Keepin' it Easy: Thumbprint Pussywillows!

I was out for a walk today by a local pond and wetland area, and discovered some pussywillows growing, which, at least around here, are the predecessor of all other spring growth.  They are a favorite of mine, and made me recall a favorite one-class art project that I did annually with my kindergartners until I retired.

I think it is important to remember that a good art project doesn't have to be complex and take a long time to do to be worth doing.  There's a lot of value in the simplicity of this project.

  

Each year, I'd bring a batch of pussywillows in to the art room.  I would give my kindergartners time to touch them, feel their softness, and stroke their cheeks with them.  Then we'd look at the shapes of the branches, and how the little soft pussywillows grow along the stems.  The kids would also observe the dark little seed pods at the base of each fuzzy bud.

We looked at various vases I had placed on the tables, and how they were shaped.  Students each chose a sheet of colored construction paper (I usually offered a menu of various springtime colors), and began by choosing a shape for their vase, and drawing it using crayons.  Crayons were also used to add the stems and the little dark seed pods. Each table also had some real pussywillows on it, so the kids could use them for reference as they drew their stems.

Then I lightly mixed a blend of white paint with some silver and a touch of black, that I placed in a shallow dish on each table.  The kindergartners used their thumbs as stampers to stamp pussywillow buds on top of the seed pods.  And that's it!  Cleanup is as easy as a wipe of the thumb with a baby wipe!  Easy-peasy observational project that can be completed in one class period!   

 I did a similar annual one-class project with my first graders, when the lilac tree in my backyard bloomed each year.  Again, we looked at the flowers (and of course we sniffed them, too!).  We noted how they grow in clumps, and we looked at the shape of the lilac leaves.   We drew vases, this time including a table surface, and again we drew stems, adding leaves as well.  I mixed a selection of lilac colors, using varying amounts of white, purple, magenta, and blue, and the students used cotton swabs to paint their flowers.  Disposable paintbrushes = easy cleanup!  For more info, and much better  photos than those below, check out this post from June 2016.

Lovely Lilacs Revisited

I subbed in my former classroom for a day recently, so that the current teacher could deal with a medical concern.  I had fresh lilacs growing in my yard, which, when I was still teaching, I brought in every year for a one-day lesson for my younger students, usually the first grade.  I told the teacher I'd love to paint the lilacs with her students, with her permission.  The 2nd grade students had just finished a project, so rather than have me start her next project for her, she gave me the go-ahead to do these paintings.

So I brought in a batch of the lilacs and put them in vases.  The kids looked at and smelled the flowers, examined how they grew in bunches, and how the leaves came to a point.  We looked at several different vases in the room, with various shapes, and discussed how even though each one was different from the next, the shapes were all symmetrical.  Some were opaque, and some were transparent, and we looked at that, too.  Then we talked about how we didn't want vases of flowers floating in the air, so we wanted to place them on a table in our drawings. 

The kids drew a vase, stems, leaves, and table, using crayons on construction paper (I gave them a selection of colors of paper to choose from: lilac, pale blue, soft green, pale peach, and soft yellow.  Looking at these photos, I realize that if anyone chose the yellow, somehow I didn't photograph it!)

Before the kids came in, I mixed up some tempera paints in disposable cups with various lilac colors, some with more pink, some with more blue, some lighter, and some darker.  I discussed with the kids how there are many different varieties of lilacs, with colors from white to purple to pink to blue, and that they could use any of the paint on their tables for their flowers.

I gave the kids long-handled cotton swabs to paint their flowers.  We noted that the tip spread out as is was used, making it easier to paint the flowers than with the small tip we began with! 

We had just 40 minutes, including the time I needed, as a sub, to review the class list of names, and time to clean up.  (Clean up was pretty easy, since the swabs were simply thrown away, and at the end of the day I also threw away the disposable paper paint dishes.  We put the paintings in the drying rack and did a quick table cleanup and we were done!)

