I found flower shaped pool noodles at the dollar store this past weekend and thought it would be fun for the children to use them to make flower prints for an art project.  I have seen the noodles in place like walmart and menards as well but if you can not find the flower shaped ones the regular circle ones will still work fine for this project.

I cut the pool noodles in two inch lengths ... you cut them to be any size but I felt this was a good size for the the children to grip ... dip ... and press.  I put different color paints on small paper plates and set a cut flower noodle onto each plate.

The children dipped the flower noodles into the paint and blotted off some of the extra paint on the paper plate.  The then pressed the flower down on a piece of cardstock paper and repeated.  They chose what colors they wanted to use and how many flowers they wanted to make.

After the flower prints had dried a bit they dipped the bottom of a small paint brush into yellow paint and dabbed it in the center of the flowers.  I think the children did a great job with this project that also worked on fine motor skills as well as hand-eye coordination.

We did a flower themed circle time activity similar to "brown bear ... brown bear what do you see?".   I showed the children each of the flowers one at a time and told them what color it was.  When you do the following activity you can start with any color that you wish.  There is no particular order the flower colors.

After we finished reviewing the colors I picked the red flower and held it up so all of the children could see.

red flower ... red flower what do you see?
I see a blue flower looking at me. (hold up blue flower and remove red)

blue flower ... blue flower what do you see?
I see a green flower looking at me. (hold up green flower and remove blue)

green flower ... green flower what do you see?
I see a black flower looking at me. (hold up black flower and remove green)

Continue until you have gone through all of the colors.  When you hold the last flower up say "I see all of the color flowers looking at me".

You can find the flower patterns here.  I printed them on cardstock paper ... laminated them and glue them to craft sticks but you do not have to.  You can attach magnets to the back and use on a magnetic board ... you could also attach velcro or masking tape to the back and use on a felt board.


I love using props at circle time so be on the look out for more goodies soon!!

We made handprint flowers for Mother's Day and they turned out super cute!!  The children started by painting their hands green and pressing them down on poster board that I had secured to our table.  After they washed their hands they dipped a finger in yellow paint and finger painted a small yellow circle above each finger on the handprints.

The next step was to choose the colors they wanted to use for the flowers and finger paint small circles around the yellow circles.  While they were waiting for the paint to dry they cut out flower pots from brown construction paper and glued them on just below the handprints.

You can see a video of this projecthere or by clicking below:

Every year we plant sun flower and pumpkins seeds with the children and then transfer the plants into our garden area when they reach the right size.  I chose these two kinds of plants because they are rapid growing and larger plants which makes it easier for the children to observe their growth.

When we plant seeds I make sure I have all of the items we will need already set up outside.  You may choose to do your set up differently but these are the materials we use and the process by which the children plant their seeds.

We use:

Peat Moss Cups
Miracle Grow Potting Soil
Variety of Pumpkin and Sunflower Seeds
Hand Trowels
Watering Cans
Clear of Frosted Containers With Lids

We start by having the children fill the peat moss cups with potting soil.  They use hand trowels to scoop up the soil and put it in the cups.  They then pick the kind of seeds they want to put in the cup and put one or two in the soil. They cover up the seeds with a little more soil and and water them. 

After they add water to the cups they put them in one of the plastic containers.  The containers act as small greenhouses when you put the covers on them.  Over the next couple of weeks the children will check the plants daily to see if the seeds have germinated.  Once they have they then check to see how the plants start to change as they grow. 


I choose not to write the children's names on the cups because sometimes there can be seeds that do not grow.  When we are planting the seeds we talk about how everyone is helping to plant and take care of all the seeds so they belong to the whole class to enjoy.

We made glitter paint today ... it was so easy to do and the colors turned out so pretty and sparkly.  I purchased a set of eight glad brand re-usable containers from walmart for under 3.00.  The containers had lids so we could cover up the paint when we were done.

I purchased alcohol free clear hair gel from Walmart ... there were a lot of choices but I chose the suave brand.  We laid all of the containers out and squeezed some of the hair gel into each one.

The next step was to add liquid watercolor to the hair gel.  You can also use food color if you do not have  liquid watercolor.  We did not use a set amount for each of the colors.  The children just put in a few drops to start with and stirred the watercolor and hair gel together with a craft stick.  If they wanted a darker color they added more of the liquid watercolor.

I purchased my watercolors from amazon ... here is the set that I have and here is a less expensive set that still had great ratings.

The last step was to add glitter.  I found a package of glitter (from Walmart) that contained 16 different color packs for under 3.00.  We matched the color of the glitter to the paint but you do not have to ... if you just have gold or silver glitter that would work fine too for the paint.

We mixed the paint and glitter together with craft sticks and the children decided how much glitter to use.  They did a great job determining if they had enough glitter.

The children dipped paint brushes in the paint and began making their creations.  The paint itself has a thicker consistency because of the hair gel and glides on nice and smooth on the paper.


You can see a video of this project by clicking below: