Day 284: learning and matching flowers

The flowers around here are just starting to bloom. The natives are quite a ways from popping up but some of the garden favorites are up and looking beautiful.

Which made me realize that I hadn't really talked with Sam at all about flowers. I know that our walks and bike rides will quickly become all about spotting and talking about flowers so I wanted to create an activity to that would help to start that conversation.

So I created this flower matching puzzle game! I found pictures of some common garden flowers and some common native flowers that I know we will see in our yard and on local hikes on the internet and printed them out.

 
Then I glued the pictures on to some paperboard (old cracker and cereal boxes). I wrapped tape around the edges to help hold the the pictures together.

 

 
Then I cut the pictures into two pieces, using different shapes/patterns for each picture, to make them into minature puzzles.

I wanted Sam to have to match up the flowers and then put together the puzzle. I probably could have cut them into smaller pieces (which I still might do) but I wanted to start with just two pieces.

As she was working to put together the pieces I talked to her about what the flower was and where we would find them this spring and summer. It was neat to see her excited about the ones that we were growing and would have in our yard.

We also used the flower cards today as a "hide-and-seek" kind of game. I hid one side of each flower and then she had to find the matches and put them together. Just made the same activity a bit more active for her.

She had a lot of fun with these little card/puzzles and they were super easy to make!

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The Nitty Gritty!

Additional concepts and extensions on this activity -

• easy to discuss and work on colors
• can count different colors or types of flowers
• petals can be counted
• flowers can be catagorized by color, number of petals, where they will be found
• bigger pictures can be used and cut into smaller pieces for more difficult puzzles
• if laminated they could be used for a hiding type game outside
• if you have an older child you could put the name of the flower on one side of the puzzle and the picture on the other, of facts about the flower on one side and the picture on the other
• these could be made with pictures of trees, leaves, animals, butterflies, fish, almost anything!
• lots of ways to add and change this up....any more ideas you can think of?

Adapting this idea from the snowflake match game that Sam loved so much at the Aldo Leopold Nature Center's Wonder Bugs program.

Comments

[Frances]

What a great idea, I'll be borrowing this one. My little guy is entranced by puzzles right now & I want him to learn the words for the plants we grow in the garden. Perfect.

[Mel]

You have so many great ideas! How fun to have you as a naturalist mom. I will be using this one, too!

[Mama Pea Pod]

What a clever and versatile idea! I really need to get a printer...

[Janet]

Love this! Another great idea that I'll have to steal! It's a wonderful way to teach them about the flowers, but it's also a spatial relationship activity. Awesome!

[Kara]

Great idea!!!

[Michelle Willow]

Very simple to do and great spring time activity!

Thanks for adding this post in last week's High paw! Hope to see you participate this week too!