Sam's Flower Project

This morning in the outdoor classroom, Sam decided to collect white blossoms that have been raining down from the tree (which we’ve been trying to identify but now think is probably a huge shrub) that’s been in bloom the past week or so. We happened to have a donated shoe box on hand, so Sam used it for his project: collecting flower petals for himself and his classmates to use in the message center. Sam was a study in concentration and perseverence—noticing and selecting the most beautiful flowers, but also determined to collect as many as possible. After he’d already been at it about 20 minutes, Sam exclaimed, “I’m gonna make a message for my mom and dad, and for my sister with these flowers. I’m gonna collect a lot of these so we can use them.” 
 
Sam was so thoughtful, generous, and flexible in his project that he was happy to let Grace and Louise use some of the flowers—though not all of them—as ingredients in a fruit salad they were preparing. Sam developed the strategy of using a shovel to shuttle the flowers from the ground to the table more quickly, and he occasionally enlisted friends. 
 
At one point as Sam was placing flowers into the box, he commented, “Some of them have three petals; some of them have four; and some of them have five.”  Finding two with different numbers of petals, he pointed out, “This one has one, two, three, four, five. And this one has four. That’s so weird.” The he raced off to collect more. 
 
While Sam occasionally took a  break from his collection project to run around and play a bit, nothing else could hold his attention for long until Sally showed him a bright pink rose in bloom, inviting him to take a whiff, and saying, “It smells like candy. I love smelling flowers. Especially candy flowers.” Right around that time, Molly passed by and stopped to smell the roses with them. The children were interested in adding rose petals to their collection, and as it happened there was a spent flower way up high—with a little shake from Molly, the petals came raining down. Back in the classroom, Sam did in fact start the first of what may be many projects using his flower petals and he invited friends to use them as well. It will be exciting to see what they all create. 
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