Elementary Projects for Valentine's Day

Looking for projects inspired by Valentine's Day?  Check out the lessons I created with K-3!  Some projects were inspired by other lessons I have found over the years, so I tried to share the blog posts from other teachers who inspired my lessons.

Romero Britto Heart Paintings with Kindergarten

Materials: Pencil, Paper, Black Marker, Tempura Cake Paints

Duration: 1-40 minute class period

Directions: Start by sharing pictures of Britto's art with your kindergarteners!  Share how he created designs in each space of his art, such as dots, lines, colors, etc...now's the fun part!  Have your binders practice drawing hearts!  Some may struggle at first, but once they get the loop and points, they'll go crazy with their hearts!  Using pencils, have students create one or more hearts to fill their paper, then draw in lines and shapes.  Once done, use a black marker to trace, then tempura cakes to paint in the spaces!

Contour Hearts with 1st Grade

Materials: Heart Templates, Pencils, Paper, Oil Pastels, Tempura Cake Paints

Duration: 2-40 minute class periods

Directions: For Day 1, start by talking about how the hearts can overlap (one in front of the other).  Have the students use heart stencils to trace out about 10 hearts (overlapping to fit them in the paper).  Once traced, have students use oil pastels to trace, color in, or add patterns to each heart.  On day 2, have students finish filling in the hearts with oil pastels and fill in the rest of teh paper with tempura cake paint!

Symmetry Hearts with 2nd Grade

Materials: 9 x 12 colored paper, 12 x 18 colored paper, pencils, scissors, glue

Duration: 1-40 unite class period

Directions: As a one class project, the object is to have students achieve the illusion of symmetry with the heart design.  Using the 9 x 12 paper, draw half of a heart, cut the shape out, then glue the outer piece to the edge of the 12 x 18 paper.  Draw another heart inside of the already-cut heart, cut it out, and glue on the opposite side.  Draw, cut out, and glue down about 3 more heart shapes and you have a finished piece!

Positive/Negative Space Hearts with 3rd Grade

Materials: 9 x 12 colored paper, 12 x 18 colored paper, small baggies, pencils, scissors, glue

Duration: 2-40 minute class periods

Directions: On day 1, talk about positive/negative space in art.  Using the 9 x 12 colored paper, draw and cut out a heart shape.  On each side of the heart, draw and cut out shaped that will be reflected in the finished artwork.  Please Note:  Use the baggies to store the pieces once they are cut out.  This prevents any lost pieces, plus it's 100% easier with clean up.  Once all pieces are cut out, glue down the big heart.  On day 2, show the students how to glue the pieces down to reflect the empty space.  Not all students will finish right away, you will see that it may take the entire time for many students.

This project was also achieved by many other schools and can be found here for 5th grade and here for 6th grade.

Love Paintings (Inspired by Robert Indiana) with 3rd Grade

Materials: LOVE Stencils, 10.5 x 10.5 white paper, Pencils, Black Markers, Tempura Paint

Duration: 2-40 minute class periods

Directions: On day 1, we discussed the artwork of Robert Indiana, then folded the white paper to make 4 squares.  We then began tracing stencils to spell out L-O-V-E in each square.  Students then began painting colors in the letters and in the backgrounds.  On Day 2, students finished up on painting.  If they finished on the first day, each letter was traced with marker to cover any loose paint lines.

Here's another variation of the lesson!

Heart-Shaped Coil Pottery with 3rd Grade

Materials: Ceramic Clay (or air dry clay), Water, Canvas, Desired Paint (Glaze or Acrylic)

Duration: 2 40-minute class periods

Directions: On Day 1, discuss how to create a coil pot using ceramic clay.  Start with rolling a small amount of clay into a ball, flattening it down then rolling coils to wrap around the flat base.  Use the water for the slip process to make the coils stay together once dry.  Once the pot is completed, pinch the top and bottom of the top of the pot to form the heart shape.  On your own, fire the pottery for your next step.  On Day 2, (depending on your resources) paint the pots using either glaze (if kiln is easily accessible) or acrylic paint (if you can't fire again).  

More Valentine's Day Projects on Pinterest

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Baby Chicks in the Art Room!

This Spring, we took on a new adventure in our school's art room: hatching baby chicks!  Every year, our school takes part in a project to teach about the process of the egg to the bird.  Many classes from Kindergarten through 6th grade take part in the project.  With this being my 3rd year at my school, I was interested to see if a specials teacher could participate as well!  I was very excited to receive approval and begin the journey of hatching chicks in the art room!  Even with student allergies and sensitivities, this project was checked with parents prior to beginning the process.

Our Baby Chick Story

It all started with an incubator.  The box contains a space for water (to keep the eggs humid for the 21 day incubation period), a metal rack, and a turner for the.  We needed to keep the temperature at 99.5 degrees during the 21 day incubation.

Throughout the 21 days, students would take quick peaks inside the incubator to see how they were doing.  I was giving a link to a Powerpoint containing pictures of the egg development over each day.  You can find the Powerpoint at this link.

Some kindergarten students were interested in the pictures of the eggs in development, and tried to draw a picture of what the chick looked like inside the egg!

On around Day 19, we transferred the eggs from the turner right onto the metal rack (covered with a thin mesh to prevent egg pieces from falling through).  This was the exciting part!

And when we walked in on a Tuesday morning, we had our first batch of baby chicks!!!

Students were invited to peak at the new babies while working on their art projects.  They were so excited to see them, they were on their best behavior waiting for their tables to be called up!

That afternoon and the next day, I moved the hatch-lings from the incubator to the box prepared with the heat lamp.

In the end, we had over 15 hatch out of two dozen eggs!

Now that the eggs were hatched, I discovered that I had limited time with the babies.  I only had them for one week before they were collected for a local farm.  So why did I want chicks in the art room?   I wanted students to document and quick sketch what they observed.  I was able to have a few kindergartners draw the eggs in development, but my 3rd graders were the lucky winners to work with the chicks!

The Project

Students were to create a drawing of a chick.  The challenge was how to draw a moving model.  My students are familiar with drawing still life or pictures for inspiration, but this was their first time drawing a live animal!

On each table, I set up a bin with white paper at the bottom.  Two chicks were carefully placed in each bin to be observed while drawing.  The chicks were properly taken care of and students were given specific instructions prior to starting on handling the chicks.

Warning: If you attempt this in your room, chicks poop...a lot.  Be prepared for students to laugh or comment on droppings while working on their drawings.

Students were given one class period (about 30 minutes) to create a drawing of a chick (or chicks).  Once their drawing was completed, they were able to place their chick in any background they wished.  The drawing was to be traced and colored using either crayon, colored pencil, or markers.  After day 1, students were only able to complete their draw and begin tracing.

I couldn't help it, I wanted to draw a chick too!

After one week, we had to say goodbye to the chicks as they were adopted by a local farm.  The following week, students completed their drawings with crayons, colored pencils, or markers.

Here are some of the finished examples from the experiment!  The first drawing was made by a kindergarten student, and the rest are from my 3rd graders.

Overall, I loved having the experience of hatching baby chicks in the art room!  Since this was my first time (and new to the time frame), the project was limited to drawing materials.  Now that I'm familiar with the steps, the ideas are flowing for next year!  thank you so much to my colleague, Mrs. Perino, for making this happen!