Spending the week with Eric Carle’s The Tiny Seed was delightful. We love to garden and plant flowers in my home so this book was timely for the season and our interests. Watching the little girls plant a seed and grow in excitement as the seed grows is priceless.
Continuing on with our daily activities for this book here is Day Three.
Day Three: Painting Terracotta Planters/Parts of a Plant/Seeds of Math
Craft: Paint a Terracotta Planter
Supplies:
Terracotta planter in any size
Paint brushes
Acrylic Paints
Newspaper, tarp, plastic table cover (something to protect the surface you will be working on)
Stencils, if desired
Small section of cardboard (to be used as a paint palette)
Directions:
Prepare your painting area by covering it with newspaper, tarp, or a plastic table cover.
Prepare your children by having them wear aprons or play clothes.
If you do not have a paint palette you can simply use a small section of cardboard from a box or a paper plate. Squeeze a small amount of paint in each color you select on a palette for each child.
Create! Allow your children to paint at will or offer help with stencils.
Allow several hours to dry completely before using as a planter.
Science Extension: Parts of a Plant
For worksheets and diagrams for studying parts of a plant please click HERE.
Learning parts of a plant can be as simple as stem, flower, and leaves to as complex as stigma, anther, and filament. The most technical term we used was petal yet the study served the purpose of exploring the flower a little deeper.
Seeds of Math
Seeds made a fun math manipulative for the day. We opened up more seed packets and used them to practice counting, sorting, addition basics and subtraction basics. I also put seeds in groups of two’s in order to teach counting by 2’s and a little basic multiplication lesson for my Kindergarten student.
Day Five: What a Plant Needs to Grow/Planting a Seed
What a Plant Needs to Grow
Today we studied that a plant needs in order to grow. We used printables from the same site as before for to create a little booklet. We also compared what a plant needs to grow to what we need to grow. To extend the discussion we spoke of spiritual and emotional growth as well.
Planting a Seed
Using the terracotta planters we painted we decided to plant a seed. Homeschooling is at its best when little hands get dirty and are on the front lines of learning. In this spirit we opened a bag of potting soil, grabbed gardening gear and picked out seeds to plant. Planting was a successful activity and will continue to garner interest as the plants begin to grow.