Looking for some simple and meaningful spring activities for kids? This flower exploration center makes a great hands-on science and sensory activity and is so easy to set up. I love that it encourages observing details and creativity!

*This post was originally published on March 1, 2014 and has since been updated.

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Spring Activities for Kids: Flower Exploration Center

The first thing that comes to mind when I think of spring is flowers! Many of our trees are beginning to blossom and some bulbs are even poking up through the dirt. I decided to build on the children’s interest of the changes taking place outside by bringing some flowers indoors for them to explore more closely. (This post contains affiliate links.)

This is a super simple spring activity to set up!

I started by collecting flowers and placed them in some glass cups of water. (I supplemented what I was able to find outside with some flowers from our local grocery store.) Then I added a few magnifying glasses to encourage the kids to look closely for details.

And finally, I placed some sheets of paper and colored pencils (with a matching color palette to our flowers) on the table.

The kids couldn’t wait to dive in! Both kids started out by inspecting the flowers with magnifying glasses.

Lucy was so excited to discover details about the flowers she hadn’t noticed at first glance, “Mom! Did you know there’s actually some red in the center of this flower!”

After looking closely at many of the flowers, Lucy chose some to sketch.

This spring activity was mostly a sensory experience for my 2 year old, Theo. He did do some drawing, but mostly spent his time exploring the flowers.

He counted them and noticed the colors.

And making the petals fall off by banging the flowers together was very fun!

The kids really got into this spring invitation to play! When they were done, we placed the remaining flowers back into the glass cups to use as a beautiful centerpiece! (And I love having the flowers still available and within reach to the kids should they want to do some more flower investigating!)

More Spring Play Days

We’ll be back Tuesday with our next contribution to the spring play series. In the meantime, be sure to check out all the creative spring play ideas from the other participating blogs!

Flower Petal Sensory Play from Fantastic Fun and Learning

Tissue Paper Stained Glass for Spring from Fun-A-Day!

Butterfly Pancakes–Fun and Healthy! from Nothing if Not Intentional

Outdoor Color Matching for Toddlers from Twodaloo

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