Flower Power! Part 2: Playing with Petals

Yesterday we handcrafted artificial flowers and today we are playing with the real thing! You'd have to be pretty crazy to let your kids cut, tear, stick, stir, pound and otherwise destroy the brand new fresh cut flowers you just bought for Shavuot. As it turns out, I'm pretty crazy! But you can also reserve these activities for a couple of weeks after Shavuot when those beautiful cut flowers are beginning to droop. Alternatively, many florists will gladly dispose of damaged goods and fallen petals in your direction if you ask! Either way, these next few activities are fabulously fun for your budding botanists...

1. Lavender Scented Petal Potion Sensory Bin

This is one of my very favorite sensory bins we have ever done! We were pretty rained in this week so it was a good indoor activity with an element of outdoor flare. You could easily set this up outside as well using petals and foliage from your own garden. Even setting up the bin is fun! Remember when you were a kid and you used to play "(s)he loves me, (s)he loves me not?" You get to play it again today as you pluck petals from a few colorful blooms. You won't need a lot of flowers for this, just a few with a lot of petals. Add in some interesting leaves, stems, flower centers or buds--no part is left behind. Even long stems make for great potion stirrers along with a couple of mixing spoons and maybe some bowls for filling and pouring. Add your petals into some water, a few drops of lavender essential oil if you wish, some pink food coloring (or your color of choice) and also a generous shake of glitter. Flower soup, petal potions, and all kinds of whimsical magic will take place... If you are using this indoors, you might want to set out a hand towel and waterproof smock or apron, but the bonus is that your spills will smell lovely and be pretty easy to clean up.

2. Floral Arranging

I do not have an eye for floral arrangements. Usually, I take a bouquet, clip the ends, and stuff them in a vase and done. Children, on the other hand, have a wonderful eye for floral arranging. S in particular loves flowers. He loves picking them outside when he can, planting them, growing them, playing with them and caring for them. He was so excited a few weeks ago when he woke up from his nap before Shabbos and I had brought home a Shabbos "treat" for him and Y: a small flower plant (pictured above). I actually thought he would be annoyed it was not an edible treat, but instead he immediately declared ownership of the orange flower plant and nearly every morning, I see he has taken the pot from the tray it sits in and placed it upon his breakfast placemat just beside his water cup and chewable vitamin. He loves to tell me when he notices a bud opening into a new orange blossom. He truly knows how to appreciate flowers and I am banking upon him (with a little help from Y) to also know how to arrange our selection of cut flowers (thank you, husband!) in our selection of vases for Shavuot. Children (with some support as needed) can cut the ends of stems and decide how to arrange the flowers. With vases of different sizes, they will need to call upon their mathematical and engineering skills to know how tall the flowers need to be and how many can fit into a vase. They can add water and help decide where to place the finished arrangements. If you have some ribbon on hand, you may wish to tie some around a vase. If you have some marbles or waterbeads or mosaic tiles, you may wish to add them into a vase. Have fun and get as creative as you'd like!

You can notice which flowers have a smell and which do not. You can talk about the colors and textures and varieties. You can also talk about the importance of leaving flowers growing in nature to grow in nature, unless otherwise specified and that cut flowers can last only for a short while in water once they have been harvested from the ground. It is a great opportunity to teach a sense of reverence and gratitude for the fleeting beauty that cut flowers add to our homes and holiday tables.

3. Petal Pounding Art

If you have yet to try your hand at hammering flower petals, you simply must! It is so much fun! You'll need some colorful flower petals and leaves (in the Fall, you can use a variety of colorful foliage), some white or off white fabric (remnants or cloth napkins are great) and a plastic or real hammer. You may wish to wear safety goggles and adult supervision and support is a must. If you're not rained in, take this one outside. If you are, the floor is the best surface to work on, but you may want to put a drop cloth below you to catch any flying petal parts!

Start by arranging a colorful array of petals and foliage on your work surface. I used a placemat and set them right on that. Press your fabric over top and if you have any bulgy blooms, you may want to start off by flattening them a bit with your hand. Now comes the fun part! Pound the heck out of those petals and watch the colors emerge through your fabric! Once it is to your liking and dry, you can choose to display it as is, in a picture frame, to seal your work and use it as a napkin or handkerchief or, as we did, to place it in an embroidery hoop (I found a bunch for super cheap at a thrift store) and make a festive door hanger. You could even use your fabric as recyclable gift wrap. How cute would that be for end of the year teacher gifts?


4. Flower Power Sticky Wall This last activity was aimed more toward the shorter member of my family, but slightly taller family members will also enjoy it! Using clear contact paper and tape, affix your sticky wall to any vertical (or horizontal) surface. I love the look of this Spring themed washi tape border and it's super easy to remove from painted surfaces. Provide a dish of petals and foliage for sticking and re-sticking! Please note that with very young children or those who are likely to mouth materials, that supervision is important. You can find a great list of edible flowers at Fun Flower Facts the Blog. You can also substitute in dismantled silk flowers for this activity.

Well, it's been fun playing with petals, but I'd better put my pedal to the metal and get ready for Shavuot! We'll be back after the holiday and until then...

Happy Playing!