The children were learning about the life cycle of a flower and the seasons.
I gave them a few lessons about the concept of abstracting. I asked them to think about what each season made them feel like, what color was each season, if a season was a shape, which shape would it be?
They got four round pieces of paper, one for each season where they would color it using crayons to represent the season in an abstract way. After they glued their four abstract seasons down in a circle, they cut and pasted the different parts of a flower's life cycle to its corresponding season of the year.
For the largest circle, Summer, the children collaged their very own flower. I gave the children various sheets of white paper to paint together with watercolor. I told them to use only certain colors together and fill the page in abstract colorful splotches.
Once the pages were dry, I had them trace various flower petal shapes all over the pages and cut them out, and it is out of these that they collaged and designed their own flowers.
These children were five and six years old in Kindergarten public school.
