Spring is here!
Its that time of year when the weather is a little all over place, the birds are chirping, the flowers are starting to bloom and the gardens are starting to be built. When I think about this time of year I can’t help but think about all of the exciting learning opportunities that can utilize in this season. One activity that is full of learning opportunities is in preparing a garden. Within this activity there is the opportunity to create growth and teach your child about the life cycle while simultaneously getting dirty and having fun!
When creating a garden you have to make a plan to get started. Sitting down together to make this plan can help teach your child that when you are getting ready to complete a task that the first step is to make a plan. This is an executive functioning skill that is important for successful academics that can be practiced in many activities.
After you have created the plan you have to gather the materials and follow directions to complete a task. This is another skill that is valuable for children to learn and understand. A child needs to be able to gather up proper materials and utilize instructions to complete tasks in the classroom setting. You can use verbal and visual instructions to do this activity to help build both verbal comprehension and non-verbal processing of direction following.
After tackling the task of starting seedlings you can discuss the patterns of growth with your child as well as instill in them the responsibility of taking care of something. You can draw pictures with them about the stages of growth that the seedling will go through and write up the findings under the pictures as your plant grows. This will connect your child’s learning to real life. You can go even further by connecting the growth of the plant to other things that grow and develop, this takes their comprehension to a new level by expanding one area to many broad areas.
Good blogs to reference for growing seedling:
www.yougrowgirl.com
http://www.teachingideas.co.uk/science/contents_plants.htm
Grow on!
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