Zentangles For Fifth Graders

Tangling is Fun!  My intern suggested that I do a form of art called Zentangles with the 5th graders to finish up until Christmas break.  After researching the art form I decided I would tackle it the week after she left us when we were all getting used to having only one art teacher in the room.   It is supposed to be relaxing (the ZEN part) and requires only paper and pencil or black marker.  While you are creating the zentangle (doodle) it is called "tangling", which the kids really got into.

I started by giving them a sheet with simple shapes and had them trace a shape onto a 4" x 4" square of white paper. I thought that giving them a shape first would help their confidence in creating their doodles. 

I then used the projector to show them some example doodle designs and some very beautiful finished zentangle designs that I found on Bing images.  There are some zentangle horses that are just amazing! By now they were eager to start tangling inside the shape they had traced.  I also gave them some sheets with doodle design ideas in case they had trouble coming up with their own.  A very fine tip sharpie marker was used and when the zentangle was done all pencil marks from the original tracing were erased.