Ball Painting-A Cooperative Art Experience

We were focusing even more on cooperative experiences this week with the children, so we made our art center a collaborative effort.

We used an over sized pizza box taped open and reinforced.  We cut paper from a large roll to fit inside the box.  We precut several sheets of paper as we knew it would be a popular activity. Three small trays were filled with tempera paint in primary colors and thinned with water to allow the balls to roll rather than stick to the paper.  We chose to use ping pong balls, but small wiffle balls, golf balls or other balls you have on hand would work.  It would be fun to elaborate on this idea trying different balls and comparing the marks made.

The children then had to work in pairs or in small groups to manipulate the box and get the balls to move around the paper.  They enjoyed moving the box in different directions and thought it was hilarious when the balls would roll out of the box.  If you want to avoid this, get a box with a higher lip on it.  We didn't mind the small mess made when the balls would skip out of the box and the children were having a lot of fun with this occurrence.

This activity works well to foster cooperation among children who may not typically play together. The activity was the draw...often attracting others to join in as the painting began with their shrieks of joy and laughter.  They had to communicate with each other in order to agree on which way they wanted the box to move.

You can even relate this activity to the work of Jackson Pollock.  The product of this activity looks very similar to some of his work done with his swatting paint brushes.

 

 As we typically do, we left this out as a center for the week.  This allowed children to go back to it several times and for different groups of children to work together.

As usual the product was not our focus, but these pieces make terrific wrapping paper!

Give it a try....your kids will have a ball!