The Brown Bag Challenge
The Brown Bag Challenge is a great collaborative art project to encourage discussion, creative problem solving, and community in your Art Room. I love this art making activity for many reasons. One, it changes the dynamic in your Art Room. Each table receives a brown paper bag, instruction sheet, and a few materials. Inside the brown bag is a collection of random items such as, magazine clippings, old cut up art, tissue paper, cardboard pieces, etc. Once the students open that bag and empty its contents, they have to collaboratively figure out how to use these items to create a composition, which brings me to reason two, its a challenge. Each group of students will have to make creative choices like cutting versus ripping, layering versus spreading items out, adding color using other materials, or drawing to continue a pattern. There are even more choices to make, but the point is the table groups learn how to talk to each other, voice creative opinions, and experiment with materials. Another reason I love this art making activity is each table is going to produce a different product. Its not a cookie-cutter kind of project. The students each have unique creative voices to contribute to their collaborative artwork.
The excitement, the laughter, and the creative and social connections that are made during this art making activity is probably my FAVORITE reason for loving this lesson. It creates conversation. I hang up these collaborative pieces in the hallway outside my classroom and students that pass by almost always comment on them. When preparing for this lesson, I stuff the brown bags with at least 5-8 items in each bag of varying shapes and sizes. Also, having your own example to demonstrate is often helpful to students who need more in depth step-by-step directions.
Are you interested in trying this lesson out in your Art Room? Click the link above. You can tweak the lesson to your own classroom layout. I would love to hear how it goes for you. Please comment your experience.
Happy Collaborating!
Much Love,
Mrs. A
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