Kindergarten Warm/Cool Colors Jim Dine Batik Hearts

Kindergarteners learned about warm and cool colors.  This really is a simple 2 day lesson that I really liked.  I did something different last year and I love these results even more!  

On day 1 of the lesson we simply drew a heart on a 9x12 piece of white paper and then discussed warm and cool colors.  Students were then given warm colored crayons first.  They were to choose if they wanted the heart or the outside to be colored in using warm colors.  I told them they could make patterns or just use the colors, BUT everyone must press hard and leave no white spaces.  When students finished with the warm colors students were given the cool colors to finish the remaining uncolored portion.  Most students were able to finish the coloring portion in the first class.

Day 2 of the lesson was the fun day.  I wanted the hearts to have a "batik-esque" look to it so after students got their hearts back they were instructed to crumple up their paper 8 times as if they were going to throw their paper across the room.  When I started crumpling my heart drawing the faces of those kindergarteners look horrified, but I promised them there was a good reason we were doing this.

After this portions as done students gathered around to see the next step.  Using watered down black tempera paint we painted over the entire paper and then using a paper towel the paint was dabbed off not wiped.  Students then got an orange or green piece of construction paper and glued their hear onto it. I then demonstrated stamping around the border with black paint to make hearts.  For some classes I used toilet paper rolls simply folding them in to make a heart shape.  The hearts that are a little longer I made out of strip of oak tag paper and stapled the ends in a heart form.  Those hearts did look nicer, but they were a bit time consuming to make.

Here are the lovely results just in time for Valentine's Day!