2nd Grade: "Sakura"- Cherry Blossoms

This was a lesson I had started about a month ago to decorate our halls for our Japanese culture night we have every year at our school.  It just so happened to coincide with the very unfortunate events that have been taking place there now.  The school walls look lovely and at the same time in a bittersweet way, seem to serve as a reminder of the beautiful and fragile relationship the people of Japan have with nature.

For this lesson we talk about the first sights of Spring and how exciting it can be to see buds on a tree start to blossom this time of year in parts of the world.  (not Chicago, quite yet!)  We look at Van Gogh's blossoming Peach tree paintings, http://www.googleartproject.com/museums/vangogh/flowering-plum-tree-after-hiroshige-44 (you can see one here) and I also show the brilliant illustrations from the fabulous book, Zen Shorts, by Jon Muth:

The first day we create the branches of the tree.  I explain to the kids that we are making a close up of the tree.  I give them each a piece of cut-up cardboard small enough to fit easily in their hand (cardboard boxes that all my supplies come in).  I give them brown and black paint on a tray and show them how to scrape paint on the tray and then onto their paper to create a branch.  Then they use the cardboard piece almost as a stamp to add small twigs and branches sprouting out.  (This is the same technique I use for my winter birch trees lesson, filed under 4th grade).  The second day we use chalk pastel to add color between the branches and a paper towel wrapped around a finger to blend it all together.  Finally that same day, they add white, pink, or red tempera paint using a q-tip- which they think is just sooooo funny, and although I tell them many times they are not "used" q-tips they still think it is gross for some reason! ha!  I added the black construction paper to give them a scroll painting look.