I have been recently working on more materials for children that have a personal touch. I am happy to share with you my Montessori Inspired Flower Arrangement and Flower DIY Tutorial.

These are easy to make. I am sure that you can find most of the materials at home.

Things you need:

a tray

a small mat/large cup holder (you can also use several small ones)

several small vases or small glass jars like in this post which you can decorate as well

a bunch of colorful pipe cleaners

Tutorial:

  1. First, make a stem by twisting together 1-2 folded in half pipe cleaners. I chose green and orange.
  2. Then, make flowers:
  • Twist one end into a small circle.
  • Pull the other end through the circle to make a “petal”, twist to keep in place.
  • Make 2 more, twist to resemble a 4 petal flower.
  • Now take one end of the stem and twist around the middle of the flower.

Voila! You made your flower

Make as many flowers as you like. They could be as my flower that have 4 on each stem. Or, they could be single, double, triple or more!

How to work with flower sorting:

If you made single flowers, you can use this Flower Arranging activity from Rhythms of Play as a reference.

If you made it a multiple flower arrangements like mine in the photos, you can work with them the following way:

  1. Take the flowers out of the vases and place on the tray
  2. Prepare the work mat or sit at the table
  3. Take the flowers out onto the mat, and arrange the vases on the tray, mat or table the way you would like them to be arranged (in my case, each vase is in each corner of the tray with the big plate holder in the middle).
  4. Using both hands, pick up the flowers and place them into the vase, spreading each individual flower at different level, or the same level – as you deem nice looking.
  5. Finish the work and invite the child to try it out.

The demonstration could be done to one child or a small group of children. In my case, up to 4 children can take part in this activity simultaneously.

It is important to keep in mind that this is a Montessori Inspired Flower Arrangement Activity. Montessori always gave room for creativity especially in practical life activities. Besides, your child might see the whole thing from a different perspective. That means the flowers might be arranged in a different esthetic order. However, keep in mind to always start the arrangements from left and go to the right, or from bottom to the top. For example, first arrange the top two vases, then the lower two. And arrange the left corner first, then move onto the right one.

Try not to overreact if the child did it in her own way – rather demonstrate again.

I hope you enjoy this simple activity. While I was preparing it for younger children, my older two got so inspired, and made a whole bunch of their own flowers and structures from pipe cleaners. So perhaps some children can enjoy making flowers together with you. And it could be a whole new Montessori Inspired activity.