Grow Sunflowers with Kids

This is the second year that Miss E grew her own sunflowers. Take a look at last year's flower garden.

I designate a small garden patch by creating a stone border and filing it with soil.  Here in Central TX, our rocky soil is hard for little hands to dig, and that's why I add a top layer of rich, loose soil.  In areas with good soil, you can plant directly into dirt.

Miss E is given the responsibility of planting the seeds and tending to her garden.  She diligently watered her garden for over two months.


And her care, persistence, and patience paid off.  


She grew something TALLER than herself, and she experienced the satisfaction that comes from watching something beautiful emerge from her daily effort.  


Have you tried growing sunflowers with your kids?  It's pretty hard to grow much here in HOT Texas, so if my four year old can do it, I bet your kids can too.  Happy Gardening!
This post is linked up to It's Playtime!, Weekly Kids' Co-Op, Link & Learn, and the Sunday Showcase.

Exploring Flowers

Flowers are wonderful for decoration, to grow, to pick, and admire.  Flowers are also a lot of fun for playful learning!

For this flower activity, I simply set a tray of cut flowers from our garden with a magnifying glass.  If you don't have flowers in your yard, flowers can be purchased for few dollars. The magnifying glass is optional, but can be utilized to give your child exposure to a scientific tool.

Miss E decided how she would explore the flowers.

She observed the flowers by using her sense of touch.



She dissected the flowers, and we talked about what she noticed about the different flower parts.



She used the magnifying glass to take a closer look at the flowers.


When all the flowers were torn apart, she had fun playing with the parts of the flowers in the tray.  


When children practice their observation skills with a natural artifact, it develops science skills.  Use of a magnifying glass and discussion of flower parts help children learn more about science.  
This post is linked up to It's Playtime! and Learning Laboratory. 

Fizzle Paint {Favorite Friday}

Every other Friday, I feature another blogger's activity that our family loved doing.  Ever since I saw Quirky Momma's Fizzling Sidewalk Paint last year, I have wanted to try it with Miss E.  I knew it would be hit because she loves watching the bubbly reaction between baking soda and lemon juice, and we enjoy drawing and painting on the driveway.  This activity would combine two favorite, playful activities.

Beforehand, I made three colors of sidewalk paint using Quirky Momma's fizzling paint recipe.  I gathered paint brushes and our spray bottle of vinegar.



Miss E was totally amazed with the bubbles she created with the paint and vinegar.  She had so much fun that she used up an entire bottle of vinegar, and ran around the driveway spraying all the paint on the driveway to make it bubble.


Fizzle Paint scored BIG with Miss E.  It's an entertaining outdoor activity to do with kids, and it sneaks in a bit of science with the kids observing chemical reactions.  We will definitely be doing this again especially because it's an easy activity to put together using basic household ingredients. Remember to rinse off the paint with water at the end of the activity.  We washed it off right away, and the paint came off our driveway, but it may stain if left on longer.  

April Showers Bring May Flowers Craft

Miss E and I worked together to create this flower craft.  It required several days to complete because of the different elements that made up this craft.  One of those elements being a busy mom who let painted toilet paper rolls stay on the living room floor to dry for over a week when a day of drying was all they needed.  The directions below are how we completed the craft, but they can be changed to adjust for the materials you have in your home.  

How to Create May Flowers Craft

Materialstoilet paper tubesjar lidsgreen felt or construction paperliquid gluepaintmedicine droppers (not necessary)white cotton balls or anything white to create cloudsseedslarge piece of cardboard
Directions

1. Pour liquid glue in lids to create flower's center.  Place seeds in lid and allow to dry overnight.  See directions for nature collage ornament for more detailed directions and pictures.  
2. Paint toilet paper rolls for the petals.  We put the toilet paper rolls inside of plastic bags filled with paint and squished them around in the bag since painting toilet paper rolls is tricky for little ones.
3. Cut out strips of felt for stems and leaves.  Allow to dry.
4. Gather material for clouds.
5. Create flower scene by gluing the lids, felt, toilet paper tubes, and cotton balls onto cardboard.
6. Mix blue tempera paint with water.
7. Drip blue paint with a medicine dropper over the entire scene to create rain.  If you don't have a medicine dropper for crafting, you can make drops of rain using a q-tip or wine cork for dots of rain.

