The Paper Towel Art & Child Development Mini-Lesson is a great little activity to use as a beginning of the year or end of the year when you need a little
something to fill in those odd days! This is a hand-on activity that can be used with middle or high school students with connections to child development or it can be done with littles where the older students are helping and observing what is actually taking place developmentally. Either way it is a very engaging, fun activity to do with students of all ages!
Set
- Ask students to brainstorm and share some simple art activities. Ask them to discuss with their shoulder neighbor first “why they think simple art activities matter when working with young children”. Share as a whole class.
- Show students a roll of paper towels, some markers and a water pipette and ask how these might be used to create art.
- Share with students that you will be conducting a paper towel art activity with them, however, they must act as both the child and the educator—creating the art yourself, then analyzing how it helps kids grow.
Materials
- Paper Towels
- Markers of Various Colors
- Water Droppers (affiliate link)
- Tray or Cookie Sheet to Protect Desk or Countertop Surfaces
Activities
- Pass out the trays, paper towels and markers to each student. Ask them to fold their paper towel in half and then creatively draw and color a picture, make colorful patterns or scribbles on one half of their paper towel.
- Carefully, have students place their paper towel on the tray and open it.
- Using the water droppers, students are to gently add water to their art and watch what happens to the colors when hit with water.
- If possible, hang the designs up to dry. Display them on your bulletin board or wall if desired.
- Discuss the following with students:
- When the water interacted with the markers, what did you notice?
- How did creating the paper towel art make you feel?
- How do the designs compare….are any alike?
- What did you like or dislike about this art activity? (Adapt this prompt to what the children liked or disliked if students are leading this activity with “littles”.)
- Now place students into small groups and work through the Chat Station Prompts with their partner(s) writing down their answers on their response sheet as they go. All will be discussed afterwards.
- Discuss all of their responses, making connections to child development and DAP concepts along the way. Collect the chat response sheets if you assign a grade.
- Finally, ask students the following depending on which version you used with your class.
- If teaching this lesson and implementing the art activity was done with middle or high school students, ask them how thy might need to adapt this lesson and activity for use with young children.
- If your older students were doing this activity with “littles”, ask them to share what went well and what changes they might need to make if they did this lesson and activity again.
Attachments
