Get snappy!
Check out this snappy rubber band process art with Sarina Smith from the Kansas Children’s Discovery Center. Sarina is an Art Studio major at Washburn University and loves doing art projects with kids at the museum! What do kids gain when doing this art project? Fine motor skills! Kids practice using the small muscles in their hands later used for writing. This activity is great for practicing the pincer grasp, or using the index finger and thumb together to grab an item, an important developmental milestone for small children.
Supplies:
- Rubber bands (up to five)
- Cardboard box, cereal box, or cake pan
- Paint
- Paper
- Scissors
Directions:
- Cut a square opening in your box.
- Put Rubber bands around your box over your square opening, use about 2 – 5
- Put sheet of paper in the open area of the box, under your rubber bands
- Use your finger to brush paint on the underside of the rubberband
- Now pull back the rubber band and watch the paint spread onto the page
- Add as much paint as you want to the rubber bands and follow step 4 until you feel like it is complete
How to Expand it:
- Experiment with different shapes and sizes of rubber band and observe differences.
- Use the rubber bands to make a song while you paint!
What Kids Learn:
- Fine motor skills. Kids practice using the small muscles in their hands later used for writing. This activity is great for practicing the pincer grasp, or using the index finger and thumb together to grab an item, an important developmental milestone for small children.
- Experimentation! When kids experiment, they’re learning how to learn.
Vocabulary:
- Process Art: an artistic movement as well as a creative sentiment where the end product of art and craft is not the principal focus. Process art is about the journey, not the destination!
- Force: energy caused by a push or a pull, in this case, the pull created by your hand when you pull the rubber band, and the push created by the rubber band against the paint.
- Potential Energy: The amount of energy an object stored up in something. A rubber band stretched by your fingers has lots of potential energy!
- Kinetic energy: The amount of energy an object has when in motion. When your hand releases the rubber band, it loses potential energy but gains kinetic energy.