Lily of the Valley

Spring and Easter are here and it is always an exciting time in the classroom. The true meaning of Easter is hard for young children to understand so in our classroom we concentrate on new life.

The Easter Lily is a great example of Easter and new life. So we decided to let the children plant Easter Lily bulbs. During circle time we looked at pictures of all different kinds of lilies and discovered that they come in many different colors. The popular colors are purple, blue and white. We looked at our bulbs and talked about what we needed to make them grow. The children decided that they needed dirt, water and sunshine. This was an outside activity. Each child had a pot and filled it 1/3 full of soil. In went the bulb, then water, and more soil to cover. They had the choice to leave it in the classroom or take them home. They all chose to take theirs home.

We explained that the bulb would take a long time to grow, so we decided to make Easter Lily's for Easter dinner decorations. The children had a choice of what color they would like to make. Some chose purple and blue, but most choose the most popular white. They laid their hands down on the colored paper, spreading their fingers wide, and we traced around them. They cut them out and used pencils to curl the fingers. We taped both hands to a green straw and pushed a yellow pipe cleaner up through the straw as the yellow part of the flower. They taped on green construction paper leaves and put them in clear plastic bottles.

Parents, teachers and the children enjoyed both of the Spring/Easter activities. I heard comments such as, "This is a keeper," "It was fun!" and "They are so cute."

Easter and spring are definitely here. Enjoy all the new life that both bring.

Have a blessed week,

Lynn