Making a Poinsettia Craft Activity

I love Poinsettia Plants! 

We buy some of these beautiful flowers every year at Christmas.

Poinsettia Plants are native to Mexico. There are over 100 varieties. They come in red, orange, cream, and white.

While shopping with my husband at his favorite store, Home Depot, I noticed some beautifully shaped paint color swatches . The more I looked at them, the more they reminded me of the petals of a Poinsettia Plant.  That's what is used in this craft activity, although you could use any type of paper or card stock.

Materials

• red construction paper (or paint swatches)
• yellow paper
• paper punch
• pencil and scissors (optional)
• glue

Directions

• If you are using paint swatches, gather 5 of them and form a circle.
• If using construction paper, draw and cut 5 red petals, then form a circle.
• Glue the petals together where they overlap.
• Use a paper punch to make some small yellow circles.
• Glue the yellow dots in the center.

In doing research for this activity, I learned that the red, pink, etc. parts of the plant are not the flower. They are actually colored bracts (modified leaves). The small yellow clusters in the middle are the actual flower part of the plant!

These paper flowers could be used as a craft for the front of a homemade Christmas Card although they are quite large (about 8 inches in diameter). They could also be used as a holiday decoration on a door, window, bulletin board, tree, etc.


A great book for kids to read to go along with this craft is Tomie DePaola's The Legend of the Poinsettia.



Another Poinsettia Craft can be found here.

Enjoy reading and crafting!