With Earth Day occurring in spring, plants was an obvious topic choice, and when little man is older I can add in recycling!

Language/Literacy:

Growing Vegetable Soup by Lois Ehlert

Planting a Rainbow by Lois Ehlert

Plants (My First Bilingual Book) by Milet Publishing

The Giving Tree by Shel Silverstein

The Tiny Seed by Eric Carle

Mathematics/Cognitive Skills:

For this activity, I used little plastic pots and then stacked them in a tower. As I made the tower, I counted the pots. Then I let little man knock them down (his favorite part of course)! I did this many times using a different numbers of blocks each time, and different tower shapes. Also, you don’t actually need to have pots, plastic cups or blocks work just as well.

Science/Sensory:

A nice and easy science activity is to simply water your plants with your little one in tow. I have a toy watering can that I let little man hold (with assistance) and help pour. Talk about the plants as you water them (the type of plant, the parts of a plant, or what they need to grow).

Motor:

Since little man likes water play, and since it’s finally nice out, I decided to toss some toy gardening tools into our water bin! I also used the toy watering can to let the water run over little man’s hands while he was playing. He loves when water is poured onto him! This could also be done in the tub! Little man loves when we have tub time together! I get in and hold him; letting him experience the water from a different perspective.

Art:

This week’s art project comes from artycraftykids. I saw a lot of flower crafts that could be made with handprints, but little man wiggles his fingers too much for me to get a good handprint! And he loves to eat his hands, so I have to make sure they are extra clean after painting! That’s why when I saw this bluebell flower picture made with feet, I knew it would work out much better!

Music:

I couldn’t think of any songs about plants except, “The Green Grass Grows,” but thankfully kinderthemes had some great songs and fingerplays!

Extra activity:

Go outside and plant a tree in honor of Earth Day! Happy planting!