Painting with Water

Who knew painting with water would be so popular? I'd done it with Kinders a few years ago but today my 3rd graders and 2nd graders loved it. I talked about how the "paintings" don't last long, only until the water evaporates. Students were making observations about how the water evaporated more quickly in the sun than in the shade, exploring how the water reacted to different surfaces, and even experimenting with how to make longer drip lines with a pendulum motion. Lots of science, right? 

We took our coffee canister water containers outside and each student filled a smaller cup to dip their brush in. It was a super easy last day of art class activity.

Texture Hunt

Last week my student teacher wanted to do a texture exercise with 3rd graders to lead in to her next lesson. We were thinking about taking the students outside to find nature textures in the courtyard, but the grass was soaking wet. Luckily, there was a plethora of texture on the playground! I never thought about all the textures we would find there before that morning. We called the lesson a "Texture Hunt" and Miss Bennett showed the students how to collect the textures and create a nonobjective composition, thinking about what textures they were putting where, and how they created new textures when overlapped. 

Playground Texture Composition

Discovering texture on the bottom of the swings.

I created a grid and filled each space with textures for reference later. I could have filled several more papers.

I knew the students would enjoy having Art class outside, but I was surprised by how much they got in to finding textures. They were experimenting and discovering and collaborating. We did have to remind a couple students that it wasn't recess time, but overall, they did very well.

It was kind of a gloomy day last Friday so our 3rd graders that day found textures in the Art room. We did put out a few rubbing plates but the students found several textures that were already in the Art room.