Planting a Garden
Have you ever seen a play-based learning activity and thought “That looks fun. Too bad my kiddo is too –little/big/studying something else–” ? Here’s a friendly reminder to get that thought out of your head! With a little creativity, most activities can be scaled up or down as needed. This activity is fun for all ages, uses very common kitchen materials, and no green thumb is required – unless you accidentally paint yours! Check out this fun activity inspired by Mrs. Myra from the 2-year old class.
Plant a Number Line
Materials
- Popsicle sticks
- Cupcake liners OR coffee filters
- An empty paper towel tube (Toilet paper tubes work as well. You just might need more!)
- Markers OR paint
- Scissors OR a sharp knife
- Glue
Instructions
- Paint your popsicle sticks green. These are your stems.
- Paint your cupcake liners any color you want! These are your flowers.
- Count how many flowers you have. This is the number of holes you will need to poke in your paper towel tube so your flower stems (popsicle sticks) can stand up straight. Label each hole with a number.
- Number your flowers.
- Glue one flower to one popsicle stick. You’ve created a flower!
- Place each numbered flower in its corresponding hole.
Variations
- Label each hole and flower with shapes or letters instead of numbers.
- Spell out your child’s name.
- Label each hole with tally marks (||). Label each flower with the Arabic numeral (2). Have your child match the correct numeral to the correct number of tallies.
- Label each hole and flower with simple sight words (who, the, we, I, were, me, be, etc.)
Why We Love This
This activity ecnompasses all that is great is about play-based learning. It’s a craft, a recognition/matching game, and a fine motor activity. For younger ones with shorter attention spans, feel free to do the craft part one day and the game part the next. It’s also very customizable so you can add or decrease difficulty as needed.