Tips for A Great Teamwork Art Activity...Quick, Easy, Fun!

This easy art activity is quick to prepare, and you can increase or decrease the complexity to suit individual student goals and learning needs. For this easy art activity you will need:

• A range of bright coloured paints
• Squares of cardboard (such as from a cereal packet cut into quarters)
• Pipe cleaners and tape to join the train together
• Paint trays or pots
• Rollers, brushes, sponges or whatever other 'getting the paint on the cardboard' method is going to work for your students!
• Art smocks or aprons on everyone - this easy art activity can get a bit messy at times

Teamwork activities for a special education setting can be challenging to find, but teamwork skills are oh so important for managing in the school and adult worlds! Teamwork activities for students with special needs can help them in workplaces, community settings, personal relationships and in relationships with friends and acquaintances.

To complete this easy art activity, here are the special education teaching tips you will need to consider:

• Look at factors that will assist your students to be in the best position to engage with the task fully - table height, wheelchair height, tray height, position of assistants and aids so they can provide the best help when needed, position of paint pots, ability to communicate and make choices etc!
• Think about time of day for doing the activity - some students are more able to do hand function tasks in the morning when fatigue may be less of an issue
• Involve students fully in the planning and decision making stages - this can be done quite easily if needed, with prompt questions such as which way will we put the train on the wall, what colours will we use, where would you like to sit at the table?
• Don't use cardboard which is too heavy or it will be hard to display on the wall as it may fall off (not a problem if you have a pin board and you can pin it up, but an issue if you need to tape or Blue Tack it to the wall)

To make the train itself:

Give each student their own square (or squares) of cardboard and access to paints and brushes or rollers. Provide assistance to decorate the square according to their own designs and choices. Encourage students to discuss their plans with each other and compliment each other on their choices - but never try to change the way someone else is doing their design as it is their own choice which counts.

Join the squares together with pipe cleaners and tape on the backs (you may need to poke a small hole in either side of the squares).

As one of your teamwork activities, encourage the group to make choices about the design of the train engine - add round shapes for wheels and any other shapes you desire.

Display the train on the wall - this is one of those great teamwork activities that can grow over time simply by adding more carriages - you may find it eventually stretches right around the classroom!