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How to Easily Make a Simple and Fun Kids DIY Flower Press

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This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, please see my full disclosure policy.

A fun kids diy flower press can turn a simple wildflower (or garden flower) unit study into a fun and memorable unit by adding in some simple hands-on activities.

Just a few dollars and a little time are all you need to create an easy perfectly portable flower press that you and your child can use again and again.

Turn everything from black-eyed susans to hydrangeas into a dried keepsake.

How to Easily Make a Simple and Fun Kids DIY Flower Press

Too, make dried pressed flowers for crafts, homemade potpourri, or to put into a scrapbook.

Kids DIY Flower Press

Besides, this flower press is great for on the go and can be toted around in your backpack to bring your floral treasures home.

Lastly because it’s such a frugal project, everyone can have their own.

We spent $2.00 on wood at Dollar Tree; we had paint and twine already on hand making it a frugal and fun activity with a purpose.

You will need :

  • 2 thin unfinished wood pieces
  • twine
  • hot glue gun/sticks
  • card stock
  • paint 
  • foam brush
How to Easily Make a Simple and Fun Kids DIY Flower Press

Directions: 

I found these two unfinished wood pieces at Dollar Tree (my favorite place to find  inexpensive supplies for homeschool projects) in the craft section.

If you don’t find them there you can get any two precut wood pieces from the craft store. Just be sure they are ¼” thick or less.

Paint one side of each of the wooden pieces and allow to dry completely.

How to Easily Make a Simple and Fun Kids DIY Flower Press

Trace around your shape onto cardstock to create layers for your flower press.

How to Easily Make a Simple and Fun Kids DIY Flower Press

Moreover you don’t need more than two layers.

And you can cut extra as you will want to replace them after every few uses due to the moisture it will collect.

Steps for DIY Kids Flower Press

First, cut 2 pieces of twine into two foot lengths.

Then, hot glue one of the pieces of twine to the corner of the painted side of the wood. Secure it well.

On the other piece of wood glue the second length of twine to the opposite corner of the first.

If you prefer to give it a more finished look you can cover it up by glueing on silk flower or greenery like we did here. 

How to Easily Make a Simple and Fun Kids DIY Flower Press

To use your flower press lay flowers between sheets of cardstock on the bottom wooden piece, lay the other on top and wrap twine as tightly as you can around the sides, tying it off into a bow.

Next, allow your flowers to sit in the press for 2 or 3 days until flat and fully dry.

How to Easily Make a Simple and Fun Kids DIY Flower Press

Hands-on Ideas for Kids DIY Flower Press

How to Easily Make a Simple and Fun Kids DIY Flower Press

    Try some of these additional hands on activities to expand on your flower explorations!

    • Head outside and gather up flowers from locals fields or your own backyard and try them out on your new flower press. Again, once you have them home search through field guides  or use an app try to identify each.
    • Find out your state flower and try to locate one.
    • Use a real flower to label each of the parts.
    • Plant your own wildflowers after making these Wildflower Seed Bombs.
    • Take apart a flower and identify the parts- petal, pistel, stem, stigma, filament, etc…
    • Use watercolor paint to recreate your flower finds on paper.
    • Dig deep into this Wildflower Unit Study & Lapbook.
    • Futhermore, try to identify at least 10 different types of flowers.
    • Create a flower sensory bin for young children with fresh flowers, leaves, and stems.
    • In addition, young children can also count the petals on the flowers. 
    • Use different types of flowers on long stems as natural paint brushes.
    • Plant a flower garden or even a small container of flowers together.
    How to Easily Make a Simple and Fun Kids DIY Flower Press

    In addition, here are some great resources to help you identify your flower finds in the field or at home.

    If you’re wanting to add a few more activities to this activity, I know you’ll love these ideas below.

    Trees, Leaves, Flowers, and Seeds

    Audubon Field Guide to Flowers

    Pocket Guide to Wildflowers

    Fandex Wildflowers

    Finally, whether you have a budding botanist or love being outdoors, you’ll love making this fun DIY flower press.

    Labeling Parts of a Honey Bee LEGO Fun Activity For Kids

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    This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, please see my full disclosure policy.

    Your kids will love labeling the parts of a honey bee lego activity. Also, look at my Fascinating and Fun Honey Bees Unit Study and Lapbook for Kids.

    Bees are fascinating little creatures from how they create their honeycombs to maximize space, to how they know to fan the hive to keep it cool.

    Bees are used in so many ways than just the delicious honey they produce.

