The Imagination Tree

Creative play and learning for kids

Flower Pot Painting

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We have been outside in this (relatively) warm weather enjoying the first glimpses of Spring and starting to get busy and mucky in the garden again. Cakie could spend the whole day outside if she was allowed to, so rain and mud can’t stop us.
                        
Searching for flowers in the park and picking some before I could stop her…oops!

Hello little Crocus!

And the heavy rain has brought the joy of using her favourite Christmas present, her ladybird umbrella.

Today we picked up some primroses in the garden centre which she chose herself, and we set about planting them in the flowerbed. She had her own flower pot to put one plant in too and she painted it using pearlised acrylic paints.
Lovely thick paint, easy to apply with wide brushes. We use ramekins from Gu puddings as our paint pots. We love Gu!
Her chosen flower in her newly decorated pot.
We planted the rest in a bed and she did all the digging and placed each flower into its own hole. 
We discovered a fair few mini-beasts along the way including huge and tiny worms, caterpillars and snails. She was fascinated and I’ve now got a mini-beast habitat on the to-do list for next week!


Watering was, of course, the best part and she knew how to do that all by herself.

And a lieu of the “muddy puddles” to jump in that she kept asking for, we put some water and washing up liquid in the TubTrug (have I mentioned how much I love this for SO many play related things?!) and she jumped and splashed to her little heart’s content.
                            
Too much simple, joyful, fun!

 Looking forward to many more garden filled days of outdoor play coming soon. Next step is to work on a garden area just for her, where she can grow her own plants, do plenty of digging and watering and attract some mini-beasties for closer examination!

This activity is good for:
* Knowledge and Understanding of the World: plants, flowers, growing, life-cycles, habitats, mini-  beasts, the seasons, weather

play academy

Comments

  3. Rachel T says

    Love your blog – so many great ideas. But (and this is my no. 1 question at the moment, as my 6 month old gets more and more wriggly and demanding) what do you do with your youngest whilst you and Cakie are having so much fun?!

  4. Anna @ The Imagination Tree says

    Hi Rachel! Great question and someone else asked me the same thing recently 😉 Often times she is there with us, playing with her treasure basket or pots and pans (depending on where we are in the house!) On this occasion when we were planting flowers it was at the weekend so my husband had her watching the rugby with him! She has her own pair of waterproof dungies too so the other day we were in the garden and she was crawling about all over the grass to her little heart’s content. I am a bit chilled though and she does taste the odd clump of soil or worm here and there. Ah well, it’s al good for them right?!
    And often we do things when she is sleeping as she still takes 2 naps a day. She is beginning to join in with things as well and that’s fine- she can access them at her own level. Have a look at the top tab for “Treasure Baskets” as an idea for something totally free and quick to make for your 6 month old.
    Hope that helps. Ask away!