Paper Flowers and Painted Pots

Painted Flower Pots

This activity will help your child manipulate tools in play and learn to create art with a variety of materials.

What You Will Need:

• Terra-cotta flowerpots
• Acrylic paints
• Small paintbrushes
• Foam stamps
• Clear acrylic spray
• Vinyl tablecloth, shower curtain, or newspapers to keep work surface clean
• Paint shirts for children

What to Do:

1. Give your child a flowerpot, and set out the decorative materials. Invite her to decorate the pot.
2. Spray the painted pot with a clear acrylic spray (adult-only step), and allow it to dry.

More Fun!

• Fill the finished pot with a flower or plant. You could even ask your child if she would like to make paper flowers to place inside.

Paper Flowers

This activity will help develop your child's scissor skills and strengthen her eye-hand coordination.

What You Will Need:

• 8 1/2" x 11" copying paper in various colors
• Child-safe scissors (sharp enough to cut thin paper)
• Chenille sticks

What to Do:

1. After your child selects the paper for her flowers, help her use the scissors to cut the paper in half to form an 8 1/2" x 5 1/2" rectangle.
2. Demonstrate how to accordion-pleat the paper, starting on the long side of the paper. Help her as needed.
3. Ask her to hold the pleated paper while you help her wind one end of the chenille stick around the center of the paper.
4. She can separate layers of the paper by gently pulling the paper apart at the edges of the flower.

More Fun!

• Place the flowers into a piece of Styrofoam and then inside the Painted Flower Pot.

Instructions

l Cut apart paint swatches if there is more than one color on a sheet.
l Make a Color Match board by gluing one of each color pair to the poster
board in a row or column, leaving space in between each one.
l Glue or attach a Velcro dot next to each swatch, leaving room for children to
attach the other swatch. Glue or attach the opposite side of the Velcro dots to
the other swatches.
l Place the other color in each pair in the bag or basket.
What to Do
1. Place the poster in the circle or group time area. Gather the children and talk
about the colors they see on the poster.
2. Have them take turns drawing out a color swatch from the bag and see if they
can name the color.
3. Ask them to find the match or "friend" of their color and place it on the poster
board.
4. Continue playing until all the colors have been matched. Display in the math
area for children to do independently.
Assessment
To assess the children's learning, consider the following:
l When shown an object, can each child name its color?
l Can each child match like-colored objects in the classroom?