🎓 Skills Your Child Will Develop

• 🌍 Real-World Competence — Projects that solve real problems or produce real results — a bird feeder that birds actually use, a garden that produces food — build genuine competence and connect children to the productive adult world.
• 🎨 Creativity & Innovation — Projects that begin with the child's own idea and end with their own creation develop creative self-efficacy — the belief that original ideas are worth pursuing and that their execution is achievable.
• 🤸 Fine & Gross Motor Skills — The physical work of real projects — hammering, rolling, cutting, digging, sewing — builds both fine and gross motor development in an authentic, purposeful context that motivates full physical engagement.
• 💡 Design Thinking — Imagining what a project will look like before building it, adjusting the design when it doesn't work, and refining until satisfied introduces the iterative design thinking cycle that underlies engineering, art, and innovation.

Pressed flowers and leaves are great for preserving preschool memories. After pressing, flowers are great for use on cards, in frames, on Christmas ornaments, and in other keepsake items. You can create a flower press with your preschooler using only a few materials.

What You Will Need

2 pieces of plywood 1/8 to 1/4; inch thick 12 x 12 (Square)
4 washers
4 carriage bolts 3 inch
4 wing nuts to fit carriage bolts
Small jar, or spray can of polyurethane or paint
6 pieces of cardboard 12 x 12

How To Make It

Step 1:
Drill a hole in all 4 corners of each board about 1 inch from the edges of the board. Explain the process to your preschooler, and explain power tools are not toys.

Step 2:
Polyurethane the board, or paint the outside if you want to give it some style. This is a great part of the project to let your preschooler help you with. Let your preschooler paint designs on the outside of the flower press.

Step 3:
Insert the carriage bolts into the holes on one of the boards.

Step 4:
Cut triangles out of the corners of the cardboard, so the cardboard can lay inside the bolts on the board.

Step 5:
Help your preschooler pick some flowers to put in your press.

Step 6:
Layer the leaves and flowers between the cardboard sheets.

Step 7:
Place the other board on top, putting the other end of the bolts through the holes. Place the washers on the bolts, then let your preschooler help tighten the wing nuts down on the bolts. Tighten all four bolts evenly.

It can take several days to several weeks for flowers to dry. Check the flowers' progress periodically. When the flowers are pressed check out Preschool Plant Activity - Pressed Flower and Leaves Nature Book, or Preschool Plant Activity - Pressed Flowers and Leaves Holiday Cards for more projects for your preschooler using pressed flowers.

Some Great Flowers for Pressing Are

Queen Anne's Lace, Daisies, Roses, Artemesia, fern leaves, Boxwood, Black-Eyed-Susans, and Mums. There are many more flowers that will work great pressed, including the leaves of most trees when they're changing for the fall.

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Helpful Tips for Parents - Keep project materials organized and accessible. Projects stall when materials can't be found — dedicated project bins or shelves eliminate this barrier. - Define the project goal together before starting — a child who understands what they're building is more motivated and makes better decisions throughout the process. - Document the project with photos and notes. The documentation becomes a record of thinking and process that the child is proud of — sometimes more than the finished project itself. - Allow projects to take longer than planned. Rushed projects miss the depth that makes them educational. The process is the point; the deadline is secondary. ## Frequently Asked Questions ### What kinds of projects are appropriate for preschoolers? Appropriate preschool projects share several characteristics: they have a clear, achievable goal the child can understand and care about; they involve multiple sessions of engaged work (not just one sitting); they produce something the child is proud to display or use; and they involve the child's active participation rather than adult execution with child watching. Great preschool project categories: construction (building something functional or decorative), growing (plants, crystals), cooking (multi-step recipes ending in something edible), and creative-arts (a book, a collection, a mural). ### How do I teach a preschooler to clean up after a project? Cleanup is part of the project — establish this from the first session. End each session 10 minutes before you need to stop for cleanup time. Make cleanup as specific as possible: "Brushes go in the cup, lids go back on the paint jars, newspaper goes in the recycling." Specificity prevents the vague "clean up" command that children correctly don't know how to execute. Stay present during cleanup — a child cleaning up alone quickly loses motivation; a child cleaning up alongside an adult stays engaged. Acknowledge completed cleanup: "The space is ready for the next project." Related reading: See also our salt dough projects and our science experiments guide for more ideas on this topic.