Flower Picking

Pick the flowers to make a pretty bouquet.

Mushrooms in a bouquet?! Yuk!
Pick all the flowers but leave the mushrooms in the field.

Goals

To develop tactile tracking skills.
To recognise the pattern differences between the letters F and M or others.

The adult prepares

1 baseplate
16 letter bricks 8 x F, 8 x M
1 bowl

Attach the bricks vertically (reading position) in random locations.

The children play

The child explores the field, picking only the flower bricks: dot 1, dot 2, dot 4, and puts them in the bowl.

Suggest that they make a bouquet with the flower bricks.

Here we are outside,
and this is a really big field.
Okay?
Do you know what is in this field?
You can find flowers,
but you can also find mushrooms.
Feel the difference?
The mushrooms,
you have one, three, four.
So a lot of space here.
Okay? Flower:
Three dots close,
and mushroom:
Three dots, but a space here.
So we will start here.
Is it a flower or a mushroom?
-Flower.
Yes. Can you pick it?
It’s really hard.
Yes. Flower here, okay.
Is this a flower or a mushroom?
-Mushroom.
Okay, so we leave it.
Next one.
-Flower.
Oh, can I have it? Yes.
Next one on top,
what is it?
Mushroom.
-Yes.
Mushroom.
Oh, mushroom or flower?
-Flower.
Yes. Pick it.
This one.
-Mushroom.
Mushroom, okay.
Flower.
-Flower, okay.
Thank you.
Oh. It’s hard,
you need to use both hands. Yes.
So here we have all the flowers.
Can you make a nice bouquet with it?
Do they smell good?

Facilitation tips

Show the difference between an F and an M:
F is dot 1, dot 2, dot 4
M is dot 1, dot 3, dot 4
Recreate the patterns of dots for F and M in a braille cell egg carton.
Suggest that the child tells a story: Who are these flowers for? Which flower do you prefer the smell of?
Add other letters: N for nuts, G for grass etc.
Make the game more or less difficult by choosing words that make the player distinguish between very different letters (for the easier version) such as A/Q, or more similar letters (for the more difficult version) such as E/I.

There are no mushrooms in Madagascar and picking flowers is not common.
The activity has been adapted to include two of the island’s most emblematic animals: makis and foussas.

You know it, it’s the M.
These are Makis. And these are Foussas.
They’re eating the makis.
We’re going to have several foussas and makis.
You are going to save the makis and leave the foussas…
And be careful, when you touch a foussa
you have to be very quick, otherwise they’ll bite your finger off.
Go for it!
Watch your fingers! Ooh!
Are you all right? All fingers?