As a veteran art teacher, I didn't generally like to repeat all the exact same projects every year.  But there were some lessons that, with some simple variations, were an annual ritual.  The lilacs were one of these.  There were staff members that looked forward to seeing them hanging in the hall every year, and since they were quick and easy, and made everyone happy, I loved to oblige by repeating this project.  They look so fresh and spring-like, and sometimes I think I can smell the lilacs when I look at at them!  Thank you to the current art teacher for allowing me and the students to have this fun break from her curriculum!

Seems weird not to be doing these...

I get bored easily, so in my years as an elementary art teacher, I would continually try out new ideas with my students, and I liked to introduce the kids to different artists each year. When I repeated a project or idea, I tried to give it a new 'spin'. But there were certain projects I did every year without fail, and never tired of them (I suppose that's like a singer singing the same favorite song in concert after concert, year after year).  They were the projects everyone expected to see, no matter what.

But this year, I am retired, and this time of year, four particular annual projects are on my mind, and are not likely to be in my replacement's repertoire.

Thumbprint Pussywillows!

 *Note: the pussywillow pic at the top of this post was found on facebook, and I apologize that I do not know the source.  But it's so cute I wanted to share it with you!  
Before everything starts to blossom and bloom in the spring, there are the pussywillows! Year after year, in early March, I have slogged around in melting snow to find pussywillows and bring them to school for my kindergartners to see and touch. In years where I couldn't find them outside, I resorted to purchasing them in the floral department of my local supermarkets.  I'd put some on each table, and we would examine how the black seed pods would open and let the little soft silvery pussywillows out.  The kids would color a vase, and maybe a table, on colored construction paper, and draw the stems and seed pods.  Then, with tempera paint (a mix of white with a dab of black and a hint of silver) they would use their little thumbs to stamp the soft fluffs.

 
Spring Hats!
You may call them Easter bonnets, but this little Jewish art teacher (me) simply called them spring hats, and my kindergartners made them every year before spring break. The materials were paper plates with a hole punched on each side and a ribbon or hunk of fat yarn strung through, colored paper tape, scissors, and moist sponges to activate the glue on the paper tape.  The kids learned how to fold, cut, bend, twist, and curl the tape, and the hats became as crazy as they wanted.  Here's a group of happy kindergartners!


Teddy Bear Chairs! 

The 2nd graders in my school district take an annual springtime field trip to tour the Vermont Teddy Bear Factory,  traveling by ferry across Lake Champlain to get there.  Many of the students purchase a Build-a-Bear while at the factory, plus they all have some sort of stuffed animal friend at home.  So each year, my 2nd grade students built teddy bear chairs, out of 4 toilet paper cores (the legs), 2 paper towel cores (the back supports),  two 7" squares of cardboard from shipping cartons (the seat and the back), and Elmer's Glue-All.  We painted them either with acrylic paints, or tempera covered with a tempera varnish or Mod Podge to seal the paint.  I think my replacement has chosen to make bear beds instead, and I'm sure they will be adorable.  But they won't be the chairs!

Q-Tip Lilacs! 

I have some lilac trees in my backyard.  Every year when they bloomed, I would cut big bunches of them and bring them to my art room, putting a vase full of fragrant flowers on every table.  Ahhh!! Every year, one first grade teacher, upon smelling the flowers, would say this to her little ones: "Do your very best today!  This is my favorite project!  I will hang them all up for Author's Day!"  Then the students would create a vase, a table, stems, and leaves, and finally paint the flowers using Q-Tips with with various tints of violet, lilac, blue, pink, and white.  Over the years, the vase, table, stems and laves were done with various materials: crayon, oil pastel, collage, etc., but the flowers always were exuberantly painted with cotton swabs. 

Time for the annual 1st grade lilac paintings!

I brought in lilacs and put a batch in a vase on each table. The kids took a good look, and then drew the vase, the stems, the leaves, a table, etc. I mixed up several different lilac paints to put on each table, and the kids used long-handled Q-Tips to paint the flowers.

Turn your head sideways for the last paintings. I don't know why Blogger insisted on rotating these 2 images below!