We’ve been at this whole Tot School thing for 9 weeks! Time sure does fly when you are having fun! This week’s theme was all about Earth Day.

Our book for the week (pictured with an activity set up we will discuss below) was The Giving Tree by Shel Silverstein, one of this mama’s favorite books. While not as colorful as some of the books we have been reading, Grace still enjoyed pointing at all the drawings and handed me the book to read throughout the week.

We enjoyed watching the classic television version of the Lorax this week as well. Unfortunately our local library had already loaned out the newest version of this Dr. Seuss tale but we are on the list to rent it when it becomes available. Grace still enjoyed the classic version through out the week!

Our first activity was Ziplock Painting a drawing of the Earth! This is the first time I’ve actually mixed colors during an activity like this and I think it turned out great! Unfortunately I also forgot to take pictures while she was painting. Ah mom brain! I could definitely tell Grace was a little more interested in how the two different colors were mixing and moving to meet each other. To set this activity up, I just drew an earth with a sharpie on some white card stock, placed it in a gallon sized Ziplock bag added a few dabs of blue and green paint, sealed it, and handed it over to Grace.

The next day we planted trees! Similar to our planting flowers bin from or Spring themed week, I added black beans to a bin, then cut down some saved paper towel rolls into various sizes, notched the tops of the rolls, then placed foam tree tops I had cut out into the notches. Super simple to make! The beans are weighted enough to hold the trees up. Grace could pull them out and “re-plant” them. This girl loves to sort as well, so I ended up adding another container beside this one so she could scoop the beans out and back in. We still ended up with beans all over the floor, but when is there not a mess with a toddler!

Our next activity was making a rain stick which we did outside. The weather turned out absolutely beautiful for our Earth Day themed week! I gathered our materials from the yard such as bark, sticks and rocks, and had an empty water bottle I had saved with the lid removed (pictured with our book of the week above). I showed Grace how to take some of those things and place them in the bottle and she followed suit. When the bottle was almost full, I screwed the lid on and handed it to her and she shook, rattled, and squeezed. So it may not have sounded like rain but but we had a lot of fun making this rain stick!

The next day we made another tissue paper sun catcher in the shape of the earth! I can not get enough of these! They are so pretty to look at. I drew a circle outline on clear contact paper then removed the backing and taped it to her table sticky side up. I had two bowls on each side with blue and green tissue paper squares and she scooped handfuls onto the paper (and tried unsuccessfully to take them off) until the circle was covered. Then I put another piece of contact paper on top, sticky side down, to seal the earth, and cut along the outline I had drawn.

We hung it in her bedroom window with some clear tape, and Grace points to it all the time now and is starting to say something resembling “earth”. I might be partial but I think she’s enjoying the sun catchers too!

Our last activity for our Earth Day theme was an Continent Bath, complete with foam continents, blue water, and a boat to sail the seas! I colored our bath water again with Crayola Color Drops and added some foam continent shapes (well they resemble the continents maybe?) I had cut out and even put her bath tub boat toy in for good measure. And just like always she loved the bath because Grace + Water = Happiness!

Grace had a lot of fun celebrating Earth Day all week long and we spent a lot of time outside this week! We love the 🌎!

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If you’d like to see a sample of how I plan out themes for a week check out the Tot School Schedule 🍍 page!

You can also check out a list of this year’s themes on the Tot School Themes ☂️ page!

EVERYDAY a little Grace 🌷