A teacher friend of mine had a college art professor who derisively described too bright or fantastically saturated colors in art as “Disneyland Colors.” So pardon these pics that seem to be shoved through a Disneyland Color filter. The dull dingy white backgrounds were driving me crazy so here we are, sunglasses optional.

Art students progress so rapidly in fine motor skills that knowing when in the year you teach a project can make or break it. This is a project that the kids really enjoy, and I taught it in October.

We were inspired by Pablo Picasso’s Bouquet of Peace painting. They trace their hands with a crayon, draw in knuckle details, fingernails, optional fingernail polish and rings.

I pre-stamp construction paper circles to make the centers of their floral bouquets. They draw stems with green markers.

We originally painted the flower petals around the circles but noticed that the results were better when we used markers instead.

This was a good marker procedures project. I had a big box of markers that I opened up dramatically to the oooohs and aaahhs of Kindergartners. We practiced how to open the marker, put the cap on the end, and use all our muscles to hear the pop when you push the cap back on.

We used the markers 1 at a time with as many colors as they wanted. Slowing it down to 1 at a time helped me monitor the caps so I still had markers that weren’t dried out for the whole school after this project. It also eliminated the dreaded marker light sabers.

Then they added any details they thought worked for their design.