61. An Oldie But Goodie

 #66Challenge

This week I pulled out one of my favorite activities to do with young people. If it has a name, I don’t recall it. Furthermore, I don’t even know where I first learned of it. 

First, 4 students volunteer, and then they are asked to wait outside the door in the hallway. I ask the class who out of the four is the worst artist. They usually know! 

We call the “worst” artist in, and I show them this picture and tell the to draw it on the chart paper I have displayed. 

I took pictures of the results from my 11th period. 

Here is the first drawing. Not that bad! 

The next student has to draw theirs from the first student’s version. They never see the original.  Here is #2:

And it continues that way

#3 drawn from #2:

#4 from #3:

This one we called the “cat-rat.”

After everyone gets a good laugh, and the first person realizes in horror they were designated “worst artist,” we have a serious (but short) discussion on how this represents gossip and the spreading of rumors. 

The next thing that happens is the kids want to do it again, but I always resist. I remind them once they know the game, it isn’t going to work as well because the surprise is gone. 

Here is my 2nd period enjoying the process:

We had fun this week!