Texas Hill Country

Popping Up Bluebonnets!

The bluebonnet is the state flower. Each bloom on the main stock looks like a small “bonnet” or hat worn by women in the 1800s. Read about the bluebonnet on the Texas Symbols page.

What You Need

• light blue construction paper or card stock
• crayons or markers
• glue
• popcorn, popcorn popper
• dry, blue tempura paint powder

Directions:

1. Copy the bluebonnet or trace by hand onto construction paper or card stock.
2. Pop 2 cups of popcorn. While still warm from popping, shake into a big brown paper grocery market bag and add one-fourth cup of dry blue tempera paint powder into bag.
3. Close top of brown paper bag tightly and shake. The dry tempera paint will stick to popcorn kernels and stain them various shades of blue.
4. On your paper, color the leaves and stem of the bluebonnet outline with a green crayon or marker.
5. Fill in sections of the bloom area with glue then glue each blue popcorn one at a time to fill in the entire area.

Additional Activity:

Create a field of bluebonnets on a bulletin board or wall space with your hand-made bluebonnets!