Saturday, January 18, 2014

Teach Toddlers Flower Arranging with Artificial Flowers

Flower Arranging For Kids 

In our Primary studio at Indigo Montessori (ages 3 through 6), we teach flower arranging with fresh cut flowers for the kids to trim and arrange in vases.  It's a special activity that each child loves to do, since they participate in decorating the room, making a flower arrangement for another friend, and they are given the opportunity to get creative.  We wanted to offer something like this to our toddlers class and found that offering fake flowers can also be enjoyable and give room for creativity.


Teach Flower Arranging to Toddlers with Fake Flowers!
In our Pre-Primary studio for ages 1.5 to age 3, we like to prepare the children with a flower arranging activity that doesn't require cutting the stems.  We use those fake flowers such as silk, felt, or cheap fabric ones that you can get at any craft store or dollar store near you.  We offer glass vases in various sizes and show the kids how they can arrange the flowers in the vases to decorate the room.  The fake flowers work great, because there are so many opportunities for color combinations that work with seasonal themes.  For example, we may offer fake Poinsettias during the winter season and orange leafy arrangements for the fall.  Each month, we switch out our baskets of fake flowers and leafy stems for the kids to arrange.  The kids love to put out vases of their flower arrangements on the tables, on the window sills, and on the shelves.  It's a great lesson on care and respect for one's environment and it makes the classroom feel more welcoming.

 If you are unfamiliar with how we do things in a Montessori setting, a lesson is typically given before we offer something like this.  We want the children to treat the material with respect, but we don't want the kids to copy how we are arranging the flowers.  So be sure to point out how each arrangement is different and unique in it's own way, and the kids will take more pride in their personal arrangement.