Collaborative Hearts

This was a big project, but very rewarding!  It started with me finding a link to this flicker account on pinterest.  There were no directions, but it looked pretty self-explanatory.  The pin mentioned Jim Dine, since it is sort of based on some of his work, but I didn't have time in the classrooms to talk about his work.
Prep Work:
1- Draw a heart on poster boards with a marker.
2- Write a number or letter in each of the four corners on the back of each poster board.  Each board will have a different number or letter.  So, for the first poster board, I drew a heart, then flipped it over and wrote the letter "A" in all four corners.  The next poster was assigned letter "B", etc.  This makes it easy to put the pieces together after they've been painted.
3- Cut the poster board into four pieces.  I made the first cut horizontal on some and vertical on others.  Then, I cut the remaining halves at different lengths so that each "quarter" was not exactly the same size.
4- Randomly distribute the pieces into four stacks - one for each class.   I did this so that one class wouldn't get only top right corners or bottom left.

I had each of the students write their names on the back and their teacher, though I also let them know that they might not be getting their pieces back because it was becoming part of a bigger piece.  I started off talking about what Collaborative and Collaboration mean.  Then I gave the students directions and let them use their imaginations.
Directions:
1- Must keep the same outline of the heart that is on your paper to begin with.
2- Try to have the colors show some contrast between within and without the heart.
3- No words. (though some boys snuck in a little BSU)
4- There are no mistakes, only happy accidents.  This rule is really important.  I made sure that each student understood that they would not be getting a second piece if they made a mistake, because someone else was counting on them to finish the piece they were given.  It worked out really well because I started with Mrs. Morton's class and one of the boys in that class was painting with turquoise, but accidentally put his brush in his green.  It could have freaked him out, but instead he made it work by blending the colors and it added a great texture to his background.  I was able to use his piece in the other classes when I gave them directions, and all the kids loved the way it looked, so they could see that "mistakes" could be fixed and become beautiful.  Because I had stated this rule in the beginning, I didn't have any students tell me they made mistakes.  It was great.

I've got three students at Andrus, so I did this project with their classes: Mrs. Morton, Mrs. Webb, and Mr. Fischer.  I needed a fourth class, so I asked Mrs. Moran if I could do it with her class, too.  I really liked how creative the kids got, and I think it worked out pretty well having pieces done by first, third, and fifth grade classes.  I'll only have a second grader next year, but I would love to do this project again next February, so let me know if you're interested.