Mother's Day Paintings

When I was in 6th grade my teacher had us do a special Mother's Day project. She had wooden cutouts of kites that were painted white. We glued on a sweet poem, painted flowers around it, and then added some colorful ribbon. My mom still has them hanging in her kitchen (one from me and one from my brother). 

I wanted to have my kiddos make something special for Mother's Day that their moms could hang up for many years to come. I love Georgia O'Keeffe's beautiful flower paintings and decided that they were the perfect inspiration for our Mother's Day project!

I picked up a couple packs of 12x12 canvases from Michaels using my 40% off coupon and a bunch of bright colored paints. 

To start off, I showed my kiddos some pictures of Georgia O'Keeffe's flowers, pointing out how they were all close-ups of the flowers that took up the whole page (sometimes even having the ends of the pedals cut off by the edges of the picture). We also talked about how artists don't just use one color, but many times they use a few different colors or shades that they blend together.

Then they took out their pencil and lightly drew a design for their flower.

As they started to finish their pencil outlines, I walked around and had them pick out their paint colors and then put a couple squirts of them on their brown paper bag.

I brought some real flowers in to put in the middle of their teams to help provide inspiration for their paintings. They loved being able to look at the flowers close-up and I love the color they bring to the room! I wish I could have fresh flowers at their teams year round!

I LOVE how these turn out every year! I am so excited for my students to give them to their moms! I will be taking more pictures tomorrow and then we will be wrapping them up and sending them home!