Today we discovered that 2 days ago, it was little Miss Carly's 4th birthday! Hooray!
She got to wear the birthday crown while we sang to her and got a special birthday sticker!
She was also our awesome flag helper for the pledge today!
After circle time, we talked about the season
SPRING!
We took turns telling things that we think of when we think of spring. Some thoughts were:
eggs
Easter bunny
Easter eggs
flowers
trees
birds
bugs
We talked about how in Spring time things start to come alive! Tree's leaves grow in green, flowers bloom, new animals are born, birds hatch eggs. We sang "Popcorn Popping" and it seems some of the kids made the connection for the first time that the song was talking about a tree that "tricked us" into thinking it's flowers were popcorn (as Levi said :) )!
Carmen helped us read a book about a duck named Witzy and all her friends planting a flower garden! They had to plant different seeds for different kinds of flowers. Then water it every day (for a long time!) and then get rid of the bugs that tried to eat the leaves! Finally, the flowers bloomed!
One of the flowers in the book was called a snapdragon. Miss Jenni had picked a snapdragon flower from her yard and showed us all how it opens and shuts its mouth when you pinch it. We all took a turn "snapping" the dragons mouth!
Next we sang some songs about birds.
One was called "Birds in the Tree."
"We will find a little nest in the branches of a tree.
Let us count the eggs inside.
There are one, two, three.
Mother bird sits on the nest to hatch the eggs all three.
Father bird flies round and round to guard his family."
After we learned the song, we pretended the giant bean bag was a bird's nest. in the middle were three eggs (balls). Ruby was the mommy bird sitting on the eggs to keep them warm. And we all pretended to be the daddy bird flying around to protect the little eggs so they could hatch!
After that we talked about other kinds of birds we can think of that lay eggs that we have seen. Some were a bit surprised when they made the connection that the eggs at home in their fridge are eggs from a chicken. And if the mommy chicken had sat on those eggs for a long time (I did throw in the word fertilized somewhere in there, haha.. but, that was the extent of that) then they would have turned into baby chickens!
Next it was time to figure out what a mommy chicken is called.
We each got an egg with letters written on it.
We reviewed what we had learned before-- about how when we put letters together they make words. One side of the egg had the letters "EN" on it. That meant all of our words were going to end in that same sound. They would all rhyme!
The other side of the egg had different letters on it to make different words. We turned our egg pieces and practiced sounding out different words.
"P-EN"
"M-EN"
"T-EN"
"D-EN"
"HEN!!!"
In the end, we all found the name of the mommy chicken.
Next we all pretended to be a baby chick inside an egg. We tried to decide how we might get out of our shells.
Once we had each made it safely out of our shells, we flapped our wings into the other room to watch a video of a real chick hatching out of an egg!
Then it was time for an egg matching game!
The plastic eggs were all filled with different things. We each took a turn picking an egg, shaking it, listening to the sound it made, and then trying to find another egg in the carton that made the same sound!
Once we were each equipped with two eggs...
...we stood up, and danced with our shakey eggs!
The kids LOVED this song!! So fun.
I wish you could have heard them singing it.
"I know a chicken! And she laid an egg!!!"
Turn it on for them now... maybe they will do it for you :)
Then we switched gears and started talking about other things that start new life in the spring. Plants! We talked about how plants start as a little seed. We discussed what a seed would need in order to grow into a plant. Sun, water, "plant food" from the dirt.
Miss Jenni asked how we thought plants get their water. She set a cup of water in front of each of us. After decided that plants probably don't pick up a cup and drink like we do... we tried to figure out how else we could get the water in us without picking it up....
A straw!
Plants have things called roots on them. They are like little straws that suck up the water out of the ground!
We were each given a little bag with a bean seed inside of it! Each seed was sitting on a wet cotton ball. They had been taped to the window for a few days and they were starting to grow little roots to suck up the water!
We all examined the beans and looked at the different stages of growth. Some were just barely poking a little root out of the bean.
Others had lots of roots and were starting to grow a stem out the top!
We also looked at what the little sprout would look like when it is growing in dirt. This one was a little watermelon seedling in a cup, poking its head out of the dirt!
We talked about the other parts of a plant. The stem holds up the plant and also helps bring water to other parts of the plant. Leaves catch the sun and use it to make food for the plant! The flowers on top sometimes make more seeds, or some plants have flowers that can turn into fruits or vegetables!
After that, we were each given a little cup with grass growing in it.
We got to pick out two googley eyes....
...a fluffy nose...
...and we turned our cups into little grass heads!
We were told that if we took care of our little grass heads by putting them somewhere sunny and giving them water every day, their hair would keep growing! We could give them a hair cut when it got to long, put bows in its hair, give it pig tails... cut it into a mowhawk ;)
After that it was snack time!
We got lots of fruits and vegetables and some popcorn! We found the seeds in our cucumbers and apples. And Strawberries had little tiny seeds that we don't mind eating! We found out that carrots are the roots of a plant, and celery is actually the stem of a plant!
We also looked at some dried corn seeds. We learned that some times you can take the seed of a plant and grind it into flour. (Like corn, or the wheat we learned about at Miss Jenni's house before). Or you can plant it to make a new plant. Sometimes you just eat the seed. And sometimes, the seed is super cool and it POPS and turns into fluffy, yummy popcorn!
Seeds are awesome!!!
UPDATE:
Here are some follow-up pictures of our grassheads after one week!
Lexi's, after already getting TWO HAIR CUTS this week!
Lydia's after it's first trim!
Looks like Carmen's may need a hair cut soon!
And Levi's hair is starting to look a bit curly!
Jerry and Ruby's are basking in the sun outside!
And Robby's grass head was practically bald when we left preschool a week ago. It only had one tiny little grass hair barely poking out of the dirt. That one hair is now hanging down in front. His hair is filling in nicely. And Adelyn's is tied up neatly with a bow :)
And, after a week of basking in the window, Robby's bean plant is reaching out of the bag. Robby is quite certain that his bean stalk will reach tremendous heights and provide him a nice passage up to a giant's home in the sky.... ;) We plan on putting it in the garden tomorrow.
Sounds like a few other friends have already moved their seedlings into the dirt. Some more successfully than others!
And a few never saw the light of another day...
This is apparently what happens if your bean stays in your back pack for a week. ;) Maybe it will still pull through...
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