Love, Laugh and Learn

Growing an Amaryllis is one of our favorite wintry activities! Before we had Annabelle, I always used to buy an Amaryllis for my classroom after Christmas. The children loved to watch how fast and tall they grow and see the huge flowers develop. They also provide a great opportunity for using measuring, recording and charting skills as a fun maths activity.

This year I bought an Amaryllis and we also received one as a gift, so we decided to have a race to the top and see which would be tallest! We planted the Amaryllis’ together and left them in a sunny place (and checked them VERY regularly of course!). You can really see the changes every day so these are great plants for children to grow and keep them interested!

We started measuring the plants once the first Amaryllis was a few centimetres. I used Duplo bricks as the measuring unit because they are big enough for Annabelle to handle confidently, and there would not be too many to count. We built a tower next to each stem and this enabled us to talk about which was taller or shorter, whether we needed more or less bricks, and to count the bricks in each tower.

Checking if the tower is tall enough yet.

Measuring and comparing

When each tower was ready and matched the stem, we labeled them to help us remember how tall they were, and to compare how much they had grown next time they were measured.

Labeling The Towers

We measured the stems every 4-5 days to ensure there would be plenty of difference each time, and Annabelle really looked forward checking them and counting her bricks.

Getting Taller

And Taller!

The Tallest – the winner of the Amaryllis race!

This is something I would definitely recommend trying next year when the Amaryllis’ hit the shops around Christmas time. The activity could be used as either a fun little activity for youngsters or a more extended project for older children.