    Labeling Parts of a Honey Bee LEGO Fun Activity For Kids

    We use beeswax in cosmetics, candles, as a coating, and bee venom is used as a holistic treatment.

    Because they are so very important to our world as pollinators I think it is important to educate our children about them from the beginning.

    Labeling the Parts of a Honey Bee

    If you’ve been homeschooling awhile you know that hands-on activities really drive home information in a fun way that really makes it stick, often better than any worksheet could.

    Since most kids love LEGO, I thought that an activity using them would be a hit with the kids and turn an ordinary and possibly boring homeschool lesson into something unique and fun.

    Turns out I was right- The kids loved doing this project and I hope you and yours will too!

    Grab a big bucket of LEGOS and a handful of bee books and let’s get started.

    A LEGO baseplate.

    Assorted LEGO bricks

    • Cardstock paper
    • A book or printout of parts of a bee
    • Pen or marker

    Books for Bee Unit Studies

    Next, look at these books about bees for kids.

    8 Honey Bees Unit Study Resources & Books

    Add some of these fun resources to your bees unit study or spring unit study.

    You can make this as simple or as involved a LEGO build as you like depending on the age and ability of the child.

    Hands-on Activity for Honey Bee

    Using the larger Duplo blocks to create a simple bee and let your child point out the various parts of a bee as you call them out is another idea.

    Provide your child with a book or printout on the parts of a bee to use as a model and a variety of LEGO to build their bee model. 

    Give them a large variety of LEGO bricks to build with, I love this starter box for kids just beginning a LEGO collection.

    Labeling Parts of a Honey Bee LEGO Fun Activity For Kids

    I keep a box for each kid separate from all the other LEGO in the house just for school projects like this.

    Have them start with creating a head, thorax, and abdomen using yellow and black bricks.

    Labeling Parts of a Honey Bee LEGO Fun Activity For Kids

    Add wings using white bricks.

    For older children you can differentiate forewing and hindwing if you like.

    Labeling Parts of a Honey Bee LEGO Fun Activity For Kids

    Use long single row black bricks to create 3 sets of legs.

    Labeling Parts of a Honey Bee LEGO Fun Activity For Kids

    Finally add eyes and antennae.

    Hands-on Science: Labeling the Parts of a Bee

    Labeling Parts of a Honey Bee LEGO Fun Activity For Kids

    Cut small strips of cardstock and add the names of whichever bee parts you would like your child to identify.

    Labeling Parts of a Honey Bee LEGO Fun Activity For Kids

    Give them the strips and let them locate each part on their LEGO bee, with so much interaction while building and then labeling they are sure to retain much of the information they get from this build.

    HONEY BEE LAPBOOK FOR KIDS

    Also, you’ll love my honeybee lapbook.

    Labeling Parts of a Honey Bee LEGO Fun Activity For Kids

    Here are some additional bee activities to try 

    • Create a honey bee lapbook.
    • Create the life cycle of a bee using LEGO again.
    • Pick up some local honey and try it right out of the jar as well as in a recipe or two.
    • Make a honeycomb by cutting down toilet paper tubes and bending each ring into a hexagon, glue each together to create any size you like.
    • Paint a watercolor bee or beehive.
    • Thumb through one of the books listed below and learn some more bee information-make flashcards.
    • Plant flowers in your yard to help support the bees, very important pollinators.
    • Make a mason bee house to put up outdoors.
    • Preschoolers can work on fine motor skills by transferring “pollen” (yellow pom poms) from one flower (colorful bowl) to another with tongs.
    • Research all the products we get from bees.
    • Give your child a bee themed writing prompt for handwriting, creative writing, and grammar practice such as “ What if there were no bees?” or “ The day I turned into a bee…”.

    You’ll love these other hands-on science activities.

    How to Dissolve a Seashell – Beach Hands-on Fun Activity

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    This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, please see my full disclosure policy.

    This is a fun how to dissolve a seashell activity. Also, look at my Seashore Beach Watching Unit Study and Seashore Lapbook for more ideas.

    With summer quickly approaching I thought a fun beach themed activity would be just the thing to keep kids interested and learning even with the end of the year burnout that we often face.

    I put together a fun activity – how to dissolve a seashell.

    I remember doing it myself years ago; I like it because it’s low cost, easy to assemble, and the kids can do most of it on their own.

    How to Dissolve a Seashell - Beach Hands-on Fun Activity. Whether you're doing an Ocean or Beach theme, your kids will love this EZ activity. Click here!

