The Idea Box: Science

Hello lovely readers! Thanks for joining me for another month of The Idea Box: a linky party for educational ideas and resources for toddlers and preschoolers. 

Links can be tips, games, crafts, activities and free printables that relate to the theme. They can be your own posts or you can also link to a great website/ post that you've come across that you think is beneficial to those educating young children at home or in a classroom setting.

This months theme is.....

Seed Planting Party from Kinder Days

Is it the beginning of SPRING where you are ???

Are you ready to start planning your garden with your kinders?  How about a little shin-dig to get into the spring fun?

This weekend we had our first seed planting party!

 It was probably one of the most FUN days we have had this year!

I set up different stations around the yard. We had 22 kids, and rotated our activities.

Come see what we did!

Each Child brought a clay pot to paint, and some seeds to share!

I repurposed  coffee tables and already had a small picnic table to use for the kinders.

PAINTING STATION

I had some old boards in the garage that I painted the different station signs on. Easy - peezy! Ad some old sheets for the table, fresh garden flowers and pinnwheels....and you are set!

I set out aprons for all the kids, since this paint was not washable... (probably should have told the mommies that! =( oops.)

And our first part of the day was painting! 

Look at how adorable they are!

KT was so proud of her butterfly flower pot. =)

My son's hands after a good hour of painting his! This is huge for my anti-messy child! He had the BEST time! He decided to be creative and use his fingers as his brush like some of the other kids!

GARDEN MARKERS STATION

Our next station was Making GARDEN MARKERS for our seeds! I set up tons of popsicle sticks, markers, crayons, paper, scissors, glue, tape, and tons of stickers...Once they choose their seeds, they worked on these...

They all made some GREAT markers!

Time for anack!!!!

Our next station was the REFRESHMENT section.

I made this little table from 2 chairs and a board...it was the perfect height for the kids, and worked in a pinch!

We served water! =) Perfect, no mess drink, and everyone likes it!

All the families brought a snack to share,  and we made these adorable little Dirt Cakes!!! I bought mini flower pots, (50 cents each) felt flower decor,(pack for $2)  and gummie worms.

Aren't they adorable? I just used plain vanilla pudding and ground up oreo cookies since it was easier than the actual dirt cake recipe. =)

Our next station was the DIRT station!

Time to fill our pots!

We also had families bring egg cartons to fill as well.... Each child recieved their own shovel, and were able to take it home as a party favor. (only 30 cents each at the german toy store!)

I bought a 6lb bag of soil, laid out a tarp and framed it with firewood. The dirt was just enough for all the kids, with some left over.

Next, onto the SEED PLANTING station!

Here, we set up a table for the children to work out and plant the seeds.

I laminated the seed growing process and placed it on our seed table.

If you do this make sure you have the kids put the seeds back in their envelopes, otherwise you won't know which seeds are which, and it will be a "Mystery Garden" =)

How cute did they turn out????!!!

Next the WATERING station!

Children took their finished potted seeds to the watering station and lightly watered their garden.  Also available for free play!

I hung simple pendant banners around the yard.....

The next station was a SENSORY box!

 This was a HUGE hit!

Daddy built these for me before he left. I wanted 2 and I wanted them big enough for at least 4 kids to play around them at a time. They are simple to make. We use them for all sorts of themed activities for the kids.

This one I filled with 8 packs of black beans and 1 pack of brown beans, plastic bugs, butterflys, fake flowers, flower pots, and 3 little square grass decorations.  

The KIDS loved it!!!

 There were a few who only wanted to play with this most of the time... Thanks Daddy!

This was a great size for them! I also set it on top of two old vintage drawers I had laying in the garage to raise it off the ground a bit...

I laid out a few quilts to sit on, and some stories for the younger ones and the mamas....

With so many families coming, I knew i wasn't going to have enough lawn chairs so laying out blankets was a great way to seat everyone, encourage relaxing, and was cost effective as well! =)

I also set up a little table with a sequencing game of HOW DO PLANTS GROW?.. I used a cookie sheet, and magnets for this, and it kept the wind from blowing the pieces away!

I laminted the HOW DO PLANTS GROW book, and placed it outside with the game, and one of the Mama's read this to the kids before they headed over to the planting table!

What happens when you are all done planting and you have dirt and water left??????????

That's right, TONS OF FUN!!!!!!

You wouldn't believe how much fun the kinders had playing in the mud!

Mud PIES!

I have NEVER seen my children this dirty. =) And to my surprise how much FUN they had being dirty! The dirt pile is going to STAY!. 

 P.S. . KT's pants had flowers on them, they are NOT black....=) see her now!

Something else I did was take a few seeds to examine the different sizes of an avocado pit and an acorn and asked the kinders to GUESS what it was...

Counting FUN!

I have a boxes of little wooden counters of all kinds of shapes, and things from a local craft shop. They are very inexpensive ($1-2 pack of 10)

I wanted to have a display on the table of the differant parts of a LIVE plant the kids could look at and touch. .. Roots, leaves, flowers, stems, ... Great hands on for the kinders... NEXT time! =)

 STATION: SHOWER TIME!!!!!

