Supplies:
-Plain white copy paper trimmed to 8 1/2 by 8 1/2, or 8 by 8.
-pencil for sketching
-coloring medium (crayons, colored pencils, markers, and highlighters were all utilized here).
Time:
50-65 minutes
You can shave a bit off by prepping a bit ahead but by and large, the students will definitely need help getting the hand shape right, and if you've got a large room, you'll need to assitst almost each one of them. An extra couple of adults helping wouldn't hurt at all.
So by now, 2nd graders have done about a thousand handprint projects in their lives, and I always like to expound on previous skills. Today we used our tracing-our-own-hand skills as a model for how we could get a rough idea of the right proportion, then sketch the version that looked right, even if it wasn't a direct trace.
1. I showed the kids two ways to make a heart shape with their hands and instructed and helped them trace/sketch their heart hands of choice.
2. Trace your finished hands (the parts you want to stand out) in black marker or crayon.
3. Gently draw (in pencil) a grid over your hand shapes. (This is assuming you have not provided them with grids pre-drawn. I wanted their own variations so I left mine blank, but some students struggled with time on this one, so if I had to do it over, I would give them paper I had already applied grids to, and eliminate the draw-your-own grid step.)
4. Apply warm colors to the boxes inside the hands and cool colors to the surrounding boxes. If this is too simplistic for some of your more enthused art participants, offer alternatives. Leaving the hands empty and only filling in the surrounding areas is one example, as one student did here.
It's another great exercise in contrasts, and a handprint with a twist.
This student opted for the "closed fingers" heart shape.
This one reminds me of Elmer the Patchwork Elephant. So vibrant!
