St. Patrick’s Day Process Art

The preschoolers and I made a little St. Patrick’s Day process art. Given just a few materials, the preschoolers were unleashed to create art as they pleased. It just so happens that the materials I provided them pair nicely with the upcoming “green” holiday.

I love the way the student’s art sparkled in the light once finished. As with other process art activities, this one lends itself to the making of art, rather than a specific product that might be achieved with a craft. Each student’s artwork turned out differently, each one interesting and unique because of it’s differences.

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Materials

• blue and yellow washable tempura paint
• heavy card stock
• liquid school glue
• gold glitter

The invitation to create art

I laid out the materials on the preschool table and invited my students to begin painting as they pleased. Being that I only offered two colors, blue and yellow, their palette was limited, but that was ok. By limiting the colors available, the students learned a little about color theory, as they quickly found out that when they mixed blue and yellow paint on their paper they got green.

Each student’s card stock quickly became filled with vigorous blue and yellow brush strokes, resulting in layers of color and a range of green hues. Some students were heavy on the yellow, thus getting more bright green, while others were heavy on the blue, thus being more blue-green.

Soon, students began to notice that as the paint left in the palette was also changing colors.

And some student then choose to mix the two colors in their palette rather than on their paper.

Once their papers were covered in paint, they added liquid school glue.

Some students chose to do dollops of liquid school glue, while others made circles, and others yet made squiggly lines. Again, this is process art, so there is no wrong way. Once dried, the glue would give their paintings a wonderful addition of interesting texture.

Finally, we added gold glitter. For this, we added “big” glitter, as the bigger the glitter pieces the more it would sparkle. With the mixture of blue, yellow and green background, the gold glitter was reminiscent of gold a leprechaun might find. 😉

These are some of our finished products:

 I adore how that glitter sparkles!

For some of my favorite books about process art for preschoolers, check them out below!

Sarah Punkoney, MAT

I’m Sarah, an educator turned stay-at-home-mama of five! I’m the owner and creator of Stay At Home Educator, a website about intentional teaching and purposeful learning in the early childhood years. I’ve taught a range of levels, from preschool to college and a little bit of everything in between. Right now my focus is teaching my children and running a preschool from my home. Credentials include: Bachelors in Art, Masters in Curriculum and Instruction.

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