A Rose By Any Other Name...Celebrating Red Rose Day

It Was the Time of Roses

David Murray, 1914

"But he who dares not grasp the thorn, should never crave the rose.” -  Anne Brontë

June 12 Red Rose Day so below is a bit of history and some stories to share. You will also find stories from England, Romania, Italy, Portugal and other countries, easy crafts to share with the children, and curriculum to make your classrooms bloom with delight!

A BRIEF HISTORY OF ROSES

• Roses are a symbol of love, beauty, war and politics.
• According to fossil evidence, roses are 35 million years old.
• There are 150 species of roses throughout the Northern Hemisphere.
• Cultivation of roses began in China 5000 years ago.
• During the Roman period roses were grown extensively in the Middle East.
• Nero dumped tons of rose petals on his dinner guests.
• Cleopatra had her living quarters filled with the petals of roses so that when Marc Antony met her, he would long remember her every time he smelt a rose.
• Rose hips have been found in Europe and petrified rose wreaths have been unearthed from ancient Egyptian tombs.
• The first known paintings of a rose are actually frescoes. The earliest example was discovered in Crete around 1600 B.C.

Above information found at:

http://urbanext.illinois.edu/roses/history.cfm http://www.theflowerexpert.com/content/miscellaneous/flowersandhistory/history-of-roses

STORIES

The Blue Rose – China

http://www.civprod.com/storylady/stories/TheBlueRose.htm

The Daughter of the Rose – Romania

http://www.sacred-texts.com/neu/rft/rft06.htm

The Elf of the Rose – Hans Christian Andersen

http://hca.gilead.org.il/elf_rose.html

Legend of the Cherokee Rose – Native American
http://www.firstpeople.us/FP-Html-Legends/LegendOfTheCherokeeRose-Cherokee.html 

The Legend of the Christmas Rose - Italy

http://www.mainlesson.com/display.php?author=steedman&book=italy&story=rose

Little Wild-Rose – Romania
http://www.worldoftales.com/European_folktales/Romanian_folktale_9.html

The Maiden with the Rose on Her Forehead - Portugal

http://www.surlalunefairytales.com/books/portugual/pedroso/maidenwithrose.html

The Nightingale and the Rose – Oscar Wilde

http://www.artpassions.net/wilde/nightingale.html

The Rose - Grimm

http://www.pitt.edu/~dash/grimm203.html

The Rose Beauty – Turkey

http://www.sacred-texts.com/asia/ftft/ftft07.htm

The Rose Tree – England

http://www.worldoftales.com/European_folktales/English_folktale_3.html

The Snail and the Rose Tree – Hans Christian Andersen

http://www.mainlesson.com/display.php?author=rhead&book=andersen&story=snail

The Three Roses – Czechoslovakia

http://www.sacred-texts.com/neu/kog/kog13.htm

CRAFTS

Enchanted Learning – This site offers a wide variety of flower crafts along with word searches and printable classroom activities.

http://www.enchantedlearning.com/crafts/flowers/

Rose Tissue Paper Flowers

http://www.littlemisscraft.com/Rose_Tissue_Paper_Flower-10_1

CURRICULUM

Teacher’s Guide – Lessons plans, printouts, white board activities, coloring books and more. Your classroom will be blooming in no time at all!

http://www.theteachersguide.com/plantsflowers.htm

ADDITIONAL RESOURCE

Birds, Bees and Butterflies - Since flowers attract our winged friends, here is a previous blog post, filled with fun songs and fingerplays for the wee ones.

http://www.theteachersguide.com/plantsflowers.htm

Karen Chace 2014 ©

This blog post was researched and compiled by Karen Chace. Permission for private use is granted. Distribution, either electronically or on paper is prohibited without my expressed written permission. For permission please contact me at storybug@aol.com. Of course, if you wish to link to my blog via your website, blog, newsletter, Facebook page or Twitter please feel free to do so; I greatly appreciate your support and personal integrity.