Creating Pixel Art Using a Google Sheets Template

In my previous blog post TK teacher Christine Pinto had her transitional kindergarten kids use Google Classroom to create Google Drawings. As we all know, the answer is always a spreadsheet so I pondered on what would be a good activity she might be able to use with spreadsheets. Pixel art!

Paint By Numbers

Using the template students type numbers 0 to 9 into any cell and that cell is filled in with a color.

Pixel Art Template

alicekeeler.com/pixelart

Making Pixel Art

This activity is good for ALL ages. From TK to grade 12. Students can create pixel art of just about anything to demonstrate their learning. Pixel art chemical bonds might be fun 🙂 Students are not bound to the 10 colors in the conditional formatting. Review my previous blog post on how to make pixel art from scratch.

Create Your Own

Older students will enjoy using this pre-made template, however, encourage spreadsheet literacy by having them create a pixel art template from scratch. Clicking on the “awesome box” (blank square above the row indicators and to the left of the column indicators) selects the entire sheet. Resizing one row will resize all of the rows. Resizing one column will resize all of the columns. Right-click to choose conditional formatting. Set the conditional formatting criteria to be if “text is exactly” and define the criteria. For example if the text in the cell is exactly 1, set this formatting. Set the font color and the fill color to be the same value.

Samples from Teachers and Students

@alicekeeler In honor of March Madness #Purdue @BoilerBall pic.twitter.com/AV0qnQCBHA

— Sarah Margeson (@TSCconnect) March 16, 2016

TK Pixel Art creations using Sheets. Big shout out @alicekeeler, it was her idea and she made the template! #amazed pic.twitter.com/fE82cviwTG

— Christine Pinto (@PintoBeanz11) March 17, 2016

@alicekeeler, here’s one from today… See the color key created in column A. pic.twitter.com/fOFVzQdn7A

— Valley View Jaguars (@ValleyViewJags) March 23, 2016