Bensonhurst Senior Center Blog 4 3/10/22 Flowers & Family Tree

 

Bensonhurst Senior Center

Blog  4  3/10/22

Flowers & Family Tree

We played an online version of “Grandma's Footsteps” as our theater warm up activity. I was “in” and placed my head down as our students moved away from their cameras. Slowly moving forward, they tried to reach their screen without me seeing them move whenever I lifted my head. Julisa succeeded in the first round, but So Sim was certainly doing a fine job until I caught her swaying!

Practice makes perfect and our students exemplify this maxim. Julisa claimed you need 5 attempts at transferring the photo or image to the wooden decoration to get it just right and this was certainly evidenced by the beautiful decorations our students shared. Ru Ping cleverly placed a photo of her 3 children as youngsters on one side of the decoration and then the other displayed them as adults. Old black and white photos as well as modern colored ones were proudly displayed on one side of the ornament while the other featured one of the flowers from the sheet supplied. Once completed, string or pretty ribbon was tied to each ornament preparing it for hanging from the family tree.

With Russian aggression against Ukraine escalating, we took a moment to send our thoughts and prayers to the brave Ukrainian people. Vinoks, or flower crowns are traditionally made by young women to symbolize purity and fertility and are worn at festivals and weddings. We shared photos of some magnificent examples as well as ones made by my Ukrainian friend, Natalia. Photos of beautiful framed dried flower arrangements, made by Natalia, were admired. Spica retold the story going viral on social media of the Ukrainian woman who offered sunflowers seeds to an invading Russian soldier so that flowers would grow if he died there on Ukraine’s soil. The sunflower is the Ukrainian national flower. 

To make the pressed flower card, our students gathered their dried flowers, the frame, colored cardstock, Elmer’s glue, a toothpick or skewer, white paper, a piece of kitchen towel and the brush marker. After opening the pressed flower kit, they arranged their flowers and leaves on the white paper in an interesting composition. They chose colored cardstock as the background, making sure to leave enough space for a word. Using the skewer, they carefully placed glue on the back of each flower and leaf and positioned them. During this process they were encouraged to think of words which the floral display reminded them of. Using the brush marker they wrote the words onto shaped newsprint, which was glued into place. The clear plastic sheet was taped to the inside of the frame and then this was glued onto the cardstock, completing the card. 

The final task was to tape the branches together to make the tree trunk. More newspaper was added to add bulk to the trunk, then it was taped to its base. Stella modeled the branches she had already covered in tissue paper, which is the next and final step in completing the Family Tree before hanging the ornaments. 

Julisa won’t be with us for a couple of weeks as she enjoys a European trip to Spain and France. Safe travels Julisa and we look forward to seeing your holiday photos on your return.


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