How to Create a Mural with Students
Creating a classroom mural is a fun and beneficial project for students to learn. While participating as a class, students explore how to work in groups and learn the importance of collaboration when completing a project from beginning to end. This helps to instill in students the idea that no one plays a small role in a group. Students are also given the opportunity to partake not only in creating art for their school, but also feeling accomplished and proud once the mural has been completed.
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Things You'll Need
- Blank wall or surface
- Primer
- Charcoal pencil
- Markers
- Computer
- Printer/scanner
- Transparencies
- Overhead projector
- Water
- Small containers
- Different size paintbrushes
- Latex house paint in several colors
Instructions
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Ask students to draw pictures on the theme of the mural. Plan ahead based on the age of your students. If they are very young (K to 5th grade), keep in mind that you may need to outline the drawings for them with the charcoal pencil or marker. If teaching older students, you can have the students draw out their own images based on the theme of the mural.
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Choose the primer (background color) first and paint accordingly. The background color is important in making the mural look realistic, such as painting the wall green or sky blue for an outdoor theme. When painting, keep containers and water handy for washing your brushes when switching colors.
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3
Collect the students' drawings and organize them so that they fit into one connected image. Then allow a bit of extra time and copy the image onto a transparency. To do this, scan each drawing into your computer and then print the image out onto a transparency.
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Place the transparency onto the overhead projector and project each image onto the blank wall or surface. For best results, you will need to turn off the lights. This will need to be done one image at a time so that the projector can be lined up to show portions of the mural as they are being painted. Have students trace the image onto the wall or surface using the charcoal pencil.
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Assign younger students a specific area to paint and provide them with the needed color and smaller paintbrushes. You will need to do the hard parts, or the parts that are too high for the younger students to reach. Older students are a bit more independent and should be given the freedom to paint each section in the order that they see fit. However, it is still important to have them work as a team to complete each of the student's sections, not just their own.
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Tips & Warnings
Before having students do the actual tracing and painting for the mural, have them practice a few times on other individual pictures. Make sure that they are comfortable using the paint and paintbrushes before working on the mural.
If you are unable to paint on a wall within a classroom, consider purchasing a wood panel to create your mural.
Make sure that paintbrushes are rinsed thoroughly before using the brush to paint another color. This helps to prevent colors mixing and blending together on the mural.
Especially with younger students, paint may be spilled numerous times, so it is a good idea to place newspaper or mats on the floor.
