Flower Potpourri
Published on: July 28, 2010
Flower Potpourri: Summer Lessons for Little Hands
Summer is the perfect season to bring learning outdoors! These hands-on activities — making fragrant potpourri, mixing fizzy floats, and playing fruit math games — invite your child to explore with all of their senses. Each one offers rich opportunities for practical life skills and sensorial education that are at the heart of the Montessori approach.
Summer Potpourri
Summer is full of the wonderful smells of flowers and herbs. This is a great time to grab a basket and collect wonderful mints, lemon and orange leaves, verbena, geranium, sage, sweet woodruff, magnolia, jasmine, honeysuckle, violets, sweet pea, roses, herbs, and lavender. Pick anything that smells good! This is a wonderful olfactory experience for young children and a beautiful introduction to sensorial impressions.
Materials You’ll Need
- A small basket for collecting flowers and herbs
- Paper towels or a large wicker basket for drying
- A variety of fragrant flowers, petals, leaves, and herbs from your garden
- Optional: a flower press to preserve individual blooms for botany studies
Steps
- On a sunny day, after the morning dew has melted off, head outside with your child to pick flowers that are freshly bloomed. If you’re looking for inspiration, our guide to wildflowers is a wonderful place to start.
- Have your child gently pull off the flower petals and leaves from the stems.
- Spread the petals and leaves out on paper towels or in a large wicker basket in a warm, dry spot.
- Let your child gently stir the mixture every other day until dry.
Your child will observe the gradual change of color and texture over time — a wonderful botany and science lesson.
Fizzy Floats
Cool down with a simple kitchen science treat! This activity combines practical life skills with sensory exploration.
Steps
- Invite your child to set up their workspace and gather ingredients.
- Let your child pour sparkling water into each glass, practicing careful pouring.
- Help your child scoop sorbet or ice cream into the glass. Watch the fizz together!
- Garnish with fresh fruit. Your child can serve the floats, practicing grace and courtesy.
This activity exercises pouring, scooping, and sequencing — all essential practical life activities.
Fruit Math Games
Summer fruit is perfect for hands-on math.
Materials
- A variety of summer fruits
- Small bowls or a sorting tray
- Number cards (1–10)
Activities to Try
- Sorting: Sort fruit by kind or color.
- Counting: Match number cards to fruit counts.
- Patterns: Create and extend patterns.
- Addition: Simple addition with fruit as manipulatives.
When the math lesson is finished, everyone gets to eat the materials!
If you’d like to extend the outdoor exploration, try creating a butterfly garden together. Happy summer learning!