Watercolor/Crayon Aquarium

Age group:  Any.  Older grades could add more details and color to the fish.


Supplies needed:
scratch paper
construction paper
crayons
water colors / water

I got this idea from a Sesame Street episode when they visited an art school. 

First, we looked at pictures of tropical fish from a book I checked out from the library.  We talked about the various colors and patterns of the fish.   Next, we practiced drawing fish on scratch paper.  (I made this handout below but decided it might be too confusing for second graders.  It might be helpful with older grades.  Feel free to use it if you'd like).

After they had finished practicing the fish, they drew 4-5 on construction paper and then colored them with crayons (making sure to press hard, using lots of bright colors).  We only used crayon on the fish and sea weed.  Next we used blue and/or green water colors (using lots of water and little paint) to cover the entire paper.  It was hard for some of the kids to paint over the fish they had just colored, but the water color on waxy crayon looks really neat.  I tried a full wash of green and then a second time with blue.  The paper ends up very wet.

Note* if the larger paintbrushes are available, they would make this step much quicker.  They were checked out when we did this project and the brushes that come with the water colors are so small, it took a while to cover the entire page. 

Last comes a magic trick: while the painting is still wet, we sprinkled salt all over the paper.  Leave the paintings to dry over night.  When they come back the next day, the salt has worked its magic and it looks like bubbles:

Sorry it is so blurry!

My second grader thought this project was so fun he wanted to do it again as soon as we got home.