4th Grade - Pulled Paint Castles

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This past spring I stumbled across a picture on Pinterest of a lesson from Mrs. Maynards Artroom.  Her sixth graders made these awesome pulled paint castles!  I loved the beauty and simplicity of the project. 

I created several practice examples before introducing this lesson to my fourth graders.  I cut  pieces of mat board into different widths.  The students created their buildings by pulling the paint across the paper.  Each table had plastic plates with cool colors.  I poured blue, green and purple paint into each plate.  Then demonstrated how to dip the edge of the mat board into the paint and pull it across the paper to create the sections of their castles.  The students loved how pulling the paint across the paper created a kind of color stain, almost like a tie-dye effect.  Some of the kids got so carried away they forgot to leave some white paper for the sky!  Those students cut the top of their paper to create the shape of the castle roof when it was dry.

The following class of students added details to their castles with black Sharpie marker, construction paper and crayons.  I created an idea packet of castles details, windows, doors, arches, etc...  The students had these to look at for ideas and inspiration while adding their details.  I'll be definitely using this technique again, the students loved it!