Fun with Character: String Painting
You will need to pair students. Place a sheet of art paper in the center of a large sheet of newsprint. It is a good idea to tape the newsprint to the table, desk, or floor. You will need a string or a piece of heavy yarn or thin ribbon that is longer than the paper sheet. Drop a few tiny pools of paint onto the paper. The students will each take hold of the ends of the yarn and work together to stretch the string over the center of the paper. Together they will lower the string until it lays in one of the paint pools. Together they will decide how to drag the string through the paint to create a design on the paper. They can lift the string and reposition it at any time. Caution them to keep any string that has paint on it over the newspaper. You can choose to do multiple colors of paint or all one color.
Another option is to put the paint (single color) only on one side of the paper. The string is placed on the paper, draping it through the different paint pools. Then fold the other half of the paper over it. A piece of cardboard is placed over the folded paper. One person will hold the cardboard down, and the other person will pull the string out. You can open the paper and add a different color of paint, a new string (or one from a different group that used that color) and have the students reverse roles and do it again.
To process the activity, ask these or similar questions:
Was it fun to create a painting?
Could you have done a string painting by yourself?
Did you let your partner make some decisions?
Did you like your finished product?
The next time you need to work with someone on a project, will you remember the artwork you created and collaborate?