Paper Hearts

Since this week would be Valentine's Day, we made two types of paper hearts last week in my art classes. We talked about origami (Japanese paper folding) and kirigami (paper folding, then cutting, usually symmetrical). We also talked about scoring and worked with oil pastels. I think it is fun and good for kids to be able to fold paper hearts, boxes and fun things to work on in the car, for when they babysit, etc. Also, I find that many kids need practice with cutting, so that is something I like to incorporate even into the late elementary years.

We learned to fold paper hearts out of strips of (magazine) paper, then cut the top edges off to round them. I took a needle and some thin ribbon along and strung some of them for necklaces. We also made folded heart containers to hold the paper hearts or to use for Valentine's gifts. We decorated the heart boxes with oil pastels after cutting out the pre-printed pattern and before folding and gluing them. Here is a link to the video I watched for the kirigami paper hearts. There are lots of other videos for different paper hearts that might be fun to experiment with. I chose this style because many kids (boys, usually) have already learned to fold the paper triangles for table football. I did find that it is also easy to push in the hearts using the sharp edge of a table instead of your thumb.

The kids made some lovely designs on the heart containers. I found the downloadable template  here. Each child used a straight edge (popsicle sticks) and  a plastic knife to score the fold lines. This is a great trick for them to learn and helps tremendously with folding easily and precisely. (As long as the score line is placed correctly!)