Perfect for Early Years classrooms, our stunning Earth Day artwork combines three simple art techniques to create these striking paintings inspired by Jack Johnson song.
Working with young children, you are constantly reminded how optimistic and certain they can be of things that matter. Often, they show more respect for each other and our world than many adults do.
Earth Day presents the perfect opportunity for young children to focus and promote the importance our environment plays to all of us, children and adults alike, both locally and globally.
Inspired by the hauntingly beautiful song 'Two Hands' by Jack Johnson, this Earth Day art project takes three simple process art activities many preschoolers have done before and combines them to create one stunning artwork.
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We combined three simple art techniques to create our finished paintings and when combined with the heartfelt lyrics of 'Two Hands', it's enough to bring a tear to the eye of most adults just for the sheer joy and hope you feel viewing them.
I can change the world, with my own two hands
Make a better place, with my own two hands
Make a kinder place, oh with my, oh with my own two hands
With my own, with my own two hands
With my own, with my own two hands
Make a better place, with my own two hands
Make a kinder place, oh with my, oh with my own two hands
With my own, with my own two hands
With my own, with my own two hands
I can make peace on earth, with my own two hands
And I can clean up the earth, oh with my own two hands
And I can reach out to you, with my own two hands
With my own, with my own two hands
Oh, with my own, oh with my own two hands
And I can clean up the earth, oh with my own two hands
And I can reach out to you, with my own two hands
With my own, with my own two hands
Oh, with my own, oh with my own two hands
I'm gonna make it a brighter place, (With my own)
I'm gonna make it a safer place, (With my own)
I'm gonna help the human race, (With my own, with my own two hands)
I'm gonna make it a safer place, (With my own)
I'm gonna help the human race, (With my own, with my own two hands)
You can hear the full song here.
HOW TO MAKE YOUR OWN EARTH DAY ART WORK
These art works were completed over a series of single art lessons and were started on Harmony Day.You will need:
- paper towel
- liquid water colours or food colours in green and blue
- plastic pipettes
- acrylic paints (rainbow and earthy colours)
- paper (A4 size)
- light weight card (A3 size)
- pencil (for tracing only)
- cotton buds
- sturdy pieces of cardboard
- scissors
- clear glue
In one lesson we created the earth paintings using some paper kitchen towel, some liquid water colours (food colours work just as well) and some fine pipettes.
Perfect for building fine motor skills as well, children used the pipettes to drip blue and green paint onto the paper towel until it was completely covered.
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Once dry, we then traced and cut out a circle from the paper towel.
In another lesson we created the rainbow scraper art.
Everyone's seen the rainbow squeegee art by hello, Wonderful lately, but you can create the same effect with just a recycled piece of sturdy cardboard.
Everyone's seen the rainbow squeegee art by hello, Wonderful lately, but you can create the same effect with just a recycled piece of sturdy cardboard.
Simply place dots of your colours along one end of your paper (we used light weight card stock) then pressing down on your cardboard strip firmly, just drag it across the paper moving the paint evenly across the page. I'd first seen this technique over at Housing A Forest who used a credit card on a smaller scale to create a similar effect.
In our third lesson we created our 'Two Hand's. To create these, we traced around our hands and then used cotton buds to try some dot painting.
Dot painting is often seen as unique to Australian Aboriginal art but only dates back 40 years or so when artists around Alice Springs were encouraged to transfer their sacred designs to more permanent canvases than sand or skin. Concerned that the real meanings would now be visible, dots were used to disguise the sacred stories making them more abstract to people outside the tribal area.
The simple dot style gives the paintings a wonderful sense of movement and using just earthy tones, provide a lovely contrast to the bright rainbows.
Once all the different elements are dry, simply cut them out and layer them together on to rainbow scraper painting with a clear glue.
Don't they just look stunning on our classroom wall! You can't help but smile looking at them.
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