Are you planting a Spring, Summer,Fall, or Winter garden this season? Obviously this depends on where you live. Here is a fun craft that helps teach your children about the different kinds of vegetables that grow in a garden. I got this idea from my son’s teacher and we did it at home with all of the kids.
You will need two paper plates (for each child), a paper fastener, markers, scissors, and glue.
Draw out some various kinds of vegetables. Be sure to make sure you have root veggies and surface veggies. Oh, and no laughing at the drawings. I never claimed to be an artist. 😉
Let your child color in the vegetables. We got silly and I said that carrots are blue. She was quick to correct me and inform me that I must not know my colors well. Then she offered to teach them to me. So we went through all of the colors. It was fun.
Cutting these out can be a little difficult, so be sure to let your child know it doesn’t have to be on the lines.
Draw a line through the middle of both plates. Have your child cut along the line of only one of the plates. Close enough counts here, too.
For the other plate, color one half blue for the sky and the other brown for the ground.
Now glue the vegetables on the plate. This is a great time to talk about the different ways the plants grow. We also talked about the different ways they are harvested, too. Some are cut, some are pulled.
Take the plate that was cut and label the halves “Tops” and “Bottoms”.
Attach the halves to the decorated plate. Now the halves slide open and reveal the top growing vegetables and the bottom growing vegetables.
The kids are even more excited for our garden to start producing now. We are all prepared to pick/pull the vegetables. Some recipe ideas were also suggested by the kids.
Kim is a contributing writer for No Time For Flash Cards, a mom to a toddler, a preschooler, and a foster parent, too. She juggles her day by trying out fun activities and crafts with the kids. After all, she is just a big kid herself. See what she has been up to over at Mom Tried It.
love it! such a great accompaniment to the book by Janet Stevens!
Yes!! Tops & Bottoms by Janet Stevens is one of my very favorite read alouds. I will pin this idea to save for next time I read it! Love it!
Great activity…she looks focused…great shots of her fine motor skills! Thanks for sharing! Have a Happy Mother’s Day!
Really clever idea. I can’t wait to try it out with my kids.
Tops and Bottoms is one of my favorite books – perfect activity to go along with it – thanks! http://www.amazon.com/Tops-Bottoms-Caldecott-Honor-Book/dp/0152928510/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1336786674&sr=8-1
What a simple, yet brilliant idea!! Gives the children a real visual understanding of how/where (and what) vegetables grow! Ever so clever…
I tried this with my 3-yr old and she loved it. We read the “The great goat chase” and this activity followed. I also sent an adapted version of this to my friend to go with the book “the great big enormous turnip”.
Thanks for sharing.