Playing with Flowers

Reagan received beautiful flowers for her birthday, and every day since Kate has asked to play with them.  Today, I realized the flowers were not really looking pretty in the vase anymore and I was about to toss them in the trash when I realized that Kate might enjoy playing with them first.  WOW, did she ever!

 She spent some time touching, smelling, and just looking at the flowers.

 I thought a magnifying glass might help her see all the little details on the flowers.

Then she asked for water.

 She was cleaning her flowers.  She got her sleeves wet and asked to take her shirt off.

After playing for over an hour, she was really wet and continued playing all wrapped up in her bath towel!

I am so happy that I didn't throw those flowers in the trash!

Daffodil Pinwheels for Wales

T spent two days in Wales this week.  The daffodil is the national flower of Wales, so I made a few daffodil pinwheels for C and R using a template from DLTK.

The pinwheels didn't really spin that well, but they looked pretty sitting on the table as we read The Island of Fairies, a story from Wales.  This story can be found in the book, Around the World in 80 Tales.  This treasury features traditional tales from six continents, and I am happy that we own a copy.  The tales are typically two pages long and so far, we have enjoyed those that we have read.  It's a fun way to explore the world.

I want to thank everyone who left comments wishing T a safe journey.  He is having a wonderful time, and learning a lot about the United Kingdom.  He has done so many amazing things, for example while he was in Wales, he abseiled 70 feet off a tower wall at Penrhyn Castle!!!!  He also reported that he ate haggis, and loved it!

Bottle Stamped Forget-Me-Nots

The above photo is a page from Alaska ABC Book by Charlene Kreeger and Shannon Cartwright.  Alaska's state flower is the forget-me-not.

Last spring, we used the bottle stamping technique from Frugal Family Fun Blog to make flowers and I thought this technique would be perfect for making forget-me-nots.

C and R each used an empty 1 liter seltzer bottle and pressed the bottom of it into light blue paint.  Then, they stamped the design onto construction paper.

Once they were done with this step, we left the papers to dry.

When the blue paint was dry, they used the caps from the same seltzer bottles to create the center of the flowers.

They dipped the caps in yellow paint and then in the center of their flowers.  If your child is under three and will put the cap in his or her mouth, just leave it screwed onto the bottle for the stamping.

The Sweetest Flowers

I had some cupcakes in the freezer, of course, and I could not resist making these flower cupcakes.  For complete directions click here to visit Family Fun.  I used mini marshmallows for the center of the flowers, instead of the gumdrops recommended by Family Fun.  We don't eat gumdrops and I wasn't going to buy a whole bag for this.  You could really use any kind of round candy for the center.

Rose's Garden

Rose's Garden by Peter H. Reynolds was inspired by and dedicated to the late Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy, mother of Senator Ted Kennedy and President John F. Kennedy. 

Rose travels the world in a teapot, collecting seeds along the way.  When her teapot is full, she decides to plant a garden.  She waits and waits and waits for her garden to grow, but nothing happens.  Word spread of Rose's faith in her garden, and children from all over the world began bringing her paper flowers for her garden.  Before long, she had a colorful garden filled with thousands of  paper flowers, and then real flowers began to grow.

This book is a beautiful story of nature, beauty, and faith, as well as the spirit of community.  Every once in a while, I come across a book for children that melts my heart; this is one of those books.

After reading this book multiple times, R made her own paper flower with scrunched tissue paper in the center.  I drew and cut out the flower shape.  I also cut out the leaves and the stem.  R glued the stem and leaves, colored the flower, and scrunched the tissue paper before she glued it to the center of her flower.

Flowers

We have been reading a lot of books about flowers, so R made two different kinds of flowers with paint this week.

She began with hand and arm print tulips.  First, she painted her forearm green and pressed it down on the paper to create stems.

 Then she painted her hand and fingers (except the thumb) pink and pressed it down at the top of the stems.

She also used a small water bottle and dipped the bottom in purple paint and then stamped it on paper to create flowers.

I saw this technique on Valerie's Frugal Family Fun Blog.  R LOVED doing this!  When the paint dried, R used a dot marker to add yellow centers to her purple flowers.  You can find a link for Do-a-Dot markers at the end of this post.  We use them often and they last a long time!  We love them!

R created quite the garden!

The books in the photo above are:  Planting a Rainbow by Lois Ehlert (We are big fans of Lois Ehlert!) and Rose: A Flower's Story by Joanne Randolph.  I definitely recommend both books.   

Collage Box Flower

Shannon from Welcome to our Wonderland is now hosting a collage box linky.  Collage is always fun so we decided to try it this week.

R cut pink and purple pipe cleaners and ribbon with flowers on it to add to her collage materials.

She also used pom poms and bug stickers.  I cut a piece of clear contact paper in the shape of a flower and R added all of her materials.  When she finished, I covered it with another piece of contact paper.  She used a hole punch to make a hole to attach the green pipe cleaner stem to the flower.

To find out more about Collage Box, click here to visit Shannon's blog!  While you are there, tell her I said hello!

Flowers and Books

I hosted another coffee shop story hour this week.  The theme was flowers.  I had so many books that I wanted to read, but three is definitely the limit with the preschool story hour group.

I read:

Song of the Flowers by Takayo Noda - This is a great bedtime book.  There are many varieties of flowers in the story and each kind asks to be sung a lullaby.  This is a nice way to introduce children to different varieties of flowers.  R (my Wizard of Oz girl) was happy to see poppies in the book!  The artwork is bright and cheerful, and the lyrical text is perfect for quiet time reading.

Jack's Garden by Henry Cole - This is a garden version of the rhyme, "this is the house that Jack built".  Follow the progress of the garden from seeds to flowers, and notice all of the tools, weather, and creatures that help the garden grow. 

Big Yellow Sunflower by Frances Barry - As you read this book, each stage of the life-cycle unfolds until you have a big, yellow sunflower!  Kids love this book!

After story time, each child made a flower to take home.  I had flowers ready for them to decorate.  To make a paper plate flower, I folded a plate in half and cut a hole in the center and flower-like edges around the outside of the plate.  Folding the plate in half makes it easier to cut the hole in the center and it also makes the flower symmetrical.  This is what it looked like after I cut it:

I gave each child a paper plate flower to decorate with crayons, markers, and dot stickers.

I didn't notice this until now, but R's dress matches her flower!  R made a few paper plate flowers, and we are going to tie string around them and hang them in her room.

        

The Sweetest Smelling Garden

We have painted with Kool Aid many times, and this week we decided to make a sweet smelling garden.  I drew some crazy looking flowers on watercolor paper (I used watercolor paper because it is more forgiving when it is wet!).  Then, to make the Kool Aid paint, I mixed 2 TBSP of water with one packet of unsweetened Kool Aid powder. 

We used different flavors of Kool Aid powder in little plastic containers so that we could have a colorful (and fragrant) garden. 

R painted all of the flowers to her liking and when it was dry, it smelled so sweet.  We cut out the dry flowers and glued them onto green construction paper that we cut to look like grass.  I love the way Kool Aid paint looks when it is dry; the colors stay so bright!  It smells wonderful too.  If you have never made Kool Aid paint, add this to your MUST DO list.

We also love to make Kool Aid play dough.  Click here for our favorite recipe!