Flowers for a Friend

1. Share the book “Dropping in on Picasso” by Pamela Geiger Stephens as a red aloud for the class.
2. Discuss the life and art of Pablo Picasso. He played an important role in founding the Cubist movement. He was a painter, sculptor, collage artist, printmaker, ceramicist, stage designer and a writer! Picasso was very prolific and had many styles of art throughout his career. Introduce students a variety of his art.
3. Show “Three Musicians-1921”, “Girl with Red Beret”, Old Guitarist”, “Violin and Grapes”, “Owl-1951” and “Petite Fleurs-1958”. Notice the variety of media, styles and subject matter. Allow time for students to comment on each piece.
4. Focus on Picasso’s lithograph, “Petite Fleurs” made for an International Conference of Peace in Stockholm in 1958. Discuss the simplicity of his lines and colors. Ask students to share their ideas about possible meanings of the picture is. Friendship, nature, and love should be discussed.
5. Children create their own version of Picasso’s flower drawing. Place a glass vase of flowers in the middle of the class and let students make a drawing from observation on white construction paper using Crayola Slick Stix. Ask students to draw the flowers only.
6. Finally, students trace their hand with black over the stems to appear like they are holding the flowers. Ask students who they would give flowers to if they could. Write down student responses and display with art in hallways.

LA: Describe characters, setting, and major events in a story, using key details.

LA: Participate in collaborative conversations with diverse partners about grade level topics and texts with peers and adults in small and larger groups.

LA: Speak audibly and express thoughts, feelings and ideas clearly.

MA: Identify and describe shapes.

MA: Analyze, compare, create and compose shapes.

VA: Collaboratively brainstorm multiple approaches to an art or design problem.

VA: Categorize artwork based on a theme or concept for an exhibit.

VA: Use observation and investigation to make a work of art.

Look at Van Gogh’s painting “Sunflowers”. Discuss the colors, texture, overlapping, and back ground in the painting. Set up a still life of real sunflowers and demonstrate how to draw objects that overlap. Put smocks on and lay recycled newspaper down on work surface. Let students use Crayola oil pastels. Encourage students to layer and blend colors to look like Van Gogh’s brushstrokes. Use Crayola watercolors to paint the background and table surface.

Yayoi Kusama is a Japanese sculpture artist obsessed with polka dots! Look at her whimsical bright flower sculptures. Discuss the colors, size and patterns on her art. Let students model flowers with Crayola Model Magic in the Kusama style. When sculptures are dry use markers to draw polka dots on the petals and stems.