Plants

We only had 1 week for plants, but we got a lot of learning in!

Dramatic Play
Flower store. As girly as it sounds, the boys loved it too! I was super impressed. Dollar Tree was again my destination of choice, and filled up all my vases and foam blocks with beautiful arrangements. I used my ever-so-popular cardboard box with a hole for the store entrance, and another box for the cash register. I've said it before, but these kids love the cash register and playing store! We do it a lot, but with just slight changes, and it's a huge hit every time. Makes my job easy. :)


 
 
 
 I like to bring Math and Literacy into dramatic play, so I always add signs to label things, and always add prices in stores. This one was priced by small, medium, and large bouquets, which brought in more math vocabulary about sizes. They won't always pick up on these things without me joining in on their play and helping them tell the customer the cost and referring to the chart. Once introduced, they then bring that into their own play.

Art
Seed/bean collages. You're welcome. I know you have to love seeing these globs of glue and seeds coming home, but it's such a great small motor activity with picking up and placing the beans, and a great finger strengthening activity for the rest of them who just squeeze out a whole bottle of glue onto their paper and dump everything on it. It's art!
 
Plant sponge painting. Sponge painting always turns into finger painting, so it's a huge hit too!

We also played with the chalk boards, gardening puzzles, the ABC lacing beads they love, and Lincoln Logs.

Outside
I have 2 small flower beds out back, and since they're in shade 99% of the time, I bought some impatients that should grow in shade. We planted them during outside time and they did a great job! They weren't real keen on digging deep, and so I was helping dig holes, but not fast enough. Many were planted in very shallow holes with dirt just thrown on them. I let them pick where to place them and everything and I just love these little flower beds they planted for me. I got them all put in deeper after school, and it's so pretty and colorful! (I'm writing this a month later, so I can sya they are gorgeous now!) I have watering cans made out of gallon milk jugs with holes in the lid that they can now water the garden with each day of preschool during outside time. Loving this.
 

Large Group
We planted beans in plastic bags with a wet paper towel and hung them in a window. What could go wrong? Apparently, everything. I did this 3 years in Kindergarten and had awesome results. Out of the 25 each year, maybe 1 grew mold instead of a sprout. Well, out of our 8, only 1 sprouted, and the rest grew mold. I guess they were too wet? I don't know. So, I tried again with different paper towels and the same result: mold. Some had sprouts and mold though. I was super disappointed at this big fail, but at least one grew a sprout and they all got to see it. Maybe the brown public school paper towels are just more mold resistant. Who knows.
Day 2 we planted marigold seeds in a cup to take home. My girl's sprouted and we planted them out front and I hope you all had the same luck with yours!
We also did some sequencing activities, and journaling about the growth of our caterpillars.