Activity of the Week – Friendship Flower Activities

I’m encouraging and participating in the 100 Acts of Kindness Project right now. Peace education is a natural part of both the 100 Acts of Kindness Project and Montessori education. North American Montessori Center’s 3-6 Montessori Homeschool Program has activities to help with peace education and the 100 Acts of Kindness Project in a wonderful free download of Friendship Flower Activities.

Friendship Flower Activities (Images from North American Montessori Center Printables)

NAMC’s Montessori Homeschool Program is offering the free download to Montessori homeschoolers, parents, and educators. You can use the activities for either Montessori peace education, the 100 Acts of Kindness Project, or both.

One download has 29 pages of blackline masters for activities such as a sharing flower, healthy friendship cookies, parts of the plant nomenclature cards (a Montessori botany activity to coordinate with the friendship flower activities), and peace labels for a peace discussion. A second download has 24 pages of lesson plans for the friendship flower activities, including a lesson on how to use a peace rose (commonly used to resolve conflicts in a Montessori classroom).

The background information about the Friendship Flower Activities says:

Working with the Friendship Flower, your child will explore areas of life important to all humans: self, family, community, and nature. By considering these areas of life and your child’s relationship to them, your child will learn to assess his feelings and the feelings of others. This is an important step to becoming a respectful person, as learning respect is fundamental to your child’s personal development. For young children, it is helpful to link respect to friendship, an idea children both cherish and understand.

Respect is the foundation of Montessori philosophy and methodology. Indeed, Dr. Montessori’s success in helping children develop their true potential can be connected to her belief in the natural dignity of all people and her profound respect for children.

In this activity, your child learns about respecting and being friends with himself, his family, his community, and nature. These areas of life are represented as flower petals, with a strong center that holds the delicate petals together. The center of the flower shows how all areas of life are connected on some level. You may choose to name the center of your flower. For example, you may wish to label it as “Respect,” “Friendship,” “Peace,” or “God.”

Do you have plans to use any Montessori-inspired peace education activities with your child?

UPDATE (February 17): Be sure to check out my Montessori 3-6 Homeschool Tips and Download post for more information about Montessori 3-6 Homeschool!