Welcome to “Growing Minds Day by Day”, a compilation of educational resources for use by families and educators. Each week, the Growing Minds team will select a theme related to food, gardens, or nature, and share thematic recommendations for children’s literature, activities, local food recipes, and educational resources.
We hope these resources will provide you with inspiration. Ready to dive in and get your hands dirty? This week’s theme is mud and soil!
Book: 
In honor of spring and our recent rainy days, this week’s suggested children’s book is Mud by Mary Lyn Ray. Mud is an ode to muddy hands and feet, brown earth, and new grass. If you don’t have this book in your at-home library, you can watch a video of this book being read aloud on YouTube.
Looking for more mud-themed children’s book ideas? Visit the Growing Minds’s farm to school literature database to browse our curated collection of recommended books on farms, gardening, and cooking. Type “dirt”, “mud” or “soil” into the search bar to find books that celebrate this week’s muddy theme.
Local Food Recipes:
Local Food Recipes:Since beets are nutritious root vegetables known for their sweet, “earthy” flavor, they’re a perfect vegetable to highlight when learning about mud and soil. Introduce beets to kids by preparing a side dish of simple roasted beets with olive oil and salt, or a colorful beet and carrot saute (see recipe below).
Maybe your kids deserve a reward for trying beets for the first time? For a fun and delicious mud-themed dessert, make Dirt Cups! Dirt Cups give you the opportunity to discuss and make your own soil layers, also known as soil profiles. If you don’t have instant pudding mix at home, you can whip up your own batch of homemade chocolate pudding (extra points for using local eggs, milk and cream!). March 31 also happens to be National Walking Day, so enjoy a yummy treat as a family, then get outside and walk off that pudding!
Colorful Beet and Carrot Saute, from The Moosewood Cookbook by Mollie Katzen
4 servings
Ingredients:
- 2 medium beets
- 1 medium carrot
- 1 clove crushed garlic
- ¾ c. orange juice
- 2 Tbs. butter or olive oil
- Salt & pepper to taste
Directions:
Peel and coarsely grate the beets and carrot. Cook the garlic gently in the butter or oil for 2 minutes, then add the remaining ingredients. Cook, stirring, over medium heat 5-8 minutes. Season with salt and pepper to taste.
Get your young cooks involved: Depending on their age, kids can help with peeling and grating the vegetables and measuring the ingredients.
Educational Resources:
Soil Science Lesson Plans and Preschool Mud Activities
The Growing Minds website features several soil-themed lesson plans that can be adapted to the home garden or classroom: Soil Exploration, Soil Temperature, and Soil Amendments. These lesson plans are geared for grades K-2, but could be adapted for other ages. Our Soil Jeopardy lesson plan is designed for grades 4-5. You can find a great list of K-12 soil experiments and hands-on activities–including soil painting, soil colors, and soil properties–compiled by the Soil Science Society of America at soils4kids.org.
Click here for a list of muddy arts and crafts and play-based activities geared toward preschoolers. While International Mud Day (yes that’s a thing!) is officially celebrated on June 29, playing in the mud is fun every day.
Activity:
Mud Painting is an outside activity. Give each child a large piece of paper and have them finger paint with mud. Can they find multiple colors of mud? Have them make imprints with different leaves.
Looking for more garden-related activities? Check out the Growing Minds This Week in the Garden (TWIG) newsletters for the last week of March and first week of April.
—
That’s it for this week. Next week’s Growing Minds Day by Day theme will be Bees and Pollinators. “Bee” sure to check back next week for new resources!