The next art day I demonstrated how to use a dropper to apply ink to the painting and a straw to blow the ink into tree-like shapes. I love the "Ooos and Ahs" that happens when you demonstrate something the students get excited about!
I set up the tables with small cups of India ink on a paper plate with the dropper. The students placed their papers onto a "placemat" (12x18 contraction paper that we reuse under paintings). When they were set up they got a straw and began to do their trees.
Students were on task and had fun watching the ink roll the direction they blew.
A couple of my classes worked extra well and were finished with their trees early. I had a plan if this happened and I was glad to be able to give it a try. When I saw students were going to finish early I stopped the group and showed how to do an ink monster. I dropped some ink on the center of a 9x12 paper and then blew the ink until it had soaked in and couldn't go anywhere else. This excited the students even more. I told them next class we would add to these ink blobs to create monsters.
Students that had a bit of problems trying to control the ink to create trees were more relaxed and were able to find success at the free-form blown ink blob.
The next art class I helped students glue their warm and cool trees onto a black paper for display. As I worked on this the classes that had time the week before to do an ink blob for a monster began to transform them using googly eyes and colored pencils.
I honestly think the ink monsters were a huge hit and many came out even better than the trees!
See more of our trees here -- http://www.artsonia.com/museum/gallery.asp?exhibit=557644
The ink monsters are adorable!
ReplyDeleteI *love* the ink monsters!!!!! I have got to try that! Isn't it weird when your extra-time activity is what the kids like best, and what turns out the best?
ReplyDeleteThese are lively!
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