Growth Greats!

Last Spring, I found an excellent way to record the accomplishments of my 3 year old and 5 year old.
While looking on education.com, a website that provides educational worksheets and activity ideas, I came across the explanation of a "Growth Flower."  From construction paper I made the center and stem of a flower for each of my girls.  Every time they accomplished something new, we'd add a petal to the flower with the accomplishment written on it.

We hung the flowers on the wall as constant reminders of all of the girls' achievements.  They were eager to add new petals to their flowers each time a personal goal was met.  In addition, their self-confidence and pride shined as they showed all that they were capable of doing to interested family members and friends!

With Summer at its end, I thought of a new way to record my girls' new feats.  To coincide with the beautifully colored leaves of Fall, I created the "Growing Tree."  With each new accomplishment a leaf will be added to the branches.

Is there anything better than celebrating the growth of a child?! 

Enjoy watching the self-esteem and smiles of your young ones blossom and grow as you record each milestone.  Not only is this project something for your children/students to get pleasure out of now; a nice little piece of artwork has been created for them to reflect upon and appreciate later in life.

Below are some suggested titles to read with your young ones to accompany and enhance this project.

All By Myself, by Mercer Mayer

The Little Engine That Could, by Watty Piper

I Believe in You, by Marianne Richmond

I Think, I Am!, by Louise L. Hay and Kristina Tracy

Incredible You!, by Dr. Wayne W. Dyer with Kristina Tracy

On My Way To A Happy Life, by Deepak Chopra with Kristina Tracy

Plant the Seed!

Together, my family planted seeds for what we hope will be our luscious, productive, green garden. We had so much fun sitting around our kitchen table getting our hands dirty.  What better way to stay grounded than sticking your hands in some earth?!
With planting seeds, there are endless possibilities for learning.  From sorting to labeling to observing things grow the lessons abound.  Like seeds and plants, children grow better the more we nuture them.  Hopefully, some of the ideas/activities/lessons below will  help your children blossom!

Conversation Starters:
-Why are all the seeds different shapes/sizes/colors?
-Predict how long it will take each type of seed sown to grow into a plant.
-How long do you think it will take a plant to flower and then fruit?
-What's needed to help a plant grow?
-What could be detrimental to the growth of a plant?

Activities/Lessons:
-(For the wee ones)  Sort seeds by shape/size/type and count how many of each.
-Guess what each seed will grow into.
-Act like a growing seed:  Starting curled on the ground, using your body show me how a plant grows.
-Keep a photo journal:  Take a photo of seed before planting, once planted, and through each stage of growth.
-Tell the story of a seed: Make a homemade book illustrating the stages of growth.
-If preparing a garden:  Count rocks removed from the soil.  List insects seen.  Measure the width and length of garden.  We measuered the length and width of our garden below with our daughters.

-Once garden fruits:  Count what's collected.  Examine what grew successfully and what did not and hypothesize why.
-If not able to prepare an outdoor garden:  Create a window garden.  You can use an old egg carton, old boot, old soup can, or just about any container to grow something on your window sill.  Below, you can see some of our tomato seeds planted in an old egg carton are growing.

-Plant a seed in a glass jar so child can observe roots growing as well as plant.
-Child can learn months and make observations if charting how seeds/plants grow.  Check out our "GROW WATCH" chart below.

-If not already composting, start!  Children can watch things decompose and be used again to help the garden grow.   My daughters enjoy taking turns spinning our compost barrel shown below.

-BEST OF ALL:  Children can take part in and witness the cycle of life!

Useful and Enjoyable  Garden Literature:

Plant Secrets, by Emily Goodman
Good for any school-age child, this book illustrates the stages of growth:  first seed, then plant, then flower, then fruit.  A wide variety of differnt plants are discussed.

Eddie's Garden and How to Make Things Grow, by Sarah Garland
Another great book for school-aged children, this book follows "Eddie" as he prepares his garden, plants seeds, nurtures them, watches them grow, and eventually enjoys the fruits of his labor.  In addition, there is a planting guide with useful tips in the back of the book.

A Green, Green Garden, by Mercer Mayer
Emergent readers will enjoy this story as they follow "Little Critter" as he learns that planting a garden is a lot of fun and a lot of work.  He also learns that as a result of all of his hard work, there's something for him to enjoy: a green, green garden!

REMINDER:  Earth Day is April 20th and Arbor Day is April 27th.  Do your part and help the planet; if you can't plant a tree on Arbor Day then plant a seed!

For Earth Day, check out these books for little ones:

I Can Save The Earth!  One Little Monster Learns to Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle, by Allison Inches

The Berenstain Bears Don't Pollute (Anymore), by Stan and Jan Berenstain

Grover's 10 Ways to Help Our Wonderful World, by Anna Ross

How to Help the Earth - by the Lorax, by Tish Rabe

It's Earth Day!, by Mercer Mayer


For Arbor Day, check out these books for kids:

We Planted a Tree, by Diane Muldrow

Trees, by Lisa Jane Gillespie

You can visit websites to find out more about trees:  go to the Usborne Quicklinks Website at http://www.usborne-quicklinks.com/ then type the keywords "beginners trees".


Besides the books mentioned above, many more for you to explore can be found by checking out what we've got listed under "Suggested Reading" .


In the words of the great Eric Clapton, "Let it blossom, let it grow..."!