Sprout Scouts Playcamp: Digging in the Dirt!

Welcome, Sprout Scouts! It's time to unpack our first theme today as we get ready to pitch our proverbial tent and kick off our summer Playcamp! If you haven't joined the Sprout Scouts Playcamp group on Facebook yet, please do! It's a great place to share ideas, photos of what you're doing this summer and catch some additional resources as we go along. And without further ado...

Digging in the Dirt!

Repeat after me: Mud is not a dirty word. Children [and adults] are washable. Dirt and mud are not just integral to our gardens and environment, they are vital to our micro-biomes, from our own body and beyond. Worms, some soil and a decent amount of water for play (and cleanup) are all you'll really need for this theme, but here's a list of some other materials you might want to add in if you have on hand... All materials are optional and substitutions can be made. Feel free to contact me personally about substitution ideas or where to find a particular item.

Materials List:

• Soil-- you don't have to buy this, what you've got outside is perfectly fine! 
• Clay, playdough, and clay/dough tools*
• Sand
• Paper, white and black
• foil baking pan
• Paintbrushes, brown paint or soil
• Pipe cleaners
• Yarn or cooked spaghetti
• White school glue
• Pony beads
• Toy worms (the best place to find inexpensive and realistic looking ones is in the fishing section where bait is sold!)
• Shovels, buckets, tools for digging in the dirt
• Magnifying glass
• Recycled glass jar
• A large shallow bin for sensory play
• Old pots, pans, tins, etc. that can be used outside for a Mud Kitchen (recycled containers are great as well and secondhand stores are a wonderful and inexpensive resource)
• Chocolate pudding mix & ingredients, chocolate cookies, gummy worms (optional)
• Borax powder
• Baking soda
• sleeping bags or sheets
• REAL worms: you can dig up your own or buy a container at your local fishing and bait retailer

Arts & Crafts:

• Worm Painting with Mud Paint: My favorite way to do this is with actual, homemade mud paint, but you can substitute in brown tempura paint if you prefer. To mix your own mud paint, grab a container (we love hitting up the recycling bin for this), some dirt, some water and a plastic spoon or wooden craft stick to mix. Mix until you have your desired consistency. 
• Version A: Using a toy worm, yarn or cooked spaghetti, let your little ones explore mud painting with worms.
• Version B: Using yarn or cooked spaghetti as your worm, paint away!
• Version C: Use a good ol' fashioned paint brush!
• Version D: Find a worm or two, set your paper inside a foil baking pan and some mud paint on top and let the worms have at it!
• Pipe cleaner beaded Worms:

I love these beaded pipe cleaner snakes from Frugal Fun For Boys and Girls. We're going to use the same idea to make a worm! You can use a brown pipe cleaner and brown pony beads or your colors of choice.

•  Exploring Clay! Did you ever wonder about how real pottery clay is made? From soil! Take some clay outside (I highly recommend real pottery clay for this and especially like the Rocky Mountain Clay available on Amazon.com). You can add in clay/playdough tools if you wish or loose parts found outdoors like interesting seeds, seed pods, pine cones, sticks and stones, leaves, etc. Make interesting sculptures and allow them to air dry if you wish.

Indoor Activities:

• Measuring with Worms: Got a little mathematician? Use gummy or toy worms to measure items around your house. How many worms long is a pencil? How many worms long is your favorite book? How about the table? Can you measure how tall you are in worms?
• Worm Counting Playdough Mats: One of the first (and most fun) things children learn to do with dough is roll little worms! Give those fine motor muscles a work out and roll some worms to use alongside these free printable worm counting playdough mats from PreKinders, or create your own by drawing some dirt and maybe a few flowers on a piece of paper. (That's a great activity for budding artists in your home.) If you prefer to go without a mat, you can just roll some playdough worms and count them! You can use store-bought playdough or make your own.

