Gardening With Kids: Beautiful Math And Art Activity

Kids enjoy getting their hands dirty and helping out in the garden is a great way to put that love of dirt to good use. And gardening with kids is actually a great way to help their development. Planting seeds and helping them grow gives kids a sense of purpose and responsibility. The tasks of tending to a garden, such as adding soil and seeds to a pot, or watering plants helps with motor skills, body management and object control. In addition, the sensory experience of feeling the soil, the water, seeds or any natural material is very engaging for little ones.

There is also so much to talk about! And conversation is a great way to develop young minds. So to bring this all together, we have prepared a simple activity that will help kids develop math skills and creativity in an environment that is already nurturing their minds. This is a lovely activity you can set up and do regularly when you want to do some gardening with kids and observe different results. So next time you are out in the garden, take a moment to do this simple yet fun garden math and art activity.

Materials

Seeds: we used “cat grass” seeds as they grow pretty easily
Mix of natural materials and loose parts: we used stones, leaves, sticks, string, and colorful stones which we had from a local shop
Pots with soil
Scissors

Preparation

Gather natural materials by going on a nature walk or use previously collected treasures
Prepare the pots with the soil
Bring out all the materials

Gardening With Kids: Math And Art Activity

The math part mainly consists of working on numbers, shapes and patterns. Pattern awareness is key to child development. The ability to recognize and reproduce patterns as well as the ability to predict how a pattern will continue is a skill that positively affects future mathematical understanding and thinking. How to do this:

Start by drawing numbers in the soil
Trace with natural materials and work on shapes and patterns as you trace

For example: Draw number 1 and make patterns of 1, draw number 2 and make patterns of 2, or make a circle around number 3 and a triangle around number 4

Fill the numbers with seeds
Draw more shapes and fill with seeds
Cover up
Decorate and play

For the decoration part we used a different pot with soil and let the kids do their thing in a more unstructured way to let them explore at their own pace

Optional: make a number/shape map. As you will read below, our numbers didn’t come out quite as clearly as we had hoped for so we had to guess. Drawing a sketch of your pots and having your kids write in the numbers and shapes is a great way to cross-check and also perfect for tying up this educational activity.

Gardening and Math Talk With Kids

Gardening with kids is good for the body, soul, and mind of everyone involved. It also opens up a whole lot of conversation topics. It is so important that you talk, talk, talk to your kids during activities like this. Observations lead to connections, which lead to discovery. Help them along by giving them the vocabulary they need to express their thoughts and questions. You can also ask some open-ended questions about what they think will happen and why. When gardening with kids there is so much to talk about and this activity also offers you the chance to add in some math talk. Here are some suggestions and conversation topics:

What do you think plants need to grow? (water, sun, soil)
Talk about the parts of the plant (roots, stem, leaves, flower, seeds)
How do you think the plant “drinks” water?
Measure the grass as it comes out
Count the sprouts as they come out, which pot has more/less?
Can we identify the numbers/shapes/patterns? (use the map if you have one)

gardening with kids numbers shapes patterns for preschoolers hands-on activity

Follow-up Activity

We tended to the grass on a regular basis and were quite excited to see it sprout! Unfortunately, the numbers were not as clear as we would have liked them to be, so we had to do some detective work. First we talked about the activity and tried to remember which numbers we had drawn and then we tried to guess by the markings in the soil. It was a good way to reflect on the activity and ask ourselves if there is a better way of doing this. We decided next time we would make a number and shape map and mark where everything went so we could cross check once the grass grew. We also used the chance to work on scissor skills by cutting the grass which was fun and engaging in itself.

Even though the results were not what we expected, this activity gave us the opportunity to talk, observe, and make connections about how our world works. And any activity that gives us the chance to do this is great for us!

For more hands-on number and shape activities:

For more nature activities:

Math For Toddlers: Easy Sensory Bath Time Activity

Introducing math skills at an early age should definitely be done through fun activities. Connecting math to positive feelings is great for confidence and self-esteem. Bath time at our house is a happy moment. The warm water, the bubbles, the warm bathroom. It is a moment that gives us all peace. As the kids splash around and play in the warmth I get a moment to pause for the day. In this moment of comfort it is possible to sneak in some math for toddlers through play with an easy low-prep activity that requires materials you probably already have at home. It has so much learning potential; color mixing, math and even literacy skills can be practiced. So read on to find out how you can create some bath paint and use the wall as a learning canvas to get their little minds working.

Easy Sensory Bath Time Activity

Important! If you are doing this with young kids that still put things in their mouth be very careful and pay attention so that they don’t eat it. I personally would do this activity once they are over with the sticking-everything-in-their-mouth phase

Materials

Baking pan for cupcakes/Ice cube tray
Shaving cream
Food Coloring
Optional paint brush (playing with your hands is always more fun for kids!)

