Surfside Sea

This lesson introduced students to “wet-on-wet” watercolor techniques, which was fun since we were creating a sea for our city. First we wet our papers completely using a soaked sponge. Then students tried out different ways to add the liquid paint to cover the entire surface of the paper. Taping the paper to the tables ahead of time is very helpful since this is such an active kind of painting.

Once the paintings were dry, they were cut into 2-3 inch strips. Students learned how to tear the paper in a special way to make it look like waves with sea foam on top. We practiced the motion of tearing the paper by singing the “Itsy Bitsy Spider” song with our fingers together, making a pinching and twisting motion.

When several strips were torn, we glued them onto a new sheet of paper beginning at the top and overlapping as we made our way down to the bottom.

Such beautiful and unexpected diversity within the waves in the final pieces! This was a lot of fun, and was really good for students in some of my classes who are working on fine motor skills.

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