Bensonhurst Senior Center Blog 2/17/22 Flowers & Family Tree

 

Bensonhurst Senior Center

Blog 2/17/22

Flowers & Family Tree

The start of a new creative project is always exciting and it’s especially pleasing when we are working with such enthusiastic and talented students as the seniors at BSC. Flowers and plants are an important part of our lives, helping to nurture us as we nurture them, and healing and joy. We will be sharing stories about our association with flowers and plants while we create art as well as genealogy when we make our own “Family Tree”.

As is our practice we began with a warmup, physically bending and stretching our body to create tree shapes then gently swaying like the branches. Next, we used our sketchbooks to draw a flower chosen from the posies Spica and I delivered it to the senior center last week as part of the materials for this project. Students discovered the different parts of the flower as they sketched, then shared their drawings. Certain flowers evoke memories, and we shared our stories, while we looked at the flowers on the printed sheet. Susanna’s favorite is the hyacinth because it makes her happy. Chrysanthemums remind Jing Wei of her mother who loved to paint them and the school competitions when everyone grew them. The peony is a favorite with many, especially Lao Yu, and Hui Fen and So Sim who grow them and Ru Ping who spoke of a song about them. Stella shared a screenshot of her garden of flowers. 

Pressing flowers to create dried flowers is an ancient practice. The students used 2 pieces of cardboard with 2 layers of paper towel between onto which they placed their chosen flowers and leaves. This sandwich was secured with rubber bands and left in a warm place so the flowers could dry. 

Spica and I shared examples of the bookmark, framed floral arrangement and family tree with hanging family portraits with the class. Their homework is to select the photos from their inkjet copies which they want to turn into hanging decorations. The fun begins!

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

FAMILY ALBUM POP-UP BOOK MAKING @ QUEENS PUBLIC LIBRARY.7 8/23/2021

Image
  QUEENS PUBLIC LIBRARY - CREATIVE AGING PROGRAM FAMILY ALBUM POP-UP BOOK MAKING Blog 7 8/23/21 As Madlyn was out today she arranged for Kathy and Willie to moderate our program in her place. Thanks very much Kathy and Willie! We had fun warming up our imaginations by thinking of words that best describe us then using gestures to express the word. The final page of the pop-up book is a self-portrait, so this activity helped fire up our brains. Once the base page was folded, we reviewed how to make V Fold Stands. Students made two V Fold Stands and glued them into the base page. Next, they learned a new skill - pocket making. Thinking about the word or words they used to describe themselves, they drew a reflective shape and with a sharpie, wrote the word inside. The word, decorated if desired, was placed in the pocket. Once the page is opened, this word is revealed to help in storytelling.  Another technique learned in an earlier class and reviewed was making the background. O...
Read more

Bensonhurst Senior Center Holiday Party 12/30/2020

Image
Celebrating with our students is a perfect way to see out the old year and welcome in the new. 6am New Year’s Eve I logged onto zoom to smiling faces and a very warm welcome from everyone. Thank you to Hong for organizing our holiday party and a huge shout out to Chip Ma, Winnie Don Lee, and Karen Zhou for all their support and encouragement during this most difficult of years.    This is the season when we traditionally give gifts but separated as we are because of COVID-19 restrictions, we can still share the greatest gift of all, togetherness via technology. We shared stories of family.   Lao Yu inspired us with the story of how her family has spent their quarantine by documenting their footprint in the USA back to her great-grandfather. Original documents such as passports and birth certificates, family belongings and research at City Hall helped them trace their family tree. Lao Yu used her drawing skills to sketch two grinding machines from her hometown where grains...
Read more

LMCC - Creative Learning Grant Book of Home.8 6/15/2021

Image
  LMCC - Creative Learning Grant Book of Home  Blog 8 6/15/2021 Happy Dragon Boat Festival! Tuen Ng is celebrated on the 5th day of the 5th lunar month. It commemorates the death of Qu Yuan, a Chinese poet and minister known for his patriotism and contribution to classical poetry who eventually became a national hero. People make zongzi and share them with family and friends. In order to honor the day, we warmed up by paddling our imaginary dragon boat in a battle to win. Then we waved our winning flag! Chi had recently visited the High Line to see the flower show and shared her beautiful photos on WeChat. It is a great medium for not only posting the recording of the day’s class but also for asking questions and sharing homework. It was great to welcome Bobo back to our class. We hope she enjoyed the experience and will log on for future classes.  Some of our students posted the 2nd page they completed at home, and we honored their achievements by sharing photos of their...
Read more