Preparation

You can prepare the tray with the colors and the shaving cream beforehand and have it as a surprise (we did this the first time with our kid and she was really excited) or you can prepare it together. Preparing it together gives you the chance to talk about color mixing! Either way, here are the steps for the preparation:

Squeeze some drops of food coloring into each shape. Mix different primary colors to create a whole variety of colors. Remember you are mixing with white so you will be getting different color tones too! Explore and see what color palette appears on your tray
Next add some shaving cream to each shape.
Mix it with your child and watch the colors appear “magically”

Usually the blue color is overwhelmingly strong when mixing with the other colors so use less than you think, you can always add more later.

Math For Toddlers

Now it’s time to sneak in some math for your young toddlers! But first of all, let your child explore by themselves with this new bath time paint. When I tried the activity for the first time my daughter loved the different colors but didn’t know what to do with them. Painting at bath time? A bit out of context… Having a bath had always been about getting clean not painting. So I showed her how she could use it on her body as well as on the wall. Then I let her take over and she was happily playing by herself for a long time.

At one point I asked her if I could paint too. We created a big happy mess on the wall and all the colors ended up mixed together, creating a brownish-grey mush. At that moment I realized that the wall had become a learning canvas. We could draw numbers and letters, erasing and repeating all the time. Great for motor skills and perfect for sneaking in some STEM through play!

How To Create An Educational Experience

There is so much you can do with that lovely learning canvas depending on your child’s age! However, if you are looking for math ideas for toddlers here are some suggestions to inspire you:

Draw a number on the wall and have them trace it with their finger
Explore shapes: prepare a shape matching game by drawing pairs of shapes that they have to match
Counting practice. Draw a number of circles and ask your kid to count them or ask them to make a number of lines. Connect this with the number by using an extra blank canvas. Draw a number of circles and then the number on the other one. Ask them to count and then trace the number.
Patterns: create simple patterns with dots and lines and say them out loud together

In terms of math skills, there is not much more to explore at this age, so just focus on developing their vocabulary by talking about shapes, numbers and counting.

If you are reading this and thinking of doing it with older kids here are some more ideas:

Ask your kids to draw their own numbers. This can be done by asking different questions that have a number as an answer such as how many pets do you have? or how many times do you brush your teeth?
Bring in some equations and ask them to solve them! They can use an extra blank canvas if they need some assistance in figuring it out. For example, on one canvas you can write the equation 4-2= and on the other one draw 4 circles and they can erase 2 to find the solution. With adding, they just draw extra circles and count how many they get in total.

Connecting Math To A Quality Moment

By doing this with your child you are connecting math to a quality moment within their comfort zone. There is no better way for a child’s mind to learn than when they feel safe, happy and motivated. Use this moment to have fun, explore together and to boost confidence in their math abilities.

Once the fun is over, I do recommend that you quickly rinse your child off so they don’t smell like a freshly shaved man. It comes off easily from the body and wall. Also, this activity does not need to be just at bath time, it’s just easier to clean up. You can also just use some trays as your learning canvases and do this math for toddlers activity outside. I hope you can get into it in whatever way you choose and can share the excitement your child will show. They will be thankful you made the extra effort that day.

More Fun Activities and Games:

math stem skills shaving cream messy play bath time paint

Exciting Math Games For Movement And Learning

If you are stuck at home and want to find fun and engaging ways to sneak in some math I have your back! I have gathered some fun home math games that you can do with your children (mostly toddler and preschooler level) that require minimum preparation and are fun for all. The idea behind this post is not to have an extensive list of activities but rather to collect just a few different games to sneak in some learning. The home math games I have selected get your kids moving and learning at the same time and require materials that you have at home or that can easily be replaced. I even hope that they might inspire you to create your own games with the materials you have at home. I have also added some observations and suggestions for each activity on how you can guide the learning and make it an educational experience. So keep reading and reconnect with your family through play.

1. Math Twister from Math Geek Mama

A fun twist on Twister! This is a great opportunity to get your children moving a bit and sneaking in some adding practice. If your child is still too young for adding you can just do it with number recognition in the following way:

Each time you play you can let each color represent different numbers (for example, 1 to 4 the first time you play 5 to 8 the next time)
Cover the circles on the mat with the numbers and then start playing
Use the spinner or just call out numbers and body parts: this is a great way to be creative and mix it up especially if your kids don’t know right from left so just go with the flow and don’t be afraid to call out elbow to 3!

If you don’t have the game of Twister at home you can make it yourself! It is pretty simple to make but here are a few suggestions to include your kids. You can also just prepare everything yourself and have it as a surprise for them:

Collect colored paper (If you don’t have colored paper just plain paper and color it yourself): 6 red, 6 green, 6 blue and 6 yellow
Optional: Outline the number for each color on the paper and have your kids trace the numbers with whatever you have (colored pencils, paint, stickers). You can also do this yourself
Optional: Let your kids cut around the numbers
Tape the numbers to the floor and start the fun!
I plastified the numbers to be able to use more than once and for other games on this post (takes a bit longer but is worth the effort)

The good thing about making it yourself is you can use the numbers for the other games or find other ways to use them. You can also make it smaller for smaller kids! Also, if you are making this yourself you can create a “shapes twister”. Instead of having each color represent a number have each color be a shape! Square, circle, triangle and rectangle.

