Springtime Lupines

This week our first graders began their impressions of lupines. I saw a similar lesson for kindergarteners posted awhile ago on Artsonia here. We tweaked the original lesson here and there and I will post the finished results next week. Meanwhile, here is what we have done so far...

These are on the drying rack until next week when we add details.

I started with a smartboard presentation with lots of pictures of lupines. I had the kids tell me what they noticed about the flowers ( colors, shapes, leaves, stems, etc.). I also mentioned that if we finished early enough I would tell them the story of "the lupine lady," Miss Rumphius (which I did have time to read).

We started with donated illustration board cut to 4 1/2" X 12" (but paper would work fine), pastels and oil pastels in warm colors.

After explaining the difference between pastels and oil pastels, I had the kids apply a layer of chalk first. Then they sort of scribble-scrabbled (is that a real word??) oil pastel for some texture.

Next, we painted stems and leaves. They had images on the smartboard to refer to. We then removed the green paint and the pastels from the table and it was on to the blossoms.

I demonstrated how to dip a thumb into the paint cup and then make large thumbprints, first with purple or rose and then with white on top. Students pretty much interpreted these stalks in their own way as you can see from the examples drying below.

Next week we will do some outlining of the blob shapes with a black marker and we will be done. I'll post the results:)

The main message of this book is the goal of "doing something to make the world a more beautiful place." Miss Rumphius does this by sowing lupine seeds wherever she walks and then seeing the flowers spread over the countryside as time goes on. Kids could really make the connection that they had added something of beauty today with their own artwork. Everybody left the art room smiling today:)))