By far, the best part of the activity for Miss E was dripping paint all over the flowers.  The paint hitting the cardboard sounded like the pitter patter of rain.  A multi step craft like this builds patience and allows children to see that many different materials can come together to create one scene.  It teaches resourceful ness because items destined for the trash bin are used to create art.

This post shared on It's Playtime and the Weekly Kids Co-Op!

Seed Matching - Free Printables

We have a collection of seeds in our Spring Nature Table, and I created seed identification cards to help Miss E learn the names of those seeds.

Watercolor Butterfly Craft

It's Spring! The flowers are blooming, and our shrubs in the front yard are awash in butterflies.



Between the beauty of the our front yard guests and the caterpillar study in Miss E's classroom, my daughter is giddy over butterflies.  She usually chooses to play school during our mommy-daughter playtime, but today she chose to play butterflies and caterpillars.  I got to practice my army crawl and munch leaves playing the caterpillar role, and Miss E swirled and raced around the room flapping her arms as a magnificent butterfly.

To carry on with our butterfly fun, we made a butterfly craft.

Sticker Decorated Blown Out Eggs - Spring Theme

After reading, Tinkerlab's Easy Tricks for Blown Out Eggs, I felt confident that I could pull off making blown out eggs. We like decorating hard boiled eggs, but blown out eggs can be used for Easter decorations for many years.

Kids' Activities about Weather

It's that time again where the seasons are changing.  As the season changes, our weather changes, and it's a great opportunity for kids to learn more about the weather.  The Golden Gleam along with many other kid friendly bloggers are bringing you the Weather Blog Hop full of kids' activities to learn about the weather.

In the blog hop, I am sharing a hands on, Science activity about how the wind transports seeds.

How Seeds are Moved by the Wind
A big thank you to all my fellow bloggers who made this blog hop possible!  

NurtureStore :: The Golden Gleam :: Rainy Day Mum :: Mom to 2 Posh Lil Divas

Putti Prapancha :: Sun Hats & Wellie Boots :: Montessori Tidbits :: Kitchen Counter Chronicles

Reading Confetti :: Dilly-Dali Art :: Growing A Jeweled Rose :: The Iowa Farmer's Wife

AngeliqueFelix.com :: Kindergarten Basics :: Mommy With A Selective Memory

Glittering Muffins :: Creative Family Fun :: Living Montessori Now :: Toddler Approved

Living at the Whitehead's Zoo :: Sense of Wonder :: Make, Do & Friend :: Creative Connections for Kids

The Educators' Spin On It :: RainbowsWithinReach :: A Mom With A Lesson Plan :: Creativity my Passion

Mama Smiles :: Teach Preschool :: JDaniel4's Mom :: The Outlaw Mom Blog :: Mama Mia's Heart2Heart :: :: Mindful Meanderings

If you have blogged about a kids' weather activity, please share in the linky party below.  Please only share one idea.  If you share, please try to visit and comment on several other ideas posted in this blog.  

A Flower Color Wheel- Color Theme

Spring seems to be arriving early, and the warm weather is bringing us the year's first blossoms.  Miss E and I explored the neighborhood hunting for flowers.  She carried her camera, and took a picture of every flowering plant along our walk.  Here are couple of her many photos.




Since Miss E has been a toddler, it is common for us to talk about the colors of flowers when we are admiring them, and I decided to use her interest in flowers to learn more about colors.  We made a flower color wheel using her photos.  Depending on your child's development level, he may help with some or all of the project.  I guided my 4 1/2 year old daughter and discussed ideas with her, but the completed project is mostly her work.

Materials
Photos of flowers - We used the photos taken by Miss E. If you can't print out photos, you can cut pictures from a magazine.
Scissors
Large sheet of paper
Glue
Pastels for coloring - You can use crayons or markers, but they won't mix well like the pastels.

Directions
-Create a color wheel on a circular piece of paper or a paper plate.  Your child will color in the 3 primary colors (red, blue, yellow)first.  Explain how mixing two primary colors makes a secondary color.  Using the pastels, your child will mix two primary colors together to create green, purple, and orange.



-Cut out the triangular color shapes on color wheel and arrange in circular pattern on a poster board or large sheet of paper.  Glue colors on paper.  Leave space in the middle for white because white is not often found on basic color wheels, but we found a lot of white flowers.
-Cut out pictures of flowers.

