Using Minecraft to Create a Master Artist Village

Our third grade students are studying a master artist. You know, Georgia O’Keeffe, Claude Monet, Pablo Picasso, Georges Seurat, Frederick Remington, just to name a few for those of you who follow art as well as I do. Well, they love Minecraft and why not integrate it. The students (four classes) were given time to scurry about, claim a plot of land and start building.

They are limited to one floor, albeit 20 stories tall of they want, and no tricks. Just a simple house with signs hanging. The signs contain information about their artist. They are creating questions for other students in one of the other classes. Those students will then go on a scavenger hunt to find the answers in relation to their master artist. The kids loved donig it last year, but since I was relatively new to Minecraft, I allowed mutliple floors, treehouses, trap doors that were impossible to figure out how to open and monsters and fire.

This year, it's a simple house with five signs. They have freedom to decorate outside, once they are finished with the inside, and plant some flowers and create a sidewalk and driveway. No monsters, fires or animals are allowed this time around. We'll see how it goes.

Here are two timelapsed videos of two of the classes. They were allowed just 10 minutes the first day. They have to complete their own Google presentation first before they are able to go back and start working on their houses again.