ROCK GARDEN

Make a fun and engaging Rock Garden with your child. Begin by going on a scavenger hunt for rocks. Then, paint a few rocks that you find to add color to your garden.

We’ve been going on a lot of walks lately, which means we have also found a lot of “treasures”. Almost every walk we go on or place we go my daughter finds rocks. Our collection started to become very large, so I decided to make a Rock Garden where she can display all of her treasures. When friends come over they contribute to it or get to pick one to take home.

Materials:

• Rocks (variety of sizes)
• one big rock (to paint Rock Garden on)
• acrylic paint (variety of colors)
• paint brushes
• water cup
• acrylic sealant
• cardboard or plastic table cloth (to paint on top of)

First, find a spot in your yard where your rock collection can go and grow. Second, Make the sign for your Garden. We found one big rock to write her name on & Rock Garden. She painted it with all white paint first. Then once dry, she painted the sides. I helped her write “Addy’s Rock Garden” on the rock to finish it.

Then, she chose some of her rocks to paint (see picture below). I contributed a few rocks I had painted too.The more people involved, the more fun it is! Once rocks are dry, spray with acrylic sealant. The sealant is a clear coat and helps protect from outdoor weather elements.

Caterpillar

To create the caterpillar, we looked for thin rocks with a flat side. We then used two little rocks for the antenna and one for the mouth. Lastly, we painted the rocks and assembled/glued together once dry. You could make all sorts of creatures by combining rocks together. Use your imagination!

Activities with Rock Garden:

Utilize your new Rock Garden by completing some of the activities below… the ideas are endless! Feel free to share in comments what all your child/children do in the Rock Garden.

• Sort rocks in order by size, color, and shapes
• Look at rocks and talk about what they look like/could be, use your imagination!
• Share or trade rocks with friends
• Continue adding rocks – keep the garden growing
• Use as an area to play with toys (Example: have a Paw Patrol rescue happen when a figure gets stuck under a rock, have Barbie visit and jump on the rocks, or make into a construction site for PlayMobil and have them move the rocks around).
• An adult or other child can hide surprises in the Rock Garden and other child/children have to find them (I randomly put plastic butterflies or unicorns in it to surprise my daughter).