Bringing Joy to the Sick and Elderly

To help the children reach out to the sick and elderly by creating bright door decorations for their rooms

The children will bring joy to the sick and elderly by creating spring-like door decorations for residents of a nursing home or an assisted-living facility.

• Poster board
• Brightly colored construction paper
• Glue
• Scissors
• Patterns for designing large paper flowers (optional)

• Contact a nearby nursing home or an assisted-living facility for permission to make decorations for the residents' doors.
• Tell the children that they will be creating 3-D paper flowers to be used as door decorations for sick and elderly people.
• Distribute the poster board and ask the children to draw the outline of one or more large flowers (at least 8 to 12 inches tall). Cut out the flower outlines.
• Cover the stems with green construction paper.
• From the same green paper, cut out a double set of the number of leaves that are needed. Glue one complete set of leaves flat on the flower outline. Attach the other leaves on top of the flat leaves by gluing just the bottom of the leaves to the stem. Bend the upper part of the leaf away from the stem to create a 3-D effect.
• Using brightly colored construction paper, cut a double set of the petals that are needed to cover the upper part of the flower. Glue one set of petals flat on the flower outline. Attach the second set of petals by gluing down just the ends of the petals closest to the center of the flower.
• Use another piece of colored paper for the center part of the flower and attach it so that it stands perpendicular to the flat center of the flower.Bend the top layer of petals to add to the 3-D effect of the flower.
• If desired, use more green paper for grass around the bottom of the flowers.

Art/Space Smart

The flowers could be attached individually to the residents' doors or combined to decorate several doors or a hallway.

If there are children in your group with special needs (physical, visual, hearing, language, or behavioral disabilities), adapt the activity accordingly.