I Love You Hands (K&1st)

I started a Jim Dine Pop Art lesson with K-1 at the beginning of February, where they traced their hands and cut them out and folded them to show I love you in sign language. I started the lesson off with a PowerPoint about Jim Dine and asked the class to be art investigators. We looked at several of his heart paintings and I asked questions like "What kinds of lines do you see, what kinds of colors, what kinds of shapes etc..." Then they colored in a small heart on black construction paper with oil pastel to create colorful hearts similar to Jim Dines. I then had everyone put all their hands in the middle of the table to notice that no one’s skin color looks exactly the same and that we are all different. Then I talked about how we are all people and we all are the same color on the inside and we should treat each other equally. They then picked out from the multicultural paper (different skin tones) and put their hands on them to test out which one matches them the best. Once they chose the color that matched the closest to their skin tone, they traced their hands and cut them out. I thought something like tracing your hand would be so simple and it is something they have done before, but the Parapro told me the teacher usually traces their hands for them whenever they need some sort of hallway display, and the teacher cuts them out. This really upset me because these are things they need to learn to do on their own in order to move on to more advanced projects in the grades to come. I also forgot that most of them don't know which hand they write with so I had them pick up a pencil to write their name on the back and keep the pencil in that hand and put the hand down they weren't using on the paper to trace and not to lift it up until they went around each and every finger. After the hands were cut out they then showed me again with their real hands how to say I love you in sign language before gluing down their 3rd and 4th finger to the palm of their paper hands. I did this to make sure they glued down the right fingers! They then cut out their Jim Dine heart to paste it in the palm of their paper hand after coloring it. It was a lot to learn about an artist, sign language, and diversity all in a 30 minute class period. I had them at the end of class hang up their work in the hallway together on a large heart. They were very proud of their accomplishment of doing things on their own and finishing by themselves. They learned how we can all work together to show love and kindness towards each other, all while making a work of art! I think this went well with a quote from an article by Davila and Koenig, “Art is a set of processes that uses symbols and tools to communicate meaning. Art is also a language through which the child can communicate understanding.”(1998). This project focused on their fine motor skills such as cutting and gluing and working on craftsmanship.

The first grade had already seen this demonstration around Martin Luther King Day, but I showed it to the kindergarten demonstrate how no matter what we look like on the outside we are all the same color on the inside!

I also said are all people and have blood and bones, and we should all treat each other equally!