-Sort pictures by color of flower.  At this point, there may be a lot of discussion about colors because not all flowers are easily identified by a pure primary or secondary color.  Allow child to arrange flower pictures however she chooses next to the color wheel shapes.  -Once pictures are organized, glue the pictures onto the paper.  

Once your child has completed the flower color wheel, discuss which colors were more prominent and which colors were more rare.  Your child can count how many flowers of each color she found.  When my daughter realized there were no green flowers, she added some pictures of leaves to the color wheel.  We wondered together why there were no orange flowers.  
This activity covers the subject of art by learning about color theory by creating a color wheel and sorting flowers by color.  Mathematics is supported by sorting, counting, and comparing.  Children learn more about science by observing the natural world around them and describing it.  
This post is shared on the Kids Co-Op Linky Party.

Make Snow - Favorite Friday

Each Friday I am sharing a post from another blog that inspired me to try something new with Miss E.  This Friday's Favorite is from The Chocolate Muffin Tree.  She made snow at home and compared it to real snow.  We don't have any real snow to make comparisons, but I was instantly intrigued at the idea of making snow at home since our chances for snow are slim in Central Texas.  


All you need is a ice and a blender that grinds ice.  Fill the blender only 1/4 to 1/3 full with ice and grind until it looks like snow.  If you fill the blender too full, the process is more frustrating and slow.  I bought a bag of ice, and I used about half the bag of ice to make snow.  You can use ice from home too.  


We took the snow out in a pitcher to the backyard.  Miss E shoveled the snow out of the pitcher into a tray.  




She delighted in the nip of the cold from the snow.  



Her toy animals frolicked in the snow.   



And there was still fun to be had when the snow turned to slush. 




If you want to be a superhero for a day, surprise your kids with your amazing powers by making snow.  

Ice Block Art - Snow & Ice Theme

Throughout the month of January, I will be featuring snow and ice themed activities for kids.  Here in Central Texas, the chances for real life experience with freezing weather conditions are rare.  I want to provide my daughter with fun experiences with the cold stuff even if we miss out on building a real snow man.  Here's how we played with a an ice block.

Materials
ice block
water colors
colored salt
paint brushes
hammer (optional)
protective eye gear (not optional if using a hammer)

Directions
-Buy a block of ice from an ice distributor.  One 10 pound block cost me less than $2.  Mom to 2 Posh Divas froze ice in water balloons. The Artful Parent froze ice in a milk container.  We don't have enough room in our freezer, so I opted to buy.  If you live in a cold climate, you can set a tray outside to freeze.  You will need to allow the ice to thaw some before you will be able to remove it from the tray.




-Dye salt.  Put some kosher salt in a ziplock bag with several drops of food coloring.  Squeeze and squish around the salt mixing it with the food coloring.  Pour salt into a shaker.  If you don't have a shaker, you can use small bowls and spoons to pour the salt onto the ice.
-Make water colors by mixing a few drops of food coloring with water.  Gather a few paint brushes.




-Food coloring will temporarily stain hands but comes off after a few washings.  It may stain clothing, so dress appropriately and play with ice and water colors in an area that can get messy.
-If you live in a cold climate, you can still play outside with the ice.  Just bundle up, and it might be good fine motor skill practice to handle art materials with gloves and mittens.
-Take ice block and materials outside.  Allow your child to experiment with the art materials and ice.
-While playing with the ice, guide your child to observe what is happening with the ice.  The salt will start making the ice slowly thaw, and it makes a subtle crackling.  Allow for brief silence to observe this.




-After some time, you may give your child a hammer.  It is best that only one child hammers at a time and with adult supervision.  We started out without eye gear, but my daughter is powerful with the hammer, and ice was flying everywhere.  This thrilled her, but we both put on eyeglasses to protect our eyes.  Please only do this step if you are comfortable with it and can monitor your child's safety.  

See no eyewear.  Don't do this!

With eyewear, but it would be better with safety goggles not Mommy's sunglasses.

-Depending on the weather, you may have the ice block outside for several days or more.  Continue enjoying the evolving piece of artwork.





This activity supports science knowledge of the states of water. If fosters understanding of cause and effect by observing the effects of the salt, hammer, and outside conditions on the block of ice.  It builds fine and gross motor skills through the use of art materials and a hammer.  Children develop upper body strength by hammering.  It is beneficial to creativity and art by using a 3 dimensional object to create art and unique materials to create art.

