Are you looking for an activity to build community among your students or with a class outside of your school? Try this! All you need is a blank sketchbook. The students really enjoyed passing the sketchbook to the next person and seeing what everyone creates. Since I’m an art history teacher, I centered this on artworks and artists from the AP Art History curriculum, but you can do whatever works for you. I would liken this to traveling journals or books that people share and send through the mail, you could even partner with a sister school and trade your sketchbook back and forth. There are so many different things you could do with something like this:
- Add To It: One student draws an image, the next students adds to that image and so on until the work is complete.
- Include a map and each person that contributes can show where they are in the world, or your country.
- Start by creating backgrounds for each page so that the blank pages don’t seem so daunting for students.
- Famous Artist Bios: Students choose a famous artist, sketch/draw/paint them and add facts about them.
- Famous Artworks Reimagined: Take a famous artwork and remix it somehow! (Insert an animal for a human, or have the students put themselves in the work.)
- Free-Choice: Students can be super creative if we give the space to do what they want!
The sketchbook pages I am showcasing here were created by Art History Club students, they would take the sketchbook home or work on it after school.
Have your students ever done something like this? Share below!
-Mrs. A
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