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Gardening
Welcome to Gardening Week
For this week's theme make a flower sensory bin, make a paper mache flower bowl and grow hair for some pot people.
Book and Rhyme of the Week
Get the bestselling book Tree Full of Wonder and rhyme your way to a new appreciation for trees.
Sensory Play
Make a flower garden for this week's sensory play!
I used dried black beans as a base. They make a fantastic sound and are really satisfying to scoop and pour.
Then I gathered fake flowers from around the house. I had some fabric petals and flowers and some plastic flowers from a toy I'd found in a charity shop.
We then scooped the beans into a plant pot and put flowers into it.
If you're looking for a non perishable base, then how about moving play to outdoors and using mud? Or if you're worried about your child eating the beans then how about using fake mud (there's a how to guide on here from Dino week)
I normally avoid choking hazards as I've got a baby but really wanted to use dried black beans for this week! I constantly watched the baby, stopped him putting anything in his mouth and cleared away everything right after play but I'm not going to pretend it wasn't a stressful experience! They're not safe to be ingested so please only use them if you're confident your child won't put them in their mouth.
Arts and Crafts
Make a paper mache flower bowl for this week's arts and crafts. This is a high mess activity so why don't you set up outdoors for it?
- Collect any flowers, leaves or grass you can find when out on a walk with your toddler
- Get a toilet roll and balloon
- Make up the paste with 1 part PVA glue to 2 parts water
- Then either dip sections of toilet roll into the paste and put on the balloon OR apply the paste directly to the balloon and stick the toilet roll sections onto it
- Once you've got the balloon covered in a layer of toilet roll stick the flowers, leaves or grass onto it! I found dipping the flowers in the paste before sticking them to the balloon worked the best.
- Then apply another layer of toilet roll and paste to the balloon
- Then it's a waiting game as you need the paste to dry. Mine took a day but I left it 2 days before popping the balloon with my toddler
- We then added a piece of rope to make it into a basket!
Active Play
Do some simple gardening for this week's active play.
Find a small plant pot. If you don't have one, have a look in your kitchen for glasses or paper/plastic cups you may have buried in a cupboard.
Get hold of some seeds! Grass or cress seeds are great as they are so fast growing. We used these cress seeds and soaked them overnight before sprinkling them on top of a layer of compost in the plant pot.
We then stuck one of the fun faces available for download as this week's printable to the front of the plant pot and then we waited for the hair to grow!
Next Week's Theme
What You'll Need for Next Week's Theme
Next week requires very limited prep. Grab a couple of envelopes and an old magazine or newspaper and we will see you there!