McKinley Junior High held its third-annual Chalk Art Competition on June 10, allowing participating students to spend the entire school day out on the playground creating their own compositions with multi-colored chalks.
Designs ranged from drawings of the cast of the 2004 film Mean Girls, to a detailed picture of a human eye, and a recreation of the classic Andy Warhol portrait of Marilyn Monroe.
McKinley teacher Julia Livi, who has been running the event all three years couldn’t be more proud of her students. “The kids worked really hard for months,” she said, “I’m just so proud of them.”
Livi starts fund-raising for the competition in October, and the children start thinking up their designs in March. She raised $900 from friends to purchase the colored chalk and contributed $600 of her own money to make sure there was enough in case there were more children than anticipated.
At the end of the day, the school’s entire staff was invited out onto the playground to vote for their favorite pieces. Students’ artwork was judged in several category, such as cartoons, landscape, architecture, and most original. There were winners within each grade, as well as first, second, and third overall winners.
“We just wanted to have a bunch of winners,” Livi said, “rather than just the top three.”
Prizes included art materials such as sketchbooks and art books to further stoke the student’s artistic interests.
Nearly 160 students participated this year, double the number from last year’s. Livi hopes for that number to double once again.
“Every year it’s a little bit better,” Livi said, “but my goal is to get more and more kids involved.”
The event is becoming so popular that the teachers have asked to form a team and add another layer to the competition — students versus teachers.
The competition isn’t just about expressing creativity, though, according to Livi. It’s also about building lifelong skills. The children are tasked with creating their own teams, and then choosing a leader, helping them to form team building and leadership qualities.
“It’s giving the kids an opportunity to have fun, build confidence, and learn skills,” Livi said.
