Collecting Petals

I was given a lovely bouquet of sunflowers as a housewarming gift. So pretty, but now they are past their prime. Ethan however, was not impressed that I was throwing them away. From there, collecting petals was born.

We took them outside where I gave him a plastic bag and let him collect the petals. Believe me when I say, it was a serious hit. Like many toddlers, he really enjoys collecting, dumping and pouring. After the petals were collected he carried them around proudly in his baggie. He talked about how he was going to save them to show to his grandparents and uncle. He was so proud.

What did we do then?

• We counted them (some of them)
• Looked at how some petals were yellow and some were orange
• Piled them high on the table
• Looked at them closely
• Carried them around proudly
• Took them in and out of the bag multiple times
• Learned the words "petal" and "stem"

The whole experience was a great tactile one and a good science related project. 

Ethan liked the project so much that the next morning he begged to have the petals off of our one remaining sunflower, and brought his bag of petals to daycare to show his teachers and share with his friends. Long story short, toddler life is rough, and Ethan was told he could get more petals when he got home. But we had no more petals. SO after much lamenting the lost petals, we went to the grocery story and bought a few BOGO flower bunches from the scratch and dent floral section. Really though, I shouldn't have had to pay for them at all..they were in ROUGH shape. Regardless, he thought they were wonderful and spent yet another night picking and
organizing petals.

Round two. He thought it was funny that I was taking a picture of "the mess."

It was nice to see the flowers enjoyed for one last time. Being such an important part of a toddlers day is a great last hurrah for a flower,
don't you think?

I'd love to use the petals to make a craft. Iron them between wax paper or put them between contact paper sheets, but he insists that their purpose is to be in the bag--fine by me! 

Just a warning, you could be in danger of creating a flower petal removing monster...proceed with caution (and fun)!