Jackson Pollock Cats

Second Graders used their marbles to create fun Pollock-like paintings!

Students were introduced to artist Jackson Pollock with the book Action Jackson by Jan Greenberg and Sandra Jordan. Then they created Pollock-like paintings using marbles dipped in paint that were rolled around in shallow boxes. Each student had time to do two paintings.

The next class students were read another book - Vincent Van Gogh's Cat. This book was written and illustrated by second grade students from East Washington Academy, Muncie, IN. This book shows a cat jumping out of famous paintings.

Using images of cat silhouettes as reference, we discussed the shapes and lines that made up cats in different poses. Students picked one of their marble paintings from the previous class and drew a cat on the back of it. They then cut out the cat and glued it to a black piece of paper to help the image stand out.

While students were working on the cat drawings, each table of students were invited up to the front of the room to squirt and drip paint onto a large paper to create a class pollock-like mural.

The finished cats were cut out leaving a thin border of black and then displayed on the large class mural.

Here are some of the finished cats: