Grow Little Turnip, Grow Big – Activity

This activity is an extension of my last blog.  I have done this activity with child care providers many times to provide ideas for their classroom.  Children enjoy this hands-on activity where they can be involved.  This is just one example of how you can make a book come alive. Choose your own book and let your imagination run to come up with your own activities.  Remember to link your classroom together with themes for learning.

Read the book several times before you conduct the activity.  This will allow time for your children to become familiar with the story,

Has anyone eaten a turnip root?  What about turnip greens?  Our story is about a big turnip.  Grow Little Turnip, Grow Big is written by Harriet Ziefert and illustrated by Laura Rader.  What do you think this book is about?  Has anyone seen a big turnip root?

This book, is about an old man, an old woman, a little girl, a big dog, a cat and a tiny mouse.  (prepare pictures for each for the children to hold, I suggest laminating each so you can use them multiple times).  Ask for six volunteers to help with the story.  As the children come up give them a picture to hold (or punch two holes at the top of the card and use yarn to thread through so the child can wear the picture around their neck, this is my preference to leave their hands free).  Move all the children to the side, except for the old man.  You can have a pot with a plastic turnip planted in a pot covered by moss that you hold. (see example at the bottom of the page, you can make your own)

As you read the book, ask your volunteers to help act out the story.  As you talk about the characters from the book pulling up the turnip, each one tries to pull up the turnip individually, then they try to help the person in front of them pull.  At the end they all work as a team and are successful.

To involve the entire class in the story, make the following change:

Page 20 They pulled and pulled and pulled.  Line up the children and stress that they are only going to pretend to pull on the person in front on them.  On the count of three we are going to pull up the turnip. 1-2-3.  Pull it up!  Pull it up!  Pull it up!  Yeah!  The turnip did come up.  Now the old woman can cook the turnip for supper.

Suggested questions for end of book discussion:

• What color is the turnip root?
• What color are the leaves of the turnip?
• Where do turnips grow?
• Has someone eaten the white turnip root or the green leaves of the turnip?
• What other foods did you eat with the turnips?
• Can someone name other types of “greens”? (mustard, kale, spinach, collards)
• Why were we finally successful in pulling up the large turnip? (everyone worked together to pull up the turnip)

What is being Learned Through Food Experiences? Growing your Curriculum

To explore some of the ways that learning through food experiences can benefit your child or children in your care visit the document below.  Just click on it and you will go to a detailed page with information.  I encourage you to share this with your parents too.  It may encourage them to get their children involved in cooking activities and increasing family time.

Learning Through Food Experiences

The following areas are explored:

• Early Math Skills
• Science Skills
• Language Skills
• Pre-Reading & Beginning Reading Skills
• Social Studies Skills
• Nutrition
• Food Literacy
• Art Skills
• Socio-Emotional Skills
• Sensory-Motor Skills

Food experiences also help build connections for Brain Development.

• Experience shapes the brains wiring
• Nutrition offers windows of learning in everyday activities
• Stimulates all of the senses:  seeing, touching, tasting, smelling, & hearing
• Forms new connections & strengthens old connections through language
• Repetition forms connections
• Healthy eating & exercise are important for brain development.

New Foods to Celebrate

What better way to celebrate National Farm to School Month than to introduce children to some new fruits and vegetables.  Food can be incorporated into every area in your center and can be such fun!!  When you begin to explore books that focus on foods, healthy eating, gardening, and planting the number available is quite large.  So here a few and some activities to get you started.  Use your imagination, make the books come alive, sample new foods and add activities during the month to get your children excited about healthy eating.   When they are more involved with the activities they are more likely to try new foods.

Eating the Alphabet by Lois Ehlert

This book is great for the introduction of new foods by reading your way through the alphabetical world of fruits and vegetables. Currents, jalapeno peppers, parsnips, star fruit, ugil fruit, and yams are just a few of the foods mentioned. There is also a glossary of the fruits and vegetables described in the book.

Growing Vegetable Soup by Lois Ehlert

This bright, bold picture book is about vegetable gardening for the very young. The story starts off “Dad says we are going to grow vegetable soup”.  The necessary tools are pictured and labeled, as are the seeds (green bean, pea, corn, zucchini squash, and carrot). Then the real gardening happens . . . planting, weeding, harvesting, washing, chopping, and cooking! In the end? “It was the best soup ever.” A recipe for vegetable soup tops it all off!  After reading the book serving vegetable soup would be a great way of adding vegetables to your children’s diet.  I would also suggest to share a recipe with your parents and encourage them to try this at home.  Parent buy-in is very important and can extend classroom learning.  They may also try something new too!

