Go Draw in School Resources Page
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Here are a few things to get you going and to help you deliver Go Draw in School, and to make it a meaningful educational project. It is really important that you make it YOUR drawing festival. You know the needs of the children in your school/class. Adapt everything to suit what works best for your children. Above all HAVE FUN DRAWING!
If you need any help of advice do get in touch with John from The Artroom.
SUGGESTION ON HOW TO RUN THE PROJECT IN YOUR SCHOOL
Remember this is only a suggestion - adapt freely! Regular drawing is the key element to this festival, so try to do things every day!
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Talk to the children about the festival first. You might want to do this as an assembly or in class. Tell them how much fun drawing is, and that there will be, literally, thousands of others joining in with the festival.
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You might want to show the children the assembly video to get them started and excited about what is going to happen.
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Try and find a regular time slot to draw each day. It might be just after assembly or after playtime. I would suggest NOT to do it at the end of the day - you may run out of time, the children are tired and it doesn't show them that you think it is important. It seems like a lot of time to give - but its worth it!
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Give them their drawing books - instil a sense of pride, and excitement in the drawing books (please call them drawing books - it emphasises the idea of it being a DRAWING festival)
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Play them the daily theme video (the first one is available below) or if you would rather introduce the theme in a different way that's wonderful - the more input the teacher gives the better.
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Give them a set time to draw - you know what is the best length! But make sure it is protected time - try not to have any children leave for other activities!
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Teachers, LSA should draw too - it shows the children how important it is! How about inviting other school staff (cleaners/ dinner people/ admin/ governors... Headteachers!) to join classes each day to draw as well - they will love that they are being included!
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At the end of each session take some time to share and praise! (Don't 'mark' them or give out stickers for the 'best' - it's really important that everyone is valued.)
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....do the same the next day... regularity is the key!
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There are some additional ideas for you to try noted below
Why not make it a two week drawing festival with LOTS of other things going on in the school?
Assembly Video
Go Draw in School
This is a good way to get things started! This short video shows why drawing is important.
This video and all the day's themes can be found on the special Video Page on the website CLICK HERE to visit
Daily Theme Video
Day 1 Video
Each day this will change. This is the video that will hopefully inspire the children to Go Draw!
Use it if it's useful. Or introduce the theme however you want. If you want to prepare additional material that is good.
PLEASE DO NOT PROVIDE ANY PRINTED IMAGES OF THE THEME - we want them to draw from their imagination not just copy things!
Here are the themes we will have each day
Please do not tell the children in advance - it will work a lot better if they cannot prepare what they draw!
Day 1 – plants and flowers
Day 2 – under the sea
Day 3 – buildings
Day 4 – transport
Day 5 – insects
Day 6 - space
Day 7 – animals
Day 8 – sport
Day 9 – monsters
Day 10 - food
Day 10 - food
Other drawing ideas
To down load the resource mentioned in CAPITALS just click on the word.
Fingerprint doodles
Print a collection of random fingerprints onto a piece of paper. Using a thin black pen turn these fingerprints into animals, people, monsters… or anything you like!
Quick fire drawing.
(This works best during a lunch time break)
Have two or more teams (they could be School houses/teams, or age group splits etc). For each team set up a large white board (or large paper) in the playground. The team members queue up and take it in turns to choose a word from the WORD LIST. When they have chosen a word, they draw a picture of it on the board... where ever they like. Speed is of the essence. When they are finished the next person choses a word and draws a picture of that. You will build up a collection of wonderful drawings all on the same board!
Set a time limit. Have the children come and draw ‘when they feel like it’. Don’t organise it too much let the children spur others on.
The winning team is the team that makes the most drawings (you can keep a count by crossing off ‘chosen words’), not the 'best' drawings.
Chalk Draw
One break time bring out a big box of chalks and let them draw on the playground. A lot of schools already do this but try and let them draw where they are not normally allowed to draw – make it special and exciting!
What’s going on in my Brain!
Using the SIDE ON VIEW OF HEAD fill the brain with drawing thoughts and ideas! You might be surprised with what they come up with!
Drawing in pairs
On a blank piece of paper two (or more) people draw a picture, working together. The catch is once the drawing implements have touched the paper, they can’t be taken off until the picture is finished. Lots of wonderful communication is needed for this one!
Shadow drawing
Place some interesting objects on a piece of white paper an place in strong lighting such as a spot light or in the sun (this is interesting as the sun/shadow will move). Then draw around the outline of the shadow to make some interesting shapes. These could be overlapped with other object’s shadows – perhaps in different colours. You could go big and draw round the shadows of people!
Postcard Gallery Swaps
Every child that wants to take part is given a postcard (or similar). They are given a certain amount of time to draw something on the post card (it could be on a theme to give them a help – something like friendship, kindness, happiness is good.) They can write a cheerful message on the back. At the end of the time these are displayed in a ‘gallery’. The more splendid the gallery space is the better – it shows the children their work is valued. After a day in the gallery all the postcards are taken down and the children receive someone else’s postcard and cheerful greeting.
Freaky Faces
Print off the PEOPLE WITHOUT HEADS picture. (You could also get fashion catalogues and cut out the people from them – without their heads!) Let the children draw on ‘freaky faces’ to replace the heads. They could be wonderful monsters, or top-class glamour models … that’s up to the artist to decide!
Can you draw the King singing with a banana?
Give each children 3 small bits of paper each. Ask them on one piece to write the name of a famous person, imaginary or real. On another piece to write an -ing word (a verb). On the third write an object (noun). Collect all the bits of paper in three separate piles. Give each pile a shuffle and then hand them out (if a child has their original ideas get them to swap). Now they make up a sentence: Can you draw[famous person] [verb-ing] with [noun]? Now they draw it!
Drawing charades
Have a pile of cards each with a word on it. The children take it in turns to come up to the board (or on piece of paper if paying with smaller group) and chose a card, draw what is written on it so the rest of the group can guess. You could have two teams with the same list of words and have it as a ‘drawing race’
Some 'print off' posters
Here are some things you might want to print off and put up around the school/classroom.
Click on image to download.
Artist's permission has be given for this cartoon for school's use
HAVE FUN!