I like lessons that teach something in addition to the primary goal. Here, the primary goal is to explore texture. Secondarily, the students learn about resists and washes.
My students enjoy this because it's a bit of a scavenger hunt. They get to run around outside and find textures to collage together onto their paper. The process is a simple one of placing the paper on rough surfaces and rubbing the paper with dark crayons. When one of the artists finds a particularly interesting texture, the others ask where it was and run off to get their own impressions.
One of the cool things they learn is how much texture there is in the world. Texture is everywhere and that's why using texture in drawings and paintings makes the images seem more real, even if they are abstract.
Once they fill their papers, the students come back in and wash over the crayon with transparent watercolors. The waxy crayon markings resist the water, creating a nice effect.
