Plant a Garden! Storytime

So excited to explore gardening with my storytime children!  I had a wide age range, and I kind of lost the younger kids on Jo MacDonald, but the older kids had fun doing all the action, and of course, singing E-I-E-I-O.

Books

My Garden

by Kevin Henkes

Jo MacDonald Had a Garden

by Mary Quattlebaum; illustrated by Laura J. Bryant

Songs/Rhymes/Flannel Board

Out in the Garden
(tune: Down by the Station)

Out in the garden early in the morning
See the red tomatoes all in a row
See the happy farmer coming out to pick them
Pick, pick, pick, pick
Off he goes.

Green beans
Purple cabbages
Yellow squash
Orange carrots

There's Something in My Garden

There’s something in my garden,
Now what can it be?
There’s something in my garden
That I can't really see.
Hear its funny sound….
Ribbit-Ribbit-Ribbit
A frog is what I found!
Ribbit-Ribbit-Ribbit

Mouse (squeak-squeak-squeak)

Bird (tweet-tweet-tweet)

Bumblebee (buzz-buzz-buzz)

Rabbit (thump-thump-thump)

Supercharged
What I did:  I explained that the Jo MacDonald book was based on the Old MacDonald had a Farm, so instead of reading it, we would be singing it!  I went through the actions for each before I read/sang the book and also pointed to E-I-E-I-O each time we got to it.

Parent Tip:  Singing is another good way to add new vocabulary.

Play and Learn

Sensory Table:  A variety of bulk and out-dated seeds from our Seed Library--including beans, peas, okra, and beets.

Plant a Bean Seed

Five Flowers

Gears

There's Something in the Garden Hide and Seek Magnet Board

August 2022 UPDATE

New book to use sometime

Look and Listen

by Dianne White