So grades for my middle school students were due several days before summer break. While it would have been easy to show a video, (I contemplated showing the PBS series Art21) I wanted an activity that would be more engaging and memorable. With raging hormones and summer vacation right around the corner, it can be difficult to entice students into being artistically productive this time of year. I used the carrot-on-a-stick-approach to get my students to create and collaborate. 
Students were instructed to find a partner or group of three. Then, the group needed to send up one member to choose a work of art from a pile of laminated reproductions while the other(s) needed to obtain a bucket of chalk and chalk pastels that I had mixed together. Next came the carrot; the group to create the best version of their art reproduction would win a prize of their choice. The carrots happened to be leftover art supplies like drawing pencils, big erasers, mini-paint samples, and I also mixed in the remainder of my candy stash.
Before staking out a sidewalk plot, I also pointed out that using the art reproduction did not necessarily mean that copying it exactly is the best option. Sometimes its better use the image as a good place to start the drawing or as style of art to work with and its fun to add your own ideas to as you work.To raise the bar and accountability a bit more, I had invited the office administrators to be the guest judges of our sidewalk chalk drawing contest. I had multiple volunteers for the job and its a great way to advocate for your school's art department while showing off your students' talent. Its also fun to see your students showing off their artwork to friends and family before or after school, since its on public display.
Even if the weather doesn't permit you to take your class outside, similar results can be obtained with large pieces of craft paper for each team. ( I like to give them black or dark paper so the chalk colors show up brighter and it resembles black top.) The students have been learning many drawing techniques all year, but I was still impressed with how the groups were able to work together. Teachers who had taken their classes outside would come to look at what my students were creating and some even asked if they could draw too. I would certainly do this again with my classes at the end of a school year, or even at the beginning to help me assess student drawing skills. In the end, my students and I had fun adding color around our school and enjoying each others' company on our last day of art class.