Picasso's Hands With Bouquet With KINDERS

 I've been having a blast with the elementary students at the school I am working at temporarily. I've been having the Kinders explore art materials a bit and this week I thought they'd enjoy doing a project I originally posted back in 2013 as we continued our discussion about line and shape. This is not my idea, as you can read in the original post, but it's a great one that I'm sure I'll be doing again and again in the coming years!

The only thing I changed this time was to have the students draw all of their flowers first, then add the stems, and when they were done they could line up and they could make their hand print at the back of the room at a table by the sink (and near the drying rack). Other times I'd have them print their hand first and then add the flowers.

Again, it helps if you have a bucket or two of water ready for them to rinse their hands in and paper towels ready to go right near the sink (already ripped to single-serve sizes). This was a wonderful project that helped them explore some of the elements of art (shape, line, color) and explore a new material and technique or two. They have some really good observations and insight about Pablo Picasso's work and, it's a FUN project--I mean, who doesn't love to have their hand painted by the art teacher!!??

VOCAB: Pablo Picasso, bouquet, shape (circle, oval), line, color, drawing

CROSS-CURRICULAR CONNECTION: Science (flowers (petals, stems), spring), kindness/giving

MATERIALS: 12" x 18" white paper, oil pastels, black tempera paint, paint brush

Our inspiration!

ENJOY!

Mother's Day Flowerpot Ideas

I was asked to create a painted flowerpot idea or two for our PTA to use as a fundraising kid activity at last weekend's 1st Annual PTA World's Fair. The idea for this event was to have a fun-filled day where families could come and browse different vendors, taste foods from around the world, play carnival games, do crafts, jump in a bounce house, etc.

Ladybugs were VERY popular...

I was set up in the Japanese garden area of the gym. One vendor had let the PTA borrow all sorts of trees and flowers and they were arranged all around my work area-beautiful! In keeping with the Japanese theme, I brought some sheets of origami paper and the instructions to fold a few simple pieces such as a helmet, a dog, a butterfly, etc. Since I was busy overseeing the flowerpot painting, the origami  didn't attract as much interest as I had hoped. I have some ideas about that for next year, though...

On to the flowerpots...these ideas aren't mine, they are ideas I've seen here and there multiple times or are things I've received as a mom myself. But they fit the bill for the craft request: something for mom, a painted flowerpot, easy for whatever age group showed up (this was the first year of the event and we had no idea who was going to show), and cheap (the children "paid" four tickets, roughly $2.00 to do the craft and it is supposed to be a fundraiser for the PTA). Each pot included an herb or flower plant that was donated by a local organic farm.

The supplies needed are:

• 4" flower pots with your choice of herb or flower
• Acrylic craft paints (we used red, orange, yellow, green, white and brown)
• Foam brushes if the children wanted to paint the rim of the pots
• Sharpies for details, optional
• Fingers for fingerprints! That's what makes them so easy--no brushes to clean up!

So, here are the (poorly taken) photos of my examples, complete with my cheapo fake plant from IKEA sticking out of it. SIGH. But you get the idea...

This example is great for little ones since they are the only ones
who could fit their handprints on the little pots! I had a couple people do this version...

When the children were done, they could choose one of these
poems on a skewer to stick in their finished pot.
These bring tears to my eyes--so sweet!

The children ran with these ideas and we ended up selling about 30 of them. There are going to be many happy mothers in southern NH this Mother's Day!