Cherry blossoms are in full bloom around our neighbourhood at the moment. They provide us with the inspiration for one of our favourite springtime art activities. It is a wonderful, engaging and age-appropriate activity for toddlers and pre-schoolers. It also provides them with a visual example of the transformation that takes place for trees during the change of seasons.
These blossom artworks were part of a Cubbyhouse Tales session I ran last spring. I was thrilled that the children were so engaged with the task. They could have sat there for hours scrunching and gluing tissue paper.
Cam obviously enjoyed the task too, because when she saw this illustration in Seasons by Blexoplex (book details at the end of this post), she reminded me of the blossom artwork that sits on our front foyer side table, and asked if she could create another one.
You need:
- Small canvas/ or heavy cardstock
- Tissue paper
- Glue
- Brown paint
- Straws
Prepare your blossom branches: Water down some brown paint. Dab a small amount on the canvas. Use the straw to blow the paint, helping you to form branches. (Your child may be able to do this themselves- it provides good practice for blowing out birthday candles)
- Once the paint has dried, the bare winter branches will be ready for blossoms.
- Provide your child with small squares of tissue paper (or they may enjoy ripping small pieces themselves).
- Scrunch the tissue paper into a ball.
- Dip the ball of tissue paper into the glue.
- Attach it to one of the branches.
- Your child may choose to create a single or multi-coloured blossom tree; they may leave the tree looking sparse or full; their blossom buds may look open or closed.
- It doesn’t matter because this artwork always ends up looking like a masterpiece.
Book Details:
Seasons
Blexbolex
ISBN: 978-1877467622
Format: Hardcover
Publisher: Gecko Press, 2010
As opposed to a story, Seasons is made up of single words and images by French illustrator, Blexbolex. The illustrations and design of the book have a retro edge.
The four seasons each feature at the beginning of the book. The other words stand-alone and are not specifically attached to seasons. Some of the words that appear in the book include bud, seed, sun umbrella, puddle, sneeze, fire-fighter, gust and deluge.
The stand-alone words and images make this book one that can be used in different ways. With young children it is difficult to read all of the words in one sitting. Instead we have used each page as a stimulus for creating our own stories. We have also scanned the book looking for words that can be grouped together (e.g. some words that represent summer include watermelon, sun umbrella, sunburn, forest fire, ice cream and swimming pool.)
Suitable for ages 3+
