How to Make Poinsettias for Kindergarteners

Use live poinsettia plants to inspire kindergartners' creativity.

Whether you are greeting the winter holidays or studying plants that are native to Mexico, introduce your kindergartners to poinsettias through craft activities. As the children make their poinsettias, show them pictures of what the plants look like and discuss the shapes of the red petals, which are called bracts. Decorate the classroom with the poinsettias after the activity is over, or let the kids take their creations home.

Things You'll Need

• Red craft foam
• Marker
• Leaf tracer
• Scissors
• Glue
• Red pipe cleaners
• Yellow craft foam
• Red glitter glue
• 3-inch green pipe cleaner
• Green felt

Instructions

1. Lay the red craft foam flat on the working surface. Place the leaf tracer on top of the foam. Have the kids trace the outline of pointy leaves onto the foam, making five to six leaves each. If you do not have a leaf tracer for the kids to use, have them draw the leaves freehand, looking at a poinsettia for reference.

2. Cut out the five or six leaf-shaped poinsettia bracts with scissors. Place one poinsettia bract on top of the red pipe cleaner. Cut the pipe cleaner so that you end up with a piece that is 1-inch longer than the bract. Cut one pipe cleaner for every bract that you have.

3. Glue the red poinsettia bract onto the red pipe cleaner. Line up the pointed end of the bract with one end of the pipe cleaner, so that 1-inch of pipe cleaner sticks out the other end. Wait two hours for the glue to dry.

4. Gather all of the red pipe cleaner ends and twist them together at the bottom to form a bouquet of red bracts, with the pointed ends of the bracts pointing outward. Bend each red bracts so it folds down toward the middle, and is straighter at the outer edges.

5. Draw a circle the size of a nickel coin onto the yellow craft foam. Cut out the circle with scissors and glue it to the center of the red bract bouquet where the various red pipe cleaner ends meet. Hold the yellow foam center down onto the red pipe cleaners until it affixes.

6. Decorate the red bracts with red glitter glue to make the poinsettia veins. The main vein runs down the center of the bracts, from one end of the bract to the other, with smaller veins that web out perpendicularly from the main vein.

7. Use scissors to cut a 3-inch piece of green pipe cleaner. Twist one end of the green pipe cleaner around the red pipe cleaners that hold together the red bracts. You now have a green stem with a bunch of red flowers perched on the top.

8. Draw leaves on the green felt that are slightly larger than the red foam leaves. Make one leaf for every red bract. Cut the leaves out and glue them underneath the red foam bracts. Since the red foam bracts are on top of the red pipe cleaner, the red pipe cleaner will be sandwiched between the red and green colors.