Blooming Paper Flower Experiment for Early Learning

I took a twist with the blooming flowers experiment this time around! 

Have you heard of the blooming paper flowers science experiment for kids? 

When we heard about this, we thought it was so fascinating! 

And, it is! 

But, being the mom teacher that I am, I wanted to twist it up a bit and make it play to learn fun. 

I’ll be sharing below what we did, how I put this blooming flower experiment twist together and how you can DIY it for a fun play to learn activity for kids. 

Note: Are you looking to try another simple experiment at home? Check out this Layers of the Earth Project using playdough. 

Supplies: 

This post contains affiliate links. 

• Printer Paper

• Crayons

• Tray 

• Water

And, friends.. That is all there is to it! 

How to put together this blooming paper flowers twist 

Below are the steps I took to create this twist on the blooming flowers experiment: 

• Fold a printer paper in half. 

• Then, use a pen to draw out shapes making sure the middle of the shape is on the folded side of the paper. 

• Tip: Have you ever made a heart with a folded paper? This is the same thing but with shapes. 

• Color your shapes with crayon. 

• Then, cut out your shapes.

• Fold the shapes in half making sure the colored part is on the inside. 

• Set the shapes aside. 

• Fill a tray with water just enough so that all the water is layered out on all side of the tray. 

• Then, the fun part…

• Add your shapes and watch as the magic unfolds! 

We talk about shapes and colors. 

As the shapes opened up we called them out. 

You can also talk about how many sides each of the shapes have. 

What other fun ways can you think of trying with these early learning blooming shapes? 

Blooming Flowers for Early Learning Video Below:

How do you make flowers with blooming paper? 

Here are the steps you can take to make flowers bloom with paper:

• Cut out flowers with 5-6 petals on printer paper. 

• Then, fold the petals inward. 

• Fill a tray with water. 

• Drop the flowers in the tray

• Watch as the petals start to open up when immersed in the water. 

You can make the flowers educational by coloring the middle part in different colors for each flower. 

Talk about the colors. 

Instead of colors, add numbers to each of the flowers. 

As it opens once immersed in water count the correct numbered flower! 

What other fun early learning educational games can you think of with blooming flowers? 

Why do paper flowers bloom in water?

It is all based on one scientific term – capillary action. 

Think of what happens when paper gets a little bit wet. 

It fills up with water slowly and causes the rest of the paper to become wet as well (depending on the amount of water, of course). 

When you add paper into a tray with water, the petals slowly get filled with water (capillary action) and in turn cause the petals to open up! 

So cool, right? 

I hope you try this fun stem for kids experiment! 

Happy Learning!