Action Jackson

In one of my Preschool classes we are learning about famous artists. I like to start off with a story about the artist if I can find one. For our Jackson Pollock lesson I was lucky enough to find a copy of Action Jackson by Joan Greenberg and Sandra Jordan at the Library. It's a great little book, explains how Pollock worked and fit well into our lesson. about incorporating movement into our painting. The kids loved hearing how Pollock would spread the canvas on the floor and STAND on it while he painted. In a world where kids are told to be neat it was exciting to watch them as they listened and learned that some adults are OK with mess!

And then I led the kids to the paint table. There were canvases inside deep boxes. I told them to try to find the paintbrushes. They couldn't. Because we were going to be using paint brushes. We were going to use THESE:

NOT a paintbrush

BUT what amazed me was how hesitant they were!

They did not want to make a mess. 

They wanted things to be neat and orderly. 

But I changed all that. Yikes! I hope their parents don't hate me now.

Here are a couple of the cool paintings that they created! 

After that we made GINORMOUS spin art paintings with a spin art machine made out of a box fan. It was fun to watch and predict what colors we would make when we dropped in the paints!