2. Number Swat from Aussie Childcare Network

Fun and fast paced game that will help your children with number recognition! If you don’t have enough fly swatters at home you can just use your hands to slap the number. You can make your own number cards:

My suggestion would be to have the numeral (1,2,3…) on one side and dots on the other side so you can change it around.
Additionally it is best to color-code each different number. So for example, all ones are green and all twos are red and so on. Color coding will help your child learn and remember things easier.
If you don’t have dice, prepare additional number cards that you can flip

3. Snowball Math Game from frugalfun4boys

Great game to get your kids moving around and learning math! I love this one and it is very well explained and even offers cards to print. If you don’t have enough baskets or don’t have snowballs here are my suggestions:

If you don’t have baskets use shoe boxes, pots, empty some drawers… I’m sure you can find things around your house
If you don’t have snowballs the writer recommends using rolled up socks! Great idea!

4. Shape race from the web (I have not been able to find the original source)

The link for this game is just a photograph. I have not been able to find the original source but it is quite clear how you can prepare and play this game:

Preparation:

Collect 4 sets of colored paper or color your own paper
For each color, cut out a shape (square, circle, triangle, and rectangle)
Make a big dice: click here for a tutorial for making paper dice
You have four shapes and six sides on the dice so here are a few suggestions for what you could put on those extra sides:
- All shapes on both extra
- Two shapes on one side and the other two on the other one (for example, circle and square on one side and triangle and rectangle on the other)

Play:

Choose a shape and stand at the beginning
Roll the dice
First one to the end wins!

That’s it for now! I hope you enjoyed this round-up and that you have found some inspiration for some fun Stay At Home Math! Get your kids moving and learning and reconnect as a family.

More Fun Activities and Games:

Make sure to Bookmark the Stay At Home STEM post which will be updated with all our fun STEM activities that are perfect for doing at home.

DIY Math Game with Playdough

Playdough is such a versatile, fun toy. My daughter loves playing with it. We make food for her stuffed animals and dolls, we make them into balls and organize colors, she ends up just mixing all of them but that’s fun for her too! We were playing the other day and together we prepared a little game for her. She had fun and I was inspired! I love having these moments 🙂 So after she was done playing I decided I could build on the little game and make it into a fun DIY math game for older children (my daughter just turned 2 as I write this).

This is a great game you can use to help your children with pre math skills, patterns, and colors. Handling the little balls of playdough will stimulate their fine motor skills especially in early childhood. It is also made out of things you probably have at home, it is easy and takes less than 10 minutes to prepare. As a bonus, it is very easy to transport and you can take it on trips or any place you might need to wait for a while. I will start by describing the DIY part of the game and then suggest a few ways you can play. Feel free to invent your own games too!

Materials you will need:

This is such a short list! For this game you will need:

Playdough: commercial one or DIY one (there are some great recipes online, for example: https://www.diynatural.com/homemade-playdough-recipe/ )
Egg carton: we used a 6-egg one because we don’t have that many colors but you could also use a 12-egg one

Preparation of the Math Game:

Start by choosing the 6 colors you will use. Then, using a little bit of playdough, squeeze a piece of each color into each egg-holder space until it’s flat against the bottom. Then make 10 balls that you can put into the top part of the egg carton. That’s it! It should look something like this:

The Math Game:

Time to play! Ask your child to collect a certain number of balls. You do this by getting balls and putting them into the corresponding egg-holder. Once you collect them all, you ask your child to create a pattern. I suggest having your own set of playdough balls and starting the pattern and let your child follow it or copy it. Depending on your child’s age they can then count them all together or add the different colors.

Other Ways of Playing:

There are a few other ways you can use this game, feel free to adapt/invent additional fun games to suit your children:

Sensory play: Ask your child to close their eyes and put some balls in the egg carton. Hide the remaining balls. Your child can then open their eyes, shake the box, and try to guess how many balls are inside. Depending on your child’s age you can then open the egg carton up and count them or you can show them the remaining balls and they have to subtract. Changing from a visual to a more acoustic setting requires more thoughtfulness from the child. It’s a great exercise to try to control their impulsive behaviour and deal with external distractions. Even if it is just for a short period of time.
Color and memory: Start with one ball of each color on the table and ask your child to look at them closely and then close their eyes. Put one ball in the egg carton and ask your child to open their eyes and guess what color is missing. You can increase the difficulty by hiding more than one color. What seems at a first glance relatively easy will turn out challenging for the mind of the child. One or two missing colours will be hard to identify for toddlers. What may seem simpple for us, requires a lot of attention and concentration in the early years of our life.

Hope you enjoyed this fun and simple game and that your children have fun with it. Let me know in the comments if you or your children came up with other fun ways to use this DIY game.

For more information about STEM and how to transform your STEM activities at home, check out these posts:

Check out other fun STEM activities to sneak in some STEM learning:

Happy STEM learning!