Try this activity with elementary students. Select a variety of CDs that express a certain mood, such as lively, melancholy or joyful. Spread out a large roll of paper on the ground on top of a painting tarp. Provide cups of paint and paintbrushes. Include creative utensils for students to use, such as straws, rollers, yarn and stamps. Play a CD and ask students how the CD makes them feel. Ask them to paint the roll of paper to portray the mood of the music. Roll out several sheets of paper for different moods.
Try this activity in any grade level to make an expressive paper mache mask. Have each student blow up a balloon and place it in a bowl to hold it in place. Mix water and flour to use as a paste. Tear strips of newspaper, coat them in the paste and layer the newspaper on the top half of the balloon. Lay several layers of the newspaper on the balloon to create a thick mask. Let the mask dry, then pop the balloon and remove the paper mask. Cut out eyes and facial features with scissors and paint the mask. Ask students to give the mask an expression or a mood with a choice of colors, lines and details.
Take this lesson from the art works in cities such as Cleveland and Chicago, where artists paint larger-than-life sculptures such as guitars and cows in expressive colors and designs. Ask students to bring in an object that they don't use any more. The object could be anything from a tennis shoe, to a spatula or a baseball glove. Ask students to paint the object to transform it from ordinary to extraordinary. Give them beads and ribbon to accent their creation.
Use this project with high school or advanced art students. Take a cue from impressionist works such as "A Starry Night" by Vincent Van Gogh, which emphasized the use of light in art. Ask students to find a picture from a magazine or take their own picture that includes a source of light, such as a stoplight, a street lamp or stars. They can paint a picture by dotting color onto their canvas or paper. Ask them to emphasize the mood of the painting and the presence of light in the picture.