Zentangles

Today I had a 4/5/6 class and luckily for me the teacher had prepared all of the work for the students...she did however leave the afternoon free for something to teach of my choice. 

So, I chose one of my favourite activities which is drawing a Zentangle.

What is a Zentangle?

Well basically a Zentangle is an artwork through which only a black marker is used to draw repetitious patterns in small spaces. It's like doodling but more artistic.

Why use Zentangles in the classroom?

Zentangles are great because it allows students to create an artwork that is abstract. It requires concentration  which encourages students to stay on task and focused.

I find that they are great because you can talk about lines, tones and repetition. Students are able to explore this through copying patterns from youtube.com or design their own. 

Zentangles are awesome for casual teachers because all that's required is a piece of paper and felt tip pen or permanent marker. All the examples and support resources can be found on youtube.com or in google images. 

The kids today loved it. They loved watching the youtube clips on how to do create certain patterns. What they enjoyed even more was desigining their own and sharing and copying their peers patterns.

Some of them looked like a mess at first, but slowly the students got the hang on it and filled in white areas with patterns and blocking.

I said to the students to take them home but they were so upset because they wanted to hang them in the classroom.

BE WARNED.... proper Zentangles take hours to complete. The students who took their time didn't finish but the sections they had completed looked fantastic.