    Seashell Acid Base Experiment

    It gives them a visual of what might be going on beneath the ocean’s surface and truly can give them a glimpse of what acid can do in general in a safe manner.

    This simple lesson covers chemistry as well as including some conservation awareness.

    What is a seashell anyway?

    Seashells are mostly made up of a substance called calcium carbonate which is easily dissolved when left in vinegar even for a few days.

    A seashell is the exoskeleton of mollusks. This could be an oyster or a sea snail for example.

    Vinegar is great for a quick wash and disinfection of the seashells you bring home from the beach, but if you leave them in for too long they begin to eat away at your seashells.

    Let’s see what happens.

    How to Dissolve a Seashell Activity Ingredients

    You will need:

    • white vinegar
    • seashells
    • a glass jar

    Ocean Acidification Activity

    Directions:

    You can either use seashells from your collection that you’ve brought home from your own beach visit or you can purchase a bag.

    Save the extra for a fun art project or you can place them in a pretty jar for summer decor.

    Place a seashell or two in your container of vinegar.

    Be sure to cover them completely and watch as bubbles immediately begin to form, this is carbon dioxide.

    1 How to Dissolve a Seashell - Beach Hands-on Fun Activity immediate bubbling

    It is a product of the reaction between the acetic acid in the vinegar and the calcium carbonate of the seashell creating a gas. Science is cool, right?

    Add in a few fun workbooks like this Ocean Habitats activity book by Evan Moor and it’s easy to sneak in learning too.

    Check out what’s happening.

    In just 12 hours or less you should be able to see the edges of the shell eroding and maybe some holes in the center of the shell in the weaker areas.

    2 How to Dissolve a Seashell - Beach Hands-on Fun Activity 12 hour results

    Encourage the kids to check the progress of the shells and vinegar every few hours.

    This photo is after 24 hours of soaking in vinegar, after about 12-15 hours the acid left in the vinegar will no longer be effective at dissolving the shell so you can dump it out and add fresh vinegar. 

    3 How to Dissolve a Seashell - Beach Hands-on Fun Activity 24 hours

    We changed ours out three times during the experiment and it took about three days for the to seashells to dissolve completely.

    Ocean Unit Study Activity

    After 2 ½ days, all we have left is just a few remnants of the seashell. 

    It is amazing how quickly this common acid begins to change the seashells, thin shells will go even quicker.

    This is a great lesson to talk about the impact that pollutants have on our oceans.

    Chemicals which are dumped intentionally or even accidental runoff of chemicals can affect the delicate organisms that live there and eventually larger animals.

    Ask your child what they can do to change things in the future or what impact, positive or negative, that they can have on the oceans and other nature.

    We also choose a few books to learn about shells more in-depth.

    For anywhere from preschool to Upper Elementary the Let’s read and find out science books or one of our favorites for delivering information in a more fun and engaging way than a textbook might.

    For example, look at What Lives in a Shell.

    Shell guides are a great item to take to the beach with you, you can quickly and easily identify the shells that you find while you’re there and because they’re laminated there reusable we take them to the beach every time we go.

    Ocean Seashell Chemistry Activity

    You can take this experiment a step further by choosing 2 or 3 other liquids to soak your seashells in.

    Try placing tap water in one jar, vinegar in another, soda, lemon juice or even salt water in others. Label each container with the contents so that you know what is in each.

    See how long it takes for the seashells to erode, does the water or saltwater do anything to the shell? How quickly did you start seeing changes to your shells? 

    Be sure to have your child record their hypotheses, observation, and of course the results in their science journal.

    This project would make a great science fair project.

    How to Dissolve a Seashell EZ beach themed or ocean themed hands-on fun activity @ Tina's Dynamic Homeschool Plus

    Your child can share it just with the family, as an end-of-the-year project, or if your Co-op has a science fair it would be a wonderfully simple demonstration to share with a group.

    You’ll love these other ocean themed activities:

    How to Easily Garden Plan With Kids Using LEGO

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    This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, please see my full disclosure policy.

    How to garden plan with kids using LEGO is a way to sneak in some learning. Check out more ideas too at Easy Seed and Gardening Unit Study for Kids (Middle – Upper Elementary).

    If I can take a subject or unit of study and apply it to LEGO creations it is going to be a big hit.

    My kids, like so many others, love to create and build with LEGO so it is just a great hands-on natural extension to learning.

    How to Easily Garden Plan With Kids Using LEGO

    This time I applied it to a study on Garden Planning.

