IDEA: To use your imagination to create an underwater environment. To explore the unusual color combinations that exist in marine life.
BENEFITS: It is fun to imagine yourself scuba diving or snorkeling in a tropical paradise. The fish and marine life provide ideas for new color combinations. Creatures that live deep in the ocean often glow, but their colors are visible only with illumination. This activity stimulates the imagination and encourages verbal interaction among participants. Lively discussion about trips taken to exotic locations and reminiscing about swimming with sea turtles and schools of colorful fish is a bonus.
SUPPLIES:
STEP BY STEP INSTRUCTIONS:
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BENEFITS: It is fun to imagine yourself scuba diving or snorkeling in a tropical paradise. The fish and marine life provide ideas for new color combinations. Creatures that live deep in the ocean often glow, but their colors are visible only with illumination. This activity stimulates the imagination and encourages verbal interaction among participants. Lively discussion about trips taken to exotic locations and reminiscing about swimming with sea turtles and schools of colorful fish is a bonus.
SUPPLIES:
- Drop sheets
- Paper towels or wet wipes
- Scissors
- Glue sticks and small bottles of white glue
- Two sheets of black Bristol board and two sheets of dark blue Bristol board, cut into quarters
- Plastic dinner plates
- Pre-mixed acrylic paints in Day-Glo fluorescent colors
- A wide variety of textural tools: nail brushes, recycled toothbrushes, foam stampers, and bits of sponge
- A wide variety of nature magazines, calendars, or online pictures with an underwater theme
- Stickers of underwater creatures
STEP BY STEP INSTRUCTIONS:
- Place drop sheets on table(s).
- Pass out the magazines, calendars, and reference material first. Discuss the differences between living on land and living under water.
- Ask participants to choose their favorite images or clippings to use.
- Give each person one quarter piece of Bristol board. Explain the black or dark blue symbolizes the ocean.
- Offer a variety of tools that will create textural effects when dipped in the paint. No regular brushes are needed.
- Prepare the plastic dinner plates with a dab of each of the Day-Glo colors of acrylic paint. Give each participant their own palette.
- Using paint and the textural tools, challenge the class to create an underwater landscape (no fish or creatures yet) filled with seaweed, plants, rocks, coral reefs, shells, and shipwrecks.
- Encourage participants to be spontaneous.
- While the paint is drying, tell participants to gather their collage material and clip or tear the photos or illustrations they have chosen to add to their deep-sea environment.
- If necessary, use a blow dryer to help dry any thick paint.
- Using a glue stick or white glue, have participants paste their clippings and add stickers onto the painted background.
- Use paper towels and wet wipes to clean hands.
Did you like this activity? If so, please consider buying my book to find more than 50 great activities to share with participants of ALL ages.
