5 Ways To Have Fun With Dandelions

Spring weather is finally here for us and the girls have been having fun with the plethora of dandelions they are finding in our yard and around the neighborhood.

I'm certain this list could easily turn into a 100 but for today we'd like to share 5 of the ways we've been having fun with dandelions.


1. Make Wishes- Really, how much does this scream childhood! Kids love to pick wispy dandelions and blow wishes. They love it even more if you do it with them. We had fun asking how many wishes they each made and how many seeds do they think they blew away.

2. Make a bouquet- Often it's the simple things that are the most fun! My girls had a blast walking around the yard and creating their own dandelion bouquets. After they create their bouquets it's a nice touch to add them to vases and use the as centerpiece for a meal time.

3. Observe them with a magnify glass- This is a great way to discuss science words like magnify, comparing and contrasting, and observing. You can also discuss parts of the flower like seed, petals, and stem. 

4. Make An Observational Drawing- I set up an "invitation to draw" for the girls using a clipboard, paper, and oil pastels (with the dandelion colors). I encouraged them to look at the dandelions to make their drawings. Again, another opportunity to discuss the various colors and parts of a dandelion.

5. Paint With Them- I love finding ways to connect nature with art! The girls loved using the dandelions in lieu of paintbrushes to create a mural.

My 4 year old used it to make dandelion prints. 

My 3 year old enjoyed using it as a brush and making stokes and circles with it. 

There you have it! Five of the many ways to have fun with dandelions! 

If you enjoy what you see here please join us on Facebook: Imprints From Tricia on Facebook

Our Butterfly Garden Continued...

We have butterflies!!  The girls were so excited to see our chrysalides turn into butterflies!




 After the first chrysalides turned into a butterfly it took a couple of days for the rest of them to turn into butterflies and all the while the girls enjoyed observing the butterflies in the garden.

 

We read lots of books on butterflies (I have another post on some of the books coming soon) and the girls looked at various pictures of butterflies as we talked about the similarities and differences of our live butterflies and the ones in the pictures.

 

 Then it was time to set them free...

 






 This was such a fun project for the girls and we will most definitely be doing it again next spring!

 If you like what you see here please join us on Facebook: Imprints From Tricia on Facebook

The Makings of a Butterfly Garden

Our butterfly garden and caterpillars arrived in the mail and our journey begins as we watch these caterpillars turn into butterflies! I'm not sure who's more excited me or the girls!




The girls have been loving the caterpillars!! Every morning they wake up and want to see the caterpillars.

They are obviously very curious about the caterpillars and the process of them turning into butterflies.  To learn more about the process we read this book From Caterpillar to Butterfly by Deborah Heiligman


 


To pick up on their growing interest we also found some pictures of caterpillars online and printed them out for the girls to observe.




We talked about the different characteristics we saw and I encouraged the girls to describe the various caterpillars.

After observing the real caterpillars and the pictures the girls created their own representations of caterpillars using mixed media of oil pastels and water colors.  When I taught with the Reggio Emilia Philosophy we did many projects that included mixed media, observational drawings and creating representations of what was being studied.

First they used the oil pastels to draw a caterpillar.



My 2 year old wanted to draw a caterpillar too and in her mind it was indeed a caterpillar!




Next they used watercolors to paint over the oil pastels. Mixing these two types of media creates a cool effect and texture when dried.




Mallory's completed caterpillar! She loved this project and I think we will do it again with butterfly pictures once our caterpillars turn into butterflies.



Be sure to check back as we document the growth of our caterpillars turning into butterflies!

If you like what you see here please join us on Facebook: Imprints From Tricia on Facebook

Earth Day Planting

Weekly Kids Co-op is up and running and there are loads of Earth Day activities so be sure to check them out!

We are continuing our Every Day is Earth Day fun and this week we painted terra cotta pots and planted seeds!





 I bought these super cheap planting pots from Michael's and the girls painted the outside of them.

 

 We read this book "Seeds, Seeds, Seeds" by Nancy Elizabeth Wallace and talked about all different types of seeds.

 

We explored the seeds we were going to plant. The girls touched them and we talked about color, texture, and size of the seeds.
 


We talked about everything the seed would need to grow, water, sunlight, and soil. My 3 year old helped dig up some soil for our pots.

  

 We watered the seeds and now are waiting anxiously for them to grow!!


 

 By the way, do you love the Target $1 aisle as much as I do? I found all these goodies in the $1 aisle and they are perfect for our Earth Day activities!


 






Check out more Earth Day activities at the weekly Kids Co-op below!