Exploring and Painting Flowers

Today we explored flowers in many different ways.  We used four out of our five senses to look at, touch, smell and listen to flowers as we thoughtfully pulled them apart and examined them.  We also looked at structure, shape and color as we painted pictures of flowers, using color photos for provocation.    Ms. Camardese brought in a basket of flowers from home for the children to look at.  At group time we talked about the flowers, and she asked the children to think about the different types and colors of the flowers they observed.  During constructive play time the children had the opportunity to join Ms. Szymaszek’s class (who have become experts at examining flowers) to look at the basket.  The children picked out individual flowers and used tweezers, their fingers and magnifying glasses to explore. The children noticed the smell of the flowers; they also noticed some flowers made “crunchy” noises while others were quiet.  Ms. Szymaszek’s children helped the children collect the flower petals and leaves in jars to explore at a later time.

Some other children had the opportunity to go to the art studio with Ms. Eman to paint pictures of flowers, using the new skills we have acquired through our painting exploration.  The children examined the photos, picked the most appealing to them then attempted to match the colors to those in the photos.  Many of the children used careful brush strokes to create different flower shapes on their papers.  We will be exploring more with flowers and looking at some artists who explored flowers through paintings in the upcoming weeks.  If you have flowers or flower photos you would like to share we would be happy to use them in class!