The Carrot Seed

I figured since our carrots are ready to be harvested that this would be a great week to row The Carrot Seed by Ruth Krauss.  This is a simple book about a boy who plants a carrot seed and everyone tells him it won't come up.  Then one day...

The carrots we planted awhile ago took forever to grow.  Seriously.  I can see why everyone in the book told the little boy his carrots wouldn't come up!  We have had to be very patient with these.  But, we have not been disappointed!  The carrots have grown and now we are enjoying them immensely!  I think the kids were in awe that there were actually carrots under the ground.  I know Abby just couldn't believe it!

William washed them off.

I trimmed the greens off.  It was funny...just as I was getting ready to snap this picture William reaches in the crock pot and eats one!  I have to admit, they were quite good!  (These carrots pictured are only from part of a square in our garden...we still have many more that are still in need of harvesting!)  I don't have pictures, but we made carrot soup.  We put in chicken broth, a garden zucchini, onion, and celery.  John told me afterward, that when I told him we were making carrot soup the thought of it churned his stomach!  He did, however, admit that it was quite yummy!  And pair that with homemade bread....oh my!

We talked about the things that plants need in order to grow. 

We painted carrot pictures.  Note to self...a little pre-instruction next time will save me from headache!  I gave the kids paint and carrots and told them to make carrot pictures.  William used his carrot for painting (good idea!) and Abby...well, she did her own thing.  I went a little bizerk, since paint started going everywhere, colors got mixed...I learned that I need to relax more and have fun.  This was their first time with "real" paint and brushes and I think they did a great job!  I think the paint on Abby's jeans will come.  I hope. 

 I thought his choice of "paint brush" to be wonderfully unique!

 Finished product! 

This was a fun pasting activity, if nothing else.  Putting the pictures in order from smallest to largest was simple, but the kid loves to paste.  Finding carrot pictures tied it into our theme for the week.

We learned a fun rhyme (again, focusing on learning how to rhyme!) that we added motions to.  Abby thought this was SO amusing!

We learned the difference between fruits and vegetables - a fruit has seeds in it, and a veggie does not.  I found some magazine pages that had pictures of fruits and veggies and he cut them out and made a collage out of them. 

We did a fun experiment at the beginning of the week where we attempted to sprout peanuts.  Peanuts grow fast so I thought that in a short amount of time we'd be able to see the beginnings of a small plant.  We got some yarn, put it in a small bowl, soaked it with water, then put three peanuts in.  We covered it with plastic wrap then placed it in a sunny spot. 

Whats that you say?  YOU don't have a bowl of soaking yarn and peanuts on your front doorstep?  Well, a day or so into our "peanut watch" I realized that the peanuts I got were roasted.  Yeaaaaah....no sprouts.  I quickly swapped them out for several bean seeds.  We are currently still waiting on them and I'll let you know when (or if) they sprout.  

There is just so much that we can do with a seed/plant theme!  These were just some of the books that I found on our shelves that tied into our seed theme.  Many of them were just excellent, explaining quite simply the various parts of the seed, seedling, and small plant.