Toddler Activity Schedule 9 (Gardening)

March 18th, 2010 by Dionna | 3 Comments
Posted in Carnival and Special Series, Children, Eclectic Learning, Ecological Responsibility and Love of Nature, Learning Activity Series, natural parenting, Preschoolers, Toddlers

A few weeks ago, Kieran and I started the first seeds inside for our garden. They have started sprouting, but it is now time to get our garden beds ready outside. Our neverending winter may have other plans (snow this weekend!), but we will try our hardest to get the ground tilled and ready this week.

Monday

Morning
*Lay all of the seed packages out that we are planting this spring. Examine the seeds. Let Kieran pick out several vegetables that he will grow in his section of the garden.

Afternoon
Pretend play
*Room weaving: this super fun indoor activity will spark your child’s imagination. The room weaving could be the roots of vegetables under the ground, grass and twigs in a bird’s nest, or a spring spider’s web.

3:00-4:00 – outside
4:00-5:00 – Music & Movement

Tuesday

Morning
Fun with numbers
*Inch Worms: I am basing this fun math activity on this blog post idea for older children. Since Kieran is only 27 months old, addition of numbers larger than one might be confusing, so I am going to simplify the original idea. I will cut one inch pieces of ribbon. We can line them up to measure toys, household objects, etc. It should be fairly easy for Kieran to count the number of pieces to determine how many inches long something is.

Afternoon
Language/pre-reading
*We will make a collage of pictures of vegetables (cut out from magazines). We will talk about what letter each vegetable starts with, and label each picture with the appropriate letter.

3:00-4:00 – outside
4:00-5:00 – Music & Movement

Wednesday

Morning
*Get those seeds in the ground! Let the littles get to work with their own gloves, shovel, etc. Gardening is not only a fun and educational way to connect with your little outside, but it’s also a healthy gross motor activity for toddlers.

Afternoon
Exploring our World
*Puddle Stomping: assuming we get some rain this week, we’ll be out stomping in it. Break out the umbrellas and rain coats!

3:00-4:00 – outside
4:00-5:00 – Music & Movement

Thursday

Morning
Science Adventures
*Grow a sweet potato: Partially fill a clear glass with water. Insert 4 toothpicks around a sweet potato so it can “hang” on the edge of the glass. Place the sweet potato in the water (add water as needed). Watch what happens and discuss it with your child.

Afternoon
Library

3:00-4:00 – outside
4:00-5:00 – Music & Movement

Friday

Morning

*Musical Interlude: “On Top of Spaghetti”

Benefits: group enjoyment, humor; Some matching of words with music, sequencing, and auditory memory

(To the tune of “On Top of Old Smokey”)
*On top of spaghetti, all covered with cheese, I lost my poor meatball, when somebody sneezed.
It rolled off the table, and onto the floor, and then my poor meatball, rolled out of the door.
It rolled in the garden and under a bush, and then my poor meatball was nothing but mush.
The mush was as tasty as tasty could be, and early next summer it grew into a tree.
The tree was all covered with beautiful moss, it grew lovely meatballs and tomato sauce.
So if you eat spaghetti, all covered with cheese, hold onto your meatballs and don’t ever sneeze.

From the book Musical Games, Fingerplays and Rhythmic Activities for Early Childhood.

Afternoon
Messy Play
*We will paint some rocks to put out around Kieran’s garden.

3:00-4:00 – outside
4:00-5:00 – Music & Movement

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