Justin, ink stain transformed into an extraterrestrial being.

Sarah Chaffee

One of my biggest pet peeves is when a student throws away a perfectly good piece of paper because it has a small rip, wrinkle, smudge, hole, or even a scribble.
A few years ago, I happened across Barney Saltzberg’s book, Beautiful Oops! (Workman Publishing Company, 2010). I knew it would be perfect to read to my students at the beginning of the school year and make the point that a mistake is not the end, but an opportunity.

The Idea of Mistakes
Before sharing the book with students, I prompt them with some questions: “Has anybody ever made a mistake before?” “Does anybody like to make mistakes?” “Can mistakes be a good thing?” Then we read the book and look at the illustrations together. Saltzberg takes rips, holes, and crumpled paper and uses his imagination to turn these common mistakes into works of art. I love the last pages of the book, which read, “When you think you have made a mistake, think of it as an opportunity to make something beautiful.” We end our reading with a discussion about what the book meant to students and how we can change how we think about mistakes in art or other areas of life.

Let’s Make a Mistake
We brainstorm a list of ways a piece of paper could become “messed up.” We make a list on the board that usually includes things like rips, smears, stains, holes in the paper, bent corners, scribbles, shoe prints, and drips.

I love to hear one student say to a classmate who thinks they have made a mistake, “You just made an opportunity!”

Students are given a piece of 9 x 12" (23 x 30 cm) drawing paper and instructed to create one small mistake of their choice. The paper must stay in one piece and only one small mistake should be created. It is important to specify that the whole paper shouldnʼt be destroyed.

At this point, some students suspect that they will transform their mistake into art and will try to manipulate their mistakes into something they want to work with later. Then, much to their surprise, I collect their papers.

Preview Mode - Subscribe to unlock full content