The Bag Challenge
I needed a quick and engaging activity for a shortend class period yesterday. I had some extra brown paper bags and I love to include low risk problem-solving opportunities, so the bag challenge was born.
This activity is low risk because it’s just a 30 minute game, which is pretty much the opposite of an artwork a student has work on for days and is feeling pressure to get right. With a short challenge, that pressure is gone, so students feel like they have more permission to explore and experiment. There is no expectation to make something perfect of a bag of random stuff!
These works include a plastic fork, leftover paper, discarded clay sculptures, bits of string, a plastic hanger and lots of googly eyes.
For this activity I asked students to find items and prepare one bag each. This was fun, but not everyone made bags that were the best to use. When I try this again, I will ask students to bring in recyclable items from home and fill the bags myself. And I will try it again!