rock painting

Activity: rock painting

Target participant group: Teenagers are a great participating group for this activity.

Therapeutic potential of this activity: Doing this activity can help relax, and increase the attention span.

What other groups may benefit from this activity?:  Younger children can benefit from rock painting, even people in a nursing home can benefit by having it a social gathering. Pretty much anyone can paint a rock and get something out of it.

What groups may not be as appropriate for this activity?: Behavioral problems may not be the best group, but they can still benefit from it, you would just have to watch them close enough and not allow them to throw rocks at other participants.

Activity description: Give each participant a rock of any size, shape, color. Participants may have to share paint between a couple people, but allow the participants to paint whatever they would like on their rock, the possibilities are endless. Different objects can be used for painting such as paint brushes, fingers (just make sure they don’t eat paint unless it’s edible) or different objects around you. Allow the rock to dry once they are finished painting to minimize the smearing.

Resources needed: Different rocks, paint, paint brushes, news paper to not paint on the tables, any objects you would want to paint with

Best leadership style for this activity: The best thing to do is sit back and let the participant paint whatever they would like on the rock, as long as it is appropriate. If they are having a hard time thinking of an idea to get started with, you can give them suggestions that they can go off of or help them think outside the box. Make sure that everyone is safe and not eating the paint or causing trouble.

Where did you find this activity?: I got this activity from something that I have done when I was younger, and I loved being able to express myself and paint whatever I wanted.

where can others find more information on this activity?: I am sure there are a bunch of different websites on google that people can look up for more information, but the activity is pretty laid back and easy to do.