garden sensory bin

How do kids practice their learning?

By playing their learning.

We have been playing planting and gardening in the garden bin.

This was the first sensory bin I made - an oldie and a good one.

The base is a mix of peat moss and potting soil.  Yes, it gets a bit messy.  But it sweeps up easily.  And a bit of mess is worth it. 

 

A  few dollar store worms wiggle through the dirt. 

The back fence is garden edging from a dollar store.  I added recycled 4" garden pots and a couple of little 2.5" pots I found somewhere.  (kindergarten teachers never throw anything out; my husband is a patient man).  

A couple of pairs of kid sized gardening gloves and some kid sized gardening tools, and we are almost ready for planting.  

This year I put in some amber coloured glass gems as seeds and to add a bit of sparkle to the bin.  

The kids, dig and rake the soil, and plant the seeds.

make sure that everything is watered,

and label the pots with veggie markers.

Make your own veggie markers.  Click on the image to download; print, laminate, tape to popsicle sticks, grow seeds.

After a week or so, the seeds germinated, the plants grew and the produce was ready for market. 

I believe that today, the veggie stand was set up in a purple tent.  The main customers were wolves who paid in buttons.  (The wolves need to get better at cleaning up the buttons.)

wishing you a green thumb and a bountiful harvest