Tiny little Toes Had fun here today....

What a totally FUN day!

Thanks everyone for coming and sharing with us!!!

The Kinders and I are heading to Asia in a few days to visit this guy! Remember he left last spring, and came home in November, and then trotted off to another part of the world for a YEAR? Well, we are SO blessed to take a month to be a FAMILY again... =) The Lord has worked out every detail and we are so thankful. I will be sharing Next week on our CRAFT room! Woo Hoo!!! (after the jet lag! )

Thanks for visiting!

Now, Go Have a PARTY!!!

                                                                         Helpful links:

From Seed to Plant printable

How do plants grow sequence game

And here are some other great GARDEN Ideas for your little ones!

Garden Preschool Pack- from Homeschool Creations

Printable Veggie Seed Packets from Mama Jenn

Growing Ideas  from Mama Jenn

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Hi!

 I am Angela; Welcome to Kinder Days....I am a former homeschool graduate, wife to a Handsome Airman in the US Airforce. I am the mama of 2 little kinders ages 7 and 4 living in the beautiful woodlands of Germany.  I have been homeschooling for almost 2 years, and I truly LOVE it! Currently I am a single mama while daddy serves far away for the next year.  I love Jesus! I Thank Him for giving me the opportunity and the Desire to stay home and raise my children.. a TRUE HONOR.

My Motto is from Ecclesiastes 9:10 Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with all your might.

Jenn,  THANK YOU for featuring Me!!!



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My delicious Ambiguity

Making A Play Garden From The Imagination Tree

One of my all time favorite blogs is The Imagination Tree as it is always full of simple inspiration and creative ideas to do with the kids. I am so excited and honoured to have Anna here with us today and sharing how to make a fabulous play garden!

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With Spring finally here, breathing a wonderfully sunny warmth and life into everything, we have been out in the park and the garden for longer each day. When we painted flowerpots and planted some primroses last month, I realised we were going to need a proper little patch of the garden for the girls to call their own where some playful and fun learning can take place.

Our fabulous Pampa came over last week and helped to turn over a little semi-circlular patch of the lawn next to (a very empty!) flower bed. We moved the bricks that had been there and used them to mark out the edges of the garden area.

Next, Cakie and I went on a big-girls-only expedition to the garden centre where we picked out some low fencing on a roll, a bag of compost, a few plants and some kiddie tools.

We put the fencing around the semi-circle and left a little gap for getting in and out. She told me "you forgot the gate Mummy." Mud overalls on and straight into the patch to dig and make "mud castles" using the bucket and new trowel!

And some mud cup-cakes of course. We are very 2011 daaaarling.

We planted her choice of pretty pink flowers, having left behind the pretty little daisy bush we bought at the shop. So very typical of me!

We also planted some lavender and lemon thyme to add a sensory section to the garden. Later we will move some mint over from the main garden too as well as a rosemary bush to fill the air with a lovely range of fragrances.

Some mini-tools for digging in the mud and her trusty watering can.

Yes, she wore her wellies and a tutu. We just went with it :-)

We brought out a pile of the pebbles that she played with the other day and she used them to do tipping, arranging and collecting with. She used her plastic tea set to have a picnic. We added a little windmill for no other reason than it was pretty and she could watch it spin in the wind!

And she poked her finger into the soil and popped in one of the pebbles, saying "I planted a seed to grow."

We used a turned up flower pot, half of a terracotta urn and a log to begin the makings of a mini-beast habitat. We will leave them undisturbed, face down in the soil for as long as possible to attract little creatures to come and live underneath and then we will take a look at what we can find with some magnifying glasses.

I placed some of the grass that we dug up from the lawn into one of our small world trays and put it at the back of the garden space for playing with. There are some plastic toy bugs, pebbles and a flower pot to form part of the mini-garden-within-a-garden small world scene!

Baby Pop is absolutely thrilled with the whole affair and has learnt how to wildly crawl up the steps and whisk over to the area of muddy delight in a flash! I'm growing eyes in the back of my head again :-)

This post is "Part 1" because I'm hoping to update on the progress that we make over the Spring and Summer. We shall we adding some instruments, opportunities for outdoor art, growing some vegetables and making a lovely, playful, imaginative mess together :-) This is already Cakie's absolute favourite place to come and play and I can't wait to see it develop into her very own, special space.

This activity is good for:
* Science (Knowledge & Understanding of the World): minibeast names, characterisitcs and habitats/naming,growing and caring for plants
* Sensory play: exploring the world using all of the senses
* Gross motor skills: digging, watering, chopping
* Creativity and story-telling: adding narrative to play
* Imaginative play: mud pies/ mud cakes/ grass soups/ small world insect play/ tea parties/ picnics etc
* Role play: gardening and cooking
* Emergent reading: looking at plant care labels and understanding their purpose

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This idea is contributed by Anna from The Imagination Tree. Anna is an Early Years specialist teacher with a background in the arts, who is now a SAHM to two little girls.