Pipe Cleaner Flowers

Mother’s Day confuses me a bit. I mean, not as a mother. But as a blogger. Am I supposed to show my kids how to make crafts that they will then give to me? It’s weird. But now that I teach art classes, presenting this craft to you as a teacher makes more sense. And I guess you could make these at home for Grandma, or any woman in your life that helped mother you or is helping mother your children.

Which brings me to another conundrum I have about Mother’s Day. It leaves so many women out who might not be mothers for whatever reason, but who are mothering. They love their nieces and nephews, or best friend’s kids, or step-children, or the children they teach, as much as they would their own. So I say we should call it Mothering Day!

I made this gift tag as a tribute to all of the women out there who help raise todays children (not just mothers). We love and appreciate you more that you’ll ever know!

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Supplies:

~ Pipe cleaners

~ Pony beads

~ Buttons

~ Striped paper straws (cut in bits – to prolong this craft, the kids can cut their own straws)

~ Circle paper punch (mine was 1.75″)

~ Hole punch (1/8″) to punch in the middle of the paper circle

~ Paper for the circles (I used some colored paper and also some old paintings)

~ Colored washi tape

~ Glass cheese shaker (or a colander)

Process:

~This is a wonderful activity for working those small motor skills. Cutting and beading are difficult for small fingers, but are so immensely satisfying when they succeed. I started off by showing them how to make little cuts in the circles to turn them into flowers. They got it right away, or course, because they are very smart and observant. Plus…4yr olds really want to do it all themselves.

~ Then it was just about them beading and putting on their flowers. If their stems were heavy with lots of buttons and beads, then we figured out a way to finish off the tops so things wouldn’t fall off. Sometimes they taped the tops and sometimes they just bent the ends of the pipe cleaners over.

How cute is she with her bouquet for her mom? The project was a bit abstract for them because they didn’t understand what the bouquet would look like. All they saw was a bunch of pipe cleaners in holes. But when we taped the stems together and they held it for the first time, they were so happy!

I do so love this craft because A) they are learning new skills and working on fine motor, and B) it’s still actually very open-ended and child-led.

Click here for the gift tags. Print them on white card stock, and make sure to use a “borderless” setting.

Happy Mothering day!

xo, Bar