Plants

Hello family and friends!

Welcome back to school! I hope everyone enjoyed their Spring Break and holiday. As fun as breaks are, it always seems nice to get back into routine. I'm finding it very hard to believe that we only have 30 more school days left in this year. We started a little number line countdown this week after getting asked how many days are left before summer. This year has flown by! We're looking forward to finishing the rest of the year off strong with tons of explorations and fun!

This week we've started talking about plants. This was something the kids brought up earlier in the school year but we felt that it'd be best to wait until the spring to dive into it. The kids have asked some pretty detailed questions about plants so we'll be spending a couple of weeks trying to answer those and gaining some more understanding of plant life. To start our week we read the book "Planting a Rainbow" by Lois Elhert. This book got us thinking about the different types of plants and what they provide for us. We discussed the different between seeds and bulbs and their importance. We also talked about the importance of labeling our plants so we could remember what we're growing as well as remember the best way to care for each plant, since they all require different types of care. As we talked about different types of plants we made a chart and labeled it: what plants have, what plants need, and what plants give to us.

In talking about the process of seeds to plants, we decided to do some planting of our own. Each child made a bag to grow sunflower seeds in. We wet some cotton balls and placed 4 seeds in each bag. We then hung them up in the windows for sunlight. After only 2 days our seeds have already started sprouting! We're so excited to see how they continue to grow. The kids go to check their bag each day. Once these seeds grow further, we're planning on planting them in pots for the kids to take home. Wouldn't it be awesome if everyone had a sunflower at home?! As we bagged these seeds we talked about the importance of rain and water for our seeds. We've noticed that our wet cotton balls have kept our bags moist so that our seeds are staying watered on their own. We also talked about the importance of sunlight as we discussed where to hang them in our classroom. We also planted some flowers in our room, near the window. We got into groups and each group planted a different flower in our pot. As we planted we discussed the importance of soil and the nutrients that it provides the plant. Somehow through all of our talks, one student asked about compost and it's nutrients. We've decided to make a little compost bin to see how this can help sustain our plants. We decided to leave our left over soil and tools in the science center for the kids to further explore. They've enjoyed making a mess and we've enjoyed watching them ask questions as they play!

As we discussed the different parts of plant, one of the big questions asked was about the importance of roots. We explained that roots help carry water and nutrients from the soil through the plant with veins, similar to our bodies. To demonstrate this in action, we did a little science experiment. We filled 3 vases with different colored water and placed a piece of lettuce in each one (lettuce is full of veins that show the travel of the water). We made predictions as to what would happen to each piece of lettuce. We then filled 3 cups with different colored water. Each child was given a white flower and asked to place it in any cup of their choice. We have set these out near a window to observe over the course of next week. We're so curious to see what happens to our white flowers over the weekend! :)

While discussing seeds we have also talked about the importance of seeds to other forms of wildlife. Since it's spring, we thought it'd be fun to get see some birds eating our seeds. Each child made their own bird feeder. We were actually able to find a recipe that did not require peanut butter (yay!). The kids mixed up all their ingredients and then pressed the mixture into cookie cutters to dry. They poked a hole in each one so we could string them. We made a few extra to keep at school and place in the tree outside of our classroom window so we can be bird watchers. I hope you can find a place to hang them at home and hopefully see some bird action as well!

To wrap up our week, we did some seed sorting. We took 6 different types of seeds and mixed them together. We then had the seed packages laid out for the kids to look at along with a sample of each seed taped to the package. As we sorted the seeds with tweezers, we talked about the different in their size and appearance. We also spent some time planting bulbs (since we had been talking about the difference of seeds and bulbs). Instead of using soil, we placed our bulbs in a cup. We first filled the cup with marbles and water. Next, we placed the bulb on top so that we can watch the roots shoot down into the marbles while our plant sprouts on the top. Our windows are full of plant life right now! Feel free to come in and check them out. I know the kids would be eager to tell you all about our experiments and planting!

Approaches to Learning:

Demonstrate growing ability to predict possible outcomes based on prior experiences and knowledge.
Reason about events, relationships, or problems.
Represent prior events and personal experiences in one or more ways.
Demonstrate increasing ability to use prior knowledge to understand new experiences.
Demonstrate an increasing ability to organize actions and materials in the learning environment.

Social & Emotional:

Interact easily with familiar adults by engaging in conversations, responding to questions and following directions.
Participate in group life of the class.
Display emerging social skills of trying to take turns and talk with others during play.
Demonstrate with adult guidance simple techniques to solve social problems.

Language & Literacy:

Carry out simple directions and directives.
Complete a thought or idea when communicating with others.
Classify objects and information by observable attributes into predetermined categories.
Ask "how" and "why" questions about things in books and their environment.
Begin to use classroom resources such as books, charts, photographs and graphs to gain information about topics of interest.
Contribute to small group or whole class stories, rhymes or poems.
Combine some letters with pretend writing.

Mathematics:

Organize and represent data with real objects.
Understand and use positional words to describe the location of objects.
Sort and classify objects by one attribute.
Compare sets of no more than ten objects using the terms "more than" or "same as".
Show one-on-one correspondence through ten when counting real objects.
Begin to show an awareness of numbers in the environment.

Checking out our new plants...