand to a bulletin board strip for safe keeping.

➡As the image began to take shape, I quickly realized that some students were making tighter loops than others and the columns weren't perfectly lined up. This isn't easy to rectify, but what I DID do was start stapling together each adjacent side facing loop to help line up the rows. This made a BIG difference in the appearance of our design.

This final project began with a pixel chart that was 25 squares x 25 squares. The final dimensions of the project were approximately 5' x 5' and our work is proudly hanging in the middle of the library. 😃