Spring Time Craft and Color Blending Lesson

Spring time begs for walks and fun outdoor activities for lessons. I found a dragonfly craft on here. She did hers in the fall but the maple seeds fall in the spring here. Go here to see a picture of a maple seed if you don't what one looks like. We call them helicopter seeds because you can toss them in the air and watch spin and float of like a helicopters blade We have them all over the place in my neighborhood. We also had a strong storm move through and it knocked a lot of small twigs down.  I of course tweaked the craft a little bit.  So the first thing we did was take a walk as a family and gathered the items needed for the craft and lesson together.

A young weeping willow can be to much temptation not to walk through

Coyote stopping to smell the flowers

collecting some seeds

our collection of maple seeds

I tried to hot glue the seeds on to the twigs first but quickly figured out that I needed to let the younger girls paint theirs "wings" first before I glued them on.

Things you need for this craft twigs,maple seeds,hot glue,paint,jewels

The first dragonfly's made before being painted. Can you see why the needed painted first?

Next I took the smaller girls out side onto the porch.  I used this time to show Coyote and to reemphasize to Sunny Bunny color blending to make new colors. We used our fingers to paint the wings and to mix the colors.

I put a small amount of  primary colored paint on some Freezer Paper

                                           *** Freezer Paper rocks for craft time the waxed side makes it perfect for holding and mixing things like paint or glue with out drying them out by absorbing the moisture and it hardly ever allows it to wick through. It also is good for making stencils you can iron on to fabrics and the paper side is good for coloring or painting on. Plus it is usually fairly cheap for large amounts and you can throw it away when you are done making clean up a breeze.

The girls had fun mixing the colors and investigating the seeds as the painted them.

Painting with your hands is messy fun. Coyote had a lot of fun till she was done and then she was upset at being dirty.

 After the girls finished painting theirs I glued the wings and eyes (jewels) on to the twig bodies and then I took some pictures of their wonderful creations. The older ones are going to make some more detailed versions. I am also going to be adding lessons on bugs and seeds for the kids. I vary the degree of depth for each lesson for my kids.This is a fairly green art project since the seeds and twigs are renewable resources and it encourages your kids to get out and explore nature even in their own neighborhood. Here are some of the finished dragonflies. I am going to be adding some little loops and string to try and make mobile out the dragonflies.

Some helpful hints if you are going to try this yourself.
1. if you cut the actual seed out they are easier to glue together.
2. presort the seeds to size
3. lay out the seeds to help make sure the seeds painted on the right side for the wing shape later
4. I found it easier to glue the bottoms together and the the tops one at a time to the bottoms and then glue the whole thing to the stick.
5. You don't really need sticks that are very big.
6. glue the eyes one one at a time to avoid burning your fingers.
7. Have and just enjoy the time with your family.
Thank you for reading.