5th Grade Zentangles

One of the last projects my 5th grade students completed this year was zentangles. With a creative, positive group of students, this can be really fun! Unfortunately, the kind of students who see art as just another assignment have trouble enjoying doodling.

The students began this project by tracing a letter with pencil. Then, they gave their paper a border by lining a ruler up at the edge of each side of the paper, and tracing the other side. This makes a perfectly even border with no measuring! At the end of the project, the students were supposed to erase all of their pencil lines, and they were not supposed to trace the letter or border with a pen. Of these student examples below, the last on (letter T) is the most successful because that student followed those directions perfectly. The first one (letter R) is quite aesthetically appealing to me anyway, because the student used his letter outlines to create a 3-dimensional effect. A few other pictures (J and B; 3rd and 4th from the top) are simply unfinished; the student never erased the pencil marks. I guess I should be a little more firm with following directions! Although, in the upper elementary grades, I like to give the students space, rather than breathing down their necks the whole time. If they can follow all of the directions without constant reminders, they will receive a high grade, and do very well!