Group Murals -- All Grades

I, again, saw a lesson on Pinterest that grabbed my attention.  An art teacher, Katie, had her students make group murals at the end of the year to hang on the bulletin boards right away in the fall for the next year.  I thought, 'WHOA! Why didn't I think of that?'  The idea and lesson seemed simple enough.

I had originally planned to do this lesson in a few weeks, but with Art Show and Open House next week - I thought we should do some for open house!  I immediately started to plan.

I went and ripped bulletin board paper in different colors, laid them on the tables, poured some black tempra and waited for my kinders to walk in.

There are two rules for the black painting:
1) Your shapes can't touch each other.
2) You can't paint over anyone's work.

I had my kindergarten kiddos draw lots and lots of circles at their tables.  When their paper seemed decently full I gave them the next instruction: connect the circles with different types of lines - leave big spaces between lines.

Amazingly, this took almost all class and my room was almost completely silent - it was weird.

I found random spots around the room for these to dry for the next few classes.

After lunch I pulled them back to the tables with a plan: Have 1st graders paint them.

I told the kids their rules:
1) You can't paint over anyone's work.
2) Stick to one color (you get what you get and you don't throw a fit!)
3) Spread out where you put your color.

I made sure to make each student have a different color of paint - even if it was simply making it a tint or a shade.

 The students started at their own tables painting in spots and shapes.  I set a timer for 2 minutes and when that time was up they rotated to the next table.  The timer helped keep their attention, because each table's mural was unique - but it also spread out all the colors.

Again, the students were focused and quiet while they painted.

I plan to make more of these this week with words like "MUSIC" "ART" and so forth.  I can't wait!