The author was originally inspired by "The Exquisite Snake" exhibit she saw at a local museum. Two hundred contemporary artists contributed to this exhibit, which was an adaptation of the old parlor game called "The Exquisite Corpse" that Surrealist artists used to play in the late 1920s and '30s. The author just loved this idea and decided to adapt "The Exquisite Snake" to her own art lessons for grades one through five, ultimately culminating with a schoolwide show. To begin, she introduced several art lessons to each grade level. She did this without talking about "The Exquisite Snake/Corpse" to allow the students to learn about the specific grade-level project without an information overload. During their first class period, the author introduced each project and students sketched ideas on 9" x 12" paper.