JeNNspeak: Craft Review: Glossy Paper Flowers

I teach Sunday School to a small class of 1st and 2nd graders. We've been studying The Ten Commandments, and I thought it quite appropriate that on Mother's Day our lesson just happened to be on the 5th commandment ... Honor Your Father and Mother.

After our lesson, we spent a little time making some flowers for Mom. I found this idea on FamilyFun.com and it was a perfect activity for our class. It took us about 30 minutes to each make one flower, though I think they would have been perfectly happy to spend longer and make more.

You'll need old magazines, scissors, paper fasteners, glue stick, and an old CD for a circle template.

Look for colorful pages in the magazines and cut circles using
the CD as a template to first draw the circle.

Fold the circle in half, then the half in half,
and then in half again...

...then cut the large end of the remaining wedge into the round
or pointed (or both) shape of a single flower petal.

When you open the circle back up, you'll have a
flower with symmetrical petals.

Cut several circles, fold them, and cut petals with different
shapes and sizes each time, opening up the circle
to see the different flower shapes that result.

Tear out a full sheet from the magazine and roll it up into
a thin tube to make a stem. Use a little glue to
seal the tube. Then stack your favorite flowers on
top of each other with the largest ones in back to the smallest in
front and fasten them together and to the stem with a paper fastener.

The kids in my class seemed to struggle with the concept of folding up the circles and cutting the design, and most of them asked me to draw the pattern necessary to make a certain kind of flower, which I did. They enjoyed looking for pages to cut and making a mess, and it was fun to see them open up the circles to reveal the shapes of their flowers.

And of course they were excited to share their very unique,
pretty flowers with their Moms.