Grow With Me - Spring Kid's Craft

The arrival of spring is the perfect time to teach children where the plants and flowers they recognize come from. Introduce your children to seeds, plants and flowers and how they all grow with this cute grow with me flower. Plant actual seeds alongside the grow with me flower so that children can follow along.

Objectives: Teach young children about the needs of flowers as they grow and about the different parts of a flower as it grows. Understand that like them, plants need time to grow as they take in food that they turn into energy for the various parts of the flower.

Materials:

Grow With Me Flower- Construction paper in several colors, scissors, tape or wall safe adhesive, markers, wallspace

Seed Planting- Seeds, potting soil, pots

What to Do: Help children pick out flower seeds that you can plant in pots. Make sure children know to keep their potted seeds in a sunny corner, where they can remain undisturbed. Help them water the pots every other day, being careful not to over-water.

On green construction paper trace out the following shapes:

3 long rectangles (cut a single sheet into thirds)

2 leaves

Grass-- cut a single sheet of construction paper in half, and trace a 4” line every ½”.

On pink construction paper trace out the following shapes:

5 rounded petals

On yellow construction paper trace out the following shapes:

1 large circle

1 small circle

On blue construction paper trace out the following shape:

large rain drop

Have child cut out all the shapes you have created. To begin, add the green grass to a wall in your home. This will represent the soil that they have planted their seed in. As soon as the first green pokes through the soil, let children add the first green rectangle, which will be the stem. Continue to add to the plant, adding the stems, leaves, more stem and then the flower as it buds and then blooms. The sun, raindrop and soil represent the three needs of the plant to grow, and you can add these to the wall with children as you talk about them.

Once your flower is complete, use a marker to add the names of each part of the flower. For very young children, petals, stem, leaves, and seed are enough. If you have older children also following along, you can add to the vocabulary with the specific names for flower parts.

Discuss: After planting talk with children about what’s happening. How is the seed going to turn into a flower? What does it take for the seed to grow? For a flower to appear? Ask children to guess how long it is going to take for their seed to sprout, leaves to appear and flowers to form and have them keep track of the days.