Are you looking for a versatile teaching tool that is fun, imaginative, and helps students practice critical thinking skills essential to their growing minds? Then you need to get Whatchamadrawit for you art room today! Whatchamadrawit is a fast-action drawing game that includes a deck of 110 drawing prompts and a timer. The prompts are silly in nature and range from simple to abstract such as, ‘Draw life on Mars’, ‘Draw an animal that has a chicken head, a pineapple body, and duck feet’, ‘Draw an ice cream cone sitting on top of a bike playing the trumpet’, or ‘Draw a tree that grows shoes and socks.’ Students hear or see the drawing prompt, then draw their resulting interpretation. The end results are unique to each student and tend to result in bursts of giggles and laughter.
There are so many ways to use this tool, especially if you have multiple sets. It can be used individually, in small groups, or as a whole group. When using it as a drawing warm-up at the beginning of class, I read the prompt aloud to students, and sometimes, I have a student read it aloud to the whole group if I need a little bit of extra time prepping their materials. Other ways to use this cool tool include:
- For sketchbook prompts
- As an individual or group activity after completing a project
- As an option for center rotations (great for substitutes!)
- To fill an odd 5 minutes
- To break up the hour, especially for the younger grades
- As inspiration for students to come up with their own silly Whatchamadrawits
Generally, when using it as a whole group activity, I put up a projected timer set to one to one and half minutes, because the provided timer is a little longer, and the shorter time and visual ensures whole group engagement. When it’s played in a group it is suggested that one person takes a turn being a judge each round. I have some students who approach the game this way, but have others who simply enjoy the humor of seeing each others’ drawings.
What would you do with Whatchamadrawit?
What art games or activities can’t you teach without?
Magazine articles and podcasts are opinions of professional education contributors and do not necessarily represent the position of the Art of Education University (AOEU) or its academic offerings. Contributors use terms in the way they are most often talked about in the scope of their educational experiences.
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