Where flowers bloom, so does hope.”– Lady Bird Johnson
The book I selected for this month was “I Am Spring: A Book About Spring for Kids” by Rebecca McDonald. A lovely story that teaches and ends with four comprehension questions.
The book description:
“After the cold of Winter, comes the warmth of Spring. “I Am Spring” takes young children on a journey through the many important events that occur uniquely in the beautiful growing season of Spring. When the day becomes longer than the night, and the leaves begin to sprout on the bare branches, and bugs and animals that were hiding start to reappear, get ready, because that means Spring is here!”
YouTube reading of the story:
- The skills worked on this month are many. Here’s but a few:
book knowledge (i.e., title, author, page turning, image walking) - use of low vision tools while reading the book
- develop hand and eye coordination
- turning pages
- soliciting assistance appropriately
- fine motor
- communication
- positional concepts
- choice making
For this craft, I needed:
- 12 piece wooden flowers (mine were from Temu)
- Painter’s tape
- Parchment paper
- Black sharpie marker
This was a two-day craft for the students as the paint needed to dry before we could continue. The students either wrote their name or used a name stamp to put their name on the back of the flower.
Day one was all about painting the flower and the base. I put the flower on parchment paper to keep it from sticking to whatever it sat on to dry. The students were allowed to paint the flower whatever color that they and how they wanted…paintbrush strokes or dabbing. They were the drivers in their own creative process.
Day two was about painting the stem and leaves of their flowers as well as any touch up work that they wanted. They also painted the top of the mushroom red. This was a novel experience for them as the mushrooms were small. They had to help problem solve painting a small and non-flat surface.
Wrap up consisted of me bringing the items home to assemble as the wooden pieces are delicate. Every base had an ‘X’ put on it so I knew where to put the mushroom which was hot glued in place. The items will then be placed in a small white gift bag with the following quote printed on cardstock: “We are all different kinds of flowers. Together we make the world a beautiful garden.”
Tips
- Have a student that doesn’t like touching paint? I use disposable gloves on the hand that is holding the item in place while the hand that is using the paint brush does not.
- Having trouble holding the sponge paint brush? Try using foam grip tubing. The Occupational Therapists may have extra you can borrow.
- Pour paint into mini storage containers with lids. Great for storing paint with less mess and being able to reuse the paint poured.
Extension activities
- Learning about the seasons…Learning Resources has a nice site with activities for the four seasons: The Four Seasons for Kids: A Simple Guide
- Read Lady Bird Johnson, That’s Who!: The Story of a Cleaner and Greener America by Tracy Nelson Maurer. This is a picture book biography.
- One Little Project has a blog post with 16 spring color pages. Free Spring Coloring Pages. If you don’t like these images, you can always do a quick search for free spring color pages. I prefer adding preschool in my search as these images tend to be less cluttered.
