5 Minute Quick Draw

The two weeks ago, we had a historic blizzard! We had over 20 inches of snow come down over the weekend. We spent the weekend curled up inside, drinking hot cocoa (with a kick :P) and binge watching Netflix. This blizzard and the small amount of the snow we had the night before it started cause us to miss seven days of school, with two weekends in between, so a total of eleven days out, with only 1 full day of school in 14 days. 


That is a lot to miss after have a two week winter break only a few weeks before - and at the end of the quarter no less! We were scrambling to get everything packed in before report cards were due. Even coming back to school on Monday after the blizzard we had a 2 hour delay - talk about lacking routine! 

I knew that if it was that hard to me to get back into it, it would be even harder for the kids! I didn't want to just jump back into EVERYTHING that we had missed and needed to get done. We needed time to share and appreciate being together again! On Thursday before we went back, I sent a check in email to parents and asked them to send me pictures of their family having fun in the snow storm. I used all the pictures I got to put together a Google Slides to show the students - we had a lot of fun looking at each others neighborhoods and snow covered driveways. 

Normally on Mondays we do a quick weekend update and everyone gets to share about what they did over the weekend. However, with a 2 hour delay we do not have time to do a morning meeting, so instead, to ease back into learning we did a 5 minute quick draw. 


I gave each student a blank piece of computer paper and asked them to take out a black marker. I explained that they would draw a picture of something that happened over their "snow-cation" using only their black marker. They needed a title and their name and it needed to be done in 5 minutes. I set the timer and the room filled with the gift of silence and focus...ahhh...

After our 5 minutes was up, we hung our pictures on our clothes pins outside the door for everyone to see. It was a fun, quick way to get our focus back, get ready for learning, and share about our weekend. This type of activity can be utilized in lots of different ways, not just sharing about a weekend/vacation - do a quick draw about a subject you've been studying or at the beginning or end of a writing.

Love & Sparkles,

Miss. Jones

P.S. Be sure to share it with your school's art teacher - she will be impressed with their lovely, simplistic line drawings! Trust me ;)