5th Grade Acrylic Painting Techniques

In this lesson I am teaching the 5th graders various acrylic painting techniques. We initially started with a base background color using long brush strokes, which showed students how to blend paint together. The students then loaded some of their paint with a generous amount of water, applied the wet paint to their canvas and let the watered down paint drip down or across the canvas. Some students stuck with creating a few drips, while others relished in the chance to give the paint a life of its own. A few students even substituted dripping paint with dripping water creating the effects of a reverse painting method.

Step two will incorporate an illustrative painting over the background colors you see here.

Fifth Grade Printmaking

One of my favorite aspects of printmaking is the ability to print onto a pre made surface.

I cut out specific images from magazines that had interesting colors to serve as a background

to the students prints. The students created various portrait prints using a tracing paper

transfer method. We then spent one whole class time turning the room into a printing studio full of creation and exploration. Here are some examples from the day.