Exquisite Corpse Collaborative #DotDay

Click the box image to view what I purchased for this project.

5th graders are going to do an all grade-level collaboration in celebration of International Dot Day. They will contribute an exquisite corpse drawing of either a HEAD, MIDDLE, or LEGS on a cardboard cube. This idea was inspired by the IAEA conference. They had the cubes set up on tables for us all to draw on in pencil. I took some back with me to inspire my students...and it worked. My students were very inspired by them and were begging to try it too. So, I used our amazon gift card from winning a NextVista.org contest to buy the boxes for this year. 

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Exquisite Corpse Game and Resources

Planning:

This lesson was developed to meet the the National Core Arts Standards of creating, presenting, responding, and connecting.

Here is what you'll find:

• What is an exquisite corpse
• Materials list (paint supplies and boxes like this)
• Warm up game (printable)
• Worksheet for developing ideas (printable)
• Management Strategies (photos from my classroom)
• Displaying strategies
• Signage (printable labels for finished art)
• Math Problem (have students calculate how many combinations possible)​

explore

Here is a graphic I made to describe my plan. Every student in 5th grade is part of a large collaboration, so I want them to understand the big picture.

Planning sheet for the Exquisite Corpse Project

Inspiration/Resources:

See the slideshow below for creative solutions from artists and illustrators. These examples come from this Kids @ Random lesson. I made them into handouts as well.

I made these into a four-page handout to print and put at tables as resources. 

Questioning:

When I was at the IAEA conference last year, I was very inspired by this lesson. Not everyone was taking the time to create, so I did three drawings on one side of a stack of boxes. Later, I took this picture and reflected. I like to be different and break the rules when I create art, but would that work during a collaboration?

Examples: Bold, big, patterned, painted

My examples (made digitally using Brushes Redux)

My examples painted on cardboard boxes

Students Working: (in progress)

Students are done designing their "head", "middle", or "legs" and began their first step of painting. They traced their design in black marker, erased the pencil lines, and painted a solid background color. They had to choose a color that was different than their neighbors. Each started painting from right to left so that the middle line of paint might be dry when the second artist paints next to it. The boxes are laid flat until we are finished painting. I pulled some off the drying rack (below) to get a glimpse of some future combinations. Aren't these fun?

Student Results: 

Below is a peek at some of our finished painted heads, middles, and legs. View the whole gallery on Artsonia here.

Digital Exquisite Corpse Collages

Each student will make a digital collage of their piece and two classmates using Pic Collage for Kids. See the gallery here.

Made by teacher at IAEA

My painted examples

Label for students to hang near their interactive art installation

These exquisite corpse collaborations will be sculptural interactive pieces. Other students throughout the school will enjoy spinning the head, body, and legs to make new combinations. So, the fifth graders will need to make a plan for where they will install each set, make directions that invite respectful engagement, and a museum label that credits each artist.
I also hope to assign students to check on the installations each day to make sure they are respected. 

All of the exquisite corpses were mounted up on a base with a museum label. Student wrote the artist names, chose locations, installed and photographed them, then wrote a morning announcement to announce them to the school community.

Math Problems based on Art

Our 24 boxes with various combinations created these math problems.
View the answers here.

Resource: Monster Mixer Online Game

This game, Monster Mixer by Crayola, might help students generate some fun monster themed combinations when they begin drawing their ideas.  I collected a bunch of their monster combinations and printed them out as another resource for my students (below).

Here is another online game called switcheroo by crayola that helps you think of creative heads, middles, and legs as well as arms, wings, and whatevers...

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Digital Extension:

CREATING DIGITALLY: Years ago, before we were a 1:1 iPad art room, we used our limited number of iPads to make collaborative exquisite corpse drawings. Here is a link to that lesson and template.

DISPLAYING DIGITALLY: Each square created will be photographed for students' online digital art gallery. These can be added to folders on our dropbox where students can combine a head, middle, and legs of their choices (one being their own) to make a fun digital combination. I used the Superimpose app and its perspective tool to line up the squares on top of a real photo to create this effect.

USING PERSPECTIVE TOOL IN SUPERIMPOSE APP: 
First import the template (above) as the background layer then follow these steps. I made the directions into this printable PDF here or view the pages below.

5th graders inspiring us all

Exquisite Corpse blocks sitting on the art room counter

During the last week of school we are going to use the fifth graders' art to inspire the rest of the school to try the Exquisite Corpse game using the game sheet that I included in the packaged lesson.