Gentle reminder to complete Daily Attendance and Parent Activity Review

Plant Unit Week 4

Story Time: Scroll down for the Books of the Week

Choose one book each day to focus on

Scroll down for the Books of the Week. Pause during the book reading to discuss what you see and ask your child to identify items either by labeling or pointing. Keep a list of what they were able to identify and share it with us!

After reading the books/watching the videos, go on a nature walk (even if it's just around the block) and talk about the plants and trees you see. Talk about what you hear, how the sun/ wind/ rain feels. Gather twigs, flowers, leaves, blades of grass and even dirt! Allow your child to explore what you've discovered and we'll be using some of these materials throughout the week

Literacy Activity:

Choose an activity to work on over a couple of days or choose one activity per day

CLICK HERE FOR FREE NAME MATS AND ACTIVITIES

There are puzzles, tracing, painting, play-dough mats to choose from. The goal is to have your child engage with letters of the alphabet but also to be able to identify the letters in their name. Experiment with what your child shows the most interest in. Target fine motor skills, following directions and communication. Allow them to use glue, safety scissors, paint, markers, stickers, etc. For play-dough and paint recipes, click on this link below or check our "Resources" page.

C91 Remote Learning - Resources

STEAM:

Science/ Technology/ Engineering/ Art/ Math/ Science

Choose an activity to work on over a couple of days or choose one activity per day

Examples of questions to ask:

What happens when ___? How do you think that works? How could you change that?

What does that remind you of? What would happen if ___? Tell me more.

*Remember to narrate play and ask questions; label objects, animals, parts of things (ie leaf on stem), colors, sizes, be creative!

*This is where you can use the items gathered during your nature/ neighborhood walk (ie branches, leaves, grass, dirt, flowers)

SENSORY BIN variety:

Soil and Seeds: Add potting soil, dirt, dried beans or dark paper and seeds or dried beans to a sensory bin as well as gardening tools such as gloves, small spades, trowels, rakes, watering cans etc. Invite your child to play with the materials and observe the seeds. *Practice: scooping/ pouring, turn taking, following directions and labeling.

Plant Parts: Place an assortment of plant parts in a sensory bin or bucket. Invite your child to explore. Consider adding flowers, stems from various plants, a variety of leaves, bark from trees, small twigs as well as roots. Add items from your walk/ hunt. *Practice: scooping/ pouring, turn taking, following directions and labeling.

Seeds in a Strawberry: Cut out several paper strawberries. Add a number to each one and ask children to put the appropriate number of seeds on each strawberry. You can vary this activity with another type of fruit or by putting petals on a flower, leaves on a plant etc. Assist your child to write their own numbers as they are ready.
Flower Arrangements: Provide a colander as well as fake flowers, dandelions, grass, twigs, sticks, etc. Turn the colander upside down and invite your child to stick the stems of the flowers through the holes in the colander to create a flower arrangement. ***This will help with fine motor, attending and problem solving. You can even count the items or label using colors (ie. red flower)
Plant Life Cycle: Review the sample picture of the plant life cycle below. Assist your child to sequence the pictures by labeling, pointing or moving pictures OR you can draw your own together! *Remember to narrate and label pictures throughout the activity
Plant Painting: Provide parts of plants such as flowers, stems or twigs for children to use to paint with in place of a paint brush. Ask your child what type of mark each plant piece will make when used as a painting tool. As they explore painting with the different plant parts, be sure to highlight the name of each part such as flower, leaves, stem and roots.
Paper Flowers: You can use tissue paper or coffee filters cut into circles. Assist your child to pierce the middle of the tissue paper circles with the pipe cleaner, adding as many as they would like, then fold the circles up to create a flower. Check out the tutorial below. *Remember to narrate, label and sequence. Ask questions, target turn taking and HAVE FUN!

1. CLICK HERE for SENSORY BIN

4. CLICK HERE for printout or draw your own

2. Seeds in a strawberry

5. Painting with Plants

CLICK HERE for flower activities

6. CLICK HERE for Paper Flowers

Books of the Week

Once finished with the book, go through it again and PAUSE video to get a better look at pictures; assist your child to identify pictures (focus on verbs, colors, quantity and all the types of plants and animals you can find).

Use this as an opportunity to talk about different foods (fruits and vegetables), colors, textures and temperatures. If you have any of these items at home, assist your child to explore foods using their five senses. Afterwards, you can engage your child in an art activity to recreate the foods or plants OR have them identify by labeling or pointing

Rah Rah Radishes by April Pulley Sayre Read by Ms. Lule

The Vegetables We Eat by Gail Gibbons

Chicka Chicka Boom Boom by B Martin & J Archambault

Videos of the Week

When exploring these videos, use this as an opportunity to talk with your child about why plants are important. You can also talk about how animals eat plants too (ie cows eat grass, birds eat seeds). See if your child can locate flowers, sun, plants, dirt, water, animals, letters (you can have them point or label).

I added a musical piece (it's a bit long) where the musicians use instruments made with seeds. Check out the tutorials to make your own instruments. Look at the "Resources" page to listen to some of C91's favorite songs, or make your own up!

The goal here is to HAVE FUN! Messes are okay, it's all part of the learning process!

Seeds, by Leonardo Gorosito and Rafael Alberto