Monochromatic Symmetrical Hearts

With Valentine's day so close, my kindergarten and first grade classes are creating a heart project and still are experimenting with color theory by creating tints and shades from black and white paint. The introduction of this project includes the definition of balanced and symmetrical. We looked at different hearts/objects and discussed which are symmetrical and which are not. Disclaimer: The hearts themselves are balanced and symmetrical, but the lines and shapes inside the hearts may not be. Some students chose to make the shapes inside their hearts symmetrical as well.

The next step was to create our own symmetrical balanced heart that has matching rather than lopsided sides. The first step was to fold our 12" x 18" drawing (#80) in half vertically (hamburger style). As a class, we discussed how our paper now has an open side and a fold side. On the fold side, students placed their four fingers at the top and drew a dot at the bottom of their fingers along the folded edge.

Students drew half a heart starting with the dot along the edge and continued drawing their line to the top of the paper and over to the open side and back down to the bottom corner on the fold side. For students who had difficulty with this step, dots were drawn by the teacher and connected by the students (see photo below).

Once all papers were checked by the teacher for correctly starting and finishing on the fold side, students were able to cut on the line, cutting two papers at the same time while the paper remained folded. If cutting and drawing were completed correctly, a symmetrical whole heart could be found when the students opened their papers. Sometimes, If I didn't keep my eyes open, we would find two half hearts instead of one whole heart. This is what happens when students work on the open side instead of the fold side.

Oooops!

After creating our balanced and symmetrical heart, students then divided their heart into sections by drawing straight lines from one side of their heart to the other side with black crayon, ending with a mosaic effect. At the end of this week and next week, everyone will have the opportunity to paint inside each shape using tints and shades of one color (monochromatic color scheme).

 

When I purchase paint for my classroom, I rarely purchase secondary colors like orange, purple and green. I love color theory and really encourage my students to mix their own secondary colors, as well as any tints and shades they may need, even at the kindergarten level. For example, the heart below uses only purple and its tints and shades. To make purple, students must use the two primary colors red and blue in the right ratios to make purple. To keep it simple, students will only be working with a light, medium and dark value of one color. To use purple, it must be mixed from the primary colors, because I do not have any purple paint in my art room.

 

Crayola is not a sponsor, but I really do like their paint!

After the hearts are painted and dry, we will add them to a colored piece of construction paper matching the color used on the hearts.