Materials

• 4 phone books per class

• scissors for each student

• flowers and leaves for pressing

• plastic cups for storing pre-collected flowers

Cutting the flowers

• To save time and to help students understand which flowers are best for pressing, we recommend that you pre-cut 3-5 flowers and leaves per student ahead of time.  Keep them fresh in cups of water.

• Cut flowers after the sun has dried the dew. 

• Cut only perfect flowers.

• Cut flat flowers that do not have puffy centers or backs.  Check the website for flowers that press well.

• Cut leaves and stems as well as flowers.

Explain the kinds of flowers to cut

• Explain to students that they will be cutting and pressing flowers and leaves.  Pressing means that flowers and leaves are placed in phone books until the flowers and leaves become paper-thin.  Explain that petals and leaves contain water and that by placing them between pages of a phone book, the water is absorbed by the pages and papery petals and leaves result.  Later, the pressed flowers and leaves will be used by students in a project.

• Show the students some of your pre-cut flowers to explain the kinds of flowers to cut.  Students should cut flat flowers.  Show the students a marigold and a zinnia.  Point out that these flowers should not be cut for pressing.  The thickness of the flower will not press thin enough to be usable in a craft and it is likely to get moldy.  (Most classes make and laminate bookmarks.  Thick flowers do not laminate well.)  Show an orange cosmos and tell the students to carefully snip off the tall yellow center so the flower will press flat.

• Tell students to ask you BEFORE they cut a flower if they are not sure.

• Explain that the students should collect flowers from your pre-cut selection to use up all of them in their phone books.  Explain that students can cut 3 more (total) flowers and leaves. 

• Stems can be cut short or left longer. 

Procedure to press flowers

• Use a phone book to model the procedure for pressing flowers. 

• Pinch a small number of pages (5-10) to open the book as if preparing to read the book.

• Place 4 to 6 flowers on the left-hand page so they do not touch each other. 

• Take care with positioning so flowers and leaves are flat against the page.  Flowers with an open face, like cosmos, are pressed face down so the petals spread flat on the page.  Cone-shaped flowers, like petunias and balloon flowers, can be pressed by closing the bloom and placing the bloom on the page.  Stems with small blooms, like salvia, alyssum, and flame celosia, are just placed on the page.

• After the flowers are on the page, take a small pinch of pages from the right and cover the flowers - again just like reading a book.

• Flowers and leaves are always placed on the left.  Pages to cover the flowers are always turned from the right.

• Explain that the turned pages do not need to be pressed down firmly and that students should not go backwards to peek once the flowers have been covered.  Explain that it will take several weeks before the flowers and leaves are ready.  Taking backwards peeks causes the flowers to move on the page and become stuck together or to fall out.

• Ask the students to repeat the steps before they begin.  Distribute the phone books in various locations to give students room to work.  You may decide to assign students by groups to a particular phone book using their classroom groups, alphabetically by last name, or by number if the teacher assigns numbers to students.

• When pressing is finished, the phone book is closed with the back cover facing up.

• Selected students or the teacher carries the phone books back to the classroom by holding the book horizontally so the flowers and leaves inside are not disturbed.

• Phone books are stacked and stored in the classroom.  Pressed flowers and leaves are generally ready for use in 4 to 6 weeks.