We’re continuing to explore Art in France in week two of Mother Goose Time’s Art Studio. First, we made water lily pond art inspired by Claude Monet. Now we’re looking at Monet’s Flowers.
Claude Monet used specific color palettes and brush strokes to depict light and shapes.
Monet & Flowers
To paint Monet’s Flowers, we used “pokey balls” and the following tempera paint colors: red, white, blue, green, and yellow. I just put a small amount of each color on paper plates.
The Monet & Flowers lesson plans include learning about the colors of the French flag, say Hello and Goodbye, drawing flowers and the Monet’s Flowers Invitation to Create.
Monet’s Flowers Invitation to Create
My oldest one mixed red and white together to make pink. Awesome!
Sometimes it helps to show the children how to use the tools although it seems obvious. Dip it in the paint and make textured “flowers” on the paper. Try another color!
Mixing the colors was probably the most inviting part of this activity for my group.
I’ll be honest, I did get frustrated by this. Not that I care so much about how their art turns out. I’ve gotten over that a long time ago. With young children, art is about exploring the materials and the process, not what the art looks like.
I warned everyone that mixing colors is fun, but if you mix them too much … you get gray.
But then it became finger painting…
and painting of the hands and arms. Ugh. I just don’t like worrying about their clothes, scrubbing all the paint off, etc. We don’t always put paint smocks but usually, I put them on the younger ones. I wash kids clothes if they are going to be stained and tempera doesn’t always wash out. So I wasn’t so relaxed about this one, but they seemed to enjoy it!
A seven-year-old painted the painting shown below.
The rest of my group is ages 2 years – 5 years. They all look wonderful (after the mess is cleaned up!)
Somedays I feel like we have a more successful day with activities. Other days, they just want to hurry through it and move on. That’s the way it is with young children. And it’s summer so let’s get back outdoors!
