These lovely water lilies really open up and seem to bloom in water! This is by far one of our favorite homeschool lessons.

Making the lilies was simple. Using the book All Year Round for inspiration, I cut out the leaf and water lily shapes. Without telling the kids what we were doing, I gave them each a flower and we colored them with crayons. I told them to color the flower anyway they liked, but to leave the back blank.

Not knowing what these drawing would be used for drove the kids crazy.

After the children were done coloring, I helped fold the petals in. We glued the flowers to the leaves and let the water lilies dry for about 30 minutes.

I brought a tub down to the grass out front as the flowers dried. We live on the top floor of our two story apartment, so it took a little more effort to go outside, but I knew it would make the water lilies more magical.  The kids filled the tub by running up and down the stairs with watering jugs. They were so confused, but getting very into the adventure.

Finally we brought the flowers out and placed them into the water.

We waited.

 

 

Before long some buds began to open.

It was so magical watching them bloom.

The kids want to share these lille with everyone.

The flowers can be dried and used again. The children dried these flowers, folded them back up and watched them bloom over and over. They even shared the secret of the water lilies with their dad later in the evening.  Over all this lesson was a huge success.

 

Check out our post one making Math Boards for another fun project.

Be well!