When Life Gives You Lavender
This morning Grizzly bears received an exciting delivery of freshly harvested Lavender. So, what do you do when life gives you Lavender…. you make perfume of course. The Grizzly bears loved using the mortar and pestle to squish the flowers and then with a splash of water we added it all to a bottle and ‘voila’ lavender perfume.
We spoke about the different textures of the plant, stalks and flowers. Some of the flowers had opened up, which was very exciting!
We also talked about what benefits lavender has, its very calming, its helps you relax and sleep better… and one of the children added “yes, and lavender makes the monsters go away too”.
Sunbears added it in to their mud kitchen exploring the sensory element of how it felt and smelled.
They also made their own soap. They melted down a bar of soap which turned really gooey and sticky, almost like plasticine.
Then we used the safety knifes to have a go at chopping the lavender then mixed it with our hands before putting into moulds to set. They have each taken home a small bar of soap in brown paper packages tied up with string and lavender.
Pandas added some to water play initially, they smelt its strong smell as Annabel cut it up and sprinkled it into the water. As it soaked it also added some colour to the water. In the afternoon a group requested painting and then had the good idea to use the lavender as their paint brushes.
It was a fantastic sensory experience and we were able to explore lavender in so many different ways.