    This application gave us science, math, handwriting, fine motor skills development, critical thinking, and so much more.

    We will definitely be using LEGO again as the core of our learning.

    You don’t even have to be planning a real garden, this is still the perfect way for them to dig a little deeper into the concept of gardening no matter what size space you live in or grow in.

    After determining how many feet your real garden will be and whether you want it square or rectangle you are ready to move on to designing it with LEGO.

    We worked on our garden planning with LEGO in two different ways and I am going to share both of them with you so you can choose one or do both!

    1 LEGO GARDEN SUPPLIES How to Garden Plan With Kids Using LEGO

    Gardening Activities For Kids

    If you haven’t started your LEGO journey yet this, LEGO Classic Medium Creative Brick Box is a great box to begin with!

    For this one, it was a fun fully hands-on activity that required no writing from the kids (my sons favorite).

    I love how it gets their creativity flowing and provides them with a 4D visual of how our garden might look.

    2 lego garden planning 1 LEGO GARDEN SUPPLIES How to Garden Plan With Kids Using LEGO

    To begin, gather up a flat LEGO base plate in whatever size you like.

    I had two kids doing it and needed to display them for a while in our classroom so we used 5 x 5 base plates in the interest of space.

    LEGO Garden Activity

    Then, grab a bunch of LEGO in all different sizes and colors, we opted for 2 x 2 bricks and smaller, as well as LEGO plants.

    If you don’t have many plants LEGO and want to include them you can purchase a poly bag with a variety of plants.

    How to Easily Garden Plan With Kids Using LEGO | Tina's Dynamic Homeschool Plus

    Single round studs and square 1 peg bricks can be used to create many items for your garden.

    You can see on our garden that we mixed in both and it still looks great. 2 x 2 bricks make great pumpkins, eggplants, tomato plants, etc..

    Explain to the kids that while planting it is especially important to leave room for your plants to grow.

    Use the pegs on top of your base plate to represent square feet, you can use however many you like but just keep it throughout to represent the scale.

    We chose to use 3 x 3 to equal one square foot. Now as you “plant” with the LEGO keep that in mind, research how large space each of your intended plants’ needs.

    How to Easily Garden Plan With Kids Using LEGO

    Once you know your square foot and the needs of each plant you can begin constructing your lego garden.

    Work in rows.

    Place the plants you create, remember to check for plants that should and shouldn’t be placed next to each other.

    4 LEGO GRAPH FINAL How to Garden Plan With Kids Using LEGO

    Now when you are done you have a fun visual for your real garden.

    And a pretty display piece for your school room, living room, or wherever you would like to put it!

    This version combines the fun of LEGO and some writing and graphing skills in a mixed media approach to creating a garden with LEGO.

    I like this one because it gives the kids a chance to develop other skills and also it is so easy to change up and  if you laminate your graph paper once colored it can be used again and again with LEGO to create new spaces.

    GRAPH How to Garden Plan With Kids Using LEGO

    Grab some graph paper, smaller lego pieces, and something to color with.

    We used 1” graph paper because the large squares are perfect for representing 1 square foot.

    LEGO Bricks for Kids Learning

    Choose your desired garden size and color in those squares, brown of course is best for creating “soil”. We created a 5×6 plot to make our graph paper vegetable garden plan on.

    You can do the whole page if you wish, and use as many squares as you want to represent your one square foot.

    The Basement Workshop Store

    Decide what crops you will plant and choose small LEGO bricks accordingly.

    Demonstrate to your child how to place the rows, explain the placement and how to allow room for growth.   

    6 LEGO GRAPH ROWS How to Garden Plan With Kids Using LEGO

    Let them design a garden that they would like to help build and once they are done have them label their crops.

    7 LEGO GARDEN FINAL How to Garden Plan With Kids Using LEGO

    Our little red studs are radishes which can be crowded together a little more than something like say… squash plants which need a lot more space around them.

    Leave some blank rows for paths.

    How to Easily Garden Plan With Kids Using LEGO

    Both of these ideas can be photographed and added to your garden journal or used as part of your end of the year evaluation in your homeschool portfolio.

    You’ll also love these other hands-on ideas:

    Quick and Easy Ancient Chinese Paper making for Kids

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    This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, please see my full disclosure policy.

    You’ll love this quick and easy ancient China paper making activity. Also, look at my post Free Ancient China Lapbook for Kids Who Love Hands-on History.

    Did you know that the smooth white paper you write on everyday got its start in Ancient China right around 100 BC during the Han Dynasty?

