“I found I could say things with colors and shapes that I couldn’t say any other way-things i had no words for.”

-Georgia O’Keeffe

It’s safe to say that 2nd graders have been on a roll this quarter- first those fabulous peacocks and now these beautiful flowers! We started this lesson by discussing Georgia O’Keeffe and taking a close look at her paintings of flowers. Many of O’Keeffe’s flowers are magnified to the point of abstraction. As a class, we sketched out the outline of a zoomed in flower in mid-bloom on black paper. 2nd graders outlined their flowers using white chalk.  When this was completed, I quickly reviewed and demonstrated some chalk pastel color blending techniques. We discussed how it was important to color the middle of the flower, petals, and background all different colors.

2nd graders are familiar with chalk pastels and we’ve used them plenty of times before, so I got to take some time to go around the room and observe the creativity taking place.  As you can see, students started in the middle of their flowers and worked their way outwards.

It wasn’t long before things started getting really colorful!

Fingers and foreheads started getting really colorful, too. But I guess that comes with the territory! 🙂

Ready to see some finished flowers?

There is some definite talent in this group- that’s for sure. If you are a fan of Georgia O’Keeffe and her work, be sure to check out my 5th graders tackle this project inspired by O’Keeffe’s skulls!

-Mrs. Heinlein