Parshat Yitro: Flowers

So, I feel like I cheated a bit on this one. In general, I have tried to only do projects that correspond to the "pshat" of the parsha. But, this week, I kind of just wanted to do flowers (maybe because of Tu Bshvat, the coming of spring, or my general love of Georgia O'keeffe...).

I thought I could get away with it based on the common visual image of Mt. Sinai (the events of which are featured in this parsha) covered in flowers. I was under the (somewhat false) impression that the idea that Mt. Sinai was covered in flowers was based on a midrash. However, when I went to actually look it up, the midrash really only mentions that the mountain was covered with grass. whoops. But, Jews like to stretch things and somehow grass turned into flowers when it comes to decorating synagogues on Shavuot in commemoration of Har Sinai.

So, flowers it was. Since I am always trying to vary the techniques we use, I wanted to do tissue paper collage (especially since I already had tons of left-over tissue paper!). I really love this technique - just by ripping up pieces of tissue paper and painting over them with watered-down glue, you can make art that is really bright and bold, without using paint! Here are some of the examples that I made:

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So, I tried this approach with the first graders and while they had fun doing it, it was a HUGE mess (more than PAINT!) and it proved to be too difficult for most of them to create anything that actually resembled a flower.

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To be totally honest, it was hard for me to even hang these projects on the bulletin board because they didn't turn out the way that "I wanted them to," but I forced myself to because the kids actually were proud of them and placed all together, they still did look beautiful and "springy."

For my class with the second graders, I knew that I could not bear working with the tissue paper again and that even paint would be easier! It happened to be a beautiful day outside so I decided to try to do the project outside with the kids. Probably not the smartest move on my part but I had this idealized image of us all painting outside in the sunshine (without taking into account the endless temptations for second graders to run free, wrestle, play ball, wander aimlessly, etc if not "locked" in a classroom, not to mention projects and papers blowing away...).

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Since their works were still wet at the end of the class, I did what any completely untrained art teacher would do and hung them directly up on the bulletin board (I only have one) ON TOP of the first graders' projects...

Feeling somewhat defeated after this week's challenges but it may be worth it for one little girl's comment today: "I want to be just like Emily when I grow up. But, just without having to deal with the hard kids." Hmmm....

SHABBAT SHALOM!