Garden Sensory Box
Every week in our kinder room, we have a letter focus and last week's was the letter 'G'. We listed all the words we knew which started G and my AT set up a grass growing station where the children could see mustard and fennel seeds grow. We have also been changing the vegetable patch outside and planting some flowers in the barrels.
To support these changes, I thought a garden sensory bin would complement what the learning environment and the current interests of the room. After discussing this, I began working on putting the environment together.
To support these changes, I thought a garden sensory bin would complement what the learning environment and the current interests of the room. After discussing this, I began working on putting the environment together.
I got the inspiration for this environment from this post and began collecting the materials:
- Two 6 egg cartons
- Green pipe cleaners
- Paints
- Envelopes
- Coloured paper
- Popsicle sticks
- Got glue gun and sticks
- Pebbles
- Laminator and sheets
First step was cutting up the carton, by the end of it you should have 12 little 'cups' and make sure you save the lid for a seedling box. I cut up 2 pipe cleaners to make 12 little pieces, folded in half to make the 'V'. You can paint the cups whatever colours you like, I chose these because they matched the colours of the vegetables I picked.
Once the paint has dried, cut a little slit into the tops of the cups so you can poke the pipe cleaners through. To make them look a little cuter, I curled the tops on a pencil. And there you have it, little vegetable seedlings!
Next up is the planters. Introducing the first LMST freebie, which can be downloaded below, just print out the page, laminate it if not printing on card stock, and glue them to the popsicle sticks.
To make the seed packets, you can download the labels below and print onto coloured paper. Then glue to the envelopes. I filled mine with pebbles and glued it shut but depending on the age group of the children in your care, you can use bigger/smaller articles and chose whether to glue it shut or not.
Add a couple of child sized gloves, a watering can, some small gardening tools and there you have it - garden sensory box! Don't forget to grab some small pebbles or coloured sand for your 'dirt'.
The final product looked great in the room and the children loved it! It was super easy to put together and was an opportunity to recycle some of our household waste. It was a perfect opportunity to link to my AT's learning focus and I am so happy with how it all turned out.
As for the children; loved it! Bringing the dirt and nature into the classroom really opened up the chance for them to get excited about planting our veggie garden and adding some greenery to our playground. The biggest hit has been the gloves but since there is two chairs at the table and to gloves, some opportunities here to practice their sharing skills. The amount of collaborative work that happens at this station is phenomenal!
As promised, you can download the templates below, the very first LMST free download with only more to come!
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