1. Moon Sponge Painting 2nd Grade October Art Project
Presentation modified and prepared by Marni Sheppard 2016
2nd Grade October Art Project
Northwood Elementary Art Enrichment Program

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3. Lesson Overview Lesson: Variety/masking/sponges Medium: Paint
Time: 30 minutes (plus set up/clean up)
Curriculum Tie: Moon
5-6 volunteers HIGHLY recommended
Project Overview/Skills
 Students will create a picture of the nighttime sky on canvas. They will use masking techniques and experiment with painting with sponges.
Vocabulary
Mask
To Mask
Preparation of canvases by instructors at least 1 day before the lesson
Introduce the lesson, demonstration of the project, then if the students are on a rug, move back to their desks to begin.
Limit the discussion to allow plenty of time for the kids to experiment with painting with sponges. Have the students sit on the floor during the discussion. Volunteers can be taping the paper to the desks and setting out supplies while the presentation is going on.
Display
Use pushpins on tack strips to hang canvases or hang on fabric walls outside classrooms
There is a die-cut tool in the office that you can use to cut out yellow star shapes. You can write their names on the stars, which creates a nice display.

4. Moon Materials and Preparation
Small stretched canvases (approx . 8 1/2 x 11)
Black sharpies (for names on back of canvases)
Drying rack (canvases don’t fit very well because they are so thick)
Sea sponges
Tempera paint in squirt bottles– blue, purple, black, pale pink (nighttime colors)
Paper plates for the paint
Foam star stickers (5-6 per student) (thin stickers can let paint under)
Newspaper or butcher paper for desks
Cups for water to rinse the sponge. (Messy, but good. Plan on refreshing some of the water bowls about 1/2 way through.)
Parent prep Materials
Yellow paint ( about ½ cup of paint) (or fluorescent until we use it up)
Paper plate
Foam brush 1-2” size
Swath of butcher paper to take home to let canvases dry on them
Prep ahead of time
Cut out moons from sheets of foam with sticky backs. You can use the 4” die cut in the office for this. Cut the foam sheets into 4.5" strips
full moons, half moons, slivers to represent the phases of the moon (moons should be 2-3 inches in diameter)
Paint the canvases yellow with foam brush- allow at least one full day for drying before the lesson. Stickers do not stick if canvas is even slightly damp.
Prep in the classroom
Butcher paper to cover desks
Canvas and sponge per student
Pile of moons and stars for each group
wet down sponges prior to use or they won't work (damp but not soaking wet) – set out 1 or 2 per color
Tempera on plates - they do not need too much paint on their sponges so it is better to give them a LITTLE paint to start with and fill it up often. For every 2 kids, 2 paper plates. 1 plate with about 2 tablespoons each purple and pink paint, and 1 plate with black and blue paint. It was OK for them to mix up a little, as the more mixing, the better the result.

5. What are you studying in science right now?
The graphic will appear on the 2nd click.

6. Terminology
This slide is hidden and is intended to familiarize volunteers with the vocabulary that the students are learning in class.

23. Today’s Project – Moon Sponge Painting
With your knowledge about the moon, we are going to turn this…
…into this!

24. Question? What is the difference between these words? a mask to mask
Ask them the definition of the word mask.
(Noun: something that hides, covers up or disguises something).
Ask them what it means as an action. What does it mean to mask something? (Verb: to cover or hide with a mask).
Today they are going to use masks in their artwork. Do they have any idea why or how you would do that?
You can reference the 1st grade birch tree lesson (most kids have done it and will remember using blue painters tape to make tree trunks--this was masking too).

25. What can we use when we paint?
Paintbrush is the obvious answer. (graphic will appear on 2nd click)
Ask them to think out of the box and come up with some other ideas. (“What else?” will appear on 3rd click)
Today they are going to paint a nighttime sky with sponges. (graphic will appear on 4th click)
What else?

26. Step 1- Put on mask shapes
Show them the different moon choices that represent the various phases of the moon.
You can remind them which way the crescents go for correct orientation for waxing and waning
Give each child 1 large circle, had them choose what kind of moon they wanted (waxing, gibbous, etc. or leave it full). Have them draw the shape they wanted on the sticker with a pencil then cut it out before sticking it to their canvas. They will need pencils and scissors for this step, which my class had in their desks.
Think about how they would like to arrange their moons and stars BEFORE they stick them to the paper. For example:
Which size moon, and which location (moons should always go on FIRST).
How many stars? (5-6 per student) Any star clusters or will the stars be spread out? Will any be half off the canvas?
Demonstrate by sticking on the moons and stars to your sample paper
show how they will stick them to their canvas to “mask” out part of the painted yellow background.
Make sure to tell them to press down firmly on the masks so no paint will get underneath.
Place moon first, then stars.

27. Night Sky Colors
The night sky is not Just black. It has pinks and purples and blues
The white streak is the concentration of stars in the Milky Way.
Have them notice the effect of the landscape silhouetted against the sky
Notice the direction of the milky way- it is diagonal or vertical, but not horizontal or (parallel to the top of the canvas)

28. Night Sky Colors
How the night sky might look for this project

29. Step 2- Sponge in the night sky
Once you have stuck on a moon and arranged some stars on your sample, they have four paint choices (blue, black, purple and pink) because the nighttime sky is not just black
Show sample artwork to demonstrate how different paint colors were used. They might think about creating a mini “Milky Way” effect by using a lighter color in a band or section on their canvas.
Now demonstrate how to paint with a sponge. Explain there is a RIGHT way to paint and a WRONG way to paint. DAB the paint on gently with the sponge. This is a vertical movement only- up and down, no side to side smearing.
Sponge several colors onto the sample paper, overlapping some, and sponging completely over the moon and at least one of the mask stars. EMPHASIZE they should DAB, DAB, DAB with the sponge and overlap colors.
Also show them the WRONG way to paint with the sponge (smear the paint on) and explain why we don’t paint that way (you paint differently with a sponge to get the cool “dappled” effect...if we wanted to get the “smeared” look, we’d just use a paintbrush!).
Have a set of paint trays with all four night sky colors for each table with 1 sponges per person.
Remind them not to use only black, or their sky will be too dark.
They can fill in the entire canvas with a darker color and add white highlights on top. If they repeatedly dab white, it will blend to gray.
You can also remind them about the silhouetted landscape on the bottom as the darkest area
Encourage them to put a little on at a time--you don’t want them to saturate their sponges and “glob on” the paint. They can always add more.

30. Step 2- Cover the entire surface

31. Step 3- Don’t forget the edges

32. Step 4 – Peel off the masks
What will you see when the stars and moon are peeled off?

33. Display
Once the project is finished, student work should be displayed either in the classroom or in the designated area in the hallway.
If there are some who have not finished, please check with the teacher on how they would like to proceed. Do not assume that it ok to continue the project after the allotted time.