Kindergarten Bluebonnets

For rodeo this year, kindergarten made bluebonnets. We started by reading the Tomie de Paola book, The Legend of the Bluebonnet. I actually found a board book that is a simpler version of the story and easier for the kindergartners to understand.

In keeping with giving the students choices, I had 3 choices available for them.

The first choice started out by covering a piece of white watercolor paper with tissue paper. They used a paintbrush and water to adhere the tissue paper to the paper. Once the paper had dried, they took all of the tissue paper off and threw it away. The paper had bled onto the white paper, leaving a really unique effect for each paper. They used scrap wallpaper samples to cut out a vase (I gave them a template to trace) and glued this onto the now colored background. Each student glued 4 strips of green paper onto the vase, creating stems. Then I gave them a plate with a little bit of blue tempera and a little bit of white. I showed them how to use only their thumb to dip into the paint and stamp on their paper. They started by using the blue paint and then stamped the white paint on top.

The second choice also began by adding colored tissue paper to their white paper for the background. Once they had taken all of the dried paper off, they added their vase and stems. For this project, instead of painting their flowers on, they used white and blue bottle caps and buttons to create the bluebonnets. I gave each student some craft glue to dip their caps into and they placed them on the stems. I did not give them directions on the way that they should place their caps and buttons, but many of them naturally began making patterns, a good continuation from their math class.

The last project was done on burlap. While the other groups were working on tissue paper, this group was working on sewing. They used a marker and a ruler to draw a line from the top of their burlap to the bottom. This was their guide for sewing. They used a basic running stitch to create the stem of the bluebonnet. I spent the majority of the time with this group, while my student teacher worked with the 2 tissue paper groups. 

When the stem was finished, they glued strips of green construction paper on to and then used blue and white paint to make their thumbprint bluebonnets.

Pin It

First grade Cezanne's

The 3 choices that the students had for creating a Cezanne inspired project were:

Paper mache fruit- The students practiced drawing a variety of different fruits by looking at samples that I had bought at Hobby Lobby. They worked on getting the right shapes and making it large. Once they had their pictures ready, they uised newspaper and tape to create the basic form of the fruit/vegetable that they wanted to create. They covered this with colored tissue paper to make it look more realistic. I placed a variety of the fruits and veggies into baskets to create fruit bowls.

The second Cezanne-inspired project was a still-life. I placed a variety of objects on the still-life table and the showed the students how to draw them objects so that they were touching (not sitting next to each other). They traced these with black marker and then used color sticks to color them.

The last project that I had set up was a bluebonnet project. I had some bluebonnets that I had found at Hobby Lobby set up on the table. To help the students draw the flowers large, I created viewfinders for them. This helped them focus on the petals and the colors in the flowers. They drew the flowers on white paper and then traced them with black glue. Once the glue was dry, they used liquid watercolor to add the colors. I limited the colors that were in their pallette, by only giving them a variety of blues and greens.

Pin It

Kindergarten Bluebonnets

These are the bluebonnets we did in years past- Kindergarten Bluebonnets

The project we did this year is the same as in the past. The surprising thing this year, was how well the students did on their sewing! Either I am getting better at teaching it or they are more coordinated!

Here are the bluebonnets we completed this year:

Pin It

Kindergarten Bluebonnets

 This was the project that I used for our annual Houston Livestock and Rodeo Art Show this year. I originally found the activity in the December 2009 issue of Arts and Activities.

Before class, I had some of my older students help me thread plastic tapestry needles with green yarn. They tied a knot in the end and used masking tape to tape the yarn so that when the kindergartners were sewing, the yarn would not come unthreaded.

Each kindergarten student had a 12 x 18 piece of burlap. I ordered the variety pack, so that each student could choose different colors.

I had them draw a vertical line with a crayon in the middle of the burlap. This was for the stem of their bluebonnet.


I demonstrated how to sew the stem, going front to back and then

passed out the needles.

For some of the students, the sewing was pretty easy. However, for many of my students, this was a difficult task. We spent the majority of class sewing the stem of our flower.

I had some pre-cut pieces of green felt out so that when students were finished sewing, they could glue their leaves onto their bluebonnets.

I gave them a green marker and they added small stems/branches radiating out from the central stem.

