Chris Uphues borrowed from Cassie Stephens

student work

 When I spotted this project on Cassie Stephen's blog I knew I had to do it with one of my students.  We were exploring printmaking and I knew printing hearts with TP rolls would be a big hit.  My students also enjoyed learning about a practicing artist and viewing some of his work.  The project took about three weeks, a bit longer than I anticipated but happily most were completed prior to February break.

student work

Burton Morris in 5th grade

student work 

Thanks to Kids Artist blogspot for this great lesson on Burton Morris.  I was looking for a quick 2-3 day fun project for my 5th grade students and stumbled upon your lesson.  They are so loving this lesson and learning about the work of Morris.  My students always seem to enjoy investigating the work of a living artist and Morris's work was no exception.  I allowed them total freedom as they discovered the materials they wanted to incorporate into the making of their hearts.  There are many recycled papers and even some pressed tissue paper in use.  I love the results!

student work

student work

Cutting Shapes in Kindergarten

panda heart puppet

Showing some creative independence

Wearing a panda collar

Kindergarten practiced their cutting skills this week.  They learned to turn the paper as they cut on a rounded edge for better control. After they had completed cutting practice, they collaged their hearts to create a cute little panda puppet using a brown paper bag as the base.

Happy Valentine's Day

My students earn "free art" days based on their behaviors during class time.   A well behaved class can earn their first free art in just 9 short weeks.  Today was the earned free art day for one of my first grade classes.  It was their first free art day.  This is a tough class.   As I sat preparing for my day this morning I felt the dread building at the prospect of managing a free art with this class.   Free Art is very loosely structured.  Students have complete choice of what activities they can participate in and this class really needs structure.  
I had prepared a variety of colored papers for the students in 4th and 5th grade who had completed projects as a treat so they could make valentines.   As I cleaned them up, it occurred to me that maybe the first graders had not yet learned to cut out valentines.  The light bulb went off and a creating valentine's activity was born.   I approached the "free art" as a fun new activity for them and only touched on the fact we would be working with symmetry.   I wanted to really stress that we were going to have fun.   Structure and fun so that could be free art, too.  I was really delighted with their creative results so wanted to share them here with you.