Poinsettia Plant Multi-Media for Third Grade

My third grade students completed this project before Christmas, but with the holiday break, I forgot to post it. The project is as about as easy as you can get. The only area of "struggle" was cutting out the pot. Despite it's challenges, this component of the project provides a valuable opportunity to understand symmetry.
Supplies:
12" x 18" white construction/sulphite paper
12" x 18" Black construction paper
Tempera Paints (I selected red, yellow, rose, white, etc)
Sponges cut in "petal" shapes
6" x 6" colored construction paper
Paint brushes
Yellow or orange tempera paint
Gold metallic tempera paint
Tissue paper
Scissors
White School glue
Glitter

Step One: Stamping the Petals
With a paint brush, add the centers of the flowers on the top section of the white paper. The kids can use the backs of the brushes for small dots, or paint larger circles with the bristles.
Using a paintbrush, paint desired color onto a sponge. As the kids get good at this, let them experiment by adding two or more colors to the sponge. One color at the tip, another at the bottom, etc. Most likely, they'll ask before you suggest it.

Press painted sponge gently on paper, pointing tip of sponge towards the center of the flower. Keep going. The paint will begin to weaken after the third or fourth press.

Step Two: Making the Vase
While the poinsettia's dry (I usually put these aside for the next class), bring out the supplies to make the vase.
To make the pot symmetrical, fold the square of paper in half. Now this part is tricky. (I'd recommend trying this yourself so you can pick the right verbiage to teach the kids.)
Start at the bottom of the folded paper (left hand holding the paper and right hand holding scissors), begin the cut in the middle of the bottom edge. Cut upwards and on an angle. You might find it easier to cut the notch of the pot out first, then cut the diagonal line.
Open up the fold and you have a perfect pot!
Using a small sponge, dab gold metallic paint onto Vase surface. Let dry.

Step Three: Adding Tissue Paper to the pot
Gently fold small squares of tissue paper and tape or glue onto the backs of the pot. The tissue paper should ruffle slightly when the pot is turned over.

Step Four: Putting all the pieces together

Now that the poinsettias are dry, cut around the flowers. If a flower is not connected to any of the others and you end up with more than one piece, no problem. The goal is to glue them back together onto a piece of black construction paper.

Glue the flower section to the black paper and then glue the pot with the tissue paper. For an added feature, my students outlined selected areas of their flowers (the dots, the stems, etc) with white glue and we added glitter.
This added a nice holiday touch and a much needed sparkle to our classroom!

Third Grade Results!

Paper Cut Flowers for Third Grade

This is a favorite art lesson of mine for spring time...paper cut flowers in a symmetrical vase. I typically do this lesson with my third grade students but the results would be fanatstic at any age.

Supplies:
Colored Paper (I used some leftover "Eric Carle" painted paper from earlier in the year)
White paper (this is 9" x 6" but a larger size would work equally as well)
Scissors & Glue

Instructions:
For ease of set-up, I set out pre-cut squares/rectangles of colored construction paper, a white background paper(although a black background is quite effective), scissors, extra paper and glue sticks.
Even though most of my students have made a symmetrical vase before, I demonstrate again because it remains a challenge. (Fold paper in half, hold the folded edge, cut vase shape).
After pasting on the vase, I instruct the kids to paste paper circles for the centers of their flowers. Because our paper size for this project was small, three centers seemed to make the best composition.


Next, demonstrate how to make different types of petals...heart shape, standard shape, abstract, etc. Leave it up to the kids to come up with clever ways to make petals!

Symmetrical Vase and Stamped Flowers for Kinders

I love this lesson. It's colorful, fun, expressive and best of all, easy to do! Looking at these beautiful pictures, it's hard to believe the lesson takes just one thirty minute session. Trick is to have the supplies ready.
Creating the vase takes the most time and let me just say right now, that I've never had a kinder class master the art of folding and cutting a symmetrical shape once in six years. Inevitably, they will always cut too close to the fold line, resulting in a very tiny vase or they will cut on the wrong edge and end up with two halves. (Read my tutorial to get the gist of my meaning!).
But cheer up, the project gets progressively easier after the vase is glued down.
I set out a bunch of cut-up kitchen sponges (petal shapes, circles, triangles, etc.) and brushes and let the kids create. Just look at those little hands in the picture below. How cute are they?
Here's an important tip. For best results, do not add water to the tables. Question: But how do the kids clean their brushes? Answer: They don't.
Trust me on this. It's better to have mixed-up paint than a sopping, water-logged painting. Tell the kids they can use all the sides of the sponges and if the paint colors mix together, that's a good thing!

Chalk Pastel Flowers for Sixth Grade

I teach this lesson every year. It's fast; only takes 2-55 minute sessions, reinforces blending skills and offers practice on still developing fine motor skills.
Supplies:
Chalk Pastels
12" x 18" black drawing paper
1 bottle of white school glue per student

Step One:
Display a variety of flower pictures (old calendars are great) on the white board and talk about the elements of a flower. By sixth grade, these kids already know, but go over it again.
I show the kids how to properly use a glue bottle for "drawing". See my explanation here.
Before I go on, let me give you an option. You can either have the children draw their flowers with a pencil or have them skip this step and draw immediately with glue.
I recommend the latter. Kids with pencils (especially older kids) tend to become perfectionist; drawing the tiniest of details. This is fantastic, but it won't work with this lesson. The bigger the drawing, the better. The less detail, the better. So having said that, go directly to glue.

Step Two:
Begin with the centers of the flowers. That could mean one large center or two or three smaller centers scattered around the paper. Then, beginning on the left (if you are right handed), begin adding petals.
Once the entire paper is covered with beautiful, white flowers, lay the paper on a flat surface. Drying racks with a slant will not work!

Step Three:
This part is easy. Bring out the beautiful pastels and get to work. I encourage the kids to push the chalk up next to the rigid glue line and then blend into the paper using just one finger. Watch the kids work. If too much black paper is showing through, then they aren't applying enough chalk.

Chalk tips to avoid never wanting to work with chalk again.

• Have the kids hold up ONE finger. Tell them that this is their tool. Do not use more than one finger to blend.
• To clear their paper of chalk dust, have them hold their paper vertically and tap the paper onto the edge of the desk and onto the floor. Hey, it's better than on their clothes.
• Set a damp face cloth or rag on each of the tables. The kids who can't stand the dry, dusty feeling of chalk dust can wipe their fingers when they feel the need. Just make sure it's not too wet.
  

Finally, if you can, spray the picture with hair spray. This is not a perfect fixative, but it's cheap and works relatively well. Some years, I laminate chalk drawings. The colors become more vibrant, but if your school is impacted by budget cuts, sometimes a laminator isn't available!