Eric Carle flowers activity

One of our Springtime have-to-dos is planting seeds.

When we plant seeds, we read books about seeds and plants and growing things.

One of the books that we read is by one of our favourite authors, Eric Carle.

Eric Carle flowers just begged to be re-created kindergarten style.

The Tiny Seed

written and illustrated by Eric Carle

1970

summary
In autumn, a strong wind blows flower seeds high in the air and carries them far across the land. One by one, many of the seeds are lost -- burned by the sun, fallen into the ocean, eaten by a bird. But some survive the long winter and, come spring, sprout into plants, facing new dangers -- trampled by playing children, picked as a gift for a friend. Soon only the tiniest seed remains, growing into a giant flower and, when autumn returns, sending its own seeds into the wind to start the process over again. goodreads


We read the story and talked about the plant life cycle.

Then we looked at the art. 

We looked at the petals of the tiny seed's big flower. We could see a couple of colours - yellow and red - and a bit of orange where they had mixed together.

We could paint our petals like that too.

My last year's student teacher (who created this project)  had the brilliant idea of painting each half of a piece of paper different colours, and then folding them together to mix the colours.

The papers were opened up to dry.  The kids thought that the papers looked okay - but were not sure that they would make beautiful flowers.

Then they saw the paper cut into petals.  That looked a bit more promising.

Time for the collage fun.

First,  the stem.

Then we add the petals,

the centre of the flower, 

the leaves,

and finally, the artist signs his or her name.

Finally they are hung in the hallway gallery. 

Last year some very hungry caterpillars found our flowers.  Hoping that they do this year too.  Click on the photo.