GRANDMOTHER CENTRAL: Installment #2

A while back I wrote a post titled GRANDMOTHER CENTRAL and explained that I was going to share some activities that I had done with my two “grandloves” when they were younger.  I know several friends who are always looking for some new fun things to entertain their grandkids just as I often did.  I would literally scour the internet or books for hours!  You can go HERE and read about our BUBBLING BLOWING fun, but today I will share our “wormy adventure” with EDIBLE DIRT…sounds fun, doesn’t it?  It was!

Here’s our recipe (one serving per child)

 vanilla cookies (crumbled)

 chocolate cookies (crumbled)

miniature marshmallows, M&Ms, a gummy worm

1 clear cup

And here are the directions:

Place the marshmallows in bottom of cup; this is the "parent material".

Add the vanilla cookie crumbs; this is the subsoil.  Then add the chocolate crumbs; this is the topsoil.  Arrange the M&Ms on top to represent the organic matter in the soil.  Finally add the gummy worm; this is the decomposer.

We also read the MAGIC SCHOOLBUS: INSIDE THE EARTH, then went outside and dug up the real thing…earthworms!  It was like finding buried treasure and they loved how the worms would wiggle in their hands. 

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Of course, we then went back inside, washed the “real dirt” from our hands and then chowed down on our EDIBLE SOIL.

As a retired primary teacher with a lot of years of experience, I encourage all parents and grandparents to integrate good literature with fun activities.  The more we can read to them, the greater the chance they will be life-long learners!

My grands are now too old (so they think) for these types of activities, and I sure do miss all the fun we had.  

But I love watching them grow and change, and pray each and every day for their futures and hope they will always remember all the things their CHERI did to make their childhoods be filled with wonder, excitement, learning…and, of course FUN!