The Great Woodland Chalk Out offers Woodland students the opportunity to develop their artistic skills while also enjoying the outside. Students are encouraged to use sidewalk chalk to draw pictures and games on driveways and sidewalks around Woodland from now until April 24 (while following social distancing guidelines, of course), and send photos of their work for display in an online art gallery.
Nicole Caulfield, Woodland Middle School’s art teacher, organized the delivery of sidewalk chalk with the daily delivery of meals on school buses. “While some kids have art supplies at home, I know many don’t,” she said. “I wanted to think of a project I could send all ages that everyone could use to create art.”
In order to stay connected with her students and engage them in learning, Nicole has been using Google Classroom, a cloud-connected service designed specifically for teaching and learning. “I post art projects, activities, and videos to the online classroom,” she said. “It’s a great way to interact with the students as they can chat with me and their classmates using the service’s comment system.”
With the statewide school closure, Woodland’s teachers know their students may be suffering emotionally and many are simply bored. “I want to reach out to our students using any way possible to engage them and let them know things will be okay,” she said. “Since art is an elective, this work is optional and students need to remember to focus on finishing their core subject material first, however, art can offer ways for students to express their creativity and reenergize by using different parts of their brains.”
Nicole offers a variety of different art projects using media ranging from colored pencils and chalk to recyclable materials and things found in nature. “Coming up with activities and projects students can do with very limited supplies is definitely a big challenge,” she said. “Our students are engaging in my daily drawing challenge while also making incredibly creative art projects from things lying around their homes or yards.”
Any Woodland student can participate in the Great Woodland Chalk Out.
For students who didn’t receive a sidewalk chalk delivery, you can make your own chalk at home using household supplies.
Once you’ve created your chalk artwork, simply email photos of your chalk artwork (students don’t need to be in the photos but can be if they want) to Nicole Caulfield at [email protected] and visit the Great Woodland Chalk Out art gallery to see all the amazing artwork.
Learn more about how Woodland Public Schools keep students learning here.
