Sign Language Art Project

   In high school, we spent a lot of time drawing hands in my art class and as my homeroom's "art teacher," I thought we could incorporate that into one of our art projects.  I found this lesson to help me out: Sign Language Art.  I first introduced the sign language alphabet to my class.  My students were much more interested than I expected them to be.  They immediately began spelling their names or sending messages to their friends across the room.  From there, I told them to think of a word (not too long) that describes our school.  Once everyone chose a word (no repeats) they practiced drawing the letters of their word.  After some practice, students chose a color of construction paper to draw their final signs.  Once I approved their final signs, they traced them with a Sharpie and cut them out.  The next art class, they used water color to paint a white sheet of paper the same color as their construction paper.  The first layer of paint was very light, but for the next layer, they darkened up the paint to make designs on their paper.  Finally, after everything dried, students glued their hands to their water colored paper and used stencils to label each letter.  The students loved this art project and many of them asked to laminate it so they could take it home!