Thursday, March 15, 2012

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:)))

27 comments:

  1. BEAUTIFUL!!!!! I am def "borrowing" this idea! Thanks so much for sharing!!!

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  2. These are OH SO BEAUTIFUL!!! Thanks for sharing them! They give me a great idea for the place mats my second graders will be making for our annual senior brunch at our school in May! LOVE, LOVE, LOVE !!! :)

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  3. So pretty Christie!! I love the effect of the purple and pink with white. What a perfect project for spring. Pinning! :)

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  4. Beautiful project, the colors are breath taking.
    Bravo to your talented students.

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  5. I loved this story. I read it to my year ones about 20 years ago (now that makes me feel old!)when I first started teaching. Such a lovely story but over time the book went missing and I could not remember it's name. Thank you for reminding me again of the title and what a delightful activity (I'm now an art specialist in a primary school and love to incoporate literature into my art activities too.

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  6. Очень люблю люпины! Оригинальное задание! Прекрасные работы детей! Браво!

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  7. Soooo pretty! I bet this will make a gorgeous display- thanks for sharing!

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  8. Oh, we are all in thumbprint mode! Last week my k's did fingerprint rainbows, and this week it will be the annual thumbprint pussywillows, which bloom before anything else.

    Your lupines are lovely and I'm rethinking my background/branches/etc based on the way you did this.

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    1. I LOVE pussywillows. Just bought a bunch at our farmers' market:))

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  9. Me again.... are you sure you want to outline? They are lovely the way they are!

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    1. They are lovely, but I'm going to have at least some classes try outlining -- mainly because of the sample I saw on Artsonia. They outlined VERY freely, not trying to be very exact, and I like the outcome. We'll see how it works out.

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    2. Hmmm I' tried to leave a comment but it evaporated - let's try again. Here's what I wanted to say:
      I wanted to see the images you referred to on Artsonia, but the link in your post links back to the (awesome) blog Fem Manueles. On the page, I found paintings of yellow mimosa plants done w/fingerprints, but there were no outlines. I'm still curious to see that they looked like (we're doing our pussywillows tomorrow). Can you try again w/the link, or at least leave the web address where I can find the artwork you referred to? Thanks!

      Let's hope this comment doesn't dissolve away like the last one...........

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  10. Love the idea of coloring the backgrounds first!!! totally trying that! They are so much fun.

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  11. Update: tested out your background method and it looked fabulous - but not with the silvery gray pussywillows. It just didn't work. I'll have to save the idea of pastel chalk and oil pastels together for some future endeavor.

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    1. Thanks for letting me know about the link error -- I fixed it (I think):) I can see where the pastels wouldn''t work so well with the pussywillows, though.

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  12. These are great! Phyl is right, we are all in thumbprint mode. I just had kinders do Hyacinths that look kind of similar to these, they'll be posted soon!

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    1. I am wondering if the art group ever finished the project and if you have posted it
      Thanks

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    2. We did finish and the results are posted here:
      http://kids-finelines.blogspot.com/2012/03/1st-grade-wildflowers_22.html

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  13. Thank you, they look great finished. We are heading for winter here :)

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  14. Tommie dePaola's Legend of the Bluebonnet's would bw good too.

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  15. I was inspired by the idea behind this, so my kids and I fingerpainted cherry blossom branches this week, while we were studying Japan.

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    1. What a perfect variation. Glad to hear you had fun with the lesson!!

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  16. Thanks so much for your inspiration. I have just done the project, and it was fun!
    http://www.frubilledkunst.dk/lupiner

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    1. So glad to hear your students had fun with this project!!

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  17. Just found your blog and have been pinning like crazy! These lupines are EXACTLY what I need for today's grade ones - Miss Rumphius just arrived in my library and we're heading into Environmental Week...Could it be more perfect? Thank you for your excellent posts!

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    1. Hope your kiddos have fun with the project. I just LOVE that book!!

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