Last year my daughter joined Girl Scouts, and I became the assistant leader for her Daisy troop. This year we are working on our journey patches, and we chose the Welcome to the Flower Garden patch to start the year off with because it does such a great job reviewing all those petals we earned last year.
I wanted to share with you the fun mini flower garden we created as part of our patch; it’s a fun craft that can teach preschoolers as well as those “big” kindergarten and first graders a little about responsibility.
(Related Post: Mini Resurrection Garden)
Welcome to the Flower Garden!
Materials Needed for Mini Garden:
- Small Plastic Container with Lid (We used recycled food containers.)
- Potting Soil
- Grass Seed
- Craft Foam Flowers
- Small Beads
- Toothpicks
- Glue
- Stickers (Optional.)
- Copies of Girl Scout Promise (If doing this for the Welcome to the Flower Garden patch.)
To save on the amount of soil each mini garden would need, I cut the plastic containers ahead of time to approximately 2 1/2 inches high. I also used a nail and poked 3-4 drainage holes in the bottom of each container.
Once we were at the Daisy Girl Scout meeting, the girls took turns filling their containers half way with potting mix.
Then they sprinkled a handful of grass seed on top!
Why grass seed?
The Watering Can award that goes on the journey’s patch focuses on the part of the Girl Scout law that says, “responsible for what I say and do.”
With our project the girls need to be responsible not only for watering their mini gardens, but also for keeping them nice looking by trimming the grass when it gets too tall. (Much like the grass head craft we did at home.)
Once the girls had plenty of soil in their containers, they used pre-cut strips of colorful paper to cover the container’s outside. On this they glued a copy of the Girl Scout promise, a required component of earning the award, and a great way to help refresh their memories after the long summer break!
They also added plenty of stickers to the outside of the container for decoration!
Finally, we added some colorful craft foam flowers to our garden. After all, the journey is “Welcome to the Flower Garden!”
We made our flowers using craft foam flower shapes, toothpicks, and small beads. For each flower the girls stuck a small green leaf onto the toothpick. (Just poke the toothpick through carefully.) Next they stuck on a flower shape, and finally they glued a small bead to the top to act as the center of the flower.
Before leaving the meeting the girls took turns using a small watering can to water their mini gardens. They were reminded of their responsibility to take care of the garden by watering it weekly and trimming the grass as needed.
They were all very excited to show their parents their mini gardens at pick up time!
This project is definitely one that could be done outside of Girl Scouts. In fact, my son was asking to create his own mini garden once he saw his sister’s. It is the perfect garden craft to celebrate spring.
You may also enjoy:
- 20 Beautiful Flower Crafts for Kids
- Beach-Themed Fairy Garden House
- Awesome Camp Crafts — Perfect for Scouts or Family Camping Trips
Susen @ Dabbling Momma says
What a fun way to teach responsibility and to care for nature.
Jill says
This is an adorable idea for teaching children how delicate nature is.
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Donna DM Yates says
So cute and interesting. Love the decorations and the flowers.