How Seeds are Moved by Wind

We have a collection of seeds and berries on our Nature Table, and I want to build on Miss E's knowledge of scientific concepts using the items on the table.  Some seeds and berries are transported by the wind, and I want her to play with materials to build on that concept.  I provided her with a turkey baster, fan, and straw to make artificial wind.  I played with the materials alongside her to model how I worked with the tools.

At first, she was mesmerized by the beautiful fan, and found it more fun to cool herself because it was difficult to move the seeds with the fan.

Then she discovered that the fan moved the fluffy, white seeds, and she moved them all over the floor with the fan.
She was frustrated with the inefficiency of the turkey baster.  
It took many attempts to use the straw to move seeds, but once she got the hang of it, she raced the berries down the hallway.  

This activity provides a hands on experiment to demonstrate how seeds move with the wind which is one way they can be transported to grow in different locations.  While that concept may be difficult for a preschooler, this experience will build background knowledge to prepare them for elementary school.  This lesson provides experience with motion, weather, botany, and experimentation.   

Autumn Nature Table

Miss E and her Papa have developed a Sunday morning tradition of going on a bike ride where they collect natural artifacts.  After a month of this, we have amassed quite a collection, and I wanted a place to display it all.  I'm impressed by the natural collections used for indoor play at preschools , and I hoped to create something similar on a smaller scale for our daughter.

Since this season has brought us a lot of berries, nuts, and seed pods, I chose these items for our display.  To keep it contained, a beautiful tray found at Goodwill would be perfect to hold it.  Small bowls and lids are used to hold the different materials.  Miss E decided where to place each material.

Once placed on the coffee table, it was ready for play.



She has investigated each of the materials on the tray.  So far, her favorite activity has been taking apart the seed pods and shells.  The fluffy seeds fascinated her.


She has rearranged the materials.  When she first decided to place these shells into a lid, I almost stopped her to inform her they wouldn't fit.  She proved me wrong by beautifully stacking them to contain them in the lid.  I am glad I let her figure out her own way because Mommy doesn't always know best.



We have had the tray out for only a few days, but she has spent time each day working with the materials.  One day she decided to plant the seeds, nuts, and berries, and we did that.  Another day I set out a egg carton tray, and she explored the materials sometimes working on counting.  
Over time, I plan to include more materials to encourage art, science, math, and literacy play with her nature tray.  The elements of the tray will change according to her interests and seasons.  Having the materials on a tray is helpful when we have itty bitty friends over to play because we can easily remove the tray out of reach since some of the materials can be poisonous or a choking hazard if eaten.  Although, I have always allowed Miss E to explore nuts and berries as long as I am watching her carefully, but each parent has to use her own best judgment.

Animals on the Clothesline

This past weekend was super windy, and I wanted to demonstrate the force of the wind to Miss E.  I hung up a few of her stuffed animals from the clothesline with a piece of string.  She observed the animals swinging in the wind for a moment.





But the effects of the wind weren't nearly as thrilling as her own force of energy.

She pushed her toys, and she was satisfied she could provide a more wild ride to the toys.





She ran back and forth trying to keep each toy in motion.





She lifted them as tall as she could to try to create a higher arc.




Here I was trying to teach Miss E about the wind, but she was only mildly interested.  It doesn't mean that our time was wasted because she didn't seem to grasp the lesson.  This day reminds me that small children are most interested in how they relate to the world, and how forces of nature influence other objects, people, or animals may be a challenging concept to grasp or not as fascinating.  There was a lot of talk about how the wind was blowing her hair on her face and how it kept tossling her tutu, but the wind pushing her animals didn't hold her attention.  She enjoys carrying around a pinwheel and watching the wind spin it or blowing bubbles and seeing the wind carry the bubbles.  Since Miss holds the pinwheel or blows the bubbles, she is an active participant in seeing the effects of the wind thus the activities are infinitely more interesting to her.
So she didn't observe the wind, but Miss E took pleasure being active in our backyard experiencing the force of her power.  I will continue presenting opportunities for Miss E to observe nature even if she shows interest for a brief moment and moves onto something else.  It shows her that I value the natural world, and I value her unique interests as well.    
Find lots of inspiration for how to get your kids playing outdoors at the Outdoor Play Link Up!!