I don't know if letting them handle the roses is a good idea...they're likely to get crushed in the process. Letting them smell the roses might be nice...if you have cut ones in vases that can be smelled with hands held together behind backs :)

Younger children can sometimes lose interest very quickly, so keep it interesting for them. Jam jars that can be passed around without the contents being damaged are a good idea. You might also want to explain the history of roses to them in an easy to follow, condensed version. Something like the older roses (gallicas, albas, damasks) and how they combined to produce the later roses. If you can include a world map and point out France, Damascus, China, etc. that might be fun, too. Again, make this very short and mostly a way to hold up a sample of the roses and point to the map :)

Have the children draw their "If I were a rose" and if they're old enough to write well, they can explain their choice.. Make sure to have color crayons or pencils. Ask them to tell you, or write in their explanation, if they chose by color, fragrance, looks, location or a combination of these.

Also nice if you can explain that roses (without pesticides) can be used for potpourri, teas, jellies, candies, etc. If you have any samples, that would be nice too (even if the kids don't try them, they can see them). Sounds like fun and the kids should really enjoy it!

Well it sort of depends on the age of the kids and the gender I suppose. If they are in princess/knight era (which they would probably be), you can probably make it more interesting utilizing in what "princess" garden grew which rose (should not be that hard to Google the pictures of royalty in question), when for boys you might utilize the Rose Wars and crusaders bringing the damask rose over to Europe. Then you could make it more interesting with for example telling about wild plant collectors which collected and brought number of species and decorative roses from for example China.

Drawing is a good idea, all sorts of rose food is good idea, rose water, rose perfume might be also interesting to them to sniff and to be shown from what roses it can be made. There also are sugar decorations for all sorts of cakes made in rose shape, you might use it for something (like decorating your own muffin with roses, I don't know).

This comes from a t-shirt -- but I think it will get you there:

Advice from a rose:

Make someone's day
Enjoy the sunshine
Remember your beauty stems from within
Be colorful!
Look past the thorns
Make new buds
Bloom!
Hold your head high
Drink plenty of water
Be outstanding in your field
Don't let the little things bug you
Be scent-sational!

Here is a link that might be useful: Advice from Nature t-shirts

I did a project a few years ago on native wild orchids with a group of children grades 1-5, and it worked out well. My advice is, have the samples arranged in some way that the children can touch them and smell them--not just one example of each kind, if you can manage it. If you can get flowers, stems and buds of once-blooming old roses and their close kin, you can encourage the children to rub the buds and smell the aromatic odor of the glands. I think the way to children's minds is through their senses. With older children, third grade and up, you might have a drawing session, encouraging them to explain to you how one rose is different from another, pointing out things like differences in thorns, hips if your roses have any, textures of blooms and leaves. Actually, younger children who want to can draw as well, but are less likely to be able to record on paper what their eyes see.
Good luck! It's a good idea to do this.
Melissa

If you have very young (toddler age) children who might want to pull a flower apart, you can hinder the destructive impulse while still allowing the children to touch the flowers by coaching them to touch the pretty flowers as much as they want, but with one finger only. This is what I did with my daughter at that age, and it worked.
Melissa

I noticed our advice mentioned in the above blog. Isn't nature amazing? Thank you for celebrating the beauty of nature and sharing Advice from a Rose with your audience. Advice from Nature now appears on tshirts, greeting cards, posters, notepads, books and even pillows. It pleases me to share a message from the Earth as reminders for people to live their true nature.
It is important to keep the copyright and completeness of the poem as it is shared. I am writing to connect with you in our common bond of nature and to ask you to add information if it is not included:

1. Ilan Shamir should be noted as the author
   2. It should have (c)Ilan Shamir www.yourtruenature.com as the copyright. We would ask you to help us out by making the www.yourtruenature.com a link to our site.
   3. The poem, wherever possible, should be included in its entirety.
   I invite you to get to know us more and visit our website (we have 60 other advice) and also www.treegreetings.com the ecard that plants a tree. If you become an affiliate and put our link on your website, you can let people know about this beautiful tree gift. If you like, you can also let people know about the YouTube videos http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QNOtu063eCM
   Let your audience know I wish for their growth, connection and branching out to their full potential.
   Together we can celebrate the beauty of roses!
   Kind regards,
   Ilan