Outdoor Activities:

• Create a Mud Kitchen outside using a selection of containers, pots, pans, tins, spoons and cups--whatever you have that you can expose to the elements. You don't need a lot of space or a lot of accessories. A few things for scooping, mixing and pouring are just fine! You do need some dirt and access to water to create your mud. If you or your little ones are uncomfortable getting muddy, I invite you to check out the Mud Kitchen Challenge on Outdoor Classrooms--it's a great way to get started...
• Digging for Worms: grab a shovel and start digging! Can you find a worm or two or ten? Observe your worms' behavior as you dig and maybe carefully collect a worm or two or three for your worm observation jar and worm races.
• Worm Races: Did you know you can race a worm? You can! You'll need a large piece of paper with a large circle drawn on it and a small circle drawn in the center. You'll also need a few participants--worm participants. If you're doing this on a large scale, you might swing by your local bait retailer and pick up a container of red worms or night crawlers. You'll want to get your surface damp first but not so wet that your racers will drown. Next, let the races begin as you cheer your worms on from the outside of the circle into the center--but no cheating! Alternatively you can race paper worms and you can read more about both methods on the blog "happy stuff."

Songs, Rhymes & Fingerplays:

Here's a couple of tunes we found on Pinterest to get your fingers and bodies wiggling!

Active Games:

• Worm Races for Humans! Grab your sleeping bags or a sheet to wrap around each "worm" contestant. This time you are doing the racing, worm style. How fast and far can you wriggle like a worm. On your marks, get set, GO!

Science:

• Worm Observation Jar: Want to see how worms work the soil? You'll need a recycled jar, soil and sand, perhaps some leaves to help feed your worms and, of course, worms! You can dig up your own or purchase a container of red worms or night crawlers at your local bait shop. You'll want to layer soil and sand in your clear glass jar, adding a few leaves for your worms to munch on as they decompose. Add a few worms to the top of the jar and cover the outside with black paper to help recreate the ideal worm environment. In a few days, you'll be ready (and eager) to observe how worms mix the soil! You'll want to add a little water to keep everything moist through the process and release your worms back outside once you are through. 

Sensory Play:

Digging in the dirt is a great sensory experience on its own, but you can also recreate the experience in a sensory bin

• Soil Sensory Bin: Using actual soil in a large plastic bin or sensory table, let your little ones enjoy digging, scooping, pouring and playing. You can add in some plastic bugs, toy worms, artificial flowers or even construction trucks. Here are a couple of our favorite soil sensory bins:

Alternatively, you can use recycled dried coffee grounds or fresh decaffeinated coffee grounds if you want a taste safe experience, and for an alternative way to play that is also taste safe...

• Dirt Dough is made by adding water to baking soda until a crumbly dough is formed. Add in some food coloring or paint until it is a satisfying shade (mine came out a bit too green for my liking) and enjoy digging in to the unique texture with your hands, shovels, or whatever else you'd like to add in. We added in some interesting river rocks. This recipe is taste safe (but not tasty) and baby/young toddler friendly!

Snacks & Cooking Activities:

• Cup of Dirt Snack I don't recommend eating real dirt, but this is a tried and true treat. Mix up a batch of chocolate pudding. Start off by crumbling some of your favorite chocolate cookies onto the bottom of a cup, add in a scoop of pudding and top with an optional gummy worm for a fun dessert.

Family Field Trips & Extension Activities:

• Visit a Compost Heap or Start Your Own: Do you have neighbor or local garden with a compost heap? We happen to live near a great Botanical Gardens with a children's area that includes an active composting site. It's a great way to observe this rotten business of rotting that makes our soil and gardens so healthy. If you're feeling super ambitious and have the optimal space for it, you can start your own compost. The EPA website has a great article about Composting At Home https://www.epa.gov/recycle/composting-home to get you started.

Suggested Books/Multimedia & Additional Rescources:

In no particular order, here are a collection of my favorite children's books, both non-fiction and fiction about soil, dirt and worms!

• Yucky Worms: Read and Wonder by: Vivian French, Illustrated by: Jessica Ahlberg
• Diary of a Worm by: Doreen Cronin, Illustrated by: Harry Bliss
• Dirt: The Scoop on Soil by: Natalie Rosinsky, Illustrated by: Sheree Boyd
• Soil: (True Books: Natural Resources) by: Christin Ditchfield
• Wiggling Worms at Work by: Wendy Pfeffer
• Curious About Worms by: Kate Waters
• It's a Good Thing There Are Earthworms by: Jodie Shepherd
• Bob and Otto by: Robert O. Bruel, Illustrated by: Nick Bruel

We'll be back to unpack our next theme soon so stay tuned. And don't forget to keep up with updates, bonus activities and additional materials on our Facebook group as well!

Happy Playing...