Stop and Smell the Flowers
Have your children make flowers by coloring baking cups with markers and gluing on construction paper stems and leaves? Spray cotton balls with cologne or air freshener, and have the children glue a fragrant cotton ball to the center of each "blossom." When the flowers are dry, display them on the wall or a bulletin board and invite visitors to "Stop and Smell the Flowers."
Sent in by: Kathy

Sort different types of seeds.
Estimate how many seeds in jar. Make note of everyone's estimate and then graph. Plant a pinto, pumpkin, corn, or sunflower seed and graph its growth.
Pop popcorn.
Roast pumpkinseeds.
Have refried beans.
Crack open and eat sunflower seeds.

Spring Planting Art
Make bags for the sunny windows with the lima beans in them. For art, cut watering can shapes from pastel colors of construction paper. Paint them with lima beans!! Do this like marble painting except the children jiggled their papers around (inside a pizza box) to make the beans leave speckles and drops of color wherever they touched. Spooned several beans from a cup of paint and they scattered them around with the spoon before they jiggle them. Work with just one color at a time . Used large handled punch pins to make the holes in the spout before mounting them to a lt. blue background. Then have them add a few drops of silver glitter glue to look like water. Some can glued a few beans at the bottom to be watered! 

Sent in by Sally 

How To Stop Mold in Bean Plantings
After you have your wet paper towel folded in the bag from top to bottom, staple across the bag about 2" from the top.  Place your beans here and they still remain moist but they are not in a position to receive the greatest amount of moisture. They set above the staples and the sprouts are growing between the staples and on their way downward as roots should. Add a little less than 1/4 cup water and it is pooling in the bottom of the baggies a bit but you don't have to keep spraying them. Seal the bag all but about 1/8" with the closure. The water is not getting tainted either as it is in movement in the absorption process by the paper towel. Good Luck

Daffodils

Use a yellow egg carton and cut each section apart from the rest. This is the cup of the daffodil. A small circle of orange construction paper is glued to the inside bottom. I find yellow egg cartons at Easter time. They have chocolate marshmallow eggs in them.

Lisa

Paper Tulip 
Supplies needed:  red, yellow, green and black crepe paper iron string (very thin iron wire), flower thread (is used by florist), normal thread, glue, scissors

For the heart of the tulip you'll have to cut 4 strips of black crepe  paper, twist them into straps and bind them with the the thread onto the  stem (stalk?) (iron string)  Cut two squares of the yellow crepe paper and me a hole in the middle then push them over the stem to the black strips. Cut from the red crepe paper five petals of 12x6 cm. Tie them with  the thread under the yellow squares.  Cut 8 leaves of the green crepe paper, then cut 4 pieces of the  iron string about 5 cm longer then the leave. Put glue on a leave, put the iron string on it and put another leaf on  top of it. Put the 4 leaves on the stem fixing it tight with the the iron string. Wrap green crepe paper around the stems and glue it at the bottom. Now you have one tulip and you can make a bouquet.
Jeanine

Daffodils
Supplies needed:  Bathroom dispenser size paper cups, cotton balls, Yellow and green construction paper, Yellow paint, Yellow tissue paper, Scissors, glue, paintbrushes.

The first part of this I changed because even after adding detergent to the paint it did not cover the print on the cups. Glue scraps of crumbled yellow tissue to the outside of the cups, covering the sides completely. Paint the inside of the cup and one side of the cotton ball yellow. Set these things aside to dry. The second part can be done one of two ways depending on your age group. Either precut 1- 3 1/2 in. circle and 5- 1 in. x 9 in. strips (the width of the paper) out of yellow paper, 2 leaf shapes and a 1 in. x 9 in strip out of green paper. Or if your children are able to cut and trace you can make tracers for these pieces. Wrap the 5 yellow strips around a crayon or pencil to curl, and glue around the yellow circle for petals, glue on your green strip for a stem, add leaves. Next glue your cup to the center of the yellow circle and glue the cotton ball yellow side up inside the cup. Now your daffodil is complete.
Kathy

During circle time talk about what flowers need to grow-soil, water and sunlight. Talk about the parts of a flower-roots, stem, leaves, blossom petals.
Fingerplay
"A Little Sun"
A little sun (hold arms above head)
A little rain (wiggle fingers in the air in a downward motion)
Now pull up all the weeds (pretend to pull weeds)
Our flowers grow, all in a row (hold up all ten fingers lined up like flowers)
From tiny little seeds. (hold thumb and finger to show size of seeds)

Rosanne

Dramatic play
Set up a flower shop in the dramatic play area. Provide flower catalogs; silk, plastic and real flowers; orange juice cans (to hold flowers); telephone; pads of paper and pencils; aprons; cash register and play money.
Rosanne

Memory Game 

Use two identical nursery catalogs. Cut out the identical pictures and glue on index cards.
Rosanne

Seed Wheel
Supplies needed:  12" cardboard circle (can be obtained at a pizza shop) divided into 12 equal pie-shaped wedges using a black felt marker, 12 different kinds of seeds, flower or vegetable*, 12 wooden spring, clothespins, tacky glue
Glue one seed in the middle of each section of the cardboard and label that section with the name of the seed.  Glue an identical seed to the top of the snapping end of one clothespin. Continue steps 1 and 2 until you have 12 different seeds on the circle and 12 matching seeds on the clothespins.  Read the children a story about seeds.  Let the children look at the seeds and seed packets.   Show the children the seed wheel and clothespins. Tell the children that they are to match two seeds that are the same by clipping a clothespin onto the section of the seed wheel that matches.

Unknown

Pop Up Flower
Supplies needed:  1 brown sock (a dad sock works great), 1 medium sized plastic flower with stem, Felt: Yellow (cut to quarter size to look like a seed) (you can use any color of your choice), scissors, fabric glue
Take sock and cuff it.. Take yellow felt (seed) and glue to center of cuff.. Let dry. If glue does not hold sew seed to cuff (I did so it would stay permanently).  Then placing hand into sock so tips of fingers touch the end, snip a TINY hole.  Now take flower and stem and place through hole, push down flower into the sock so sock, which now has become the soil, is completely covering the flower. While hand is placed in its hidden soil sing this song:.

Up Pops the Flower
Sung to:  "Pop Goes the Weasel"

We plant a seed in the ground, (point to seed)
The rain falls in a shower, (Do falling rain with opposite hand)
The sun comes up and what do you know (look up toward sky and point)
UP POPS A FLOWER!!!!!!! ( pop out the flower with your hand).
Unknown

Science

Have children sponge paint the outside of a Styrofoam cup. After it dries, fill it with potting soil and plant sunflower seeds. If you have room in your classroom, grow them at school.   As a group activity, show what happens if you don't water, what happens if you don't have light. Place several plants away from the light and watch how plants reach for the light.

Unknown

Patterning 

Cut out flower petals of several colors to be used on the flannel board. Begin to construct your flower by alternating two colors Example - yellow, pink, yellow, pink, yellow. Have the children tell you what comes next and complete the flower. Make enough petals so everyone in your group can have one. Start the pattern and let them finish. After they understand the concept let the children play this activity during your free time.

Muffin Cup Flowers
Children can glue muffin cup liners to paper, add stems and leaves using construction paper. You can even add a little perfume to the muffin cup liner.

Unknown