Sunflowers 2013

This fall, I did Sunflowers three different ways with the three different classes.

Kindergarten-1st Grade:

Another one of my absolute favorite fall projects is the two week project using elmer's glue on black paper to draw a sunflower and then the next week coming back over it with chalk pastel!

Check out the last time I did this for more detail.

2nd-3rd Grade

I had done the glue/pastel with the older kids two years ago, so I decided to do a 3-D paper sunflower with the "middle" classroom. A paper plate served as the center and yellow construction paper petals.

4th-6th Grade

Since I wanted to really show them the Van Gogh sunflower and give them a real experience, I chose acrylic as the medium for the older kids. We had a sunflower still life and they had canvas boards and acrylic.

Sunflower Preschool

 Pleasant Hill Christian Welcomes Sunflower Preschool to its newly renovated portable. The PHCS kids have done some wonderful sunflower art over the years and I put a selection of that on banners to welcome the new kids and brighten up the building. Have fun!

Sunflowers in watercolor

It's Summer/Fall and that means a lot of old standbys, including this twist on a classic: Sunflowers are so cool looking and even the boys don't mind painting them since they are not all pink and girly! Here are sunflowers from past years. I had all three class levels do this project and it was fun.
I briefly talked about Van Gogh, the most famous sunflower artist.

We started with black oil pastel. The younger kids were instructed to use handprint tracing to make the flowers (there isn't anything you can't do with handprints!). I also used this to teach warm colors and cool colors.

Sunflowers in glue and pastel

I've been doing quite a few multi-week projects the last month, so I have been remiss in posting. Sorry.

This project was done with all the kids in October, and took two sessions, so with my even/odd schedule it took a long time!



Since I've done Van Gogh sunflowers before, I wanted to do something different and involve more technique.  The first step was to take some sunflowers in and have the kids "draw" with white glue! This is easy since I am using black paper. Once the glue dries it forms "lines" that the CHALK pastel does not stick. So basically the second week was a "fill in" project. The ones that turned out best use a lot of color and get good coverage.

Week 3: Van Gogh sunflowers

A common theme among art projects is Van Gogh's series of paintings of sunflowers. Being the end of summer, and contining the "basics" theme for September,  I had the kids "paint" a still life of sunflowers.  Instead of paint (which honestly is hard to do with 19 kids and 30 minutes and little prep/cleanup space) I had them use oil pastel. It was also school picture day, so I wanted to do something that was a tad bit less messy for all these beautifully dressed kids. If I had honestly remembered the school pictures when I made the schedule weeks ago, I might have chosen a completely mess-free project. But the kids did good, and I hope the parents did not scream when they saw them!


I tried to emphasize cool vs. warm colors, as well as getting the kids to use their eyes and draw what they saw, not what they think a vase of sunflowers look like. As in Van Gogh's painting, I had three different looking sunflowers in the vase. One had a dark center, one was all fluffy and the other was tight and all yellow.

The kids, for the most part, did a good job of actually looking at the flowers, and many did a great job of interpreting the vase and an imaginary background!

Here are some of the 3rd-4th graders work:




Here are some of the the Kindergarten-2nd graders. What was enlightening about this young group was the difference between a 5 year-old and a 7 year-old. The young ones really don't get the concept of a still life and drawing from life: they just draw pink flowers and some squiggly lines. The second graders really look and count the flowers and use the "right" colors.  All that progression in just 2 years!

Kindergarteners:


First graders:

Second graders: