This is a simple project I did to start the year at my new school. Since I did not know the kids’ level of experience with tools, media and terminology, this was a leap of faith in a sense. I was pleased with the end result, but this is not for the faint of heart if dealing with large class sizes with back to back classes.
Materials: watercolor or mixed media white paper, pastels in warm colors (crayons for the youngest students) + premixed watercolor in various blues- used dog bowls in the center of tables to reduce spills. Optional: dot art markers. You’ll need a lot of paper towels, patience and stacks of scrap white paper to experiment with printmaking during the aftermath. The kids loved this last part the most!
We started out drawing our birds with light pencil lines. The step-by-step can be found here. The youngest classes just drew anything they wanted. When they were finished with this step, I started passing out the blue paints, encouraging them to “wash” the entire page with the cool colors. We talked about contrast and revisited warm/cool colors throughout this project. Due to my jumbled up schedule, I allowed some classes to add the dot art texture to their background before using the watercolor. This was a cool additional step but not necessary for shorter class periods. I encouraged them to cover the white paper.
When tables were muddied with watercolor remnants and accidental spills, I encouraged them to play with the white paper stacks around the classroom. They used hands, brushes, etc. to create lines on the table then experimented with printing. We will use this scrap paper for our next project.
Stephanie Hardin 