Flowers & Plants

Its time for flower and plant month and we are pretty excited about it! Its been fairly gloomy and rainy the past couple months, so I’m hoping for sun so we can do some gardening.

This month we will focus on the following

-understanding what flower and plants are, what they need to grow

-how to plant a garden

-work on fine motor skills

-counting

-working on vocabulary and language skills through discussions

-recording and discussing our observations

 

Activities

 

Life Cycle of a Flower and Plants

Materials: Eric Carles “A Tiny Seed”

Directions:

• talk about how plants and flowers start out as seeds. I just made my own little diagram on a whiteboard and we had a short and sweet discussion. Here is a little life cycle booklet that you can work through with your little one.
• Discuss the Life Cycle of a Plant

The seed begins to open

The roots begin to grow

A sprout begins to appear

The sprout grows taller

Leaves and a bud appear

The bud begins to open

The flower opens

The flower grows taller

 

What do Flowers need to Grow?

Materials: Clear plastic cup or mini pots ( I recommend using a clear plastic cup so kids can see the roots), flower seeds, soil, water.

Directions:

• Discuss what flowers need to grow (soil, water, sunlight.) Talk about why we need plants and flowers (create a pleasant atmosphere and supply us with food- planning on keeping it simple.)
• Assist your child with scooping the soil into the cup, planting the seed, watering the plant. Water your seed as necessary each day and watch it grow!

 

Parts of a Flower

Materials:  fake or real flower, draw and label the parts of a flower. 

Directions:

• Discuss what each part of the plant is and what it does (as simply as you can). Again, I just make my own little diagrams on my whiteboard, but there are plenty of free ones online. Here is a basic one from Simply Kinder. 

Roots: underground, supports and feeds flower water.

Stem: Supports the flower, moves water and food to other parts of the plant.

Leaves: Makes food for the flower.

Flower: Attracts bugs that help make new seeds.

 

Sunflower Garden

I was going to plan and plant a little flower garden with the girls but decided to go with a sunflower house as it will be a fun place for them to explore and play. I will use these instructions from Kids Gardening here.

Gardening Sensory Bin

Materials: Bin, soil, fake or real flowers, fake bugs, watering can, rocks, seeds, magnifying glass. I got this sweet little gardening kit for Amelie that will also be perfect for future sensory bins. For this activity, I took advantage of Target’s Spring Dollar Section and got all of these materials from there (: 

Directions:

• This will be our little gardening warm up before we plant our sunflower house. We will discuss what a garden is, the different things you will find in a garden, what we will need to make a garden, and how we will plant a garden using our tools. Again, Target dollar section has all the flower and gardening goodies this month. Fill a plastic tub with all the components and let your child dig, plant, explore in the dirt (it will be messy, but totally worth it! )

 

Pipe Cleaner Flowers

Materials: Beads and pipe cleaners

Directions:

• Have your child thread beads into 3 pipe cleaners.
• Create the middle of the flower (a small circle) and then stem.
• Shape the beaded pipe cleaner into flower petal shapes, loop through the center of the flower.

 

Nature Journal

Materials: Journal and pencil

Directions:

• Record through writing and drawing the progress of your garden or plants each week. Amelie also loves to take little nature walks around the yard and draws the different flowers we spot.

 

Flower Counting

Materials: Pom poms, number and the number of stems written and drawn on paper.

Directions:

• Have your child count and place pom poms on top of each stem for each number.

 

Petal Counting

Materials: Real Flowers

Directions:

• Collect flowers

• Pick and count the petals of each flower.

Outings

Huntington Gardens

Santa Barbara Botanical Gardens

 

Books

The Tiny Seed by Eric Carle

Planting a Rainbow by Lois Ehlert

How Does My Garden grow by Gerda Muller

Bloom by Deborah Diesen Illustrated by Mary Lundquist