Warm and Cool Hands and some Balloons thrown in!

I found this amazing project idea on Pinterest. No clue where the origin is though. My fifth graders created Warm and Cool color Hands. This project took us about two forty-minute classes to complete.


We began by reviewing warm and cool colors (which they are experts on now!). Students first traced their hands with pencil onto a long sheet of paper allowing part of their arm to appear as well as leaving a small bit of space between the pointer finger and the thumb. This is actually old computer paper with that green stripe along the back. Perfect length for this project.


Students then chose a shape (not a circle) that they liked, many chose a heart because that was the example I put up. Then we traced our hands and shapes with a sharpie marker. (I've run out of black that works so really any dark color will do)

After students traced the hand and shape with sharpie, I told them to get their pencil out again. Now they began to create concentric circles that originated around the shape. These circles should overlap the hand. **Student need to space these appropriately otherwise close lines make coloring much harder later.

Then they began to color in the hands with cool colors only (blues, greens, and purples). Each time a line cut the hand a new color was to be selected. The fingers are definitely the hardest part since they are in multiple sections. I asked students to give each "circle" an assigned color for the section of the hand within it.

The second day of this project students finished their cool colors inside their hands. Then we reviewed warm colors (reds, yellows, and oranges). They were to first color their shape a warm color then continue to fill the circles with other warm colors. They could choose to make a pattern or keep it entirely random.

 

I've seen others attempt this with younger grades, but I wouldn't with my particular students. The fingers make this a particularly tricky project.   

Also, my challenging 3rd graders have been busy working on Asymmetrical Hot Air Balloons. This project also took two weeks. The first week we contrasted symmetry and asymmetry. We also look at visuals of Hot Air Balloons and the parts of the balloon we would need to draw.

We began with a 9 x 12" piece of paper, cds, pencils, brown and white crayons, and a permanent marker. Students first traced a cd twice with pencil so that one would be higher and the other lower.

Then they drew rectangles for the basket below. This could also be a template if you have one available. I happen to have several so I passed those out as an option as well. **Emphasize not to put the basket directly under the balloon otherwise there is no room for the ropes. We connected our balloons to the basket with rope lines.

Students then had to design their own patterns for each balloon so they were not the same, thus creating more asymmetry. Also, they could draw 1, 2, or 3 clouds. We traced everything with a permanent marker. We colored the baskets with brown crayon and clouds with white.

The second week students were allowed to paint their work with my handy dandy tempera cakes!  I especially like to do these in March when the wind picks up and it feels like the perfect time for a balloon ride!