Vegetable Garden Markers ~ Learning About Veggies & Syllables

It's time for this month's edition of the Virtual Book Club for Kids. This month we have been exploring books written by the author Gail Gibbons. Wow, I had never read a Gail Gibbons book...I was so surprised at how wonderful these children's non-fiction books are. We took a few of her books out from our local library and they are filled with so much amazing information. We have been growing our own vegetable garden, so "The Vegetables We Eat" was the book we decided to focus on. In this book, Gibbons explains how vegetables grow, the different categories/types of vegetables and the importance of vegetables in our diet. Reading this book led to a great discussion about what types to food we are growing in our garden. I knew that I wanted to make some sort of garden markers to identify the plants in our garden, and this book inspired us to get busy making our markers. With some simple paint and pebbles from our beach the girls made these lovely vegetable garden markers.

First, we made a list of all the vegetables and herbs that we are growing in our garden. We wrote out our list on our backyard chalkboard.

After making the list we then gathered up some beach pebbles and paint. Instead of simply writing the entire name on one pebble, my daughters broke the vegetable names into syllables. You can alter this craft to suit your child's age and skill level. If your child isn't writing yet, a picture of the veggie works too.

Once the words were painted on, I then sealed the pebbles with a high gloss sealer...so they could withstand the elements.

Finally, we placed the pebbles in the vegetable garden...marking the vegetables and the herbs.

I love how these vegetable markers turned out. They are simple and handmade...perfect for our garden. I also love that making them challenged my daughters to really think about the construction of each word. We will be exploring many more Gail Gibbons books over the summer. I can see how her books will lead to plenty of learning in our home. Now, it is time to check out all the great Gail Gibbons inspired posts that everyone in the book club has put together. Please link up any Gail Gibbons post that you may have created. And, don’t forget to visit the Virtual Book Club for Kids’ Facebook page, a great reading resource for parents with growing readers.