My 3-year-old granddaughter, Zoey, and I have so much fun with the Kindness Elves! Anna from the Imagination Tree (the founder of the Kindness Elves) gave some new ways to use the Kindness Elves in her 25 spring acts of kindness ideas. Anna’s resources helped me easily place extra emphasis on kindness with our Montessori gardening activities.
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Materials Used for Gardening Activities with the Kindness Elves
- Kindness Elves (They come in a number of different options for skin, hair, and clothing color!)
- Gardening kindness messages from free acts of kindness suggestion cards for spring at the Imagination Tree
- The Reason for a Flower by Ruth Heller (Note: There’s a new book cover now. I still have the version from when my now-adult kids were little.)
- From Seed to Plant by Ruth Heller (Note: I still have the version of this book from when my now-adult kids were little, but the cover hasn’t changed.)
- Gardening materials (See my Montessori indoor- or small-space gardening with a DIY sensory table post at Living Montessori Now for gardening resources.)
Encouraging Kindness with Gardening Activities and the Kindness Elves
The Kindness Elves with The Reason for a Flower Book and “Shall We Fill a Planter with Bedding Plants Today?” Message
Montessori practical life activities are wonderful for teaching children to care for the environment, but I wanted to place an extra emphasis on kindness. So I used both the Kindness Elves with the spring kindness suggestions along with children’s gardening books. The Reason for a Flower is a good introduction to flowers, so that was a natural choice for planting flowers in our DIY sensory table.
See my post at Living Montessori Now with Montessori indoor- or small-space gardening with a DIY sensory table. There you can see the gardening activities Zoey, Christina (my daughter and Zoey’s aunt), and I did that were similar to filling a planter with bedding plants.
The Kindness Elves with From Seed to Plant Book and “Spring Has Arrived! Let’s Plant Some Seeds!” Message
For some gardening activities with seeds, I used a Kindness Elf suggestion card along with the book From Seed to Plant.
See “Life Cycle of a Bean Plant and Seed Planting Activities” at Living Montessori Now to see our work with seeds.
Caring for Our Transplanted Plants
Caring for plants naturally encourages a kind attitude toward the environment.
Gathering Flowers for Her Mom
And flowers naturally encourage gifts of flowers. Zoey wanted to gather a bouquet for her mom, so she was able to combine one of her favorite scissor activities (cutting flowers) with preparing a special bouquet.
You’ll find more gardening-related kindness suggestions in the free acts of kindness suggestion cards for spring at the Imagination Tree. Check out these: “How about we put on a little show in the garden to make others smile!”, “How about we pull some weeds in the garden today?”, “Shall we host a garden tea party for someone special?”, “Let’s make some pretty wind chimes or plant markers to decorate outside!”, “Let’s make a beautiful flower craft and gift it to someone!”, and “Let’s hand out flowers to people to make them happy!”
More Spring Kindness Activities
Zoey loved our Easter egg kindness project. It was easy to prepare and very meaningful for her.
The Ultimate Guide to Kindness Elves
You can find links to all of my Kindness Elf posts in my Ultimate Guide to Kindness Elves post.
I’d love to hear about your kindness projects!
$1000 Mother’s Day Giveaway
$1000 Mother’s Day GiveawayTwo (2) lucky readers will win $500 USD through PayPal or Amazon gift card.
This giveaway ends on May 24th at 11:59 PM EST. Winner will be notified via email. Winner has 48 hours to claim prize before prize is forfeit and a new winner is chosen. Winner must claim prize before they are announced. Giveaway is open worldwide; void where prohibited. All entries are voluntary but must be completed as stated with verification in order to win. All entries will be verified and if it wasn’t completed a new winner will be chosen. Winner will be chosen randomly using Rafflecopter. Winner must be 18 years or older to win. Void where prohibited. The terms and conditions are available on the widget.
What is your favorite Mother’s Day tradition?
Best of luck! 🙂
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Related Posts
Sweet Easter Egg Kindness Project with the Kindness Elves
Family and Neighborhood 100 Acts of Kindness Challenge for Toddlers on Up- How to Add Kind Words from Books to the Kind Words Challenge
- 100 Acts of Kindness Challenge for Big Sisters and Big Brothers
- Simple Literature-Based Ideas with the Pink and Green Kindness Elves
The Best Books about Manners for Preschoolers- How to Prepare a Book Basket That Encourages Kindness
- Using Kindness Elves to Help Prepare a Child for a New Baby
The preschool and school children have a dancing and singing show for all the mothers in our village.
Oh my goodness! That is the cutest idea and I love the little elves. My kiddos would love this. Thank you so much for sharing.
Cheers,
Lisa at Dreams and Caffeine
This is awesome! I love finding out new ways to get my kids involved in gardening and this seems ideal!. Thanks for all of the advice.
I love taking my mother to brunch
We used to make my Mom breakfats in bed.
I love having brunch with 3 generations of Mamas (myself, my Mama and Grandma).
I love going out to dinner with my mom!
My family all descends on my house, for an afternoon full of love, laughter and good food.
My favorite tradition is brunch with my mom.
My favorite tradition is family dinner
My children always draw or write or make something for me for Mother’s Day! There’s no better gift than one made with love.
These dolls are adorable! #practicalmondays
Sometimes for Mother’s Day, my mom, myself, and my two daughters will go shopping on Friday before Mother’s Day, buy each other gifts, and have lunch at a restaurant to celebrate together.
I will be spending Mother’s Day with my mom and two aunts on a girls weekend away! Thanks for the awesome giveaway opportunity.
My favorite Mother’s Day tradition is my breakfast in bed made by husband and girls! It’s a little messy, but I look forward to it every year!
Planting some new flowers with my Mom is always fun.
I do not have a mother’s day tradition but somehow I always wind up hanging out with my mother in law. We met for the first time on mother’s day, so now since it’s kind of our anniversary of sorts, that in itself makes it a little special.
The whole family getting together for dinner on Mother’s day is my fave tradition
Thank you for linking up at “A Little Bird Told Me” Wednesday link party! You have been featured on Mama’s Happy Hive! 🙂
We go and feed the ducks at a local pond
We have a nice brunch, then relax with the family all day!
Breakfast in bed with my boys when they were little and now time with all my grand babies!
We are grilling outside, steaks for moms day this years. Sounds like fun.
We usually take my mom out for lunch or dinner.
My husband usually grills for me & my mom on Mother’s Day.
We used To go out for dinner!