    Prior to the invention of paper as we know it there was papyrus and parchment  that people could write on, but it was expensive and very difficult to make.

    In China expensive silk was also used but that was reserved for only the very wealthy.

    That means that it was not readily available to everyone.

    Did you know that the smooth white paper you write on everyday got its start in Ancient China? Your kids will love this quick and easy Ancient Chinese paper making activity. CLICK HERE to add this fun hands-on history project to your homeschool curriculum!

    Its invention meant that people of all economic backgrounds could learn and write.

    Because it absorbed ink, forgery was harder and it made carrying a book so much easier! Just a stack of paper sheets is much lighter than carrying a dozen hand chiseled tablets across town. Teachers had to be smart and strong!

    Ancient China Paper Making

    Plant fibers and rags were soaked in water until they became a pulpy mush then they were mashed and pressed onto screens in different sizes so that the water could drain off.

    Once dry the paper was much lighter and easier to use than its heavier ancestor.

    Since bamboo and other plant fibers are not as readily available to us as it was in 100 BC we are going to improvise with our own paper making and use supplies that we have on hand so that we can still get an idea of the paper making process.

    Chinese Paper Making Activity

    For this activity you will need:

    • newspaper
    • art paper or construction paper
    • water
    • Hardware screen/window screen
    • wood/frame
    • a blender
    • plastic tub
    Ancient China Paper Making

    You can buy paper making screens or you can make a simple one like we did here, by making a simple frame of wood scraps and stapling a square of hardware cloth to the back.

    You could also do the same with a piece of window screen and the backside of a picture frame.

    Tear your paper into smaller pieces, about 1” square.

    Now we are going to hurry along our paper dissolving process by adding water and paper to a blender.

    Ancient China Paper Making

    Run the blender until you get a nice watery pulp, add water as needed to make sure it purees up well, you can’t have too much water as it will drip off. 

    I used white drawing paper and one small piece of blue construction paper to get a very light blue shade.

    In ancient China this process would have been done by a long soak of bark, hemp, bamboo, and other plant materials rather than a blender!

    Ancient China Paper Making

    Lay the frame in a tub large enough to hold it and pour the mixture from the blender onto the screen, flatten it out with your fingers so that it is as smooth as you can get it.

    Chinese Paper Making Activity

    The trick is to pour slowly and move it rather than pouring a giant pile in the center.

    Ancient China Paper Making

    Let most of the water drain off your screen until it is just a slow drip then carefully flip your screen to release the paper onto an absorbent surface, I used a sheet of craft felt for mine.

    Ancient China Paper Making

    Press a stack of several paper towels or napkins on top and press to absorb some of the water.

    Place a block of wood on top and press or even stand on it to press it flat and squeeze more water out. Allow your paper to dry completely- it may take a day or two depending on how much water is left in your paper at this point as well as the humidity in your area.

    Once your paper is completely dry you can trim it with scissors if you like to make it a more uniform shape. Still not flat enough?

    Lay it under a couple of heavy books for a few days and it will be smooth and flat for your writing.

    Ancient China Paper Making

    Use a small paintbrush to paint a few basic Chinese characters as part of your studies.

    Did you know that the smooth white paper you write on everyday got its start in Ancient China? Your kids will love this quick and easy Ancient Chinese paper making activity. CLICK HERE to add this fun hands-on history project to your homeschool curriculum!

    Experiment with different types and colors of paper, brown paper bags make a nice parchment style paper, add a little color, and cut some into various shapes.

    Ancient China Paper Making

    More Ancient China Hands-on History Activities for Kids

    Did you know that the smooth white paper you write on everyday got its start in Ancient China? Your kids will love this quick and easy Ancient Chinese paper making activity. CLICK HERE to add this fun hands-on history project to your homeschool curriculum!

    Ancient China Paper Making Fun Facts

    • Paper making hasn’t changed much in all these years, basically the process is the same with new technologies and methods added in.
    • China tried to keep the art of paper making a secret but it eventually spread.
    • A Chinese government official, Ts’ ai  Lun, is credited with starting the paper making industry.
    • It was another 1000 years before paper making spread into other parts of Eurasia.
    • The original paper making was originally done with mainly hemp.
    • The oldest record of paper making that we have is dated 105 AD.
    • Combined with the invention of woodblock printing in 600 AD China was able to print its first newspaper in 740 AD.
    • How To Make Paper Look Old Craft With Kids
    Ancient China Paper Making

    You’ll love some of these other fun hands-on Ancient Civilization kids activities: