Elementary cherry blossom tree painting

• Group discussions
• Oral and responses to essential questions
• At least one finished piece

Arts & Crafts Corner: Paint a Cherry Blossom Tree Using Sponge Painting!

Learners will create a cherry blossom painting using simple techniques to build confidence. This is a great springtime art project for preschool aged learners!

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$10

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25 minute class

Pacific

In this one-time class, we'll welcome springtime by painting a cherry blossom tree!   We'll start class with a warm welcome and icebreaker question, then we'll move on to our painting!   We'll look at some pictures of real cherry blossom trees and notice together how they have more than one shade of pink. We'll also discuss how using multiple shades of pink can help our paintings look more life-like.   Next, we'll sponge paint our cherry blossoms onto our tree trunk template, using dark.

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Language of Instruction

This class is taught in English .

Teacher Expertise

I have always loved working with children as well as arts and crafts! I've been a nursery coordinator, daycare teacher, nanny, and school volunteer over the years. I also have three kids of my own who I do art projects with. I have my own Etsy shop and love doing art projects for myself and of course with kids!

Supply List

 
1 file available upon enrollment
For this class, your learner will need: - A paper plate to put paint on - Something to sponge paint with (sponge, cotton balls, pom poms, scrunched up paper towels, etc.) - Paintbrush (for the final details) - Washable paints - Tree trunk print out (this will be available to download for enrolled students). I recommend printing it on card stock.

Time Commitment

25 minutes per week in class, and an estimated 0 - 1 hours per week outside of class .

Parental Guidance

Grownup help will be needed before class to print the tree trunk. Depending on the learner's skill and comfort, grownup help may be needed at times during the class (ex. squeezing the paint onto the paper plate).

Elementary cherry blossom tree painting

In much of Japan, the flowering cherry trees (which the Japanese call sakura) come into full bloom around the beginning of April. April is the month when the new school year starts for Japanese children; it's also the month when companies start their new business years and when many new graduates start to work. So the cherry blossoms make people think of new beginnings. When they are in bloom, people make special visits to parks and other spots with many cherry trees; often they have picnics under the branches with family and friends.
Japan has more types of cherry trees than any other country, over 200 in all. The blossoms are pickled and used to make a hot drink served on special occasions, and the leaves are pickled and used as the wrapping for sweets.
The sakura start blooming in the south at the end of March and work their way north to Hokkaido in May. This helps people plan their flower-viewing outings. Festivals are also held every year to mark the cherry blossom season in many famous viewing spots. 
(source:  http://web-japan.org/kidsweb/explore/nature/q7.html  ) 
Above are several examples of the cherry blossom in Japanese art. It is a very popular motif in Japanese painting. The Japanese culture loves nature in art because they are very respectful of the power of nature (think of storms and earthquakes) and also the beauty all around us (good for meditation or quiet thinking). Cherry blossoms are an example of the simple beauty that can be found in nature. Note the interesting lines of the branches and the pop of color of the blossoms.
You can also point out that many of the artworks are long and skinny because they are on scrolls of paper instead of just a sheet of paper. The shape of the art also works well for the shape of the cherry branches. 

The Project
Prep – 30 min. 
Print - 
 Materials  
Watered down black tempera paint (check for labeled bottles in cabinet G) 
Straws cut in half (1 per child, extras are good) 
Pink tempera paint 
Small paint palettes to put black and pink paint in for students to share 
Q-tips (to make flowers, 1 per child) 


Art Lesson 
1. Talk about print and importance of cherry blossoms to Japanese culture.
2. Explain the new and fun way they will be creating Cherry Blossom branches with blowing paint today.
3. Model blowing paint for students: put a drop of paint at bottom of paper with straw, blowing up, adding more dots and continue to blow. Model straw at an angle to get best results.
Pass Out Supplies 
-name on back of paper with pencil
-paper goes vertically, good to explain the difference between vertical and horizontal.
-when students have finished blowing black paint for branches to top of paper, hand out Q-tips to make cherry blossoms.
-model how to use Q-tips to make pink dots near each other for a flower.
-tell students to add 5 or more cherry blossom flowers to their branches.
-when done have parent helpers wash out palettes, set aside art to dry.
*please put all art supplies back in Art PREP room 




1st Grade – Sakura: Japanese Cherry Blossoms…through a straw!


Description of the Unit – (Not a unit per se, as we only spend a couple of class periods on this.) Students celebrate the arrival of spring by creating Sakura, or Japanese cherry blossoms, in the most amusing way…
 
Activity statement – Hanami is the ages-old Japanese tradition of celebrating the brief but magical blooming season of Sakura. People love to gather under the blossoms day and night, enjoying everything from picnics to festivals. Japanese artists have paid homage to the Sakura with a traditional form of painting like the one you see below.
 
Cherry trees are magnificent all year round, as their trunks and branches alone have such curious shapes to them, especially the weeping variety. This is why our approach to forming the trunk and branches via blowing paint through a straw is so much fun and so satisfying: it really mimics the organic, meandering shape of a cherry tree’s trunk and branches. Before actually working on the trunks, students will simply practice blowing the paint through the straws on scratch paper so as to get an idea for the way they need to align the straw, how they need to blow (the first attempts always look like fireworks or sea urchins, the way they just explode out—this is caused by students both holding the straw straight up and down and blowing too hard—this delights them to no end, however); eventually, after some practice, they are able to guide the paint in the direction they want so that it looks more like a tree trunk with expanding branches. (Note: to get them started, I add a little puddle of the paint with a dropper—sometimes a mixture of ink, paint and water to make it more fluid—at the bottom of their sheets of paper to get them started.) We will observe the way the resulting lines and shapes can imply a tree’s texture, comparing smoother, straighter lines and shapes to those that come out more jagged and rambling, all while expressing how they imagine the feel of these different shapes would be.
Once this part of the cherry tree has dried, students will mix red and white paint to get a variety of pinks, experimenting with adding more and more white to the red and getting paler pinks to add among more bold spots of pink. As they do this, ask them to predict what they think will happen when you add white to red, and what will happen the more you add white. They get to choose how to “paint” the blossoms: with their fingers, Q-tips or a paint brush (or a combination), depending on the kind of texture they seek.
Goals – Students should…

How line and shape can indicate texture
What adding white to color will do to that color


Steadily guide paint using their breath through a straw
Create various shades of pink mixing red and white
Express different blossom textures using various tools

Objectives – Students will: Direct paint while breathing through a straw to create a tree trunk and branches, then mix red and white paint to create varying shades of pink for cherry blossoms.
Resources and materials –

Photos of Japanese cherry trees, both in bloom and bare, as well as images of paintings of Sakura.
9×12 paper (I like for students to experiment with different weights and textures, from watercolor paper to rice paper, just to get a feel for how that guides the paint while they blow through the straw)
Black paint, watered down (I sometimes add ink to this mixture)
Dropper
Straws
Red paint
White paint
Thin paint brushes
Q-tips
Palettes or palette paper for mixing paint

Questions –

What happens in the springtime?
What do you like about spring?
Why do you think people in Japan celebrate Hanami? How would you celebrate Hanami?
(While looking at examples of Japanese cherry blossom paintings): How do you think this trunk would feel like in real life? Why do you say that? What in the painting of the trunk makes you think it feels (X) way?
How do you make pink?
What would you do if wanted a lighter pink?

Evaluation – Did students:

Understand the expression of texture via line and shape?
Understand how to create varying shades of pink mixing red and white?
Practice ways in which to direct the paint blowing through a straw?
Use the word texture appropriately in conversation?


Group discussions
Oral and responses to essential questions
At least one finished piece