Mother's Day Scratch Art

This particular project was very fun and different from other projects I had ever done in elementary school. It was called "scratch art," and with this technique the class made Mother's Day cards. We began by coloring a half sheet of paper entirely using crayons, making sure to color as firmly and dark as possible so none of the paper was showing beneath the crayon. Then, we painted over the paper with black paint until it was completely smooth and dried. Next, we took our other half sheet of paper, folded it, and labeled the front and the back to avoid confusion. We drew pictures and/or words that relate to Mother's Day, as discussed at the beginning of the lesson, to create the front and back of our card. Then, we rubbed the lead from our pencils on the back side of the cards just drawn on. Lastly, the class traced their drawings onto the dry, painted black paper and used the wooden stick provided to scratch away the paint and reveal the crayon colors below until the card was completely decorated. This was to be done using cross-hatching, stippling, and other techniques learned at the beginning of the lesson. For a final touch, we glued a small piece of paper to the inside of the card and wrote a Mother's Day message.

 

For the extension activity in my own classroom, I would this technique as a fun game or instructional tool for studying, picking the order of students for various activities, or stations. I would do this by having a picture, word, name, etc. written below the paint, depending on what particular activity I would use it for. Let's say, for example, I was teaching students about the parts of a flower in science class. I could have a picture of a flower and next to it, the labels covered in the black paint. Students would have to scratch away the paint to reveal the names of the flower parts. It would be fun for them but still a useful study guide for future tests. I could also use this same technique for say, lining up at the door. Students could be given a small square and have to scratch off or write their name into it, revealing which color is below. Those with red could line up, then blue, etc. It would be much more fun and interesting for the students than a printed worksheet or calling off names.