be an artist. be yourself
Explore SMARTS Arts Challenges by Discipline
Visual Art Challenges
Make a No-Look Drawing.
Not all art looks realistic. Some of the most interesting shapes happen by accident. Many artists use this exercise in blind contour to learn how to see. Find a friend, animal or object to draw, but there are two challenges: 1) don’t look down at your paper; and 2) don’t pick up your pencil! Take a picture and show us what happened! |
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Play with your food.
There are many famous artists that create images out of food. Can you make your broccoli look like hair? Can you draw a face with your ketchup? Take a picture of your art before you eat it so we can see it! |
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Texture scavenger hunt.
Find items with different textures like smooth, rough, soft, or slimy. Create a work of art by placing a textured item under a sheet of paper and rubbing the side of a crayon on top. See what cool designs you and make and send it to us so we can see! |
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Make a monochromatic design.
Make a design using different variations of only one color. There are so many different shades of green! Find different objects and arrange them in a still life or draw something using only light and dark shades of your favorite color. Upload your artwork so we can see! |
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Music Challenges
Twisted Musical Chairs.
Record yourself playing musical chairs with your family, but...put a spin on it. Make a new rule that everyone must follow, create a theme by dressing up and choosing a cool song to go with it, or put a surprise somewhere in the video that makes us laugh! |
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Kazoo Karaoke.
Record yourself singing karaoke to your favorite song...through a kazoo! Make us guess what song it is you are singing. If you don’t have a kazoo at home, grab a microphone or hairbrush and do real karaoke or give us your best lip sync performance. Sing your heart out! It doesn’t matter how you sound, or what you look like, just as long as you sell your performance! Send us the video so we can give you a round of applause. |
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Instrument Invention.
Make your own musical instrument - maybe you’ve got some plastic cups, shoe boxes, and rubber bands lying around. Maybe there’s something old in the garage that can be reused. Ask mom for a pot or a pan? Or maybe you’ve just found a new way to make music by beating a blanket or rubbing two leaves together. Whatever it is, send us your invention, Edison! |
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Rap Song.
Write a rap! See how many twisted words and rhymes you can spin in a cool rhythm. The best part is - it doesn’t have to make perfect sense! Make a beat for yourself using a table top and pencil, or try to make a hip-hop track using this super cool music-maker on Ableton. https://learningmusic.ableton.com/ Record yourself rapping the song, or send us your lyrics, or send us your track! |
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Dance Challenges
Dance Hopscotch.
For today’s challenge, you will need to lay objects on the floor around the room. You must hop from object to object without touching the ground. Each time you land on a new spot you must strike a new pose or dance move. Send us your creations so we can hop with you! |
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Weather Dance.
For this challenge create a dance based on what the weather is like. For example: if it is sunny you might create a dance that is upbeat with fun fast movement. What would rainy weather look like? Would it be silly and fast? Or slow and dreary? Share your dance with us so we can be in the same atmosphere as you! |
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Cardio Challenge.
This video is a cardio challenge. It will help us with our balance and train us to jump properly without hurting our knees. There are several different challenges in this video. Pick two or more to try and see how well you can balance! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5if4cjO5nxo&t=106s |
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Emoji Challenge. Pick your five favorite emojis and create a dance showcasing that emotion in your movement. How would a lovestruck emoji dance? How would an angry emoji dance? You might even consider how poop emoji might dance! If you get through the five and want to challenge yourself, try some more! Put your best emoji to music and share your dance with us!
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Theater Challenges
Vacation Resort. Make a video exploring your yard as if it were an exotic destination! What features or amenities can you advertise? What foreign plants and wildlife exist? Are there any native beings who live there? Act the part and make us want to travel there!
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Cooking Show. Choose a favorite tv chef (Julia Child, Alton Brown, Rachael Ray, Gordon Ramsay, Bobby, Flay, etc). Turn your lunch prep into a cooking show! Explain to us just exactly how to spread that peanut butter or pour the milk. You choose the recipe! Just make sure you stay in character - no matter what happens!
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Stage a Renaissance-style Argument. Shakespeare was the king of the well-crafted insult! Stage a battle of wits with someone in your home using ONLY Shakespearean insults! How would you and your parent argue over cleaning a room in Shakespearean language? How might you and a sibling argue over a game? Make it funny and share it with us!
http://www.pangloss.com/seidel/Shaker/index.html |
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Create a Costume! Design a costume using non-clothing household items - create a character based on your costume! Maybe you can glue grass blades to make a yeti or cover yourself in duct tape and tin foil to make a spacesuit. Maybe your character lives in another world where people wear belts on their head like cartoon character Doug when he turns into superhero Quailman! This one’s open ended! Send us a photo of your character in their costume!
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Creative Writing Challenges
Create a video game. If you and your family could create a video game, what kind of game would it be? Discuss! Decide who the characters would be, what world they live in, and what problem they must overcome. How many levels? Would the family be building a farm or living in medieval times and have to save the kingdom from something wicked? What would each of your family members roles be - is one person a warrior and another a fairy? Or, you could write about what would happen if you and your family got sucked into one of your favorite video games. How would you get out? What would happen? Send us your story!
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Color Writing. Pick a color and create a poem, short story, long story, or nonfiction piece and express what it means to you. We all know red seems angry and pink seems girly, but why do you think people see it that way? What do you think your color represents? If your color was a character, what would it’s life be like? Or you could write an ode to the color, declaring its wonders and woes! When you’re finished, send us your piece!
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Word Brainstorm. Have your family sit in a circle, or around the table, and each person takes turns saying one word (the first word that comes to mind. Don’t think too hard about it.) Do this five times. Once you have collected five to thirty words, write a story that incorporates all the words you came up with. When you are done writing, read the stories out loud to see how different your stories are despite using the same words. Then share it with us so we can read, too!
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Cat Story. Look at this photo. What is this cat staring at? Why does he have his lips curled up that way? Is he getting ready to fight a unicorn? Does he think he can win? Did he just try broccoli for the first time? Did someone steal a place in front of him in the lunch line? Write a story about what happens next, what the cat is thinking.
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