Mother Goose Time - Learning About Gardens Art and Play

Take a look at this calendar for our month, Growing Gardens...

 

Each number is for a new day, and activities that go with the Mother Goose Time theme for the month.

It's fun for children to learn through play and art as they learn about gardens.

After creating an art project of a garden and a bunny mask, our 3-year-old daughter loved pretending to eat the carrots, tomatoes and corn that she planted in her own art (used as home-made toy) garden.
She then wanted to eat a real carrot, which was a great way to encourage healthy food choices.



Play Garden Created by our 8-Year-Old Daughter

Art Garden

She decided she did not want to mix her colors to make brown.

(Mother Goose Time provided all of the supplies, except for the paint, glue and tape.)


• Paint (brown and green or mix colors to make brown, like we did in photos)
• Egg carton
• Popsicle sticks
• Glue
• Tape (optional)

  

  Our 8-year-old daughter mixed colors to make brown.

• Construction paper or cardstock (green, red, yellow, orange)

Instructions:
1. Paint the popsicle sticks green.
2. Paint the egg carton brown
(As you can see our 3-year-old daughter chose not to mix the colors to make brown.)
3. Let it dry while you create the vegetables. Cut out shapes to make corn, tomatoes, carrots, or any vegetables you like.
4. Glue or tape the vegetables to the popsicle sticks.
5. Push the sticks into the egg carton.
6. (Optional) Get out seeds and have the children pretend to plant the seeds in the holes and act out what they would do to help their garden grow.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

"Look, mom, I am planting a corn seed. Here is the water and the sun in shining down."

We had already talked about how plants need soil, water, air and sun to grow.

She puts the corn plant she made inside the hole where she had planted the corn seed.

The next part is really fun, because she got our her mask and pretended she was a bunny in the garden. She decided she liked the carrots best. She liked the carrots so much pretending, that she decided she wanted a real carrot.

"Mom, can I please have a REAL carrot?"

Play Garden and Bunny Mask

Bunny Mask Craft

(Mother Goose Time provided all the needed supplies, except for the glue.)

Supplies:

• Paper plate
• Scissors
• Large popsicle stick
• Black marker
• Cotton balls
• White cardstock

Instructions:
1. Cut a circle inside the paper plate.
2. Cut the white cardstock into ear shapes and glue them on.
3. Glue on the cotton balls.
4. Use the black pen to make whiskers.
5. Glue on the large popsicle stick.

Bunny In the Garden Dramatic Play

Use the mask to pretend that you are a bunny in the garden. What vegetable is your favorite?

Yeah, so much fun to learn about gardens while creating art and having fun through play.

After all, the language of children is play.


Here is a fun bunny song I made up for a teacher supply company years ago. (I'm not sure if they are still in business. None of their links work anymore to all the years of work I did. I've already written to them a few times about the problem links and offered to help.)

 Little Bunny Dance by Carol Brooke 

(Sing to the tune of 1, 2 Buckle My Shoe. The children dance to the poem/song.)
         1, 2, Jump little one (Jump up and down like a bunny.)
         3, 4, Pound one foot (Pound one foot like a bunny.)
         5, 6, Wiggle your tail (Wiggle your tail like a bunny.)
         7, 8  Flop your ears (Shake your head back and forth.)
         9, 10 Let's do it again (Repeat.)

 

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