Fun activity to begin a new art class and build relationships!
This is a fun activity I tried this year with great success! I didn’t invent this, but did give it a try based on a post on Facebook. I think this would work well in grades 4 and up, and can be modified in many ways for your population.
The first week of school can be hectic. In high school schedules might even still be changing, so diving into a formal art project may be a waste of supplies. This game was a great way for students to get to know their peers, build relationships, be silly, and perhaps introduce them to some important art history images.
How I did it: I had some safety goggles on hand and foil. So I covered them to create blindfolds students could wear. I put my students into teams of 2 to 4. With blindfolds on, I showed the sighted partners an image for 1 minute and told them to memorize it. Then they had 4 minutes to describe it to their blindfolded teammate to draw. They handed their teammate color pencils, but were forbidden to touch them or move their hands.
At the end of 4 minutes, I judged the images and awarded 1 extra credit point to the “winning” team. If I had a tie, I held the works up for the class to choose a winner. I encouraged students to fully describe the image to their blindfolded partner before beginning, so they had an idea what they were trying to draw.
The first week of school can be hectic. In high school schedules might even still be changing, so diving into a formal art project may be a waste of supplies. This game was a great way for students to get to know their peers, build relationships, be silly, and perhaps introduce them to some important art history images.
How I did it: I had some safety goggles on hand and foil. So I covered them to create blindfolds students could wear. I put my students into teams of 2 to 4. With blindfolds on, I showed the sighted partners an image for 1 minute and told them to memorize it. Then they had 4 minutes to describe it to their blindfolded teammate to draw. They handed their teammate color pencils, but were forbidden to touch them or move their hands.
At the end of 4 minutes, I judged the images and awarded 1 extra credit point to the “winning” team. If I had a tie, I held the works up for the class to choose a winner. I encouraged students to fully describe the image to their blindfolded partner before beginning, so they had an idea what they were trying to draw.
We also did the same thing with the target image up the whole time. That went well too and might be preferred for some students. Another option would be to unblindfold the partner once the image was taken down, so that final images might be more cohesive.
Another derivation would be to have the image printed out and placed behind a cabinet where artists couldn’t see it. Then team member have to run back and forth to the image to describe it to their teammate to draw. This might be awesome for the youngest artists as it gets them moving more. Having students all draw the same image makes it easy to compare and contrast the results, but experiment with other methods as well.
Though the images we got were… awful, we had a lot of fun, they got to know each other, and were introduced to a wide array of artwork we would dive into later in our course. Comment below with how you might make this game work for your students!
Here are some other blog posts to help you start off the year right.
Just click the title to navigate.
Starting a New Year of School
First Year Teacher Advice & Resources
First Impressions
Why Students Need Art
Helpful Book Resources Linked Below. Just click the cover.
Another derivation would be to have the image printed out and placed behind a cabinet where artists couldn’t see it. Then team member have to run back and forth to the image to describe it to their teammate to draw. This might be awesome for the youngest artists as it gets them moving more. Having students all draw the same image makes it easy to compare and contrast the results, but experiment with other methods as well.
Though the images we got were… awful, we had a lot of fun, they got to know each other, and were introduced to a wide array of artwork we would dive into later in our course. Comment below with how you might make this game work for your students!
Here are some other blog posts to help you start off the year right.
Just click the title to navigate.
Starting a New Year of School
First Year Teacher Advice & Resources
First Impressions
Why Students Need Art
Helpful Book Resources Linked Below. Just click the cover.
 Starting the school year |  How I teach Art; My Pedagogy |
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