Spark excitement with the newest digital art challenge! The Thunderstorm Zipper invites learners to recreate a storm cloud, complete with rain and a lightning bolt. Yes, there is indeed a lightning bolt in Shapes menu in Google Slides and Google Drawings!

Level = Growing Green
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Thanks to Nate Moore in Michigan for his shape-ggestion! He’s using the Thunderstorm Zipper as a creative closure on his weather-themed unit.

When you take apart the picture, it becomes clear that the storm is drawn with 4 circles, 7 rounded rectangles, and one lightning shape. The template has an animation showing how to draw a cloud and then duplicate, recolor, resize, and reposition to make a second cloud.

March Shapegrams

March is full of opportunities for digital art. Pi Day is March 14th, and you can celebrate with the Pizza Lesson and the Pie Zipper.

St. Patrick's Day is March 17th. There's a simple Clover Zipper and a more complicated Rainbow Lesson.

The 2024 NCAA March Madness kicks off on Tuesday, March 19, and runs through Monday, April 8. The Basketball Zipper invites learners to draw a basketball and contains step-by-stop directions.

What I'm Working On

I cannot wait to get the next new Shapegrams Lesson out to you. It's one that I've been wanting to create for years. The lesson will be different from all the others.

Instead of recreating a picture, the lesson I'm putting the finishing touches on is all about digital stop-motion animation in Google Slides.

In the upcoming lesson, I demonstrate 7 basic stop motion techniques and a way to share animations that automatically plays on a loop.

Classy Creativity with A.I.

Register by March 13th and save $20!

I'm leading a new online workshop for educators. Classy Creativity with Artificial Intelligence takes place in Google Classroom and begins April 3rd. Each week for four weeks I post an instructional video and optional assignment. Assignments are shared with the class, and I give feedback on what you create. If this interests you, read more about the workshop at learninginhand.com.

Smiles from Iowa,
Tony