Room to Bloom: April 2012

Tuesday, April 24, 2012

April Field Trip

Today we enjoyed our monthly field trip—this time to the strawberry patch! The weather has taken an unexpected chilly turn and today was a bit windy and cold. Nevertheless, the sun was shining so we met up at 11 am at Page Farms and started picking. After strawberries we headed to the picnic tables for lunch and playtime. I had made a little work packet with handwriting and math, having to do with strawberries, but it was so windy we weren’t able to do that. Still, the children had fun, we were able to experience strawberry plants up-close, and as Max exclaimed at the end, “This field trip was much better than I thought it would be!” : )

Tuesday, April 17, 2012

B is for Bugs!

We got our bug-tastic day started with a worksheet...

...and were happy to segway into calendar time, where we learned about John the Baptist, who ate wild honey (made by bees...which are insects) and locusts (which are insects!) The kids were pretty shocked by this! We also read a poem called "The Grasshopper and the Elephant."

Way down south where bananas grow,

A grasshopper stepped on an elephant's toe.

The elephant said, with tears in his eyes,

"Pick on somebody your own size."

For music and movement, we sang a few buggy songs, and did a fun buzzing bee acitivity. The kids took turns choosing a bee from the hive, and each bee had an action written on it that all 3 kids would have to do. Max was so busy being a bee that he couldn't even hold still for a picture!

We then read I Love Bugs by Philemon Sturges (what a name!) and discussed different bugs and interesting facts about each one!

The fastest insect is the dragonfly, flying about 35 mph!
The longest bug is a type of walking stick, about 12 inches long!

WOW!

For snacks we made ants on a log by adding sun butter and raisins to a long pretzel rod.

While the kids ate, I read Bugs Galore by Peter Stein and Bob Staake. This book has some good one-liners that drew some big laughs from the peanut gallery.

After our snack, we used plastic bugs to do a sorting/ counting acitivity. First, the kids counted bugs from one to twelve by putting the correct amount in numbered "jars." Next, we sorted by color, and lastly, by type of insect.

Sneaky Owen, who wore his insect pajamas for continuity. Though he looks sweet, he sure made our sorting acitivity a challenge. I think he was challenging his inner stink bug during this particular lesson!

For our craft we made insect masks, complete with pipe cleaner attenae!

Here are our little bugs...so cute!

Friday, April 13, 2012

Plant Day!

(they were being so silly that morning!)

On Tuesday in preschool we learned all about plants! This was a good follow-up to the lesson on Spring the children had two weeks ago. After signing in, they practiced their handwriting and the letter P, and then worked on cutting. Max finished cutting all of his pieces out first so he jumped in and helped Joseph and Delainey catch up so we could stick to our schedule. After these activities we transitioned into circle time. For our scripture spotlight, Joseph helped us learn about the story in the Bible where Daniel refuses to eat the king’s meat and wine, and instead consumed plants and water. In the end he and his friends were much healthier and stronger than the king’s men. We then talked about how good plants and grains are for our bodies, etc.

This discussion led to show & tell where Max showed a pine cone, Joseph a carrot, and Delainey a flower. After talking about what they had, how it felt, what color it was, what it’s purpose was, etc. I told them that each of these things were plants. We talked about what it meant to be a plant, and what plants do for us. Their responses (After some hints) were, we eat them, we wear them, and we build stuff with them. Plants sure are important! We also talked about what plants need to grow.

For singing time we sang the following songs:

Little Seed (Tune: I'm A Little Teapot)
I'm a little seed
In the dark, dark ground.
Out comes the warm sun,
Yellow and round.
Down comes the rain,
Wet and slow.
Up comes the little seed,
Grow, grow, grow!

PRETTY FLOWERS (Tune: "Jingle Bells")

Pretty flowers, pretty flowers,

Growing everywhere.

Here are some pretty flowers

For your coat or hair.

Pretty flowers, pretty flowers,

Gold and pink and blue.

Red and yellow, orange and purple,

I picked them just for you!

Farmer Plants the Seeds (Sung to: "The Farmer In The Dell" )

The farmer plants the seeds
The farmer plants the seeds
Hi, Ho and Cherry O
The farmer plants the seeds
Other verses:
The rain begins to fall....
The sun begins to shine....
The plants begin to grow....
The buds all open up....
The flowers smile at me....

They especially loved the first one, “I’m a Little Seed”. They were so cute doing the motions!

For snack time we ate bananas, cuties & kiwis—all plants!

For story time we read an adorable book I borrowed from my neighbor called Grow, flower grow! It is a funny story about a girl who tryes to get her plant to grow by feeding it pizza, hamburgers, etc. Frustrated that it won’t grow, she throws it outside. Outside it gets sunlight and rain and begins to grow. It was perfect for reinforcing the things a plant needs to thrive, and Delainey, Joseph and Max were cracking up the whole time.

Following story time we discussed the parts of a flower, and I gave them a puzzle for them to figure out. This also helped them to recognize the words of the pictures, and they figured out which word said what, by looking at the first letter and sounding them out.

Max finished his puzzle quickly so I told him to try and do it one more time after mixing up the pieces and this was the look I got. : )

Next we moved to the table to do some more cutting practice and some sorting for math. Joseph is pretty good with scissors so I gave him the hardest page of cutting lines. Delainey has been working at home on cutting for the last week, and I was so excited to see her hold the scissors correctly and really stay close to the lines! After cutting they worked on sorting pictures of vegetables, and then gluing them into a designated place on a picture of a garden.

After that, we ventured outside, each with a bag in hand, to identify and collect five different types of plants. (Joseph had to leave early because he was going to the beach! Lucky!) But Max and Delainey (and Sallie) did great on the plant walk.

Finally we played outside a bit, sang the goodbye song, and hands were stamped. It was a great day of learning about plants!