Something different for Valentine's Day

I thought I would try out this project I found on with a class of 1st graders. I wanted to do more than the usual heart cutting out projects. We started on the rug, using wipe boards to lean on and following me in making our concentric circles. Many of the kids used cartoon/action movie language when describing these like "vortex" or "it should be black and white and make you dizzy" (sounds like 'Vertigo' right? lol). Tracing their hands went easily as well. It was after we moved to the tables and they got hold of the oil pastels all went awry! My original prompt to "color each separate space a separate color" led to a little confusion. When I outlined each space that WAS separate with a new color then they could see what I meant by separate...I saw the issue was making the spatial relationship clearer! They just saw the hand-not the spaces made by the hand crossing the circles!

Project found on http://josettebrouwer.edublogs.org/2012/01/30/we-heart-valentines-day-in-first-grade/