This makes the creases flatten out, which in turn makes the flower open.ĭifferent types of paper soak up water at different speeds. When these fibers absorb water, they swell up and the paper expands. But is it really magic? Of course not – it’s science!

Your children will be delighted to watch their flowers “magically” unfold in water to reveal colorful stickers inside. We found that a tissue paper flower springs open almost instantly while a flower made of heavy paper like cardstock takes a little while to slowly bloom. We repeated this kids’ STEM activity with various kinds of paper of different thicknesses. As it bloomed, my daughter noticed the sticker in the middle and was delighted with the surprise! My kids squealed with anticipation!Īfter a short wait, we watched as the paper flower slowly began unfolding. We placed our folded paper flower gently in a bowl of water and waited for the magic to happen.

Once the sticker was in place, we folded the tip of each petal to the middle point so that the sticker was hidden. Our cute kids’ STEM activity was really coming together. When we unfolded the paper we had a beautiful flower! The kids placed a sticker in the center. I helped them draw a petal shape outward from the folded corner, then we cut around the shape to make the petals. I had my kids fold the square paper in half one way and then in half the other way. Having an assortment of different weights/thicknesses is ideal so you can observe how they each unfold differently. They can be any size square and any kind of paper. The thin tissue paper absorbs the water quickly and blooms into a flower almost immediately, while the thicker cardstock paper takes a minute or two to fully blossom. We tried all kinds of paper from very thin tissue paper to very thick cardstock paper. This fun and exciting STEM activity for kids can be used will all kids of paper, but the results will be slightly different. As the tiny little fibers in the paper quickly absorb water, they expand and allow the creases to open up.Īs the folds in the paper open up, the flower petals will spring back into their original position and bloom into a beautiful flower! The magic or science behind how these paper flowers bloom in water is thanks to the cellulose fibers that the paper is made of. Some flowers may take longer than others, but after a few minutes, Spring will have sprung inside your home with a beautiful display of magical paper flowers! Why do Paper Flowers Bloom in Water? Watch and enjoy as each flower slowly opens up and blooms after it is placed in the water! This will give your flowers plenty of room to spread out without sticking to each other when they bloom. When you are done folding them the flowers will look more circular and smaller, like a budding flower getting ready to open up and bloom! Step 4: Place the Paper Flowers in Water and Watch Them Growĭepending on the size of the paper flowers you created, you may want to fill a large bowl or pan with water. You want to crease the fold as much as possible to help the petals stay folded towards the center of the flowers. Now it’s time to fold each individual petal of the flowers in towards the center. The wonderful thing about this experiment is how kid-friendly it is, but the kids will definitely need some adult help and supervision while cutting out their colorful little flowers. Once the flowers have all been designed and colored, go ahead and cut them out of the paper. The flowers can be as big or small as you want, but the important thing is to make sure that they have plenty of individual petals that can be folded up! Step 2: Cut The Flowers Out We ended up with sunflowers, daisies, and roses at our house. Let their imaginations run wild and they can create all sorts of different types of flowers. So go ahead and grab some colored pencils, markers, or crayons and let’s get to work making some paper flowers! The easiest way to do this is to trace a few flowers with large petals and then let the kids color them how they would like.

You can use any kind of paper for this experiment, but we found the construction paper gave us the best blooming flower results. If you are anything like me, this will probably be the most challenging part of this experiment! I am no artist, but luckily I have two little girls and a wife that love to make pretty flowers with their art skills!

Magic flowers drawing