The Tiny Seed Theme for Toddlers

For the foreseeable future, we are homebound and homeschooling. For me, this has meant a lot more planning, structure, and purposeful or themed activities. As I wrote in a recent Instagram post, I don’t believe toddlers need themed or pre-planned activities. They can thrive on open-ended toys, practical life, and DIYS from whatever household items you can find. They thrive on routines and parnets who are present and engaged. But planning these activities keeps things interesting and gives me purpose when we are stuck in the confines of our home. This in turn, makes for a happier mom, and happier kids.

Our theme this week has been The Tiny Seed, based on the classic book by Eric Carle. Our more general theme is learning about how plants grow! As I do NOT have a green thumb, I've learned a bit along the way too! Here are some of the activities along this theme that we have enjoyed this week.

Planting Seeds, Beans, and Bulbs

Toddlers (and children of all ages really) learn best from concrete, hands-on materials. It is much easier to grasp a new concept when they can literally grasp it in their hands.

“What the hand does, the mind remembers. ”

— Maria Montessori

To introduce the theme of seeds and how plants grow, we planted our own seeds and beans. Because it has still been quite cold here, and I am terrible at keeping indoor plants alive, we started with planting a bean in a jar. This has the added bonus of getting to see the growth through the glass, and fast too. Next week we will plant some cosmos or zinnias in our yard as well. We also planted a few garlic cloves in an indoor pot, and are hoping for some garlic greens to grow! D has loved watering her plants and checking on their progress each day.

Seed to Fruit/Veggie Matching

This is another great hands-on activity that gets all the senses involved! We picked out a few different fruits and vegetables with visible seeds, and opened them up for D to explore. Then she helped pick the seeds out of each one, eating the edible ones and composting the others. She enjoyed learning about the seeds, but also the fine motor work of picking out the small seeds and enjoying the fruits of her labor. :)

Seed Life Cycle

After planting our bean and watching it grow for a few days, we compared the growth to these green bean life cycle manipulatives. 3D objects are always more useful in learning new terminology than pictures, but real live plants are the very best!

Seed/Bean Shakers

We of course had to include something along the seed theme for baby brother, and this one involved both kids! D sorted five kinds of beans/seeds/pods into small spice jars. She screwed back on the lids and picked out a basket to put them in for S. S loved shaking them and making different noises with the different shaped/weighted seeds. Super simple and fun!

Parts of a Flower Felt Board

To go with our favorite seed songs, I created this felt flower scene to learn parts of a flower (tulip, namely) and what flowers need to grow. This felt board has gotten a lot of use over the last year, and I can create all kinds of felt shapes and animals from this stack of colorful craft felt. D has been enjoying giving “lessons’ to his brother with this flower felt board.

Pea Pod Counting

I had seen similar counting boards with food on Pinterest before, and thought doing a seed-themed one would be cute. I went with pea pods, as they are a familiar and favorite food for D. I made these by cutting and drawing on construction paper and then laminating. I have attached the scanned copy here if you’d like to print the PDF to use. You can have your child count with real peas, or like we did, use playdough peas that I rolled (and she helped). Just don’t expect those play dough peas to stay peas for long!

Flower Arranging

This has been a favorite for a year now. She especially enjoys flower arranging with the little wildflowers we pick on our daily walks. Yesterday we found a field full of daisies, and when she insisted on bringing more than a handful home, I knew we’d be in for another afternoon of flower arranging. When she was first doing this activity, I set out just one small vase, but now she divides the water and flowers into three vases or jars. She enjoys displaying them on her windowsill!

Favorite Songs

D loves doing this one called “Be a Seed” from Jbrary as a full body movement song!

Favorite (or Recommended) Books

The Tiny Seed by Eric Carle

Up in the Garden and Down in the Dirt by Kate Messner

Planting a Rainbow by Lois Ehlert

We are the Gardeners by Joanna Gaines

Botony for Babies by Jonathon Litton

From Seed to Plant by Gail Gibbons

Note: This post contains affiliate links. If you purchase a product through one of these links, you won’t pay anything extra, but I will get a small commission, which helps keep this blog going. Thanks for supporting Montessori in Real Life!

