“If it’s not fun, we’re not doing it!” That was Ms. Amy’s guidance during our planning meetings for this summer’s D.R.A.M.A. Camp. Children are learning a lot when they create their own plays, write scripts, design props and costumes, and perform. They’re also playing sports and learning art and design. All of these and any supplemental activities, however, must be fun!
Among the logo and poster designs the students are currently working on, Mr. Warren has added several art games to increase the fun. We thought we’d share, in case some families want to play along at home.
Basic Pictionary (requires one artist and one or more guesser)
A volunteer artist is given a word. We used the online word generator here, where children can choose the difficulty.
The volunteer draws a picture representing the word on the board. If you don’t have a whiteboard, dry erase markers work on windows or any hard plastic or metal surface.
Everyone else tries to guess the word.
We worked together as a class to guess, but some might prefer a different structure, like playing in teams or putting a time limit on the drawing. Experiment with drawing for speed or giving unlimited time to illustrate difficult concepts. Our groups were challenged by words like “background,” “government,” and “part.”
Squiggle Line (requires two or more artists)
One person draws a squiggly line on a piece of paper and hands it to someone else. If you’re playing with a bigger group, try passing the papers in a rotation.
The second person adds to the line to create a new drawing. Think out of the box for an unexpected outcome!
Cooperation Drawing, aka “Exquisite Corpse” (requires three artists)
A paper, held in portrait orientation, is folded horizontally into three equal sections.
The first artist draws a face on the top section, continuing the lines of the neck just below the fold. Don’t limit yourself … it doesn’t even have to be human!
The first artist folds the paper to hide the face and passes it to the second artist.
The second artist, without seeing the face, locates the end of the neck lines from the first drawing. Then the second artist draws a torso, again continuing the lines just beyond the fold so that the next artist knows where to start.
The second artist folds the paper so the third artist is unable to see the rest of the drawing.
The third artist finishes the drawing with legs and feet.
Open it up and see what you ended up with!
Check out the examples below!
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