 

Recipe Corner

Sometimes children will try a new food when they can dip it.  My goddaughter is happy to eat anything if there is something to dip it into.  I think it is the experience of it all.  So if they are a little hesitate to taste a new vegetable or fruit these healthy dips may be a way to encourage the new food experience.

Ranch Sauce*

• 1 cup plain low fat yogurt
• 1/2 cup light ranch salad dressing

Combine ingredients in a small bowl.  Serve with any cut vegetables.

Cinnamon Dip*

• 1/2 cup plain nonfat yogurt
• 1 teaspoon brown sugar
• dash of cinnamon

1.  Place yogurt in small (1 cup) bowl.
2. Add brown sugar & dash of cinnamon to yogurt.
3. Stir until well mixed.
4. Cover & refrigerate until ready to serve.
5. Serve with your favorite fruits, such as apple wedges, banana slices, strawberries, peaches or other fruit.

Fruity Parfaits*

• 1/2 cup lightly sweetened cereal, such as Life or granola
• 6 oz. vanilla low-fat yogurt
• 1/2 cup berries or cut-up fruit (drain if canned)
• 2 Tablespoons chopped pecans (check for any food allergies before using nuts

1. Place cereal in small bowl or cereal dish.
2. Add yogurt.  Spread evenly over cereal.
3. Rinse fruit or drain if canned.  Sprinkle fruit evenly over yogurt.
4. Sprinkle chopped pecans evenly over fruit.  Serve.

*Recipes are courtesy of the Georgia Expanded Food and Nutrition Education Program (EFNEP).  To find out if this free nutrition program is available in your area contact your local county Extension or in Georgia 1.800.ASK.UGA1 or visit http://www.fcs.uga.edu/extension/efnep.

See upcoming blogs for more ideas for adding fruits and veggies.

A Special Thanks To Teachers

Baby/Toddlers – What are they learning from ART?

Creative people are often resourceful and thoughtful. If a baby feels safe and trusts her/his caregiver and the surroundings, they are more eager to explore and find out more.  Creativity is invaluable and should be encouraged in children.  A secure relationship with caregivers can provide a strong foundation for creativity.

There are a variety of art experience you can provide for children.  Babies have opportunities to use their senses to explore and create.  The process of squishing finger paint in their hands, tearing paper or scribbling with crayons is satisfying for babies and toddlers.  They are developing eye-hand coordination, and are making choices to change the way a drawing looks.  You can provide crayons, chalk, play dough and other materials for creativity and pre-writing skills.

At this age, children’s creations do not usually represent real objects unless we, as adults, label them so.  As they grow, children will attempt to create what they see in real life.  For now, they are simply enjoying the pleasure of creating and exploring the materials.

Teachers should use descriptive language as we discuss a child’s creations (“This painting has circular stokes:, “This color is bright!”)  By encouraging discussion about what has been made, we support children’s language development.  We focus on specific aspects (“How did you make this line so squiggly?”)  We strive to help them feel their work is respected and valued.  We often post the children’s creations for everyone to enjoy.

Teachers often encourage children to explore different art media. We might hang some sticky paper on the wall and have children enjoy sticking items to it to make collages. W e might have children paint with their bare feet.  These experiences let children explore real materials with their senses.  This is how babies and toddlers learn best.

More Science through Plants

Carrot Top Garden – Sprouting Carrot Tops with Children

Carrots tops are one of the easiest plants to grow and requires no special equipment.  Children can see results in a matter of days, which is exciting for them.

Cut the tops off of three or four carrots.  Have your children place them in a shallow dish and water them daily.  The carrot tops should be sitting in at least 1/4 inch water at all times.  Sit back and watch the carrot tops sprout new green foliage.  This provides an excellent opportunity for questions and answers:

• What do they think will happen with they put the carrot in the water?
• How does it look a few days later?
• When it sprouts conversations on the process of growing and how things grow
• Encourage the children to talk about the changes of the plant
• Draw pictures
• Guess what is next

There is so much you can do with this activity.  Be creative.  While it is growing you can read some books and conduct nutrition activities using carrots. It is amazing that most children only know the baby carrots that are already cleaned and ready to eat.  May have not seen a carrot before all the processing.  See the next blog for some more ideas.

