Just in time for Valentine’s Day, this colorful bouquet will be admired by all. Easy to do; just paint a vase and stems and add paper flowers. Here’s how my second graders did it…
Supplies:
- 12 x 18 white sulphite paper
- red tempera paint
- green tempera paint
- various painted papers, printed papers and colored construction paper
- small paper doily
- glitter and white school glue
Painting the Vase and Stems
We all have our favorite way of teaching a basic how-to-draw-a-vase lesson, except with this one, keep it extra simple.
Paint a bottom, paint a top, add two sides and fill it in! Of course, you can do it differently; perhaps make the vase out of paper or use different paint colors for decoration. I needed to keep the vase as simple as possible so we had ample time for the flowers.
After painting the vase, switch paints and add green stems. Just like this little beauty…
Cutting Flowers
I made up a variety of flower templates from card stock. It’s easy to do, so don’t feel overwhelmed by this step. Just draw a flower (the simpler the better) onto card stock and cut out. Trace onto more card stock and cut.
Before beginning this step, I explained to the children that they must choose one template to cut out (I had a variety of sizes and shapes). Then, if they wanted, they could make their own flower shapes. Many did. The reason for choosing one, is to have them get a feel for the size necessary to fill the paper. After cutting out the flowers, glue onto paper.
Adding Glitter
This is the fun part! I imposed a two-flower limit on the glitter, so the bouquet wouldn’t look overrun.
Want more Valentine’s Day art inspiration? Download our free drawing guide on this adorable duck and mixed-medium hearts!
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I was thinking of doing something like this with my 2nd graders and connecting it to Van Gogh. With Valentines Day coming, I figure I can get 2nd grade boys stoked about flowers, if only it is for their mom 🙂
Thanks for the great idea! I will try this one for a reward day that our school is having. Students sign up for the art activity and they get the privilage to come to the art room for an extra activity.
Thanks for the idea! We did this today and my children had so much fun. I appreciate your website as I am a homeschooling mommy and am always looking for new ideas.
great!! We just tried this, and the kids loved it.
Wonderful idea. I will wait a few weeks longer and try this with my girls when we are celebrating the start of spring – can't wait!!
Just loved doing this yesterday with my granddaughter and she loved it too! Such pretty results! I, too, will keep my templates and make another at Eastertime with her. Thank you again for all your wonderful ideas!
You said you have a variety of sizes and shapes of flower templates. Just curious, did you have an average size: templates that would fit paper 3″x3″, 4″x4″? Or maybe since the paper the vase is painted on is 12×18, your templates are even larger. I’m just trying to gauge a size range for my templates that would fit the perspective of the vase, so any suggestions you provide would be appreciated. Thanks for a great project!
Mixed medium hearts handout link not working for me…
Hi Sandra! This is Bethany from Team Sparkle. Thanks so much for letting us know that there is an issue with the link. We working on getting that taken care of, so please try again shortly if you are interested in the download. Enjoy!