Ah watercolor--the bane of my existence some days. Every year, when I teach my kids to use watercolor, the paints inevitably become muddied and quickly wasted in the form of thick opaque globs and strokes in my students' artwork. As I don't want to go through all my refills by Thanksgiving this year, I feel I need a new strategy, which is where this week's lesson comes in. (After blatantly stealing the idea from Other Art Teacher) I am reteaching watercolor procedures to my older kids and swapping instructions for the younger ones.
Now I am teaching them to put water in the palette, add a little paint, and "paint with the water". (Comparisons to Kool-aid have been made.) So far it seems to be going very well. I've had very few students misuse their paint this week, unlike the last two weeks, which saw me doing a lot of cleaning and replacing of colors. I'll add a menu to painting center and reinforce as needed. Hopefully not too many reminders will be needed, but this is a pretty new method for them!
Observations for the week:
Aside from trying a new method for using the watercolors, I have been testing a couple new concepts.
In my previous post I mentioned the idea of giving kids "play" time with new materials and techniques. I tried to apply that idea in my lessons this week, and I think it was a good decision. My kids had a cut down piece of watercolor paper that was dubbed the "experiment paper" (with a quick discussion about what an experiment is), and we talked about not painting a pretty, nice and neat picture, just putting brush to paper and discovering what we can do with the media.
I have observed that this is a great, no pressure activity for my students to explore the media, especially those kids who feel like their art must be "perfect". When students came to me saying they had messed up and were upset or were about to have a melt-down, we were able to discuss practicing and experimenting. Basically, since this wasn't a final product, it was okay--even good--to make mistakes so that we could learn what and what not to do in later paintings. And it was a good way for the kids to discuss their discoveries with me and--more excitingly--with their peers.
Going hand in hand with the above, I also utilized the concept of a guided hands on learning demo. I demonstrated one step at a time and my students immediately did it for themselves. Considering the surprising complexity of teaching painting procedures, this worked out very well. My kids were more completely engaged (as this was a fairly long demo) and at each step I was able to circulate the room and do a quick visual and/or verbal check for understanding, reteaching that step as needed.
One thing I did observe myself doing sometimes when a student was misusing the paint was that I was immediately saying, "Oops, you're doing it wrong. Here let me show you." I need to try to curb that reaction, I think, and go for more of a "I'm sorry, let me explain more clearly. Okay, now you show me." and offer affirmation of their improvement.
Now I am teaching them to put water in the palette, add a little paint, and "paint with the water". (Comparisons to Kool-aid have been made.) So far it seems to be going very well. I've had very few students misuse their paint this week, unlike the last two weeks, which saw me doing a lot of cleaning and replacing of colors. I'll add a menu to painting center and reinforce as needed. Hopefully not too many reminders will be needed, but this is a pretty new method for them!
Observations for the week:
Aside from trying a new method for using the watercolors, I have been testing a couple new concepts.
In my previous post I mentioned the idea of giving kids "play" time with new materials and techniques. I tried to apply that idea in my lessons this week, and I think it was a good decision. My kids had a cut down piece of watercolor paper that was dubbed the "experiment paper" (with a quick discussion about what an experiment is), and we talked about not painting a pretty, nice and neat picture, just putting brush to paper and discovering what we can do with the media.
I have observed that this is a great, no pressure activity for my students to explore the media, especially those kids who feel like their art must be "perfect". When students came to me saying they had messed up and were upset or were about to have a melt-down, we were able to discuss practicing and experimenting. Basically, since this wasn't a final product, it was okay--even good--to make mistakes so that we could learn what and what not to do in later paintings. And it was a good way for the kids to discuss their discoveries with me and--more excitingly--with their peers.
Going hand in hand with the above, I also utilized the concept of a guided hands on learning demo. I demonstrated one step at a time and my students immediately did it for themselves. Considering the surprising complexity of teaching painting procedures, this worked out very well. My kids were more completely engaged (as this was a fairly long demo) and at each step I was able to circulate the room and do a quick visual and/or verbal check for understanding, reteaching that step as needed.
One thing I did observe myself doing sometimes when a student was misusing the paint was that I was immediately saying, "Oops, you're doing it wrong. Here let me show you." I need to try to curb that reaction, I think, and go for more of a "I'm sorry, let me explain more clearly. Okay, now you show me." and offer affirmation of their improvement.
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