The Carrot Seed

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. 

Jamberry by Bruce Degen

Gathering Activity: Strawberry Streamers

Materials Needed: sturdy paper plate, variety of colored streamers cut into lengths, clip art of large strawberry coloring sheet, crayons, glue

Directions: Allow the children to color their strawberries.  Then glue streamers onto the bottom of the paper plate, so that they hang down from the plate.  Glue colored strawberry on top.  Allow to dry before use.

Circle Time:   Jamberry by Bruce Degen

 Jamberry is a beautiful picture book which tells the story of a young boy and his friend, the bear, who go on an adventure picking berries.  It is a nonsensical rhyming story with a fun rhythm that rolls off the tongue.  My own children ask me to read it several times in one sitting.  Each page is rich with humorous details.  
 
After reading the book, we sang our own version of "One little, two little, three little berries..."

Outside Activity: Strawberry Picking

A few weeks ago, we had planted strawberry plants in our garden.  Today it was time to harvest them!

Inside Activity and Snack: Making Freezer Jam 

We allowed the children to make freezer jam using the strawberries from the garden (plus a few additional berries from the local strawberry patch).  The children were each given a jar to take home.  After making the jam, we sampled several kinds of berries that we had read about in the story.   For directions, see the back of your freezer jam packet.

Dancing with our Streamers

In the book, the characters dance with streamers in strawberry fields.  Our little ones danced with their streamers to fun music.  It was hard to catch the action with my camera!

***We had some friends this week who were unable to come, so we had only 3 boys.

Peter Rabbit by Beatrix Potter

We went to a local community garden for this week's Mommy and Me to enjoy Beatrix Potter's Peter Rabbit. The weather was perfect!  Our lesson plan is a little different for this week.  We chose not to do an art project.  Each family brought a picnic lunch and a picnic blanket instead of our traditional snack.

Circle Time: The Tale of Peter Rabbit by Beatrix Potter

We gathered our blankets together in a quiet corner of the garden  to read the story of Peter Rabbit.  I love this classic tale.  The language is beautiful and the pictures perfect and simple.  It is a little longer story than we sometimes read, but I think the novelty of being outside (and the fact that it is a fun adventure story) helped the children sit longer. 

Activity 1: Walk in the Garden 

After reading the story, we explored the gardens with the children.  The garden has a flower garden and a vegetable garden.  We even spotted a gardener who looked a lot like Mr. McGregor!  We kept our eyes out for Peter, but he stayed hidden!

Activity 2: In the Trees

Peter and his family live inside of a tree.  Our garden also has a large magnolia tree that has an open area underneath to play.  The children explored the area and pretended to be rabbits. They also found a tree to climb.

Activity 3: Bunny, Bunny, Rabbit

Two moms played Bunny, Bunny, Rabbit (played like Duck, Duck Goose) with the children while the other moms prepped for the next activity.

Activity 4: Easter Egg Hunt

The children each brought 12 eggs with them and the mother's hid the eggs. The children had a fun time searching for the eggs together.  I know it has nothing to do with the story, but it was our Easter themed Mommy and Me class.  If you were doing this book a different time of year, you could leave out the egg hunt.

Picnic

We enjoyed a picnic lunch together and all our good little bunnies ate blackberries for dessert. 

The Empty Pot by Demi

Gathering Activity: Planting Seeds in Pots

The children scooped potting soil into pots and planted flower seeds inside.  While we planted, we talked about what plants need to help them grow.

Helpful Hint: We did not water them immediately, as the children would be taking the home in a short time. We didn't really want black water in our cars.  The moms just made sure to help them water them as soon as they arrived home.    

Circle Time: The Empty Pot by Demi

The Empty Pot is one of my all time favorite books.  I can never read it without tears coming to my eyes.  The first time I ever heard it was in a Sunday School lesson for teenagers, and they were enamored .  It's message about integrity is powerful, but simple enough to be understood by young children.  Our preschoolers sat and listened quietly to the story and it seemed to hold their interest. 

The story is about a land of people who love and respect the beauty of nature.  They love to garden, to plant beautiful flowers and trees.  Even the Emperor tends to his own garden each day.  The Emperor holds a flower growing contest to see who will be the next Emperor.  He gives each child a seed and asks the children to tend to the seeds for an entire year.  The hero of the story, Ping, carefully nurtures his seed, but nothing grows.  On the day appointed to present their efforts to the Emperor, all of the children come before him with beautiful flowers they have grown.  Only one, Ping, comes forward with an empty pot.  The Emperor looks upon this child and pronounces that Ping will be king. All of the seeds the Emperor had given to the children had been cooked, and therefore could not grow.  Only one child had lived with integrity and come forward with nothing but the truth.  

I love the lessons in this story.  Gardening is for everyone, boys can like flowers, and of course, honesty takes courage, but is always the best choice.

After we read the story, we reviewed again what flowers need to grow.  Then we sang three favorite songs about flowers and blooming trees.  If you click on any of the titles below, they will take you to the words and accompanying music for each.

Popcorn Popping,  In the Leafy Treetops, and Little Purple Pansies.

Art: Popcorn Trees

The story is illustrated with pictures of beautiful blossoming trees.  We made our own "popcorn trees."

Materials Needed: Popped corn, paper, brown paint, paint brushes, glue

Directions: 

1-We had drawn a simple outline of a tree to allow the children to paint the tree branches and trunk.
2-Allow the children to squeeze glue onto the tops of the tree branches.
3-Glue the popcorn down onto the paper.

Snack: Fruit Flower Pancakes

 Materials Needed:
Small whole wheat pancakes, cream cheese mixed with agave nectar and vanilla, fresh fruit cut into pieces, child friendly knives to spread the cream cheese 

Directions: 

Allow the children to spread the cream cheese onto the pancake and then create a flower using the fruit provided.  The children came up with a fun variety of flowers.

Activity: Planting Strawberries

We went outside to the square foot garden and allowed each child to plant a strawberry plant.  After watering our plants, we spent the rest of the morning digging in an empty square foot garden that is waiting patiently for me to plant something!  None of the children seemed pleased when it was time to stop digging.  It was just too much fun!