Greening Sam and Avery

cling wrap is not a substitute for contact paper (kids craft with flowers)

Well, I found this awesome craft project and knew we had to try it out. Our neighbors rose bush has been dropping beautiful pink petals that we have been using in our mud kitchen but we have been wanting to craft with them as well. 

However, our grocery store did not have contact paper and I don't keep that on hand. I thought I would try out cling wrap (saran wrap) to see if that would work. It does but there is a lot more steps and issues that make the project way more challenging!

Anyway, we used pressed leaves, fresh petals, pressed flowers, glue, rubber cemet, paper plates and cling wrap. 

I cut a big hole out of the paper plate and then glued one layer of cling wrap to the back. Then Sam and Avery placed leaves and flowers in the middle. They weren't sticking very well (or at all!) so we started adding a small dab of rubber cemet to each leaf or flower. Then we placed another layer of cling wrap on top, gluing it to the plate. 

I cut off all the extra cling wrap, punch a hole in the plate and then hung them up!

Avery lost interest right away. The cling wrap got caught on her fingers and the leaves and petals were tough for her to pick up. Sam finished one and then lost interest. But I left the supplies out and right before lunch she came back and wanted to make a few more. The cling wrap just added too many other steps to the process, steps that Sam really couldn't help with. At age 4 she likes to do as much of the craft as she can and this one was tricky for her.

If you head over to For the Children their process is much easier and more child friendly than the way we did this project!  

 

 

flower planting day

Our veggie garden has been a bit of a bust so far this year. I tried to use some of last year's seeds for onions and carrots which so far has not produced any sprouts. But we have also planted beans, more onions and lettuce and are hoping that those will sprout in the next day or two. 

To make us feel better today we filled all of our pots with beautiful flowers! The girls got to pick out (some) of the flowers without any guidance or coaching from us so we got some that I wasn't expecting but it has lead to very interesting and fun pots around the house. 

The girls got to help with all the planting and filling of pots. We were very excited this year to fill our pots with soil from our own compost bin! No store bought potting soil for us this year. We did occassionally get a few egg shells in our pots which the girls thought was hilarious. 

After all the plants were potted then came their favorite part...the watering!

Happy flower planting! 

watercolors to capture the flowers

Nana's backyard is filled with flowers. 

As described by a four year old there are yellow spikey ones, 

purple ones with five parts,

orange ones that just look like lots of circles, 

and pink hanging down ones. 

So to try and capture all the beautiful flowers in the backyard we got out our watercolors today. And painted out on the deck. 

These are super simple sets, they actually came with coloring books (like Dora and Tinkerbell) but then we save the paints long after the book as all been used up. 

Even though we walked around looking at the flowers, talking about their shapes and colors, Sam did not really translate that onto the page. She wanted to use blue paint, so suddenly there were blue flowers in Nana's backyard! 

Oh well, we had great conversations about the flowers anyway. And painting is always fun. 

Even I got into it!

I have no artistic skills but Sam just loves to see me paint with her. And I always find it very soothing. 

A great way to spend some quality time while Avery was still napping. 

 

holiday events that are green friendly

The Holiday Train Express exhibit at the Olbrich Botanical Garden may not be the most natural event for my girls to attend to, BUT by attending events at the garden we are helping to support the other programs that they have.

Our family Christmas celebrations have started so we took the whole family to the train exhibit.

Along with the trains they had some really neat handmade bird houses on display.

After the train exhibit we headed to the conservatory. They have a rainforest products exhibit set up in the conservatory and Sam had fun going through the trails looking for all the products and plants that went with them.

They had "scavenger" hunt type cards that were available for people to walk around with, which of course Sam loved.

It was a great way to celebrate the Holiday, burn off some energy for the girls and show our family a great little treasure in our town.

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The Nitty Gritty!
If you are in the Madison area and have not been to the Olbrich Botanical Garden you should absolutely check it out.

Here are some other exhibits and programs that we have seen at the garden.

Butterfly Exhibit

Spring Flower Show

Toddler Story Time Programs

is it green where you are

Then these books might be of interest to you!

I was in the plants and seeds non-fiction section of the library the other day and found these three books that intrigued me. If you are in your growing season still or heading into it these might be good ones to check out for your little ones or your classroom.

Seeds Travel, Elaine Pascoe 

Real photographs show kids all about how seeds grow, what they need to grow and how they might travel to get the things that they need. The pictures of the animals are great. There is not too much information for little ones but enough that it is a great learning book!