Growing Carrot Tops

 

 

 

Science Activities – Grass Seed Starters

The quickest and easiest sees to grow are grass or alfalfa.  They tend to grow almost anywhere as long as they are watered regularly and receive sunlight.  Here are some ideas for unusual planters.

Potato

Slice the top and bottom from a baking potato.  Scoop out the top, fill with moistened cotton balls, and sprinkle seeds.

Paper Cup

Fill a paper cup with potting soil and decorate it to resemble a face.  Sprinkle the soil with seeds and moisten it with water.  You children will enjoy watching the planter sprout hair.

Sponge

Soak a sponge in water, then sprinkle on seeds.  Moisten the sponge when dry, and soon it will be teeming with life.  Variation:  Try making sponge planters in different shapes.  Cooking cutters make excellent stencils for cutting sponges.

For more creative ideas visit the following websites:

http://sciencenetlinks.com/lessons/look-at-those-seeds-grow/

http://www.sciencekids.co.nz/experiments/seedgermination.html

 

April Showers Bring May Flowers

Most of us have heard this rhyme at some point, usually at an early age from our parents or teachers.   It is really a lesson in patience, where the rain may be unpleasant when you need to find indoor activities on those days.  The rains will bring eventually bring enjoyable things such as flowers and sunny days.  It is a example of the spring cycle of renewal that may parts of the earth go through.

From a growing standpoint, the rain increases the moisture in the soil to help plants to grow faster and healthier.  The water can also help nutrients reach the roots faster as well.

Temperature is another factor to growth.  As the days grow warmer, plants find it easier to grow.  The increased temperature along with the rain is he perfect sign that it is is time to return to life, or begin life if planting a seed or bulb.

What a great time to plant an item with your children and watch it grow.  This time of the year provides opportunities for discussion on rain, water, plants, growing, and so much more.  The children’s minds are growing while you are introducing all of this.  Introduction of new books, scavenger hunts, planting, weather and water activities are great for this month.  Look for upcoming posts with more ideas and rainy day books.

 

 

Thanks for Having a Big Heart!

  

Thanks to all the child care providers and parents
that work with children each day to help them learn and grow.

How Does Your Preschooler Grow?

3-year-olds

Children are individuals.  Each will grow and develop at different rates. So how do you work with this age group?  Here are some basic guidelines as you plan your work with 3-year-olds.  They will need your guidance and encouragement during this time.

3-year-olds will soon (or may already) be able to:

• Have a sense of past, present and future time.
• Recite numbers to five (but may be able to count only to two)
• Understand and accept simple explanations
• Enjoy a lot of dramatic play
• Show more independence

Physical activity now includes pedaling a tricycle, throwing and catching a ball and jumping.

Hand and fingers are more coordinated too.   Using a fork and spoon for eating, drawing squiggly lines and cutting with scissors are skills the 3-year-old is practicing.  Children are ready to learn concepts such as colors, numbers, counting and the alphabet.  They will also learn ideas like “over/under” and “in/out”.

Emotions for this age is intense.  Affection, joy, anger and frustration are often expressed loudly and very physically.  Throwing a block across the room when a tower falls is the way many 3-year-olds deal with frustration. They may tell you to leave them alone one minute and the next “I love you”.  It may be hard to answer questions all day long, but they will have hundreds throughout the day.  Where the 2-year-old asks “What is this?”  The 3-year-old will want to know “Why?”.  Don’t be surprised by questions like:

• Why are you doing that?
• Why is the ceiling high?
• Why do the clouds move?
• Why aren’t the clouds moving?
• How did you do that?
• What is this for?

Although you may get tired of answering so many questions, your answers help children learn.  If a child gets no answer, he may stop asking.  Answering questions encourages curiosity.  Try to give simple answers.  Avoid too many details.  If you haven’t given enough information, the 3-year-old will ask for more!  Try asking them what they think the answer is.  This age group can be so much fun.  Take the time to enjoy their journey of learning.

Watch out for the next blog which will talk about the importance of play.