Create some potted plants, and then share the love with a delightful on-the-go garden!
We read Anywhere Farm, written by Phyllis Root, and illustrated by G. Brian Karas (Candlewick Press, 2017). Want to grow a farm anywhere? All you need is soil, sunshine, water, and a seed. From alleyways to the insides of a old trumpet, your garden will blossom and bloom! The rhymes in this book are so clever and endearing, and the illustrations are delightful depictions of gardens everywhere and anywhere. A highly recommended story time read!
You’ll need:
- Several toilet paper and paper towel tubes
- A selection of construction paper
- A selection of pipe cleaners
- Scissors, glue, and tape for construction
For the optional wagon:
- 1 large tissue box
- 1 wheel assembly (more on this below)
- 2 drinking straws (our were 10″ long)
- An 16.5″ piece of string
- 1 small rectangle of tagboard (approximately 1.25″ x 2″)
First, your garden! Cut toilet paper and paper towel tubes down to 2″. Then create plants using construction paper and pipe cleaners (we also provided , patterned tape, fabric flowers, tissue paper, and plastic buttons for decorating). We asked kids to make at least one pot that wouldn’t mind trading at the end of story time.
You can end the project with the pots, or you can take it a step further…we loved the idea of an anywhere garden on-the-go, so we crafted tissue box wagons to make things mobile! The wagon and wheel assembly instructions can be found on this post.
When the wagons were assembled, kids popped their potted plants in and we circled the library’s lobby. Everyone was invited to trade at least one pot with Katie (and we pre-made a number pots for this purpose).
Some kids also traded with each other spontaneously, which was VERY sweet!
You’ve seen them in various projects that roll, toddle, and race. For anything ambulant, we highly recommend these fantastic plastic wheels, sold by Kelvin Educational. This post also includes instructions on how to make an official Pop Goes the Page wheel assembly for all your vehicular needs!
To make a wheel assembly, tape two, 4″ plastic straws to the bottom of a box. Then thread two, 6″ wooden rod “axles” through the straws. We used BBQ skewers cut down to the proper size with pruning shears (and don’t forget to cut off the pointy end of the skewer!). Here’s what a finished wheel assembly looks like:
The wheels can be purchased from Kelvin Educational. Black wheels are product #990168 ($10 for 100); and color wheels are #990169 ($11 for 100). Warning! Sometimes, the wheels slide off the ends of the skewers. To remedy that, we hot glue 
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Roll out the red wagon…this little fox is going to market! We made tissue box wagons, grabbed our shopping lists, and headed to the market to play a vegetable matching game. Sporting fox ears and tails, naturally.
We’ll begin with the little red wagon! Cut a large tissue box down to 1.75″ inches tall, then wrap with red paper. You can go with our standard wheel assembly (instructions 
Next, cut two notches the center of a 1.25″ x 2″ piece of tagboard. This is the anchor for your wagon handle. Wrap the string around the notches in the tagboard, but don’t wrap all the string around it! Leave 1″ of string between the tagboard and the end of the straw. This will allow the handle to move left and right while you’re pulling your wagon.
Bend a second drinking straw into 3 sections, pinch the ends together to form a triangular grip on the handle, then tape the ends of the straw firmly together.
Fold and slide the taped section of the handle into the open end of the first straw. Cover the taped string with colored masking tape if you like (I used black in the photo below).
Here’s what a finished wagon handle looks like. A drinking straw handle, a 1″ gap of string, and a tagboard anchor wrapped with the remaining string.
Tape the tagboard anchor to the front interior of the wagon. Done!
To make your fox costume, circle a strip of red poster board around your head, then staple it. Cut a pair of fox ears from red poster board, and add white construction paper ear interiors. Staple the ears to the headband. We attached our ears close to the front of the headband, and tilted them upwards slightly. Somehow, that just looked more foxy.
Next, cut a 6″ x 22″ rectangle of red poster board into a fox tail shape. Glue a little brush of white construction paper on the end of the tail, and tab the top. The tab slides inside the waistband of your pants (if you’re wearing a dress, punch two holes in the top of the tail, thread string through them, and tie the string around your waist).
Your wagon and costume are finished…now to market! The matching game is very simple. Print the market signs, then put each sign next to the corresponding veggies from the template. I used 8″ table card holders (which you first met in this 
Then we gave each kid a shopping list. You’ll notice the lists are all slightly different. This was to avoid everyone rushing to the same area at once, like some sort of vegetable / woodland creature version of Black Friday. We also gave kids little shopping bags (basically, a brown paper lunch bag cut down to 4″). Following their lists, the kids located the matching sign, loaded the vegetable in their wagons, and checked it off their shopping lists.
Once they had all their vegetables, they pulled everything back to the project area to color the vegetables and customize their paper bags!