Our activities this week were inspired by the book The Carrot Seed by Ruth Krauss. We are co-hosting A Virtual Book Club with Toddler Approved. Several other bloggers have also read The Carrot Seed this week and are sharing their activities in our link up at the end of this post. If you have an activity you have done with this book, please share, too!!!
Gathering Activity: Carrot Impressions
The little ones had so much fun painting with real carrots with the greenery attached. It was a fun way to introduce the parts of the carrot with the children BEFORE we read the story. We talked with the kids about how carrots grow. This helped them understand the story better. We found this fun idea on Delightful Learning.
Circle Time:
We read The Carrot Seed by Ruth Krauss. It is a classic that should be in every child's book shelf! This is a sweet and simple book about the faith of a little boy who believed that his carrot seed would grow, even though everyone else doubted. A very big lesson taught in a very short book. When the carrot does finally grow, it is larger than the boy himself. He has to wheel it away in a wheelbarrow. It is the perfect length for a read aloud to twos and threes. It kept the children's attention and they asked for it to be read again.
I also made up a little song to go with the story. I know that it is not very clever or original, but when I finished reading, I realized I had not looked up any songs to sing. I made it up as we went along!
(Sung to "Here We Go Round the Mulberry Bush.")
This is the way we plant the seed, plant the seed, plant the seed. (pretend to plant a seed)
This is the way we plant the seed, so early in the morning.
This is the way we water the seed, water the seed, water the seed. (pretend to water the seed)
This is the way we water the seed, so early in the morning.
This is the way the sun shines down, sun shines down, sun shines down. (make a circle above your head to make a sun).
This is the way the sun shines down, so early in the morning.
This is the way we patiently wait, patiently wait, patiently wait. (bend over and watch the ground)
This is the way we patiently wait, so early in the morning.
This is the way we pull up the carrot, pull up the carrot, pull up the carrot. (pretend to pull a large carrot from the ground).
This is the way we pull up the carrot.... OUR CARROT IS FINALLY READY!
But the very favorite part of circle time was when we acted out the story. I had found this large carrot (baseball bat) at the Dollar Tree, and the children took turns pretending to be the boy harvesting his carrot. They never tired of pulling the carrot from the "ground!"
Snack: Carrot Muffins and Carrot Sticks
Art: Muddy Carrots
I have a confession to make. This craft was actually the main reason I wanted to do this book. I loved it when I saw it on Along the Way. The children loved using real mud. One suggestion I would make would be to use poster board as the backdrop. The construction paper became very saturated, and some tore.
Funny side story: Last time we did our pudding "mud" pigs activity, we had a little guy, who was incredulous that the other children were licking their fingers. He never would eat the pudding. This week when we actually used real MUD, we couldn't convince him that it wasn't crushed cookies like the ones on his brother's recent birthday cake.
Activities
1-Plant Carrot Tops
Bright Hub had directions for planting carrot tops. I had never done this before, so we decided to give it a try.
2-Wheelbarrow Races
In the story, the little boy's carrot is so large that he has to carry it off in a wheelbarrow. We introduced our little ones to the joy of wheelbarrow races. It was a fun activity filled with giggles.
I can't wait to see what fun activities you did with the book The Carrot Seed by Ruth Krauss.
