Welcome back!!

It's the beginning of a new school year and my students and I are excited to set to work creating beautiful art to adorn our school's hallways and our families' homes.  What is the best way to do that?  What is the one medium that students think about and get excited about when coming into the art room? PAINT!  We are going to start out the school year creating beautiful painted papers for all of the students to use in their projects throughout the year.  There is so much that can be done with these beautiful papers.  Can the students learn from "just painting"?  YES!  By playing/experimenting with paint colors and mark-making, students can learn about color mixing and what colors look best with other colors (AKA color theory).  Students can demonstrate what they know about different varieties and directions of lines, categorizing shapes by size and types such as geometric and organic, and they can create an assortment of patterns.  In addition to all of this, the students are learning and practicing procedures for painting in the art room (and keeping my sanity) and gaining the confidence they need to conquer their fears of making art.

Click here to view a video from Deep Space Sparkle about painted paper!

So if you happen to be walking by the art room this week, keep in mind that learning is taking place in there, even though it might look like a crazy mess!



Here's another video that shows the mixing and movement of paint under a microscope!


Our painted paper workshop was a BLAST!!  The kids really loved all of the different painting techniques and exploring with what the medium can and cannot do!



In the end, we ended up with some GORGEOUS painted papers to use.  I do believe that Eric Carle would be proud!