Use play dough and faux flowers to create this fun counting activity! Counting in the Garden in a fun and engaging springtime preschool activity.
A is currently OBSESSED with all things gardening. We planted seeds last night and have been doing a ton of flower themed activities these last two weeks. With us being stuck inside because of quarantine, the more activities that I can get her to engage with in our little backyard the better! While I wish we could spend every day outside, the weather has been a little icky with lots of wind and rain. So we brought outside inside with this fun counting activity!
Materials
- Chocolate play dough
- faux flowers
- beans
- wooden numbers
- Counting in the Garden by Kim Parker
Play Dough Ingredients
- 1 cup flour
- 1 cup water
- 2 tsps cream of tartar
- 1 tbs vegetable oil
- 1/4 cup salt
- 3 (ishhh) tbs of coco powder- I added as I mixed the ingredients until the color was dark enough!
Mix ingredients together and cook over medium heat until the play dough isn’t sticky. Let cool before playing!
Counting in the Garden
We used a wooden box for our little “garden” but you can do this directly on a table top or even in little pots! To start she placed the wooden number in order from 1-10. I love using these numbers (a dollar store purchase!) for our activities to work on number recognition. She then added a small amount of “soil” above the numbers. Using some white beans from one of our sensory bins, she counted out the seeds for each number and then covered them with a little more play dough soil.
Once each seed was planted it was time for her flowers to grow! I had cut the stems of the flowers down and some were single flowers, others I left in groups of 5 so that there was enough room for the bigger numbers. She loved arranging the flowers different ways as she counted.
This counting activity was a huge hit! She went back through and took the beans out of her play dough and has pulled out her little garden again and again!
Stay Curious!
Lexi
