Painting Flowers with Household Objects

Not long ago we were talking about Spring at school and decided to do some flower painting.  I saw this flower painting idea on Pinterest from Deborah at Teaching Preschool:

Source: teachpreschool.org via Laura on Pinterest

I especially loved how the flower-making process had two steps:  the stem-gluing and the flower-painting.

So following her example I decided to give it a try.

We set out the paper, stems, paint and pot scrubbers.  After the kids glued their stems on the paper, they moved over to the painting table.  I decided to add something to the scrubbers to make them easier to hold, and after wandering around the Dollar Tree for awhile I found just what I needed: hair clips. They made very good "grabbers" (as the kids called them), although I should have rubber banded them closed so they didn't get opened up by mistake during all the enthusiastic painting.

We also used something else that I found at the Dollar Tree for our flowers:

They're actually sponges meant for car washing.  However, when dipped in paint they made the most wonderful hyacinths.

Of course, some of the Little People did more rubbing and smearing with the painting objects than flower printing.  However, this was okay, and they all turned out beautifully.

One of the best things about the car wash scrubbers is that they can be removed from their plastic handles and thrown in the washer.  Which is my favorite kind of painting tool.

But wait...that's not all.  As I was reassembling them after washing for these pictures, I noticed that the scrubbers are actually one long scrubbing piece that have been stitched together at one end to make a U-shaped scrubber:

I began wondering what would happen if I took out these stitches, so I took my utility knife and cut all of these little threads.  Kind of like car-washer-sponge surgery.

When I was done - voila!  I had one long fuzzy piece, which I think would be perfect for printing fuzzy caterpillars:

You could even use the fabric pocket on the back to put a heavy wire (like a bent wire hanger) or a plastic pipe through to make holding it easier.

Or you could use if for a puppet, I suppose.  Give it some wiggly eyes, and it would be ready to go.

That's my Friday Find for today.  Several fun options for one dollar - and washable, besides.