Welcoming Spring!

We got our first taste of Spring this week, and it was glorious! It’s amazing what a little vitamin D and hours of outdoor play can do you for the soul. I can’t help but smile at the pure joy this girl gets from the slide, even when it’s her 30th round. The sun also peeked out just in time for the Spring-themed activities I had planned for D!

The best way to introduce many of the foundations of these activities (flowers, insects, vegetables) to toddlers is to first experience them in real life. So I’ve been pointing out all the things we see on our walks or at the grocery store, to get D familiar with the living things/objects we read about or see pictures/replicas of at home. It is much easier to grasp the abstract of a picture once they’ve felt, touched, and smelled the real thing. And It doesn’t hurt to have another excuse to play in the dirt and stop to smell the roses!

Gardening - I do not have a green thumb but D has given me the motivation I need to try a little gardening this spring. I got her this gardening tool set (recommended by my friend at www.montessorinmotion.com) so we can work out in the yard together, and so far she loves toting it around anywhere. ;) We started by planting a few pea seeds to water and watch grow together over the next few weeks. Fingers crossed we are rewarded with at least a sprout! Because D couldn’t get enough of the watering part, I also showed her other flowers and plants she could water around the house and yard, and she has been very busy!

Insect Grabbing - This is something we set up in the toddler classroom a couple of years ago, so I was excited to introduce it at home! Since D no longer needs this bottle dryer, we’ve repurposed it as grass. In the grass, I hid several of these Toob insects for her to find, grasp/pinch, and collect in a basket. She isn’t yet able to use the tongs so much prefers to use her fingers. She has definitely hit a language explosion and it’s fun to hear her say the names for the insects (“cede!”), and connect them to the ones we read about in her books!

Fruit & Vegetable Matching - Toob is just the best for language and matching activities. Realistic, but small, and easy to find or make corresponding cards for. I found some printable matching cards here, but it’s easy enough to take photos of each fruit/vegetable and make your own. These Toob fruits and vegetables are perfect for Spring, and learning about the various types we see and taste. As I mentioned, it is best to first introduce objects in “real life”, so before introducing these replicas and cards, I made sure D had experienced feeling and (hopefully) tasting each of these foods to get her more familiar with them. While matching the real fruits and vegetables is ideal, it isn’t always realistic when the work is sitting out on the shelf for days on end!

Flower Arranging - This is such a simple, but lovely and meaningful, activity. Just as we enjoy having beautiful flowers on the table, so do toddlers. As the flowers begin to bloom here in the Northwest, I’ve noticed D spotting them and wanting to look at/touch/smell them too. Instead of saying ‘no’ every time she wanted to touch the beautiful arrangements, it made sense to give her her own flowers to explore and enjoy. Giving her the opportunity to pour a bit of water in a vase, place a few flowers in it, and bring to her own table gives her a piece of that beauty indoors, and makes her feel respected and important too. Older toddlers can expand on this by trimming the stems and creating more elaborate arrangements!

Springtime Books - As always, D loves her books! Here are her favorites this season:

Eating the Alphabet by Lois Ehlert - This board book complements our vegetable & fruit matching activity well, and D enjoys mimicking all the different vegetables and fruits on each page. Maybe this spring at the Farmer’s Market, D will know more about the produce than me!

Spring Babies by Kathryn O. Galbraith - This is a very cute board book series, with a book for every season. With simple words and actions, D loves to “play” along and look at the friendly, diverse faces on each page.

The Little Gardener by Jen Gerardi - This is a sweet story about how to tend to a garden with nice, simple rhymes. D loves opening the peek-a-boo flaps on each page too!

Planting a Rainbow by Lois Ehlert - As always, this board book by Lois Ehlert is both beautiful and educational. We learn the process of planting a seed and watching it grow, and are rewarded with a rainbow of flowers and pages at the end!

Up in the Garden and Down in the Dirt by Kate Messner - After getting her winter book, Over and Under the Snow, we had to check out the Spring one too. Though it’s not a board book, it’s D’s favorite, and she’s pretty careful with the pages. It features beautiful pictures and details about the various forms of insects, plants, and other creatures under and over the dirt.

Happy Spring!