Poinsettia Still Life

A favorite project of mine is making a still life of a poinsettia plant through collage.  Third grade students took a close look at this holiday plant and described its attributes:

* Red leaves

* Green leaves

* Stems

* Shiny pot

* Yellow centers

Perfect!  We got started. . . First up, making the foiled pot.  I have students use metallic paper and transform a rectangle into a simplified pot shape by cutting two diagonal lines from the bottom up. They glued this down on the bottom of their paper and then got going on their stems.  I asked students to cut three strips of paper about the width of their finger.  This is a great way for them to estimate and then talk about proportion.  A stem too wide would look funny and one too skinny wouldn't be able to hold a plant up. We then worked of the red leaves of the plant.  I had students fold a 4x18" rectangle into 1/8th and showed them how to cut a basic leaf shape.  I love how each leaf looks a bit different in all their work.

More pictures to come as their project begins to finish up!