Kindergarten Matching Mittens Painting with Oil Pastels

This art project is an oldie, but a goodie.  I’m not sure where I first saw this project.  I think maybe one of the other art teachers taught this lesson in one of my previous school districts.  I have seen some lovely variations of this project online.  Here is a beautiful one from Pixels and Paintbrushes.  It looks like we were both working on them at the same time.  🙂

We began by tracing mitten templates on a piece of thick paper.

I prefer to use white tagboard from Nasco, which has been pretty good with watercolor paints. (Don’t cut out the mittens at this point.)

Then, we talked about matching pairs and I demonstrated how to draw one shape on the left mitten and then the same shape on the right mitten.

We used oil pastels, although crayons would work well also.  The Crayola oil pastels are nice and bright.  The students did their best to create matching pairs, although this becomes a challenge as their designs get more and more complicated.

Next, we add a watercolor wash on top of the designs.

Finally, the mittens are cut out and glued to construction paper.

We added cotton on the bottom and a string to tie them together.  Charming!

Have you done a mitten project?  Add a link to your blog post in the comments.  Do you have any recommendations for a children’s book that would complement this project?

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