Moon Flowers: Collaborative Art Created by My SonFlowers

I discovered this link on Pinterest: 

undeniably-gorgeous-collaborative-flowers/. 

After reading the blog Art Class With LMJ, I was drawn to these flowers.  We create a lot of our art outdoors.  We also garden every year at our school; and had just completed putting plants into this year's garden.  Now seemed to be the perfect time to do this project.

I made it a 2 day, multiple step, process for the class and mixed the art mediums I provided.  I chose art materials we had recently used.  I did this so that they were familiar with the components and only had to focus on the collaboration process.


Day 1: The petals were created by painting 18" by 24", white. poster board. We used liquid watercolor paints and a spray bottle of plain water.  As the brush stokes dried we re-sprayed the poster board with water causing the paint to mix, run and blend.  I let the children paint until they declared a board was finished.  We then hung it to dry on the fence.  Once dried we folded the poster board into quarters, traced petal shapes on them and cut them out.


Day 2: I hung scraps of yellow tag board on the art lattice we use for our easels and cups full of chalk pastels.  Again, I let the children draw and smear the pastels until they declared the process complete.  We then traced circles using a Styrofoam bowl onto the tag board.

Assembly: We spread glue around the rim of the circles and children worked together to assemble flowers.  Some were completed with a single layer of petals; others they chose to have a double layer of petals.  They worked until they had used up all of the petals and flower centers.  

They were fascinated by how these flowers resembled the daisies we had used a week earlier in our mud play.  

We hung them on the fence to dry and then made sure the petals were well anchored by supporting the glue with masking tape on the backside. The question of how to display them came up and an old canvas we had re-purposed once before was pulled back out. .

We left some petals loose and then curled them around our fingers to give a 3-D, relief look to our finished product.  As we were discussing the flowers one child said, "Those look like moon flowers!" 

I asked, "Where would you find moon flowers?"  After a few thoughtful moments and puzzled stares the class announced, "In the garden silly!"

This project provided the class with a chance to share ideas, develop communication skills and learn to work together in close proximity.  They were able to share thoughts collectively and work on compromises when ideas were conflicting.  They learned to value each others thoughts and ideas.

  

 Note: I used florist grade, hot glue pillows to assemble the flowers onto the canvas as the children directed me on where to place each blossom. This glue is stronger than hot glue gun glue and holds better.  You need a mini electric skillet to melt the glue pillows but it is great for heavy items or items that might get damp.  Most craft stores sell the glue pillows in the wedding area or silk flower area of the store.