Jo MacDonald Had a Garden

Planting and Gardening Week

If you like to sing, garden, eat vegetables, find worms, or look for birds, then Jo MacDonald Had a Garden is the book for you and your kids!

Jo MacDonald Had a Garden by Mary Quattlebaum and illustrated by Laura J. Bryant is a wonderful book that goes along to the song "Old MacDonald Had a Farm", but the words are all about gardening, of course.  There are worms that wiggle, soil that the characters dig, seeds that need to be patted down, and plants that grow!  The pictures in this book include a lot of details, so make sure as you are reading you and your kids pay attention to all of the animals that join the garden as time goes on, and what the birds are doing during each season that is shown throughout the book.  The last pages of the book have a lot of information about the animals and plants in the book and also some activities and questions for your little ones.

As my three year and I were reading the book again today, he was very excited that he could make a connection between Jo MacDonald Had a Farm and My Garden.    When he saw the "mystery" seed in the garden was a sunflower, he remembered the sunflowers we made yesterday!

Since it has been raining all weekend, I decided it would be the perfect time to go search for worms just like the ones in Jo's garden!  We put on our rain boots and rain coats, grabbed our shovels, and headed outside.

My three year old did a great job of filling his hood with dirt!

He almost stepped on many of the worms we found.

My kindergartner, on the other hand, was very gentle with the worms.

Here he is trying to balance the worm on his shovel and carry it to his worm container.

Found another one!  When I asked my kindergartner how many he found he told me "A dozen."  He was right!  

They had a fantastic time getting dirty and their muddy boots sitting in the garage are all the proof anyone would need!

Of course you may want to feed your worms to a bird, so try making a robin like the one in Jo MacDonald Had a Garden.  Check out our Little Robin Redbreast post so you can make this paper plate robin!

Gina at Famiglia&Seoul recently did a great post about Jo MacDonald Had a Garden!  Check out the  foam story board she made for her son here!  I can't wait to try this great idea!

We are really enjoying our gardening and planting books this week.  We hope you are too!  In case you missed it check some other garden books!

My Garden

Curious George Plants a Tree

In My Garden

Flower Garden

The Imaginary Garden 

A Garden of Opposites