Springtime Daffodils

One activity that always goes down well at playgroup is planting. Usually we'd plant seeds, but this activity coincided with St Patrick's Day, so we decided to opt for daffodils. 

All very well and good, but bulbs actually need planting in November, so we cheated and bought some that were ready sprouted, for the children to plant in their pots!

All potted up!

The question was, what song to sing? Not knowing any St Patrick Day songs, Mary Mary, Quite Contrary, seems a good choice to me!



Equipment:

• Pots of young daffodils (we got ours at Asda*)

• Tuff builder's tray

• Compost

• Plastic trug

• Small trowel/large spoon

• Paper cups (we bought a selction of coloured cups from Baker Ross*)

• Stickers

• Felt Pens

• Washing up bowl with soapy water (for hand washing)

• Towel

Preparation:

• Buy daffodil pots & compost. Open the compost bag and empty into plastic trug.

• Lay out planting equipment on Tuff tray. It makes a good base that will contain some of the mess.

Ready for action

Method:

1. Decorate paper cup with stickers & felt pens.

2. Fill pot halfway with compost.

3. Place bulb in pot.

4. Add more compost around the bulb and press down firmly.

5. Wash hands thoroughly, to make sure all the compost is cleaned off.


*Any indication of where we sourced products is just to help you find suitable products and materials. We are not affiliated to any companies. We do not profit by mentioning them..

Sunflower Pots

Hopefully it won't be too long before Spring arrives, and with it, the thrill of watching plants blossom and grow. Every year we try to plant something with our little ones, and this year we'll be returning to planting sunflowers.

It's not exactly a craft activity as such, but such great fun and so educational too! To extend the fun, we like to turn it into a little competition - who can grow the tallest sunflower!

Equipment

• small plant pots or large paper cups
• compost
• sunflower seeds (giant sunflowers have bigger seeds and are easier for small fingers to handle)
• stickers
• lollipop sticks/pens (to make name labels)
• washing up bowl/water/soap & towel
• list of growing instructions
• certificates (to be awarded in a few months time)

Preparation

Don't forget to buy those seeds and compost!

Method:

1. Show children how to fill pots with compost, poke a hole in the soil & plant their seed.

2. Children decorate pot with stickers. 

3. Give each child a lolly pop stick with their name to poke into the soil, beside their seed. We allow a couple of seeds per child, just in case one doesn't grow.

4. Now give those little hands a scrub once they're done, in the bowl of water.

5. Send each family home with a set of instructions. Hopefully, once the plants are growing well, they'll be able to plant them out into a garden.

6. Ask parents to take a picture of their child with their sunflower in the final week of the competition, and measure it. Pictures can be emailed to the group's secretary, to judge the tallest!

7. Don't forget to give a certificate to all the entrants and a little prize to the winner.