Spring is here! Which means flowers are blooming. This time of year, my children and I love visiting flower farms and picking wildflowers on hikes. There are so many ways to educate your children with flowers. There is nothing I love more than having fun while learning. If you are looking for a fun Spring activity, try flower sorting with your child!

What you’ll need for this Spring Activity:

  • A bucket or basket
  • Scissors (optional)
  • Clear cups & colored tape OR colored bowls
  • Sensory bin
  • Dirt/seeds(optional)

Go for a Nature Walk

Go on a nature walk with your child, or even head over to your local flower farm! Have fun exploring nature while picking varieties of flowers using your hands or scissors to collect. While exploring, talk about your senses. What colors do you see, what do the flowers smell like, how do the petals feel, and what do you hear in nature? Older children may enjoy bringing a clipboard and paper to sketch what they see.

Flower Color Sorting

Once you get home, set up color stations at your table. You can use cups and label them by color, using colored tape, or just take out different colored plastic bowls from your kitchen. Have your child sort the flowers by color. This is a great opportunity to practice colors, matching and counting. For this Spring activity, you can also ask what flowers are the same and which ones are are different by their petals and colors. Older kids can take their exploration one step further by trying to identify the flowers, either on the computer or in a book you checked out from the library ahead of time.

Extend the Play to a Sensory Bin

Once they finish the Spring activity of sorting, you can peel the petals and leaves off to create a sensory bin. Explore the beautiful smells and the silky petals. Add sand, dirt and seeds for pretend gardening sensory play! Be sure to add a shovel, rake, and cups. On a warm day you could have a water sensory bin with the petals and leaves; add cups, a watering can, and a floating boat from the bath! Sensory play is such an important part of childhood because children learn through their senses. Stimulating our senses facilitates both intellectual learning and physical ability. Not only does sensory play work on strengthening fine motor skills, but it also practices language development and so much more!

We encourage you to learn more by taking our online class: Encouraging Curiosity & Learning Through Play. Remember that all nannies placed with a family through Boston Baby Nurse & Nanny receive three free online classes to continue their professional development.

About The Author

Jaclyn Capilli has over 10 years experience working with children. After graduating from Curry College with her Bachelor Degree she worked as a paraprofessional in a special need’s classroom. Then while in Graduate school at Cambridge College she nannied for a local family for 3 years. After moving back to the South Shore she worked for Head Start for 5 plus years while nannying for a local family. She is now a mother of two and is working for Boston Baby Nurse & Nanny. She owns Jaclyn Nicole Photography, a photography business in the South Shore. In her free time she likes reading, going for hikes and making memories with her daughters.