Van Gogh Inspired Sunflower Still Life Relief Collage (2nd)

I just gotta say - I love teaching new lessons as an art teacher! We are in the unique position of being able to teach our students a lesson, and then if anything goes wrong or we run into problems, we can just tweak our lesson for the next group! Classroom teachers aren't so lucky. For them many times it's just one and done (until next year ... if they're in the same grade-level). I gotta say I take FULL advantage of my situation and am constantly looking for ways to make improvements in my lessons and the ways I teach them.
And this lesson is a GREAT example of that!

To begin with - I was super inspired by this pin I saw on Pinterest. The teacher had his/her students create sunflowers with clay slabs (I'm assuming) and then add them to a board along with other supplies (paint, cardboard, yarn, etc.) to create a stunning mixed-media piece!
So as with all new projects - I set out to make a teacher's sample. And that's when I ran into some problems. I have NO idea how that teacher got their kids to make such lovely sunflowers as small as they are in the picture (in retrospect I think I was making mine smaller than shown in the pin since I was planning on mounting them on a smaller board).
After trying and trying for what seemed like forever - I decided to go in a slightly different direction.
I definitely wanted to do sunflowers.. but sans clay.

So with version #1 I had students paint their background board, paint their vase, and make 8-pronged sunflowers. Unfortunately that didn't go as well as I would have hoped. The tempera paint I had my students use warped the chipboard (like a LOT) - though I fixed that by rubbing them on the edge of a table when they were dry. The paint on the vase ended up being messy and really uneven. Another issue that I had was time. My kids had to RUSH through the painting part just so we could stay on track with the project. No me gusta. The pictures below show the very best I pieces that I got from my first class. While these examples don't look too rough - I promise the rest of them were. I should've taken more pictures.

So with version #2 (my favoritttteeeeee) I had my kids take more of a collaged approach.
Students picked out construction paper to glue down to their chipboard for their background, used colored poster board and oil pastels to create their vase, made 5-pronged sunflowers which they glued together with a second flower to add more volume, and added more details to their flowers with oil pastels. Me encanta!
Students were given 6 different color choices for the background - but when my kids see turquoise... it's all over.

If you are interested in a step-by-step version of this project with visuals, written teacher directions, a PowerPoint, AND a 15 minute instructional video where I show you how to teach this to your kids - check out my store! :)

Also available in my Teachers Pay Teachers store!