We have been exploring lots of gardens this past fortnight
Some traditional
Some tropical
All colourful
Creative
Bright
All designed for pleasure
For adventure
To give joy
Our children have loved roaming the jungle of Heligan
The water garden at Trebah
The biomes of Eden
We have loved learning about flowers and trees
We have enjoyed their make up and beauty
It has made me determined to get out and about more
In our home county of Kent
To study nature
Be amazed at the incredible way it thrives and grows
And to simply enjoy its beauty
Seeing all these giants of the garden world
Has made me long for our own country garden
To be home with our beautiful blooms in Tilda’s garden
And the more natural wild ramblings of our back garden
We are very lucky to live where we live
And have what we have
It reminded me
Of a sensory play
I set up for the children last month
Using some of the fading flowers from our gardens
I lay them out on a wicker tray
With some scissors
To create a simple flower cutting tray
I was interested to see how the children would choose to play
Without any direction from me
I had an ulterior motive with this invitation to play
Which was to allow Bea to develop her scissor skills
She is left handed and so finds cutting quite tricky
This was a safe and creative way to encourage Bea
To give snipping with scissors a go
She and Esther were both really keen to start cutting
At first the just cut the flowers off the stems
Then they started trimming leaves
Splitting stems
Pruning petals
And being a little more particular and precise
It was fascinating to watch
They started out playing individually
But soon started talking and playing together
They talked about shape and size and colour
They named the flowers that they knew
They started to sort and arrange the flowers
Creating posies and small bouquets
They identified the parts of the flowers
Grouped stems and petals and leaves
They told each other their favourites
And picked the prettiest blooms
To wear in their hair
It was not long before a curious Edie came to join us
Choosing her own flowers from the tray
Picking apart the petals
Stroking the stems
Looking closely at these interesting, colourful things
This is such a wonderful sensory activity for all ages
With lots of educational and developmental benefits
As children pick and play with flowers
They learn their names
How they smell
How they feel
And sometimes even how they taste!
This is a wonderful sensory experience
And can be made different each time you play
Add herbs with strong scents
Flowers with thick and thin stems
Dark and light leaves
There is so much in flowers to be investigated and explored
I am going to be extending this learning through play
Over the coming weeks
We are going to turn our role play corner into a flower shop
We are going to make perfume in our water table
Make floral soup in the mud kitchen
Press flowers
Make a fairy garden
And lots more
We love adding flowers to our water play
It makes the water pretty
And adds an extra imaginative element to our sensory play
We are looking forward to freezing some flowers in ice cubes
To add to our water play this weekend
So many ways to play with spring flowers
To help children understand the awe and wonder of nature
In a fun and creative way
How will you play with the flowers in your garden
This springtime?