 During the last class, I had a tray on each table with a blue tempera cake on it. I showed the students how to dip their thumb into a tub of water and then rub it in the paint. They then made 3 prints and repeated the process.

Once they had finished the blue, I went around and switched out the blue tempera cakes and gave each table white tempera cakes.

They repeated the same process, however this time they used their index finger and made a print right over the top of the blue thumbprints.

Pin It

Fourth Grade Texas Wildflowers

Materials Needed

• 9 x 12 poster board
• pencils
• black glue
• watercolors/brushes
• newspaper
Other resources
The Legend of the Bluebonnet- Tomie de Paola
The Legend of the Indian Paintbrush- Tomie de Paola

Getting to Know series- Cezanne
Cezanne prints
Texas wildflower prints

My fourth graders read the books The Legend of the Bluebonnet and The Legend of the Indian Paintbrush, both by Tomie dePaola. When we finished, we looked at pictures of different Texas wildflowers. Using these pictures, they created their own still-life of Texas wildflowers. They started their still-life with a pencil drawing on a piece of white paper.

When they finished, they turned the paper over to the back and they colored on the back of the drawing with their pencil. It was really important to make sure the entire paper was covered in graphite.



They placed this on top of a piece of poster board, with the graphite touching the poster board. They used their pencil to trace over their original drawing, creating a graphite transfer onto the poster board.

Using black glue (I make this with school glue and black acrylic), they traced their lines. When the glue was dry, they used watercolors to paint their flowers. They used many different techniques to paint. They used wet-on-wet and dry brush. They used different values of the same color and made some of their own colors.

These turned out so stunning, that I used many of them for various shows throughout the year. Pin It

Kindergarten Bluebonnets

The rodeo project that I do with my kinder classes is another bluebonnet project. I do this one after we have studied different types of lines and warm/cool colors. We begin the project by looking at VanGogh's Sunflowers. We look at the different parts of his painting: the vase, the flowers, the stems.

We start our project by making the vase. The students choose the colors that they want to use for their vase (either warm or cool). They get a 1/2 piece of paper and fold it in 1/2. The draw a line from 1 side of the fold to the other side of the fold and then cut it out. When they open the paper up, this is their vase. They decorate their vase by creating patterns using lines in their chosen colors. They glue this onto a larger piece of paper (also in their chosen color) using glue dots.

They draw flower stems with either a green crayon or oil pastel.

During the next class, they add the flower petals for their bluebonnets. I put tempera cakes on each table. They get blue and either white, cream or yellow. I showed the students how to use 1 finger only to dip into a tub of water and then rub in the paint. They use this finger to create fingerprints along their flower stem.

When they finish making the blue petals, they add highlights to the flowers by dipping their finger into the lighter color (white, cream or yellow) and making a print on top of the blue print. Pin It

PreKindergarten Torn Paper Bluebonnets

In Houston, a big part of our fall semester is spent preparing for our annual Houston Livestock and Rodeo Exhibit. I have each grade level work on a project for this big event.

My prekindergarten students made Torn Paper Bluebonnets this year. It was the first year we did this project and they turned out beautiful!

We started the project by doing a wet-on-wet watercolor background. The students used spray bottles to spray a piece of watercolor paper with water. Then we used liquid watercolors and dropped color onto the paper using an eye dropper. For this particular project, we were learning about warm and cool colors, so we used warm colors on the background.

The students loved watching the colors bleed into each other!

We repeated the same process on a smaller piece of paper for the flowers. However, this time, we only used blue (cool colors).

By this point, the first session was over and we left the papers out to dry.

For the 2nd session, the students worked on tearing the blue papers into little pieces. I showed them the size we wanted (about the size of a quarter) and they set to work. By the end of the class, we had a flurry of blue flower petals all of over the room!

For the 3rd session, I had patterns for the vase ready to go. The students traced the pattern onto a piece of wallpaper (adding texture to their picture) and cut it out. They glued these at the bottom of their paper and added 3-5 strips of green constructions paper for the stems.

Then they started gluing flower petals onto the stems to finish off their Texas Bluebonnets.

I only meet with my Prekinder classes for 15-20 minutes, so I needed to break the project up into very short increments. It took us 3 classes to get them finished. Pin It