Group 2 – Towey Playground
Not to be left out, group 2 got to paint as well! We discussed koi fish and once they saw photos, everyone recognized the fish. For the sake of time, the children traced pre-made fish shapes onto their papers- they could use whichever sizes they wanted and put as many fish as they wanted. Many kids asked if they could trace only half the fish so it was partially off the page (uh yes!! of course!!). Then they used lids to trace circles to create lily pads floating in the water. They traced their fish with black crayons and the lily pads with green crayons.
I demonstrated how to paint the water and blend blue, turquoise and purple watercolor paint. I showed them a special technique by sprinkling salt onto wet paint so it would soak up, dry, and leave a ‘sparkle’ behind. I reminded them to only sprinkle the salt to WET watercolor paint and once you sprinkle it, you cannot paint over the salt because it will undo whatever the salt soaked up. The children were very interested in this technique and were all very careful to paint correctly. Once the water was painted, they moved on to the lily pads. I showed them how to create a light green by painting with yellow first, then mixing green on top of yellow to create a yellow-green. I encouraged them to paint other lily pads with just green to have contrast. Last, we re-visited images of koi fish and the children painted their fish with orange, red, black, and yellow. An overall very successful and fun lesson!
