Angel's Place

Ocean Art Projects

 

Wax Resist Painting

This project is an oldie-but-goodie that goes really well with this theme. I like to do this project towards the end of the ocean unit, so they have had a chance to see and learn about several different sea creatures. 

You will need: White paper (any kind)

                         Pencils

                         Crayons

                         Water color paints

                         Paint brushes

 

If you have a projector or Smartboard, you might want to put up some photos of different sea creatures to give the children ideas of what to draw. 

Ask the children to first use their pencils to draw the outline of their favorite ocean creature. 

Next, have the children use crayons (not the washable kind) or oil pastels (not the water soluble kind) to color in the sea creature. Encourage them to use different colors and fill in the whole sea animal, without leaving many white spaces. If they have extra time, they can also make designs, such as swirls, waves or bubbles, in the background. 

Now, have them use their water colors to paint the entire paper. Have them paint right over their drawings. They will be glad to see that the paint does not cover up the drawings... the crayon resists the paint and seems to pop out! Again, encourage the children to cover their entire papers and not leave white spots. (You might want to talk with them ahead of time about what colors to use, since it is supposed to be a water background... blue, green and purple shades are the best for this! This can also be a nice opportunity to talk about warm and cold colors!) 

You could pair this art project with a writing assignment. Children who are just learning to write can write, copy or trace the name of the sea creature they drew. Others can write a sentence. Children with higher reading writing abilities can even write some facts about the sea creature!

 

Ocean Background Photo

This makes a nice gift to send home to the parents or caregivers. 

You will need: a large ocean or beach background scene

                        A camera

                        Blue, green or purple fun foam (I use the 5 1/2 by 8 1/2 size)

                        Small sea shells

                        Glue-All glue (Glue sticks will probably not be strong enough for this! Neither will the cheap glue that comes at the dollar store! I used Elmer's Glue All. You could also use craft glue but it may be more expensive.)

                        Craft sand or sand from a sandbox

                        A printer or a way to develop photo

 

The first thing I did for this was hung up an ocean background scene. I took a picture of each child standing in front of it. I had these photos developed at the local drug store because I thought they would come out better that way than trying to print them myself on the school's computer paper! 

 

You'll need two pieces of fun foam for each student. I cut photo-sized out of the middles of sheets of fun foam. I had each student glue his or her photo onto the middle of one sheet of foam. Then they put these aside for later. On the sheet with the middle cut out, I had the students glue small sea shells wherever they wanted to. I then had them use a glue bottle to draw a design around the edges of the frame, and sprinkle sand on it. 

 

When the frame part was finished and dry, the children could glue the frames on top of the sheet of foam with their picture on it. They now have a beautiful ocean picture to take home!