Monet's Water Lilies

Monet's Water Lilies-

We started the 3rd grade lesson by viewing a short clip of water lilies blooming. Then we were told about our projects for the day which was making water lilies inspired by Claude Monet. The teacher then gave us all a background on the life of Monet and showed some famous works of art he has created. At each of our tables was a pattern of lily pad that each student traced on green construction paper. After that was done we cut out each of our lily pads and then glued a white construction paper circle that our teacher gave us on our lily pads. She explained that this was going to be our base for our flower. Then each students got to choose the tissue paper of their choice. I choose to use orange and purple tissue paper to create my flower for my lily pad. Our teacher instructed us to crumple the tissue and pinch the ends so that we could glue it to the circle. Using pencils and folding the tissue paper around the pencil and pressing that into glue created the flower petals. After pinching the tissue paper and gluing it down over and over again when the circle was done we were finished. Lastly, we sprayed the tissue paper flower with water to create a bleeding effect.

Learning about some art history was very nice in this lesson. With more time learning more about the history of Monet would be a great way to add to the lesson. Monet was known for his style of painting so in advanced classes I would have students paint in the style of Monet and perhaps create a lily painting of their own but with some original flare. After they had finished their painting I would encourage when to experiment with some sort of texture. With the texture I would have my students emphasize at least one aspect of their water lily painting. Some could choose to emphasize the water the lily pads were sitting on by using clear gel medium to create some textured water while other students could simply make origami flowers and glue them on the painting to show another use of texture and 3D elements.