Saturday, May 15, 2010

Yarn Flowers

When I saw this post of Yarn Poppies on Mod Podge Rocks a while back...I knew someday I would be borrowing the idea for one of my art lessons. Kindergarten art lessons are the hardest for me to come up with and this one was very fun.
Some tips for teaching this to kinders. Demonstrate starting the coil of yarn with the TIP of the yarn near the button, otherwise kids will lay the yarn down around the button not thinking they need to begin at the END of the yarn. (Awww Mrs. Smith, you mean I have to pay attention to details, even in art?!) With demo and instruction, this lesson took 40 minutes.
Materials for each child:
one piece of 6x9" background construction paper
one skinny green construction paper for kids to cut in half for stems
small green construction scrap for leaves
two buttons
two pieces of yarn, approx. 20" (I also let students cut their yarn once they thought their coil was big enough.)
glue (white glue works best) and scissors
This little guy (above) was the very LAST one finished, can you see the perfection in his coils...he was very proud - as he should be!!!
Okay, you may have noticed the glue is wet. It does dry clear, but who can wait for glue to dry when hands have to be washed, trash needs to be thrown away, shoes need to be tied, buttons on the floor need to be found, stories need to be told, books need to be shared, questions need to be answered, skirts need to be twirled (Yes, one girl was ADAMANT that I was not leaving her classroom until I saw how she could twirl her skirt), and lost snacks need to be found ----uhhh, life in a kinder classroom, where do I end, or begin, or end, or...?

Big thanks to San Gabriel Elementary kinders!

2 comments:

Sarah Of Sweden said...

Your students must be happy to have you as an art teacher. I get happy every time I come to your site and see your students' artwork.

Have a nice day!

Phyl said...

This is my first time at your blog and it is so adorable! I love the tulip/roses!