flower investigation: lemon verbena

Lemon verbena is a delightful plant. The leaves are very firm and substantial in texture, while the flowers are very delicate and white. The children felt the flowers were lilac, white, and purple and so we put out those colors for them to use. The children loved that the plant smelled like lemons but had no yellow on it at all. How could that be? Ah, the minds and wonder of children. Along with the oil pastels, we chose skinny black paper to add variety to their floral art, and help the lighter colors pop! 

flower investigation: roses

 A flower is a flower is a flower? Are all flowers the same? I often begin a flower study by asking the children to identify what I am showing them. Generally it is a flower from my garden, and generally all the children will shout "It's a flower!" Some, may even identify the type of flower I am showing them. I then ask "How do you know it's a flower?" Usually I get a few blank stares, along with a lot of hollering and yelling "Because it's a slower!" "I saw one on tv!" "We have them in our garden!" "My grandpa showed me!" 

Once the hullabaloo has quieted down, I pinpoint references to the attributes of the flower and point out which senses are being use. "Oh, your eyes tell you it's a flower because you see petals." or "Your nose can smell its fragrance which tells you it is a flower." and so on. After this, we ask the children if they would like to draw a flower for us. Most often they will and almost always, every single flower they draw is a traditional children's drawing of a flower, the kind that someone, somewhere, "taught" them how to draw. 

But, not all flowers look the same, Not all flowers feel the same. Not all flowers smell the same, so how do we share this information with the children? We explore ALL the flowers! Everyday we showcase a different kind of flower and we do a show and tell. Passing out the flowers to the children we ask them what they can tell us about the flower they are holding. Before this, however, we demonstrate, from the very first day of school, how we use our senses to put information into our brains. We use descriptive words to describe objects, textures, foods, etc. and we always support each child's view of what they are describing, whether it is "correct" or not. 

With each flower that is introduced, we set up a still life study and invite the children to draw, paint, craft, create what they see, and we mix up the materials and invitations for each flower. Here, for this rose study, we have offered oil pastels, liquid watercolors, pencils, pens, and colored pencils in the the color palette of the roses. If a rose is created, hooray! If a car is created, hooray! If an abstract painting is created, hooray! It's all wonder FULL.

drawing and painting snails

 

windy art via Handmade Kids Art blog

My co-teacher found this nifty project on Handmade Kids Art blog and was so taken with it, she tried it out with her class. I was so taken with it, we did it in my class as well. The children really enjoyed it!

The first step is to imagine what the wind would look like if you could see it. The children used markers to show what their wind would look like.

Next up, the children selected a paint color and squirted it onto their tray and used their fingers to replicate what they drew on their papers.

After they used their fingers to draw the wind on their trays, they flipped their paper onto the paint, marker side down, to pull a print. We give them the vocabulary such as print pulling, etc. to let them know their art is valid. Once they pull their print, they use glue to adhere three dimensional elements of wind such as yarn and feathers.

Aren't they happy? It was very interesting to watch the children follow the steps to their own tune. The dialog that went on was a lot of fun as well. Thank you Handmade Kids Art for sharing your projects!