Let's Paint!!!
Abstract Scribble Painting
We all know how much kids love to scribble, whether on paper, the walls, or themselves. Well, this fun scribble and paint activity will get the creative juices flowing and definitely keep the scribbles where they belong. The steps are as simple as they come. Grab you a pencil, a piece of paper, and some water color paints. Scribble until you feel accomplished and them begin to paint in the spaces using any creative color combination you like. I think this is a good activity that a child of any age can do and will love doing it. The best part is, the more you paint the more you begin to see the abstract shapes you have created, almost by accident. These abstract paintings are great for turning students loose and allowing them to express themselves, their thoughts, and their feelings creatively while they paint to some nice classical music.
Painting with Glue & Salt
If you have ever experienced slime before you're probably wanting to scroll right passed anything involving glue, but this is a simple, mess-free, and very creative way to paint. I included two examples for glue-texture painting and you can use either way to paint any type of painting, including landscape, abstract, still life, or even portrait. The two photos on top are done on a stretch canvas. The glue is applied in whatever style or picture you want. After it completely dries (probably the next if your doing it at school), then you can use any watercolor or tempera paint you would like to bring your art to life. The video is done in a similar fashion, except this artist sprinkled salt on the glue and really have the painting an unique look. It almost looks like rock candy or glitter! Older kids can even mix paint with glue and squeeze it from the bottle onto the canvas for an interesting painting experience. I really like these unique and creative activities because they use different mediums for paintings and bring texture to your art. When combined, these aspects can make for some really cool paintings that can be used for just about any learning opportunity you can think of.
Action Painting
This an activity inspired by Jackson Pollock and is more about the movement of our hand and paint brush than it is actually making contact with the canvas using your brush. It can be done with an image such as the tree in the landscape photo on the left or kids can listen to music while they experiment and become familiar with the paint brush and its movement. This would be a very relaxing painting activity for just about any age group!
Watercolor Bookmarks
There is nothing better to accompany the diving into a fresh new book than having a fresh new bookmark to go along the journey with you. Kids will love using water color paints to create and design their very own bookmarks. The paper is completed wet before painting so that they paint produces the beautiful mixture of colors you see in the photos above. Then salt is added to their paintings and it creates an extraordinary texture that makes the bookmarks even more fun. After they dry, the remaining salt is wiped away and then students can add a stamp to their bookmarks. This allows them to add their own special touch or perhaps include something uniquely special to them. Lastly, the holes are punched and strings are added. This seems like the perfect activity to get students motivated and excited about reading a new book.
Painting a Landscape
Sometimes it can be hard for not just kids, but anyone to either take the image in their head or in front of them and put it on paper using paint. I especially enjoy this video that teaches kids how to paint everyone's favorite landscape: palm trees and the sunset. The author and artist of this art lesson talks to kids about symmetry, balance, and the effects of positive and negative spaces. Its a simple activity that walks young painters through the steps of painting a beautiful landscape but also introduces them to some art fundamentals.
FINGER PAINTING
I don't know anyone on earth could ever admit to meeting a child who doesn't love to finger paint. There's just something about them being allowed to get paint on their hands and create something with it that they simply cannot resist. I have added this YouTube video that contains many examples of all the different things we can do with finger painting. Seriously, the opportunities are limitless. Finger painting can be a freeing exercise that students due during free time as they listen to various genres of music. Or teachers can easily incorporate it into many different lessons, for example it can be used to get the the younger kids excited about writing their letters. It can be used to create almost any type of painting from landscape, to abstract, to portrait. Finger painting tops the list as Ms. Garrett's favorite painting activity, because it is fun for the kids but also and amazing scaffold for the educators in their lives.