Torn Paper Valentines

Art room clean-up prompted this colorful torn paper collage for kinders.  I don't know about you, but things around the art room seem to get messy this time of year while we're elbow deep in all kinds of creative endeavor.

Time to reorganize and start afresh...including new place mats for the tables.  But those old painted ones were just too colorful to toss out.

So I tore them into strips and let the Kindergarten have at it.

Oh, the joy of color on a cold winter day!

 

Finished them off with a variety of interesting lines.

 A simple lesson with lovely results

Pre-School Snip and Print Valentine

A taped area on the table is painted pink and red.  On the paint we place our paper hearts.  

We roll the paper and pull our prints.

Some Days Are Just Better Than Others

Some days are just better than others.  There's no way around it and today was just one of those days.  Look at what we made.  This giant heart has stolen my heart and was the icing on the cake.  We started with two giant sheets of paper.  The top sheet was folded and a heart shape was cut out of it.  Leftover paints were used for the printing.  Nothing special, just what was in the palettes from a previous lesson.  We used red, white, blue, orange and black and mixed the colors right on our hands to get these fabulous tints and funderful shades.

When we got tired of stamping we lifted the stencil to  see what we got.  Looks like we got something really special.  Happy Valentine's Day

Phyl's Valentines

Here's a special Valentine for my friend Phyl.  She posted this lesson on her blog last week and it sounded like so much fun that I couldn't wait to try it.  I modified her plan a little, but essentially it's the same.  For this lesson, each child got a small piece of paper to use as a template.  (I cut a piece of copy paper into fourths).  I showed my first and second grade artists how to fold and draw half a heart beginning and ending on the fold.  Once their heart was drawn they were asked to cut it out.  When most were ready the next step I showed kids how to place the heart in the middle of a piece of bogus paper and trace around the heart.  Around my first heart I made "copy cat" lines to create a concentric design that moved out to the edge of the paper.  I asked kids what could go in the spaces (colors and patterns).  I told kids that there was a special trick to this chalk drawing and when they were ready they were to throw away their scraps and line up at the sink.  Each student chose three colors from the chalk box and carried them on a tray to their place.  Then they came back to the sink area for their paper.  Paper was soaked under the running water to get it nice and wet, and spritzed from a spray bottle as the class progressed.  Kids were encouraged to color completely.  Chalks were swapped with neighbors.  When done work was placed on the drying rack and chalks were returned to the box.
Kids loved it!  Quick and easy.  We skipped the Mod Podge step that Phyl suggested, because I wanted to hang them in time for the big day. 

        Thanks, Phyl.  Happy Valentine's Day everyone.
       Check out the complete plan at Phyl's blog There's a Dragon in My Art Room