A Favorite Book & Flower Ice Letters!
After reading Kevin Henkes’ “Chrysanthemum” my youngest daughter came up with a brilliant idea to freeze flower petals in the alphabet ice trays we love! It turned out wonderfully, I can’t wait to show you, let’s get started…
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Summary of “Chrysanthemum”
“Chrysanthemum” by Kevin Henkes was my older daughters favorite book when she was little. I’ve read it so many times, you can no longer read the title on the side. It is a loved book and story.
It is about a little mouse who LOVES her unique name, Chrysanthemum, until she begins school and is teased about it. She starts to feel bad about her name and herself. Her parents try reassuring her each evening, but each day the group of girls insults her name further. It really weighs on her as she begins to have nightmares and reluctantly walks to school.
Everything changes when they meet the music teacher whom they instantly admire. When she overhears them taunting Chrysanthemum she intervenes by offering that the same insults that they are saying about Chrysanthemum’s name could also be said for her name, Delphinium. She then informs them that she loves the name Chrysanthemum and is considering giving that name to her baby.
Instantly Chrysanthemum loves her name once again. And the girls who once teased are now changing their names to be more like Chrysanthemum. The moral of the story, be yourself and don’t worry about what other people think, opinions change. I would definitely recommend this book.
Flower Ice Letters?
You might be wondering… “What do you do with it?” or “How is this not just going to be a sensory mess?” There are many ways to answer these two common questions…
First, the most basic answer to “What you could do with Flower Ice Letters?” is… have fun. Sensory play at its finest is not about “doing” something specific. It is about exploring, feeling, listening, watching, problem solving, creating, etc… This is an open-ended activity. Just as each child has their own unique personality, experience, and preference in play, the outcome of this activity is just as special.
As for the second question, Yes, this can be a messy one! But, I hear you. I’ve been asked that question many times. Therefore, a detailed answer, along with strategies for successful messy sensory play, can be found by reading, “What about the Sensory Mess?”
What We Did with Flower Ice Letters…
We tend to keep the activities as simple as possible around here. We’re not interested in complicated or costly. We are also all about fostering independence. For this activity, we plucked the petals from brightly colored flowers and placed them into the alphabet ice trays. We decided to mix the colors and have a little blue, yellow, green and pink in each. Once we were content with how many petals we had in each tray, we slowly squeezed water into the alphabet ice trays, poked the floating flower petals down and popped them into the freezer.
The next day, we opened the freezer and were pleasantly surprized to see how great they looked! My daughter suggested we use the flower ice letters to spell out names. I, of course, had to be funny and actually spelled out “names”, lol. 😉
It was interesting watching her problem solve how many names she could spell when there is only one of each letter. Being a clever one, she decided to use other letters to represent the ones she wanted by breaking them or turning them another way! Of course she found a way to write “Love Unicorns”. 🙂
I have to say this was very fun! We got to pluck the petals from the flowers; then pluck them again out of the ice! Plucking them from the ice was a great sensory experience. The petals were a bit stretchy when pulling on them, which surprised me. It was so cool! You can see what I mean by watching my “Story Highlights” on Instagram.
The best part? After the ice melts and you think the fun is over; it isn’t! You can freeze the same petals all over again! Yep, just put the wet petals back into the letter ice trays, add more water and refreeze! I would absolutely suggest Flower Ice Letters sensory play if you’re looking for an interesting & literacy filled activity to connect with your child.
Materials We Used
- “Chysanthemum” by Kevin Henkes (from the library or buy it here)
- Alphabet ice trays
- Flower petals
- Squeeze bottle
- Water
Click HERE for Free Printable copy (Email Subscribers Only)
How to Make Flower Ice Letters?
- Gather some colorful flowers.
- Pluck the petals from the flower.
- Place the petals into the alphabet ice trays.
- Add water to fill the ice trays using a squeeze bottle.
- Poke the floating petals so they are in the water in the ice tray.
- Place the ice tray into the freezer.
Once frozen… - Take the alphabet ice trays out of the freezer.
- Push the flower ice letters out of the alphabet ice trays carefully (occasionally they break).
- Have fun spelling with them and plucking the petals from the ice.
Click HERE for Free Printable copy (Email Subscribers Only)
Wait, There’s More…
I believe you can easily strengthen communication skills and foster independence all while playing and connecting with your child. To help you do this; I’ve created a FREE printable for each activity called, “Communicating & Connecting”.
It will give you a list of suggestions I’ve found very helpful as a Mom & as a special education teacher; to help you build lifelong skills. Please don’t feel obligated to do everything on the list (but if you do, you’re a rockstar 😉 ).
As a Thank You for subscribing; this is a special FREEBIE for our Email Subscribers Only. 🙂 Click here if you’ve already subscribed. Otherwise, Sign Up below to get the password & access to our entire FREE Printables Library today! 😉
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