The inspiration for this art project came straight from my garden. After 3 months of waiting, the sunflower seeds I planted in the spring finally bloomed. I cut some to take to my classroom and the children went crazy for them. We decided it would be fun to make a sunflower they could take home, one that wouldn't wilt.
Having a background in Montessori, it is imperative to me that all of the projects we do in the classroom be the work of the child as much as possible. It is about process not product. The appearance of the finished project is not important, it is the steps involved in creating the piece and sense of pride that the child feels from having done it by themselves. (Again- as much as possible- I can't have a room full of toddlers wielding scissors and hot glue guns.)
First I had the children paint a large piece of white construction paper yellow. Keep in mind the children in my classroom are 2-3 years old, so you can imagine how many things in the room ended up adorned with yellow hand prints, including the back of my white pants.
After the painted papers were dry I cut out a circle (I traced a bowl) and 10 petals. I tore some black crepe paper into pieces (sized about 1") to use for the center of the flower. I gave the children the yellow paper circle on a tray with a small ramekin of white glue and a paint brush. I always present art work on a tray, this defines each child's personal work space as well as minimizes the mess.....somewhat. I showed the children how to dip the brush into the ramekin of glue, brush the glue onto the circle and put one piece of black crepe paper on top of the glue. Next, I showed them to brush some glue over the top of the just glued piece of crepe paper to smooth it onto the circle. It is important that the child puts the crepe paper on one piece at a time. If they are grabbing handfuls of crepe paper pieces and smashing them into the glue, the significance of completing the work one step at a time without taking shortcuts in haste, is lost. If this manner of competing tasks is reiterated often in the formative years, this habit will carry over into all aspects of the child's manner of completing tasks. Another important reason for this is because the child is honing their fine motor skills and pincer grasp (using the thumb and index finger) by picking the pieces up one at a time. I allowed each child to glue as many or as few pieces of crepe paper they wanted.
As you can see, Lane was much more ambitious than Jonah in the quantity department.
Once the black crepe paper glued circle was dry, I demonstrated how to brush glue onto the edge of each petal and attach it to the back of the circle. I made an X with pencil where it would be a good idea for the children to glue the petal onto the back of the circle. (Sorry, I do not have any pictures of the different stages of the project, I never dreamed I would be creating a blog.)
After all of the children had completed their flowers we hung them up on the wall. Now our
classroom looks bright and sunny and the children have their own sunflower to take home.
This is a very age appropriate project for toddlers. They love to paint and glue, and make a mess. After they had finished painting and I had hung up the papers to dry, I gave each child a damp sponge to clean their work space at the table. Once again, this is a task they absolutely love to do. I sprayed each area with water as they scrubbed and wiped all of the paint away. They actually did a really good job! Young children love to clean......teenagers, not so much.
The flowers in the middle photo will long outlive the others!
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