Another Tween Club hit! I ran this program as one of my weekly events for grades 5 – 8 and they loved it. It’s easy enough that anyone can create a cool looking piece of art in under an hour – even with no painting experience.

The goals of this program were:

• attendees will build creative and artistic confidence
• everyone will leave with a piece of art they are proud of
• provide a safe, fun, social space for an under-served demographic

Materials

• 8 x 10 canvas panels
• A bunch of little jars of washable paint (bonus points if it’s glitter paint)
• Paint brushes and/or sponges
• Glitter
• Stencils (you can buy from the dollar store, or make your own with your library’s die cutter)
• Tape to hold the stencils down
• Paper towels
• Plastic table cloths

Set Up

I put all the stencils on two tables, and set up 5 painting tables with 6 chairs each. Each painting table had a canvas at each spot, and brushes and paint in the middle.

The program really runs itself! I introduced the concept by showing them my pre-made examples, and explaining how to tape down the stencils and paint on top. After that, they went to work picking stencils and colours and glitter.

Everyone had a lot of fun – from the shy grade 5 girl to the usually boisterous grade 8 boy. I loved watching how everyone put their own spin on their painting, and got so excited about the stencils available.

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I HIGHLY recommend making your own stencils if your library has a die cutter. We have a Silhouette Cameo, and I was excited to create all sorts of timely stencils for the tweens: emojis, grumpy cat, characters from movies, animals, batman, etc.

My personal favourite has to be the glitter rainbow donut painting:

What are your favourite Tween programs to run? Let me know if you have any questions!