Perhaps I should have titled this post “Attempting to cut flower stems in preschool” because child scissors don’t make much of a dent in the stems.
Figuring Things Out
However, one of our students figured out how to make this work.
These are left-over stems from our flower bouquets which I posted about yesterday here for painting and here for flower canvas.
This little girl figured out that it was easiest to bend or snap the stem in half first, then cut the stem apart the rest of the way.
Stem Cutting Can Lead to Exploration
The flower stem center was actually an interesting center to include on our flower bouquet day. The bending and cutting of stems led to a little exploration in science and nature as the children examined the stems and a little fine motor skill building as the children worked to cut or bend or snap the stems into pieces.
There was really no objective here other than additional exploration of the flowers. How often do we let children explore or play with an expensive bouquet of flowers anyway? I usually just throw them away but this time, I realized that they would make for some interesting play and exploration.