In Tot School last week Clara planted some strawberry seeds. We placed the container on the windowsill and have been waiting for the seeds to sprout. We were all so excited when we checked on it and found this little green sprout!!
We can’t wait to watch it grow. In the meantime we will be working on lots of fun plant art and science projects and reading books all about gardens, seeds and planting.
We have already really enjoyed these great books about plants and gardens:
The Small Seed, by Judith Nicholls ~ We are loving that this is a touch and feel book. It starts out with a small seed being planted and grows, roots a shoot and then a stem. Finallly, there is a beautiful sunflower. All done in a fun rhyiming text. Clara loves finding the touch and feel part on each page and I think the tactile interaction helps her retain the information better too.
The Surprise Garden, by Zoe Hall ~ This is a fun book that shares the journey of 3 children planting a garden that surprises them with all the wonderful food that grows from the plants. I really liked how it talks about the different parts of the plants that we eat. All of the girls have really enjoyed this book which is always nice. We also really enjoyed the collage like illustrations in this book.
Up in the Garden and Down in the Dirt, by Kate Messner ~ I really love this book because it shows young readers what is going on not only Up in the Garden where the plants are sprouting and growing, but down in the dirt in the hidden world where the roots are growing and insects creating creating tunnels and burrows. This is the story of a garden over the course of a year. We really enjoyed looking at the illustrations and finding all the fun details on each page. At the end of our book was a quick refrence page that gave a few facts about the different animals that were introduced in the garden and explained that some are helpful and others are not. Again I liked that this books was fun for all the girls to read together.
What are some of your favorite planting themed books?
For more planting fun and activities be sure to check out some of the plant and garden projects we have done already!!!
, by James Preller. In this book a bear is so tired and just wants to sleep (hibernate) all winter, but his friend mouse wants him to stay up and play. He tries to convince him to stay up by telling him all the great things that you can do in the winter. Bear says that he will not miss any of those winter things, but will miss his friend. He tells him to wake him up in Spring when the flowers bloom. After reading this cute story, we talked about all the fun things that we did in the winter (built snowmen, had hot chocolate) and then we talked about all the fun things we do in the Spring. Emily loves the flowers so we made special flower pictures to go along with this book.
When I was over my grandmother’s house I noticed this really old pack of mini baking cups and she said that I could take them. I knew they would be perfect for a project and we put them to use right away…to make Spring Flowers!
I gave Emily all of the supplies and we each worked on our own flowers. After watching what I did she made her own. It was so much fun to create together. I love seeing how she tries to make more realistic pictures all on her own. 