Seed to Sunflower, Camilla de la Bedoyere

Reading this book cover to cover may be a bit much for most preschoolers but the detailed pictures and photographs can be used to help show young children different phases and processes that plants go through. A parent or teacher could break the book up and use different pages along with other activities to further the learning. 

A Seed Is Sleepy, Dianna Hutts Aston and Sylvia Long

A non-fiction seed book that is poetic! Can you believe it? This one has lots of different reading levels to involve many readers and learners. For little ones you can read the biggest text and then expand on that simply in your own words by just talking about what is in the picture. For older kids reading the whole text will teach them a ton about plants and seeds. This book shows pictures of seeds from all over the world and in all kinds of climates.

 

Read any good seed or plant books lately from the non-fiction section?

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The Nitty Gritty!

I could see these books being paired with -

• making art out of seeds
• an outdoor seed hunt
• planting seeds
• hartvesting seeds
• dissecting fruits/vegetables to find seeds
• and much more!

What seed activities do you have posts about? Leave a comment I would love to read them!

exploring seeds

We picked up The Tiny Seed by Eric Carle at the library and the girls are really enjoying it.

You know the Carle style, with the amazing pictures and fun text. This one also has lots of great information about how a seed travels, what can happen to seeds to make them not grow into plants and then finally how a seed grows into a BIG plant.

After we read the book we headed outside to hunt for seeds. When we saw the big flowers in our backyard Sam instantly got excited that they were like the ones in the book.

Then we saw the seed pods and had a lot of fun pulling them off and opening them up. We tested out whether or not the wind would carry them away like in the book, but the wind failed to move these seeds.

So we set out to find some seeds that the wind could blow away. And we found them!

Sam still wanted to look for more so we looked more closely around our yard and found some pinecones. We broke these apart and found the seeds inside here too.

It was a fun little backyard adventure and a great way to compliment the Carle book.

To expand on this more at home or in the classroom you could:

• Gather more seeds and allow your child some time to craft with the seeds.
• Bring more pods, pinecones and other seeds into the classroom or house and really let them break them apart and examine the seeds up close.
• On a windy day really compare which seeds more the fastest and once which drop straight down.
• For seeds that don't blow in the wind you could experiment with how else they might get moved around; do they stick to clothing, float on water, could an animal or human eat them, etc.
• If you child shows interest in edible seeds take a look around your kitchen with them to see where else you can find seeds; grains, rice, corn, sunflower seeds, peanuts, etc.
• For long time learning plant some seeds in a clear container, making sure to put at least one seed right up against the edge of the container so that you can easily watch it change and grow over time.

Have fun with seeds!

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The Nitty Gritty!

I get asked all the time how I have time to think and plan the activities that I do with the girls. The fun part for me is that I don't really plan at all. Like for today, Sam found the book at the library and we really enjoyed it. So I thought about how we could expand on that. The outside part of our learning only lasted probably 10-15 mins. Sometimes what we do lasts much longer but I never force the girl's interest and try my best to follow their lead with what they want to do. When the pull of the swings takes over and they run off I don't yell for them to come back. I always want them to have fun with our learning and if it doesn't last that long I am okay with it.

So, don't ever feel like a failure if your outdoor learning does not last that long. Even the shortest of moments can make a big impact on your little one!

I've been replaced

I was doing a ton of weeding today while the girls were playing in the backyard. I looked up to check on their swinging/climbing play to see them sitting together in the middle of the yard.

I set down my weeds and walked over. They both had hands full of little white clover flowers. I asked Sam what they were working on and she told me that she was teaching Avery how to pick flowers. She informed me that she taught Avery what a flower was and how to say "flower".

Sure enough I asked Avery to say flower and "ower" came out! Sam was so proud of herself.

And I was pretty proud of my tiny little teacher too!

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The Nitty Gritty!

Our harvest from today...

She could not have been more excited about the carrot!

I am trying to let the carrot grow as long as possible but everyday she asks if she can have one. It is getting tougher and tougher to keep her from just jumping into the garden and picking them!  So cute (but also really annoying!).

