preschool LESSON: Painting like Michelangelo

This is a great little lesson on Michelangelo – We first saw it at our son’s preschool when they were Painting like Michelangelo … under the table! 

Our son’s preschool 5 year old class did a great history/art project the other day. (Read my story… Should you redshirt your Kindergartner for more info on why we put him in the 5 year old class)

I wanted to carry on this lesson and do the preschool activity with our other children.

The lesson: Learning about Michelangelo.
The kids learned about how he painted on the ceiling… (Between 1508 and 1512, under the patronage of Pope Julius II, Michelangelo painted the Sistine Chapel ceiling, a masterpiece without precedent, that was to change the course of Western art. – wikipedia)
Materials:
Large piece of paper (I use the paper rolls from Ikea for a lot of projects- and this is one of them).
Washable Paint
Paintbrush
Tablecloth or drop dropcloth to put on the floor (or let them do this outside, like I did.)

1.  Tape a piece of paper to the underneath of a table.  (Be generous with the tape)

2. Give each child a paintbrush and a plate with paint on it.  They had to paint their own “masterpiece”, but they had to do it by painting while the paper was hanging above them.
3. Let it dry, take it down & Enjoy your painting!  We hung ours above our kid’s beds.
I love this idea because it is great on so many levels.   As a play therapist, I am always looking for other ways to help our children.  This is great for fine motor and gross motor skills, among so many other things.

I wanted to share it with you.   I hope that your kids love it as much as mine did! ps- if it gets messy… not a big deal.  They’re kids: they learn from messes!