Designing a Garden from pictures; and a gardening blog hop!

One of my favorite crafts to do with preschoolers this time of year is to have them design, on paper, their own garden plots. Children from 2 years up to 6 years of age enjoy this activity. The materials used are easily accessible — just construction paper, scissors, glue and pictures of garden plants are all that are needed. It is a great way to recycle garden catalogs (I use them for my Rainbow Collage images also, see the post here).

This craft is beneficial to children in that:

• it is an opportunity to practice and develop cutting skills
• it is an opportunity to practice and develop gluing skills
• it is an opportunity to categorize plant foods and to differentiate between fruits and vegetables

In addition, if the child will be planting in their own garden plot it will help them to have a clearer vision of what they would like to plant.

I did this project one-on-one with my son at home, as this year, he has his own "real" garden plot to fill. We had fun discussing what fruits, veggies, and flowers he would like in his garden. Of course the collage is more of an exercise to get him thinking about it, and design and choices are not set in stone!

First I had my son cut out all of the pictures of plants that he would like in his garden.  He is four years old, and I found that he at times needed help stabilizing the flimsy catalog paper, as well as reminders that the thumb on the cutting hand should be above the rest of his fingers. Younger children may require hand-over-hand positioning and cutting and verbal cues (open, close, open, close) as well as help in stabilizing the paper.

I then had my son apply glue to the paper. I told him that the brown paper represents the soil in his garden bed.

He then placed the pictures where he wants them. Easy "pea"sy!
Many of the plants that he glued on the paper we did in fact plant in his garden (corn, teddy bear sunflowers, and sugar snap peas).
A few days after he completed this collage we went to the nursery, and he had many of the plants that he viewed fresh in his mind. I believe this activity helped to mentally prepare him for the next step. I will be posting soon on how planting the seeds turned out!

Have fun and happy gardening!

If you like what you have seen on this blog and you want to stay informed of future posts I would love if you "liked" Mama's Little Muse Facebook Page here.

Check out the Gardening Blog Hop down below: the co-hosts are
www.momto2poshlildivas.com
http://www.kitchencounterchronicle.com
www.theeducatorsspinonit.blogspot.com
http://www.duckduckoctopus.com
http://livingmontessorinow.com
http://www.rainydaymum.co.uk
http://readysetread2me.blogspot.com
http://playfullearners.co.uk
http://craftymomsshare.blogspot.com/
http://glitteringmuffins.com

Book made out of one sheet of paper and scissors

I am a Member of the Weekly Kid's Co-op. I feel so fortunate to have found an incredible group of friendly, creative bloggers. If you have a fun kid friendly activity that you would like to link up to our Weekly Party, see below for details. Also be sure to scroll down to the bottom of this post to see what other bloggers have come up with. The following is my blog post that I am linking up:

I think it is important to set up environments for our children which invite them to engage in creative play in a natural organic way. That being said, I do let my son watch TV and play video games, but only a very limited amount per week. He does plead for them at times, and it has reached a degree where my patience wears thin. Instead of being the bad guy all the time, saying "No, no, no!" I realize that it is my responsibility as a parent to offer him alternatives that will engage him.

Partly inspired by Screen-Free Week which happened a couple of weeks ago, and also my feelings surrounding my son's media obsession, I came up with the following idea: I set out on his drawing table all of his markers he enjoys drawing with. In addition I set out a large blank book for him to draw in. He loves drawing pictures and making up stories to go along with them. Often he has me write down words to accompany his pictures. However, in the past his pictures were on single sheets of paper, never in multiple sheets in book form! He would love this!

My hunch was right, when he saw the blank book and the markers he wanted to dive right in. And dove right in he did! He worked on the book in one sitting for about an hour, and that is huge! We also took it with us to places he otherwise might get bored and restless, so that the time would be enjoyable to him.  With each completed page, I was sure to write in my neatest handwriting in bold black ink the story he recited to me. I made sure that he signed his work, as any author or artist would be sure to do; and, of course, I had him give the book a title.

I was lucky because I scored gargantuan (I mean GARGANTUAN) sheets of quality paper from our local material exchange store called M.E.C.C.A. (check it out here) for a song. I'm talking $5 per inch of stack! That's a deal if I've ever seen one! Thanks M.E.C.C.A. The paper makes for a great book, but you can use any size rectangular sheet (I have even made itty bitty books with 8.5 X 11" sized paper!) Here are the directions:

Thanks so much for stopping by! If you like what you see here on my blog and want to keep abreast of more posts in the future, as well as links to other fun ideas that I have found around the internet, I would love it if you liked my Facebook Page here.

Have fun!