"This is the most fun ever!"

Those are definitely words you want to hear in the art room. This is the first time I've attempted to splatter paint with my students, and I'm so glad I gave it a go. It was so much fun! (for the kids AND for me!)
This started out as a basic self-portrait project. While talking about facial proportion, Kindergarten and 1st grade students drew themselves during a guided lesson. They then colored with crayon and cut out their self-portraits, and glued these to construction paper in a color of their choice. I encourage them to choose a contrasting color (so no pink if you colored your shirt pink, although it seems the young lady to the left slipped past me).

When these were done, they were cute, but they were missing something. I came across the book, I Ain't Gonna Paint No More!, by Karen Beaumont, with hilarious and illustrations by David Catrow, and decided that we simply MUST splatter our self-portraits!

I had parent volunteers (2 per class) come in to help out, with the painting being done in a centers set-up. We pulled three students at a time, with the others watching Harold and the Purple Crayon or Purple, Green, and Yellow on Tumblebooks (by Robert Munsch, another great story about a girl who colors herself). I put the artwork in boxes (which are now quite colorful and beautiful on the inside), demonstrated for students how to flick the paint, and encouraged them to aim for the edges of their paper (so their faces didn't completely disappear). The adults handled the brush, loading paint and rinsing between colors, which sped things up and kept the yellow from turning green.

I must say that we managed to keep the paint mostly contained (though a few kids ended up a tiny bit speckled), the students loved it, and so far no teachers have yelled at me. And the results are pretty darn cute, too.

I have about 175 kinders and 1st graders, so here are just a few: