Chopped: Art

I love watching Food Network, especially the shows where chefs use their creativity and think outside the box (or basket?). I always thought that there were a lot of possibilities to bring some of those competitions into the art room. My 8th graders recently participated in a "Chopped" challenge on their 3rd day of school to get them used to the idea of collaboration and problem solving, and to introduce them to the location of supplies I moved around in the art room over the summer.

To familiarize the students with the concept of "Chopped", I played a video of a round of Chopped. I recommend some of the Chopped: Junior videos. I explained the concept to them: work with your partner to make art out of the "mystery ingredients" that I had prepared ahead of time. I tried to talk like the Chopped host "also available to you are the tools and supplies in the art room". 

I only have 6 students in my 8th grade class so I drew names to put them in three partner pairs. I presented the bags, which some also used as "ingredients", set a timer, and let the students start. The groups that had the best communication did the best in the competition. The first team to be chopped became judges with me in the next round. I tried to get them to commentate with me and they were feeling a little shy, but they did help me to choose the chopped champions. 

Maybe you're thinking, ok, but what if I have more than six students? (I know that my class is tiny!) Well, I have some suggestions. You could make bigger teams, set the timer for shorter rounds, or stretch the completion to more than one day. My students asked to do it again the next day but I didn't have mystery ingredients prepared so I might do it again toward the end of the semester.

 I used paper bags to hold the ingredients. I honestly just pulled stuff out of cabinets in the classroom, things that didn't necessarily go together so the students would have to think a little more. Some that I used were donated rolls of receipt paper, tongue depressors, clothespins, safety pins, pipe cleaners, a ball of yarn, rubber bands, and toothpicks. I wish I would have thought to plug in the hot glue guns ahead of time so they would have been warm.

I think this game was a hit. It had a little more structure than a task party (which sounds super fun but I don't think my students are ready for it yet) but it still got the students active and their creative juices flowing. I will definitely do this again, even with high school or upper elementary.

The Most Creative Year Bulletin Board

Thanks, once again, to Peter H. Reynolds/FableVision for bulletin board inspiration! If you're not signed up for the FableVision newsletter, you should be! The newsletter highlights new products, and occasionally includes a link to free printable posters. The poster offered in December was the perfect idea for a bulletin board to kick off the new year. Since the printable was too small for my board, I stole borrowed the wording and painted my version in the hallway. I usually don't cover my painted bulletin board background but this time I decided it would be faster to paint the words on butcher paper than to cut out the letters. I love the look of brightly colored paint on top of black paper.

YAM Bulletin Board

I'm a big fan of Peter H. Reynolds' books. They have great messages for kids about creativity, taking chances, and solving problems. Each grade at my K-3rd school completed a project inspired by one of the books. Kindergarten and 3rd grade students made dots, 2nd grade students made "Ish" drawings, and 1st grade students made Sky Color paintings using a wet-on-wet watercolor technique. My bulletin board says:

In Art class we learn to...

Take Chances

Persevere

Make Decisions

Be Confident

Solve Problems

Communicate

Happy Youth Art Month!

I reused the Ramon from "Ish" I made for last year's YAM bulletin board (Happy-Ish Youth Art Month) and added a Vashti from "the Dot" and a Marisol from "Sky Color" to complete the scene. Having the characters on the bulletin board reminds the students of the stories and it was honestly just a lot of fun for me to imitate Reynolds' fun style of illustration. :)

My YAM art show entry was a dot made by a Kindergartener. His learning statement said: 

 I made all colored in circles. I used markers, crayons, and paint. We all made circles but mine was different because I kept going and adding stamps and coloring it in. It was fun putting paint on it. I'm proud of it.

The background of the bulletin board was painted by a couple of 1st grade classes with "sky color"- no blue paint!

The last step was a sign describing the student projects and how they related to the book characters on the board.

Bending, Breaking, Blending

I just read an article from the Houston Chronicle that I really enjoyed!  "Brandt: For sake of society, young minds need art" talks about the difference between automated and meditated behavior as explained by  David Eagleman (<---neuroscientist) in his book Incognito.  Automated behavior is often unconscious and meditated behavior is innovative. 

I really like the section about how creativity requires alteration of some kind, based on the work of scientists Mark Turner and Gilles Fauconnier. Copying is not creative. The examples of alteration they give are bending, breaking, or blending. This is something that we should think about as Art teachers.  I, as I'm sure most Art teachers do, try really hard to emphasize being inspired by others' artwork (whether from Art History or a contemporary artist) without copying it.  I give my students the requirements by the assignment and encourage them to be creative within the confines.  Of course some are always going to get too hung up on my example being the "right" way to do it and copy it even from memory if I take it down but I keep encouraging them to find their own way.  Anyway, I just enjoyed the article (it's fairly short) and thought I would share it!