More Bugs | Earth's Birthday Project

Flower Dances and Songs

A Growing Flower Dance

Materials: Music (almost any instrumental music will do)

Simple Instructions: Guide students through an improvisational dance. Have students sit on the floor in a circle and ask them to imagine growing plants—how roots appear, then stems and leaves, then flowers. Show them how to curl up as bulbs, then uncurl and stand, and then spread arms and open hands as their flowers bloom. Lead them through the process several times. Then let them try it on their own with music.

After dancers have mastered the basic motions, ask if one or two would like to be gardeners. Show them how to “cover” bulbs with soil, using imaginary shovels and “sprinkle” them with water, using imaginary watering cans. Ask another child to dance the part of the sun, rising in the morning, moving slowly across the sky, beaming (smiling) and sending light to the growing bulbs (moving arms in circles). A few others could be rain, coming suddenly to moisten the soil with imaginary drops shaken from their finger tips, moving slowly away as bulbs begin to grow, and lingering on the distant horizon (at the boundary of your dance area).

Use your dance often as a wake-up exercise or a break from study, allowing students to rotate through the different parts.

Flower Dance

Transpiration Stretch

Materials: Music (almost any instrumental music will do)

Background: Explain to students that in a process called transpiration water pushes its way into a plant’s roots up to the bottom of its stem. Then leaves pull water up the stem to the top of the plant. In the leaves, water is turned into vapor by heat from the sun. It escapes from the leaf through tiny pores and floats into the air, where it becomes a cloud. Then it returns to the soil as rain.

Easy Instructions: Guide students through a short stretching exercise in which they pretend to be water in the transpiration process.

Have students stand with feet slightly apart (about shoulder width). Then ask them to bend and touch their toes (or ankles or knees), keeping legs straight, pushing on toes with fingers like water pushing on roots. Heads should be hanging, nice and relaxed, like water flowing down.

Fingers slowly creep up legs, pushing and pushing. When hands reach knees, ask students if they can feel the leaves pulling them up. Direct them to raise their arms and heads slowly until their hands are over their heads. Look up and reach for the ceiling, feeling the leaves pulling them up and up. S-T-R-E-T-C-H!

Then relax and feel fingers, hands, arms slowly becoming misty and cloudy—more and more relaxed, bending elbows and slowly lowering arms to shoulder height. Mouths may make little puffing noises as mist escapes through tiny pores in leaves.

Fingers then begin to wiggle as the misty water turns to rain. Wiggling, rainy fingers fall towards the floor, going pitter pat on the soil at about knee height. Mouths make popping sounds as water percolates into soil. Slowly come to a stop.

Then stand up straight and start again. Lead students through the transpiration process three times. Let them know that all over the Earth plants are transpiring continuously, all day long—and all night long, too.

Use this exercise to wake up, calm down, or refocus—or as a gentle transition between more strenuous activities.

Three Flower Songs

Here is a wonderful song by Cricket DeNamur, a naturalist for the Cincinnati Parks, and two golden oldies you may not have heard.

This little seed tiny and small,
It is the tiniest seed of all.
But with sun and soil and the rain falling down,
It will grow up through the ground.

This little plant small and green,
It is the smallest plant I’ve seen.
But with sun and soil and the rain falling down,
It will grow up big and strong.

This green plant grew so tall,
It had the prettiest flower of all.
And with sun and soil and the rain falling down,
The bees were buzzing all around.

This little flower started to nod,
It grew seeds within its pod.
So with sun and wind and the rain falling down,
Its seeds flew onto the ground.

Sunflower Song
Sing to “I’m a Little Teapot”

I’m a little sunflower,
I’m so small.
Soil, sun and water
Make me tall.
When I get all grown up
You will see
That I’m as big as I can be!

Flower Song
Sing to “Sing a Song of Sixpence”

Sing a song of flowers, flowers all around,
Flowers that are growing, growing in the ground
Flowers of each color make a pretty view,
Red and orange and yellow
And blue and purple, too.

Flower Dances and Songs

A Growing Flower Dance

Transpiration Stretch

Three Flower Songs

Spring Emergence