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Welcome to another week of awesomely themed playful preschool!
This weeks theme is the harvest, be sure to check at the bottom of this post for all the links to more ideas on this theme from my fabulous blogging friends who are also a part of this group!
Although harvesting in the carrot patch is not as exciting as say pumpkins and apples. which we are seeing tons of because of the season, I thought this one was a rather fun activity and the kids passed almost an hour of play with it.
This activity was rather easy to set up and I made it on whim while the kids were in bath the one evening.
You will need orange pipe cleaners, green yarn and an egg carton to make the carrots as well as the patch they grow in. I grabbed a small shopping basket for harvesting and some paper for counting on.
To make the carrots cut the pipe cleaner into 4 or 5 pieces as well as a small amount of yarn.
Fold the pipe cleaner piece in half and twist the yarn around. Pull tight and twist the pipe cleaner on itself to create a carrot and secure the yarn as leaves. Just like in the image below.
Poke a few holes in the underside of an egg carton for planting those carrots!
This is also great fine motor practice!
Once you have an entire carrot patch it is time to have fun.
Harvest and plant the carrots.
Explain how the carrots are a root vegetable and that is why the orange bit is under the ground and the leaves above.
Add them to your harvest container.
Lets add some math to this activity! How many carrots did you harvest?
Another reason for selecting carrots!
Plan your PRESCHOOL Harvest Theme Learning Week with Activities from the Playful Preschool Education Team:
- Learning with Gourds: Comparing, Sorting, and Labeling for Fall by Still Playing School
- Corny Science: Will it sink or float? by Capri + 3
- Plants We Eat {which are roots, stems, leaves, fruit} by Raising Lifelong Learners
- Preschool Math: Measuring Pumpkins by Mom Inspired Life
- Making Bread by Rainy Day Mum
- #PlayfulPreschool Harvest Time Math by Tiny Tots Adventures
- Alphabet Activities: Letter Harvest by Growing Book by Book
- There Was An Old Lady Who Swallowed Some Leaves Sequencing Cards & Power Point by The Preschool Toolbox Blog
- Go Global: Harvests Around the World by The Educators’ Spin On It
- Harvest Time: Jamaican Style Music by Learning 2 Walk
- Pumpkin Patch Sensory Bin: Practicing Matching with Preschoolers by Life Over C’s
- Little Red Hen Activity – Retelling through Sensory Play by Fun-A-Day
Brandy @ Our Thrifty Home says
This is such a cute idea. My kiddo’s aren’t tots anymore, but I think this will still be lots of fun to make. This can be turned into so many different math lessons.
Thanks for sharing.
Jill says
What a creative and fun idea! I am pinning this!
Thank you for stopping by the Thoughtful Spot Weekly Blog Hop this week. We hope to see you drop by our neck of the woods next week!
Kim says
I love this idea! It’s such a cute way to practice fine-motor skills!
Mary Catherine says
Oh, Nicolette, what an awesome harvest activity! I cannot get over those homemade little carrots! 🙂
Leslie says
What an awesome activity. Definitely going to try this out with my little guy!
Cerys from Rainy Day Mum says
Fabulous activity – I know what I’m going to be sitting making this evening.
Natasha says
This is so cute! I like the little carrots and so simple for me to make. What a fun way to Harvest carrots!
the preschool toolbox says
What a great fine motor activity to do at harvest time! I love how you extended the activity to counting!:) Nice pictures and great post!
Carrie says
What a great idea!! I love it!!
Sarah says
What a fun and simple activity to put together! I love the fine motor skills too.
Devany says
Oh, my, GOODNESS!!!
I LOVE THIS!!!!!
Jodie @ Growing Book by Book says
What a neat idea to incorporate science, fine motor and math skills!
Fiftarina says
What an awesome idea. The materials are easy to get (I think I have all of them right now). Cannot wait to try it with my preschooler. Thanky for sharing this wonderful way to learn thru play
Theresa says
I love this activity. It is so clever to recycle an egg carton to make a carrot patch. We have these materials at home and I look forward to trying this with our preschoolers.
Danielle says
This is such a cute idea. I know my son would love pretending to harvest carrots and the math extension is perfect.
Amanda Boyarshinov says
What a great idea! I even think I have all these materials on hand. The math extension is my favorite!