Valentine's Art (2015)

Looks like I forgot to share these you know like almost 2 months ago.... better late than never!

I recently decided that I really like the way I do "holiday" project days. I will probably keep up with it until it doesn't work anymore.... I come up with, or borrow from the internet, a 1 Day project for K & 1st that they can take with. For 2nd-4th I pick/find a variety of short things they can bounce around to whatever piques their interest that they can also that with that day. The only rule for the 2nd-4th being no "free art". Here is a look at some of what they did on Valentine's Day 2015.

K & 1: We read a favorite book of mine for Valentine's Day called My Heart is Like a Zoo by Michael Hall. All of the pictures of animals are created using hearts! After the book I showed them pictures from previous years of artwork created by students using only hearts and then gave them a big pile of hearts I cut out to create from.

2-4th: Had that same option of creating artwork using hearts or they could do a few other things. I had paper quilling like at Christmas, watercolor pencils, lego challenges, tracing their hands to make a heart valentine, and good ol' fashion valentine making...

I really enjoy the variety that comes out of days like this and ALMOST makes me consider a semi-choice based classroom....

Holiday Art 2015

Wanted to share what my students did the few days leading up to break....

 I really like the way I managed my holiday projects this year. The last day I saw each class before break (unless they were really behind on projects) we did holiday art. Kindergarten and 1st grade did the trees and I set up 2nd through 4th so they could choose from a variety of projects.

I have been doing video demos of projects this year where I record myself ahead of time.... I didn't want to take the time to do that for these projects, butI did take pictures and showed them a step-by-step slideshow. K and 1st just saw the tree and 2nd-4th got to see the step-by-steps for each project so they could decide which ones they wanted to do. I have a really large room so it was was easy to set up each project in different sections of the room.

The tree inspiration came from this image via pinterest. I pre-cut the strips and then hid the scissors so they had to approach it like a puzzle. The bottom right was done by a 1st grade kiddo with special needs and I about cried when I saw how awesome his turned out! This was the project for K and 1st but 2nd-4th could do it as one of their choices.

The name in lights project was the definite favorite. This one also took the longest depending on how many lights they drew. Everything in black is draw with sharpie and then the lights in washable markers. A little water with a paint brush over the top of the markers and it looks like they are glowing. Too much water was an issue for a lot of kiddos who didn't seem to hear the warning about too much water and the water dripped all over the page and took the marker with it. I cannot for the life of me find the Pin on pinterest that inspired this project.

 Paper quilling is seriously one of my favorite forms of art. I wish I would have taken more pictures of these! I started with them using a heavier paper (80lb) and the paper was not holding great, so I switched to a 50lb and the results were much better. The students that chose to do this were VERY into it.

I did a little quilling of my own during one of my really well behaved classes and turned it into an ornament!

I had a group of 3rd grade boys that asked to do legos for a majority of the time and I agreed only if they built whatever I challenged them to build. This was the Santa challenge. I am blown away what kids can do with legos. Anyone who says legos don't belong in an art room needs to reconsider!

These are the ornaments that the other two elementary art teachers that I am SO blessed to work with made for me this year!

And my hand-made ornament for family and friends this year!

Hope you have time to get a little creative yourselves this break, even if it's a new adult coloring book you got as a gift! I got 3!