Spring Flowers

During the Month of May, our class celebrated Spring with a study of flowers, worms and insects.    We began our discussion of flowers by discussing types of gardens and what might grow in a garden.  We then read the book My Garden by Kevin Henkes.  In this story, a little girl is planting a garden with her mother and imagines what she would plant if she could grow anything (shells, jelly beans).  The students then drew their own gardens illustrating what they would choose to plant.  Some examples included strawberries, cotton candy and chocolate bars.

Next, we read several nonfiction books about flowers and discussed flower parts as well as what flowers need to grow; soil, sun and water.  I reintroduced the students to diagrams and labeling as we labeled flower parts.  The children then created their own flower out of different shapes and labeled each part.

Observing parts of a dandelion.

The book Jack's Garden described all of the things needed to plant a garden and followed the growing of a garden from seeds to flowers.  It is a repetitive story, so the children had fun sequencing each of the parts.

The children then planted wildflower seeds in soil and painted their own garden using water bottles.

The children also painted with vegetables.

During this unit, we had a flower shop in the dramatic play center.  The children took turns pretending to be a florist, delivery person, cashier and customer.  Students were able to create bouquets of flowers for their customers.  They also had to sort flowers by color and practiced writing as they wrote cards to accompany their bouquets.  Children took orders and recorded the orders on a checklist and they pretended to exchange money.

 

 

In the sensory table, we first had soil and then rubber mulch.  The children practiced planting flowers in pots.

At the playdoh center, the children designed their own flowers.

Essential to plant growth are worms.  Therefore, we spent some time studying these fascinating creatures.  After reading the book, Wonderful Worms by Linda Glaser, first we created a chart recording all that the children had learned.  Next, the children were able to observe and handle real worms.  We looked for the head, tried to find the bristles on its body and its middle white band.  Then the children observed how the worm moved.  It was great fun and all of the children bravely explored these creatures.

 

The following day after observing the worms and discussing their purpose in eating and fertilizing soil, we read a book called Compost Stew by Mary McKenna Siddals.  This was an interactive ABC book about all things that can be composted.  I gave the children each an item mentioned in the story and as we read the book, they added their item to our compost bin.  At the bottom of our bins were our worms. 

Following our study of worms we learned a little about bees.  I found a dead bee near one of our windows and wondered why it had died.  I demonstrated for the children how scientists observe the world around them and have questions.  They then research and experiment to find answers to their questions.  We read several books to learn more about bees.  We also observed our bee specimen to discover its parts and features.  Part of our discussion included the importance of bees in helping flowers to grow.  The children made bee hats and pretended to be bees finding and collecting nectar from flowers.  The children then used q-tips to collect pollen from real flowers just as it would attach itself to a bee when it was sucking nectar.

We also discussed the life cycle of a bee, its metamorphosis and the many jobs of worker bees.