Here's a peek into our unit:
We used this chart to record our pre and post knowledge of plants and growing!
Some of our vocabulary cards used and reviewed daily during the unit
Our first planting and growing art project, after learning about buds. They came out absolutely beautifully and really
At the beginning of our unit, the bees and I passed around sunflower seeds and broke one open to learn about the insides. The others we planted together and watered daily. It was some of their first times planting a seed and seeing the result! We kept a weekly journal to monitor the growth stages and appearance of our young sunflowers.
Observing the sprouts!
Water color plant part labeling
Found this fun app for the class iPad called Yipi Garden Farm which lets the kids sow, dig, and plant fields for watering and picking! Helpful for children who have never had this experience.
Choice time plant parts folder game
Choice time teen number sequencing plant picture
We took our study of plants and growing outside and used our new knowledge to find a plant and reproduce its appearance in their drawing and writing books. We had a long talk about the textures and different line types seen in all living things before we began this lesson so our drawings came out great!
After reading Eric Carle's The Tiny Seed, we were inspired to make some collage and paint art. We first chose two or three colors and painted one side of a folded paper.
Categorizing some vegetables by the parts of the plants we eat. Went along with the story Tops and Bottoms, about a lazy bear and a tricky hare who takes advantage of him. Great story to cover different types of plants and the parts we can eat and also identifying a lesson learned and character traits.
Some of our favorite math and literacy centers this unit:
Simple graphing worksheet practicing the names and shapes of solid figures
More shape practice (while some of the bees know their shapes, they do not all know the English names) Worked with symmetry and twists and turns.
Cvc discrimination warm up at a literacy tables
Sorting "cookies" by nonsense and real CVC words. They are now able to do this center independently and record and read their answers.
This one was a great hit! I printed the french fry subtraction cards from The Kindergarten Smorgasboard and made french fry containers and erasable quantity labels for manipulatives. I also created a recording sheet for the bees to record their subtraction equations. This made subtraction fun and engaging for all of my students as they got to "eat" the subtracted fries :)
Connecting with our planting unit, I created about ten ketchup containers full of different combinations of black and white beads. The children spilled out one container at a time and added the black and the white to find the total. The color differentiation helped the students with writing the appropriate equations and understanding their meaning.
We began measurement during this unit and started with a simple sort comparing long and short scrap paper pieces. Great fine motor work and assessment for me!
Subtraction bingo is always a hit. The students subtract any number on the board from ten (I made erasable equation cards to help them write and solve the equation) and cover the space with a counter. The first player to get four in a row wins!
Here is one of my friends measuring a mustache. How much fun is measuring when you are measuring such silly things?!
Castle creation station! Kiddos created their own castle and recorded the number of each shape used and then drew their creation on the back. Big hit!
Who doesn't love Santa in May? This is a long and short vowel sort where the kids read and identified the vowel sound and then...
recorded their findings!
We've been so busy finishing up our school year with field days, cooking projects, graduation practice, and testing (bleh). But pictures of our latest unit and end of the year ideas will be up soon! Also planning on updating and including many more freebies! yay!
