Valentine Owls

These are just the cutest. My best friend recently started working in an after school program, and sent me over these pictures of the art project she did with them for Valentine's Day. I think they're simply adorable, and can't wait to use this idea next year with my art classes!

Guest blogging: Valentine's hanging keychains

I've been lucky enough to have the chance to guest blog again over at 52 Weeks Project Blog! This is a great DIY/crafting blog that features a new project every week. The project I shared this time shows how to use Shrinky Dinks to make hanging keychains (a great Valentine's gift for the one you love!)

 

Please head over to 52weeksproject for the full tutorial!

Positive/Negative hearts 1/2

This is an easy, beautiful lesson that I originally saw on artsonia and decided to do with my grade 1/2 classes. I needed something that could be done in only one class, as I won't be seeing some of them again before Valentine's day.

We started off by talking about positive and negative space, and I showed them examples of the hearts that I had cut out (they'll be using these to do the project.) Students were each told that they'd be getting one positive heart shape, and one negative heart shape. This is how they'll use them:

They began by placing the positive heart on the piece of paper, and tracing all around it using chalk pastel. Then, they used a kleenex to pull the color away from the heart, creating a negative imagine of a heart on their page. They did this several times, until they had covered the paper with pastel and white hearts.

Next, they took the negative heart shape, and traced it on the paper, over their other hearts. This time, they pulled the chalk pastel inwards, creating a positive heart shape. They added as many as they wanted to, until they felt their project was finished. They looked beautiful, and were easily finished in one period. Such a great Valentine's project!

Heart collages - grade 1/2

This is a project that was born out of desperation - we had some incredibly cold mornings last week, and on Wednesday, my usually reliable diesel car decided not to start. I was able to call a colleague for a ride, but didn't end up getting to work until 15 minutes before the bell (much later than I usually arrive!)

When I got to work, I desperately scrambled to find something for my 1st graders to do. I finally decided to slice up some tissue paper and dictionary pages, and have them do heart collages! By the end of the 40 minute period, the collages were so beautiful that I decided to extend the project another week. The next time I saw them, we glued the collages to colored paper, and students used a variety of colored Sharpies and metallic Sharpies to draw lines and shapes in the background.

I'm so happy with how these turned out! They look so beautiful all together.

Some students balled up the tissue, and I love the effect it gave - it almost looks like roses.

Paper cuts - grade 5/6

For Valentine's day, I really wanted to try doing paper cutting with my grade 5/6's. I made the example above using a template I found here. I used techniques for creating the design (darkening the part you want to cut out, etc.) that I found here.

This ended up being one of those projects that my students just seemed to have difficulty with. I didn't have a ton of examples ready, which may have been one of the reasons why they found it hard. I also think it's just daunting for them to do such intricate cutting, while most of them are using dull school scissors. Some of them ended up cutting out parts that they had intended to leave in. There was definitely some frustration with this one, but that is a fact of life when doing art. All of that all being said, I love the way the finished projects turned out!

 

 

Valentine's day Op-h-Art Optical Illusions - grade 2/3

Using a technique I tried a while back, I came up with an idea to do a Valentine's day inspired op-art project.

I made this template for the students to use, because I did this project with... wait for it... grades TWO AND THREE!! I was dying to try this project this week but my 6th graders didn't  finish their other work in time, so I decided to do it with a grade 2/3 class. I gave them the template with the few hearts drawn on it VERY lightly, just so they wouldn't make things too hard on themselves by drawing the hearts too thin or too close together.

Here's the steps to complete the project.
Start by drawing lines going up to the heart:

Then draw the lines on the other side. It really actually isn't that important if they match up (especially if you are doing it with younger kids.) In the end, it doesn't really change the effect. 

 When you have finished the lines all around the exterior, start filling in the heart (or whatever other shape or idea you have!) Instead of drawing them straight, they are to be drawn with a slight upwards bump.

 As you get to the longer sections, don't make an arc the entire way. Just bump up on the sides, and go straight through the center.

 Finish up, stand back about 2 feet, and you should have a great looking optical illusion! It looks even better if you lightly shade inside the heart with pencil crayons.

And now.. onto some of the ones completed by the second and third graders! (!!!)

 

 Also.. one of my 6th grade boys who finished his work early had a chance to make this, and it's really  the cutest thing ever.

Love is in the air!

Before I go, I want to say a HUGE thank you to another blog I adore, Smart Art for Kids, who gave me a shout out and as a result, several new followers. I really love the art blogging community, and I appreciate so much that people are willing to share their followers with me. Make sure to check her blog out!

Junior Kindergarten (Pre-K) Valentines

I see my pre-K's once every two weeks, so I had to come up with a simple Valentine's Day craft that I could do with almost twenty 4 year olds in under an hour. I found this craft online, and it definitely fit my criteria! I love the way they turned out (especially the upside down message!)

 

Check out the curly whiskers - SO CUTE!

Wild Hearts - grade 2

I've been trying really hard to come up more of my own lessons, rather than finding them online. This is one that I came up with this week, and I'm very proud of it! I wanted to do something Valentines-y with my grade 2's, and decided it would be fun to do linking Wild Hearts using oil pastels.

I showed my students how to draw a  heart, and how to fill up the page with linking hearts (making sure that they didn't create tiny sections that would be too hard to paint.) After they had drawn the hearts, they came to me to select a piece of wild paper. We talked about how to select your paint color - you don't want to pick something that clashes with your paper color, and you want to pick two colors that compliment each other.

Each of their colors would represent a section in their heart - one color would be used to paint the larger section of any heart, and one color for the smaller section. For the most part, this seemed to keep the colors separated. I demonstrated on the board how to pick.

After they had painted, they washed up their brushes and cleaned their desk. By the time they had finished that, their paper was basically dry, so they began cutting out the hearts. When they glued them onto the paper, it made a wonderful Wild Hearts picture! This took one hour long period to complete, and would be great for a supply teacher as well (colored in with markers instead.)