Spring Flowers Storytime

Up here in Michigan we are getting horrible frosts during the night that will more than like do some damage to our lovely spring flowers, but typically this time of year, we have gorgeous blooms!   It's around about April or May that I like to do a flower storytime and encourage children to look for the many different kinds of flowers in their neighborhood; though the flowers won't look too happy this year!

I dug around for something fresh to liven up the storytime - if not for the kids, than for me!  Nothing dooms a storytime more than a burnt out librarian!   For years I have seen people do coffee filter flowers and I never tried it.  This year, I did!!!  And wow - what an easy and pretty craft project!  We even went crazy and made some butterflies too!

The books I chose are ones that I haven't read before in storytime.  I used these three, though there are others to choose from:

Huck Runs Amuck by Sean Taylor
And then it's Spring by Julie Fogliano
What Does Bunny See? by Linda Sue Park

Other great books include:

Planting a Rainboy by Lois Ehlert
One Little Seed by Elaine Greenstein


SONG:

Out in the garden
Growing in the sun
Were 5 pretty flowers
And I picked one!

Out in the garden
Growing in the sun
Were 4 pretty flowers
And I picked one!
Etc.


CRAFT:

The great coffee filter flowers!!!   All you need are washable markers, pipe cleaners, water/spray bottle, possibly some clothes pins if you too want to make butterflies, and of course, coffee filters.

Being a non-coffee drinker, I had no idea filters came in different sizes.  We used the really big ones here.

First, all you need to do is let your child go crazy with the markers on the coffee filter (or on many coffee filters).   The more marker, the better.  My example pictured here ended up rather light.  The more color added to the filter, the more bright and bold the flower!

Once they are happy, it's time to get the coffee filter wet.  Experiment and dry getting it went at different locations on the filter and see what happens.  Also, it's a great time to explore what colors are made when others blend together.  ***I actually found that sprinkling the water from my fingers worked better at blending the colors than the spray bottle.  I think the spray bottle just has too fine of a mist.

Now, the waiting... it takes about 20 mins for these to dry; less time if you leave them out in the sun.  Better yet, if you're short on time, use a hair dryer!

When the filter is dried, then you can create!  Find the middle of the filter, pinch it and then tightly wrap a pipe cleaner around it to make a stem.  

OR if you would like to make a butterfly, use either the push type of clothespins and slide your filter up (then fluff out the "wings") or pinch the filter from the top to the bottom (accordian style) and then secure using the pinching type of clothes pins.

OR  pinch the filter from the top to the bottom (accordian style) and then secure with a pipecleaner, wrapping it around to form the body and then using extra ends to make antennae. 

Whatever you choose to do - have fun!!!