Poinsettias

There is a Mexican legend that explains  the origin of poinsettias.  According to the legend, a young girl had no gift to give the baby Jesus on Christmas Eve.  She was told that the baby Jesus would love whatever gift she gave, because it came from her heart.  She gathered up some weeds, carried them inside the chapel, presented them to the baby Jesus and began to pray.  Suddenly the green weeds had blazing red stars on top of them.  When everyone went outside, the rest of the weeds bore bright red poinsettias, too.

Our second grade classes enjoyed making these special flowers for the holidays.  We used templates to trace and cut out the shapes.  The petals and leaves were folded and then glued together.  Bright yellow circles were added to the center and topped with yellow glitter.