So ready for spring… and a give away x 3!

Is anyone else sick of the cold and the snow and the blah?  I definitely am.  I’m ready to get outside and watch Rett play, get our garden started and soak up some sun.  Last night we were going over our Hawaii trip plans for this summer and to say I’m looking forward to it is an understatement.  And before you know it, spring is gonna be here!

Did you know that a lot of your spring garden needs to be started indoors during February and March? Thinking about planting seeds this early when its so gross out normally doesn’t cross your mind but this enables them to be strong enough to have a good leg up for your outdoor planting.  So don’t think I’m crazy for posting some farm ideas. I always did farm in conjunction to seeds in my classroom, the two just go together!

Vocab-  Vocab doesn’t have to be flashcards.  It can be a list printed up as a reminder to you for the words you’d like your child to identify, understand or use depending on age and ability.  Here are some ideas: farm animals (cow, horse, pig, etc), barn, shed, tractor, combine, seed, sprout, plant, leaf, crop, hay, harvest, plant, germinate.  Not every word is going to be suitable for every child. Choose words on your child’s level and add to the list as you read through your books and find new words to work on.

Books- Books are an easy way to teach your information and vocab!  If your child isn’t old enough to listen to the entire story or informational text, use the pictures and discuss what’s going on. 

Books for toddlers:

 

Factual books:

 

Plant Activities:

Collect small containers such as empty yogurt containers, baby food jars or empty milk cartons. Have your child help you fill the containers with dirt.  Choose 3-4 different kinds of vegetables or other seeds and label the containers for what will be planted in them.  Make a plant journal and note the day you planted the seeds.  Another idea is to plant beans in zip lock baggies.  Moisten a paper towel (do not soak.. it will rot the seeds, I know from experience), place a few bean seeds inside and seal in a zip lock baggie.  Beans sprout within a few days and will need to be planted in soil within a week or two.

Talk to your child about the different sizes and shapes of the seeds.  Does this have anything to do with how long it takes them to sprout (check the back of the seed packet for info), the size of the plant or the size of the fruit they produce?  

Water seeds and place in a sunny area.  Continue noting things in your journal such as when each plant sprouted, when they put on their second set of leaves, when you planted them outdoors.  Your child can draw the different plant sprouts, graph the days it took to sprout and help you with watering and transplanting.

Animal Activities:

Make paper plate animal masks.

Collect a large box (you can call best buy or another store that sells refrigerators and see if you can get a box), cut out doors/windows and have your child help you paint their new barn. 

Read the little red hen and make your own bread at home!

Make home made butter. You can google the directions but this is something I do every year and the kids love it.  Good to make while waiting for your bread to bake.

Draw pigs on paper, color and cut out.  Mix up some instant chocolate pudding and finger paint a fun mud paradise for your pigs to play.  Eat the leftovers.

Ramona released this kit today:

And as soon as I saw it, my teacher brain started working overtime on ideas to use with my son.  Here are a few I came up with:

Peek a boo book.  Open the barn to read the simple text.

Animal match up.  A simple memory game.

 

An easy reader with animal sounds.

 

Puppets for gluing to popsicle sticks or attaching magnets to for fridge fun or use a cookie sheet to keep a little one busy in the car.

I put all these together along with templates for you to make your own and Ramona put them in this bundle: (image linked)

 

It was so fun coming up with ideas and putting the templates together. Hopefully I can do this with some other kits as well.  Ramona made the fridge puppets for her son, Noah and said he played with them for an hour!  Can’t beat that for some cheap rainy day entertainment.

 

So this week I’m doing a give away! Ok I’m doing 3 give aways! I’m going to give away the two easy readers I printed and put together, my animal match up game and my animal puppets.  You can earn three entries: comment below with what you would do with your freebies for 1, subscribe to my blog above and comment that you did that as 2, follow my blog for #3.   Good luck! I’ll be back next Tuesday with a winner!