Day 318: guest post - meet the little learners lounge

Long day! We got to celebrate a cousin's college graduation with some extended family and have four generations under one roof. But that kind of family time and celebrating required me to step back from the computer. I needed to be unplugged today!! And it felt great. But would not have been possible without Kara! I am super excited to have her sharing her outdoor play activity with us. If you haven't stopped by her site you must head over there and check it out, she has some AMAZING preschool play and learning ideas to share. So, without further introduction...take it away Kara!

   Thank you Abbie for inviting me to post here on Greening Sam and Avery.  My name is Kara and I have a little preschool activity blog called Little Learners Lounge.  Like Sam and Avery, my daughter Eva loves dandelions!  Luckily our neighbor thinks they look great on her lawn so we have plenty to pick (I'm with Abbie- I pull ours as soon as I see them sprouting).   I was looking at a lovely bunch that Eva picked for me the other day and realized dandelions would make great paintbrushes!    Before heading outside Eva selected  two colors of paint, squirted them in bowls and grabbed a roll of paper.  Once outside, Eva set off to collect some dandelions.

Then the fun began!  Eva discovered that dandelions are perfect for dabbing with and she covered the paper with blossom stamps.

We also tried painting with a bunch of flowers and got some great results from that too.

Eva decided that her picture needed a track as well (she's on a little bit of a train kick these days) so she figured out how to drag a dandelion along the paper to make a lovely track.

  This was such a fun, open ended activity.  We even washed the dandelions when we were done because Eva was concerned the bees wouldn't be able to eat them if they had paint on them.  Turns out weeds can be wonderful!

Day 313: the dandelion war

We have a battle going on right now at our house over dandelions. Chris does not like his yard infested with dandelions. So whenever we are outside I am using my little dandelion-getter (clearly not the official name but I have no idea what it is actually called) to remove as many of the dandelions as I can by the root. I try to get them before they bloom so that Sam and Avery do not realize what I am pulling out. Because both girls LOVE picking those little yellow flowers. And if they knew that I was trying my hardest to keep them out of our yard (if we get infested the hubs will want to treat the lawn with something, which I am not a fan of!) they would both be very upset.

But right now I am winning the battle. There are very few if any dandelions in our backyard. Our neighbors yard however does not seem to have a wife with clearly too much time on her hands! Sam and Avery head next door every chance they get and come back with fists full.

 
 
So, today I decided to put an activity with their picking and collecting.

 
 
Super simple but it was a HUGE hit! Avery isn't counting yet (not even really talking much yet) but she can follow directions really well and when Sam would tell her to set one down she would. Love when I can take something that the girls are doing anyway and add a learning element to it, especially when it can involve and entertain both of them. Hoping we can do more learning activities like this that double as outdoor play!

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The Nitty Gritty!

As I drove up to Sam's preschool on Monday afternoon I noticed all the kids out in the grass picking dandelions (which made my heart smile that they were using all the open green space and not just the giant noah's ark playground). When all the kids rushed to meet their parents with fists full of dandelions I mentioned my counting idea to Sam's teacher. We hadn't tried it out yet but the idea had been floating around in my head so I thought I would share it.

I think this would be so simple and so fun to do with a class full of little ones. They could all work together to gather the dandelions for each number (you could count higher than 10 too) or each kid could have their own counting box. Either way I think it would be a great way to get them off the swings and using their minds out on the playground.

Day 305: painting wood flowers

I saw this post about painting wood flowers and thought it was such a neat idea but did not have time for a trip to the craft store today. So I got to thinking how could I make my own wood flowers with what we have around here.

I came up with this.

 
Super simple. Just used our table saw to cut the tree cookie. Then the power drill to drill a hole in the bottom. Sam helped me to collect the sticks that we would use. A little wood glue in the hole and Sam pushed in the stick. Our version of a wood flower!

Then they just needed paint.

 
 

I think they turned out pretty cute!

 
I love the real bark on the sides and her colorful designs. Yes, the stripe one is mine! I just have to do a little painting with her!

 
Love when we can make fun craft projects for FREE and incorporate things from nature.

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The Nitty Gritty!

If you had older kids you could incorporate much more building. I am not exactly sure how it would work but I am sure there is a way of nailing more pieces onto the center piece to make it look even more like a flower.

Older kids could also examine colors of specific flowers and then try to copy those colors on their own flowers.

If you haven't done a color or flower walk with your little ones yet this could also be a great indoor project to partner with a walk. Take a walk with your toddler/preschooler and examine the flowers and colors that you see. Then when you get back inside you can remind them of what you saw on the walk and have them paint the colors they saw.