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June 18, 2012 | 22 Comments

Gardening For Letters – Alphabet For Starters

alphabet for starters Yesterday, the whole family was outside playing and working in the front yard. My daughter (who is almost 2) was helping me weed. She loved it and after we were done weeding, we checked on our carrots that are almost big enough to eat. This all gave me a great idea for an outside sensory filled alphabet activity for our Alphabet For Starters series. What Alphabet for Starters is all about is to play and introduce letters to children just starting to show interest, point them out, and recognize them. We try to incorporate other areas of learning into the activities, too. Today’s has a strong sensory element. If you want to do this inside, use a tub and fill it with coffee grounds or rice.

  1. Gather your materials. To make the carrots you will need an orange pool noodle (a red one could be radishes too!), a permanent marker, some green ribbon, a knife, and scissors. For the rest of the activity, you will also need some soil and patch of garden, if you are doing it outside, or a tub and filler for a sensory bin. Pail and shovel are optional.
  2. Start by slicing your pool noodle. Bread knives work the very best, but our cheap steak knife was ok, too.
  3. Next, write letters on the noodles with a permanent marker.  You will notice I did not do 26 letters. If your child is capable of staying engaged the whole time with 26 letters, by all means, do. At 23 months, I am not expecting my daughter to stay that focused. This shouldn’t feel like work to he. It should be a fun new experience. letter recognition
  4. Next, cut some ribbon and tie it to the noodle as the top of the carrot.alphabet letters
  5. Head outside and plant them. letter recognition All ready for my little carrot farmer!
  6. Time for gardening for letters. As they picked them, we looked for the letter on each carrot.letter game for kids
  7. She was also counting as we went. Perhaps it’s time for a math for starters series?
  8. After filling up the bucket, we found a few of our favorites. (R and O ) and then picked some real veggies.outside activities for kids

Books About Vegetables

Eating the Alphabet: Fruits & Vegetables from A to Z by Lois Ehlert is an alphabet book extraordinaire and perfect for a letter F week since it’s all about food!  Wonderful paintings of fruits and vegetables seem ultra simple and it is but somehow the way the author has pieced this simple book together is brilliant. Maybe it’s that children learn about food at the table multiple times a day and feel proud being able to identify not only some of the letters but some of the pictures too! From a teaching standpoint, I love that there are both upper and lower case letters on each page! This book will grow with your child, and beware it will also make you hungry.

The Carrot Seed by Ruth Krauss is a rare gem, it has been in print for over 60 years and has delighted generations . If you aren’t familiar with the story, a little boy plants a carrot seed and everyone tells him “It won’t come up”. This doesn’t stop the little boy from patiently taking care of this little seed, that eventually grows into a giant carrot. The message is a universal one of sticking to your guns even when everyone tells you to give up. My son loved the story the simple pictures that will bring you back to your own childhood, at least they did for me. A true classic.

Coco The Carrot by Steven Salerno is an absurd tale of adventure, and I loved it. Coco is a carrot who dreams of a life larger than the vegetable drawer. She dreams big and goes for it. Unlike most carrots that end up in stew, she becomes a famous hat designer. She is the toast of Paris with her Monkey companion Anton. If you are scratching your head but oddly intrigued you will like this book. It was long, but my son sat with me giggling and telling me “Carrots can’t do that?!” more than once. I loved it because it is so absurd that she is a carrot, but the story itself is about going for your dreams, hitting bumps in the road and realizing that your dreams shift and change and that’s OK.  There is great bits of humor for the adults as well, something I always appreciate!

Filed Under: Age Preschool, Age: Toddlers, Alphabet activities, Alphabet For Starters, Gardening, Letter Recognition, Letters & Numbers, Vegetables | 22 Comments

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22 Comments

  1. pinkoddy says

    June 18, 2012 at 3:08 pm

    That looks really fun.
    Have you seen this carrot hop? (not mine btw)
    http://www.makedoandfriend.com/2012/04/carrot-patch-cookies-virtual-book-club.html

    to pinkoddy" aria-label='reply to this comment to pinkoddy'>reply to this comment
  2. Zina :: Let's Lasso the Moon says

    June 18, 2012 at 6:53 pm

    We love The Carrot Seed! 🙂

    to Zina :: Let's Lasso the Moon" aria-label='reply to this comment to Zina :: Let's Lasso the Moon'>reply to this comment
  3. stacy says

    June 19, 2012 at 5:02 pm

    ok, this is so cute. Seriously, love this.

    to stacy" aria-label='reply to this comment to stacy'>reply to this comment
  4. Alicia @ La Famille says

    June 23, 2012 at 5:43 am

    this is a great post! you have so many awesome ideas here! keep them coming!!

    to Alicia @ La Famille" aria-label='reply to this comment to Alicia @ La Famille'>reply to this comment
  5. Jenny says

    June 23, 2012 at 2:39 pm

    love this series you are doing!

    to Jenny" aria-label='reply to this comment to Jenny'>reply to this comment
    • admin says

      June 23, 2012 at 3:30 pm

      Thanks Jenny- My daughter and I area having so much fun . I didn’t expect my son to like helping me make and set stuff up for her so much but he does too!

      to admin" aria-label='reply to this comment to admin'>reply to this comment
  6. Rebecca says

    June 24, 2012 at 12:16 pm

    Oh wow! This is ace!

    to Rebecca" aria-label='reply to this comment to Rebecca'>reply to this comment
  7. Daniela says

    June 27, 2012 at 1:42 pm

    Absolutely love this idea! @aznannies

    to Daniela" aria-label='reply to this comment to Daniela'>reply to this comment
  8. Antonette Cabatac says

    July 1, 2012 at 8:38 am

    Wow! I love it! I’ll do this activity with my students and my 2 year old son.

    to Antonette Cabatac" aria-label='reply to this comment to Antonette Cabatac'>reply to this comment
  9. Carrie says

    July 16, 2012 at 1:04 pm

    I can so envision doing this for other veggies too… take green and cut the coined pieces in half to look like a green bean, write letter, pin to a “vine”. Fine motor and letters! Corn could be a yellow noodle just cut longer, wrapped up in fabric, pinned to a stalk, harvested and shucked. Ooo I need some pool noodles stat.

    to Carrie" aria-label='reply to this comment to Carrie'>reply to this comment
  10. Erin says

    February 21, 2013 at 6:50 am

    I absolutely love this!! We are definitely incorporating this and doing carrot for a letter of the week section!!!

    to Erin" aria-label='reply to this comment to Erin'>reply to this comment
  11. Georgeann Forester says

    August 11, 2017 at 1:24 pm

    Did you use wired ribbon or grosgrain ribbon? Love this idea and I’m going to use it for our farm unit for my three year olds!
    Georgeann

    to Georgeann Forester" aria-label='reply to this comment to Georgeann Forester'>reply to this comment
    • Allison McDonald says

      August 16, 2017 at 1:05 am

      The ribbon was wired but good stiff grossgrain would work too!

      to Allison McDonald" aria-label='reply to this comment to Allison McDonald'>reply to this comment
  12. Katrina Moore says

    April 10, 2018 at 9:16 am

    Great activities! I can’t wait to do them with my preschooler and toddler!

    to Katrina Moore" aria-label='reply to this comment to Katrina Moore'>reply to this comment

Trackbacks

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