Science Fun and Flower Rings

Hi There,

I'm Sarah Tharpe Winchell from Teaching Resources for the Classroom.  I am so excited to be part of this amazing group of people that care about teachers and children.

I love teaching science and integrate it as much as possible into our school day! Some days we have those great teachable moments that seem to be getting rarer during these assessment driven times.  This is one of those times! Here in North Carolina it has been raining quite a bit recently. As soon as the rain stops we head outside looking for any place we can play. Well of course rain makes puddles and as long as there are puddles.....kids will play in them! The bigger the rock, the harder the throw.......check out the picture. A nice little lesson about force.

Rain also help flowers to grow! One of our favorite things to do is to put these little buttercup flowers under our chins to see if we like butter.  I'm not sure how this all started. It is one of those passed down traditions.  The sunlight bounces off the little yellow flower onto the bottom of your chin and you see a yellow spot on your chin. No yellow....well you don't like butter! It doesn't work in the shade.  Since this is a Make-It Monday post I'm going to show you how to make a little yellow buttercup flower ring with your kids if you don't have any flowers. Then your children can see the sun reflect onto their chins. Get them to use their inquiry skills by testing the flower under different conditions such as classroom light, shade and bright sunlight. The children just love the magic of it all! It also makes a lovely Mother's Day present!!

 

You can find the pattern to make the flower ring here.  Flower Ring Pattern Print the pattern on the color of paper you want. I used yellow because I wanted buttercups. Each flower needs two flower pieces. Glue the flowers together with a glue stick. Use the hole punch to place the holes in the flowers. Closer is better. After the holes are punched, thread the ribbon through so it makes a loop on the back and then tie in the front. You can also make a bracelet using the same method just make the ribbon longer. I hope you do have buttercups but if you don't you can still have a sunny day and keep a folk legend going for a whole new group of children!

Cheers and sunshine,
Sarah from Teaching Resources for the Classroom