Kindergarten Recycled Flowers

LOVE THE GLUE CAP!

As mentioned in an earlier post about Green Art, I LOVE Earth Day. Kindergartners made these beautiful flowers out of all recycled materials. I did this project previously during my long term sub job and they turned out a little better with them because I took two classes just to paint (I saw them twice a week) but I still love how they turned out. I got the original idea from this post via pinterest but per usual turned it into my own thang! The picture below is from the first time I did the project and did two days of painting. You can see how much stronger they are with more painted colors.

No I CAN statement was posted for the project because I don't post them for kindergarten but my objective was for them to create a flower using only recycled materials. Some didn't end up looking like flowers, so I guess I had some that did not meet the objective....(and I thought it was too simple of an objective!)

Day 1: Started a discussion by asking students if they knew what holidays were in April. Easter is always the first guess but eventually I give them enough clues or someone actually knows that Earth Day is in April too. I make the comparison of taking care of the earth like families take care of their kids and then it all starts to make sense to them :) I found this GREAT YouTube video to show them too. BE CAREFUL. ITS CATCHY!

After the video we talked a little bit more about what they saw in the video and then I showed them my example of what we were going to be making. They had to guess what all the recycled materials were that I used. The rest of the time was spent using watercolors to paint a full sheet of newspaper. The idea was to just cover it in paint, however, some of my more artistic kiddos needed more control and actually created designs and patterns (but most loved just being messy about it!).  I split the classroom into half warm colors and half cool colors and explained that if they stayed with one set they would mix really well and get new pretty colors and if they used both they would get browns and colors they probably didn't want. I really liked separating into two groups like this, I think it is important to change up the classroom sometimes and not have them sit in their usual seats, it provides enough of a level of excitement to keep them more engaged. Some got tired of painting so I made it more interesting by making them go "hyper speed" or "slow motion" every now again. Again, that extra excitement can be really engaging for them. Best part about this is they can be stacked on top of each other, cool in one pile, warm in the other and they will dry, so my drying rack doesn't get full!

Day 2: Watched the video again as a reminder to what we were working on. Then, because I wanted more color on the newspaper but did not want to paint for another class, we used texture rubbings to add more "umph" to our newspapers. Did this for about 15 minutes and then as a group we folded our newspapers back up and into a rectangle. On their own, they drew petals and cut them out and glued them to a small piece of square cardboard. I showed them how to overlap and glue the petals around in a circle to make them more realistic. Last step was to choose a cap to be hot glued as the center of the flower.

Really happy with this project once and glad we did the additional crayons. Some still could of used more color, might end up doing two days of painting with another activity built in just to make sure they are more vibrant. 

They got displayed with a project that 1st grade did that I will be posting on shortly...

McDill Elementary...

Jefferson Elementary...

Kennedy Elementary...