G Week- Garden

G seems like it'll be a much easier week to come up with activities for than Y week. So to kick it off I'm using an old soda bottle trick I learned while I was living in Buffalo and turned it into a garden.

What you'll need:

• 1 bottle per color paint you want to use (make sure they're soda or seltzer bottles not water bottles. They need to have the 5 points on the bottle not a flat surface)
• Paint
• Paper plates
• Paint brushes
• Construction paper

What to do:

1. Pour out some paint onto each plate*
2. Dip the bottom of the bottle into the paint. Be sure to cover all the points on the bottle with paint.
3. Have the child hold the paint with two hands and stamp the bottle on the paint. Dip in paint again if it isn't showing up after the first or second stamp.**
4. Repeat the process with however many colors you'd like to use.
5. This next part I did without the kids because I wanted it to be clean. Use a thick brush to paint the bottom of the page with green paint to look like grass.***
6. Use a thinner brush in the green paint to create stems and leaves leading up to the flowers.

The finished product (I think some of the kids' actually looked better than mine though)

*Note you may want to use a lot of paint or make it into a pile that's tall in the center. There is a small circle in the center of the bottom of the bottle and if you have enough paint it'll reach it and that center dot makes it look more like a flower. You can see what it looks like without it in my example I had a little less paint to work with than I intended.

**Note it's a good idea to hold the top of the bottle to make sure they press it down all the way.

***Note once there's not much paint left on the brush use the paint that's already on the page to brush upward and create the effect of blades of grass.