This is the final activity we did with our flower bouquets. You can see the other posts here > painting with flowers, a flower canvas, and cutting flower stems. I have also seen many different folks share about still life drawings which made me really want to give this a try with the kids…
To get this activity started, I set out a bouquet of flowers in a vase, paper, and some crayons. I talked with the children before hand how they can select a flower and take it out to draw or leave it in the vase to draw…
We also talked briefly about the lines and shapes we see in a flower. I wanted to guide the children’s attention to some of the finer details of the flowers just a bit….
What I like about the still life drawings is how the children use something that is meaningful and real as a guide to their creative expression. Often times, we ask children to draw from memory alone – like when we ask children to draw a picture of their mom or their house.
This is a different kind of experience that I believe brings additional value to their drawing experience as it challenges their understanding and ability to look at the finer details of everyday objects in their environment….
Even though the flowers were in front of them, some of the children still elected to draw a combination of the real flower as well as their own perspective or interest in what the flowers look like to them…
I would like to try this activity with a variety of different objects in the future and as I do, gradually draw the children’s attention to the finer details. Only after we did this activity did I realize that there are so many details that we tend to overlook….
Here are a few still life drawings that others have tried…
F is for Flower (still life drawings) from Brilliant Beginnings Preschool
Drawing a Still Life from Kat’s World
Drawing Flowers (outdoors) from PreKinders
F is for Still Life Flower Drawings from Preschool Daze
Mirror Drawing from Irresistible Ideas for Play Based Learning
Still Life Painting from Brick by Brick
I love it. I wish I did more of it…maybe next year!
Just ask someone to give you more flowers:) I bet you deserve them!
I agree that I want to do more of this. I am always surprised by the details that a child will pick up. And seeing the different interpretations of the object.
Your comment above about asking kids to draw from memory really hit me – this age group are such concrete thinkers that some real-life items could enhance their creativity at times. Hmm. More fuel for my thinking.
Love to help you refuel Scott! I am learning this myself and am intrigued by the possibilities!
We LOVE your site! It’s chock full of fabulous ideas. We’ve got 8 kids between the two of us, and we run a non-traditional private school in Florida for homeschool families. We’re going to post a link to your site on our message board. Thanks so much, and be richly blessed in all you do!
Thank you Jenni and Jody – I appreciate it:)