Earlier in the month, we brought some soil pods outside with us and the toddlers helped us push some seeds into them. We put the covered containers on our window sill in the classroom where the children could see them. The following week, we saw some little bits of green starting to poke through the soil and everyone was very excited!
We waited for the sprouts to grow a little bigger and then brought them outside again. We offered the children a big sensory bin full of soil and gave them some garden spades and flowerpots. They enjoyed scooping up the soil using the spades, the pots, and their hands, and they practiced dumping and pouring the soil into the pots. We worked together to choose a soil pod plant and place it in the flower pot and add more soil. Then the children got to poke a popsicle stick with their name on it into their pot.
We explored through our senses as we got our hands dirty and we worked on our coordination and spatial awareness as we dumped soil from spade to pot or pot to pot. We worked on taking turns and being aware of where others are as we played close to one another. We also learned about the different growth stages of plants and gained some new vocabulary as we talked about seeds, sprouts, leaves, stems, and roots. This ongoing experience has encouraged a sense of community and belonging as we continue to work together to care for our plants.
We will continue to watch our seeds grow into beautiful flowers, and water them when needed. We also started some green and yellow bean seeds and plan to plant those in our outdoor garden. We are excited to see them grow enough to eat!
