HS Flowers and Gardening

Interest Area Changes to Environment

Fake Flowers

Top Soil

Bugs

Hand size plastic shovel

Hand size plastic rake

Gardening Gloves

Straw Hat

Overalls

Magnify Glass

Bug Catcher

Binoculars

Cotton Balls

Blue Paper

White Paint

Foam Pieces

Sponges

Tissue Paper

Empty Flower Seed Packets

Watering Can

Plastic Flower Pots

Cupcake Liners

Coffee Filters

Plastic Vase

Basket

Apron

Fake Worms

Pipe cleaners

* Set up dramatic play or science center into a florist shop. Use fake flowers, apron, cash register, plastic vase, baskets, plastic flower pots, etc..

* A lot of sensory table ideas:

Flowers In The Sensory Table - Provide plastic flower pots with numbers written on them. Children  should try and “plant” correct number of flowers.

Sensory Table Close Look At Soils - Have the children examine several types of soil. these could be Sand, clay, potting soil, topsoil, etc….. Have the children use a magnifying glass to look closely at the soil. Let them touch it to see how it feels.

Teaching Concepts for Large Group

1.  What do plants and flowers need to grow?

2.  What do we get from plants? Do plants give us food? Oxygen? What is oxygen?

3.  What are some various objects that are made from plants? Below is a sorting activity and materials needed (some are choking hazards, this is a supervised activity):

chop sticks, tea bag, rope, toothpicks, basket, medicine such as aspirin in a child-proof bottle (made from the bark of a willow tree), rubber bands, paper hat, newspaper, ground cinnamon or ground pepper in a bottle, a dollar bill – enough for approximately half the class.

paper clip, a penny, a plastic toy, a shell, a rock, a glass jar, a marble, a cd, a metal or plastic fork – enough for approximately half the class.

Raw plant materials and their products such as cotton (or cotton balls) and a t-shirt, wheat and a loaf of bread, Aloe-Vera plant and Aloe-Vera gel, and a bottle of ketchup or lunch packet.

Two hula hoops

Labels that read: “Made from plants” and “Not made from plants”

4.  How important it is to recycle paper products so we do not have to cut down so many trees? Make paper using shredded or torn newspapers. Soak the papers in water. Blend in a blender. Press to a screen with a sponge to squeeze out all the water. Let dry. The students can paint a picture on recycled paper!

5.  Using a real non toxic plant, have children explore the parts: roots, stems, leaves and flowers. Discuss what each part is and the roll it plays in plant growth.

6.  What foods do we eat from the garden? How do we grow a garden? What tools are needed?

 7.  What is the life cycle of a plant? Make a chart similar to this one: Life cycle of a plant

Teaching Concepts for Small Group

1. Tye Dyed Flowers - Add 1/4 cup water to each compartment of a muffin tin. Add food coloring to each compartment. Fold a piece of paper towel in half several times. Dip the corners and edges into the water and let the paper take in the colored water. Repeat until most of the towel is colored. Unfold the towel and allow to dry. After the towel is dry, cut it out in the shape of a flower.

2.  Petal Count - Glue five circles to the top of five Popsicle sticks. Number the circles 1 through 5, or however many fit the needs of your group. Cut out many different colored petal shapes. Have the children place the correct number of petals onto each flower.

3.  Petal Match - Glue five different colored circles to the top of five Popsicle sticks. Cut out petals from the same 5 colors. Ask the children to put the colored petals on the same colored flower.  Again, fit to the needs in your classroom.

4.  Spring Flowers - Have your child make spring flowers by using pastel colored cupcake papers for the blossoms. Glue the papers to a piece of pastel paper. Have your child draw on the stems with crayons, and some scenery, (sun, grass, trees, etc.)

5. Sponge Flowers - Talk about flower parts with your child. Supply your child with different flower shaped sponges, paint and a piece of paper, with lines drawn vertically on the paper. Ask your child to add the flowers with the sponges, as if the lines were stems.

6.  Parts of a flower - Show your child a flower. Ask him/her about the flower. Ask him/her if they know where the stem is, or the pedals. Explain that there are roots too. You could even go outside and show your child the roots of a weed, when you pull it out of your garden.

7. Sorting Tools –  Place out a variety of tools for the children to sort into three groups, gardening tools, household, woodworking. You may want to include some of the following hammers, screwdrivers, hoes, rakes,spoons, wrenches, spatulas etc.. Have three separate laminated cards one with seeds, one with furniture and the other a picture of a food item. Have the children place the items on top of the correct picture.

8. Make a flower- Have children to color coffee filter with washable marker, use a spray bottle with water and let children spay lightly the coffee filter. Glue pipe cleaner to flower when dried. Discuss what you are doing and the colors of flowers and why they are different.

Teaching Concepts for Music Movement Wellness IMIL

1. Growing Flowers - Have children pretend that they are seeds. Turn the lights off. Ask children to “grow” just a little when it rains. You can either make rain noises, use a tape recording of the rain, or a rain stick. After children grow a little, turn the lights on, tell them that they have just grown above the ground a little and they can see the sun (light). Tell then to grow a little faster, until they can grow no more.

2.  Parts of a Plant Song

Tune:  Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes

Flower, Stem, Leaves and Roots

Leaves and Roots

Flower, Stem, Leaves and Roots,

Leaves and Roots

The motions for the song were the following:  flower–the head, stem–pointing to stomach, leaves–squiggly arms, and roots–feet.  I hope that this makes sense!  The kids all loved this song and it was a simple way to teach the parts of a plant.

Teaching Concepts for Fingerplays

1. This is the Way

Have children act out parts-

This is the way we

Rake our lawn

Weed our garden

Plant the seeds

Pick the flowers

See the bugs

Water our plants

2. Mary, Mary, Quite Contrary

Mary, Mary, quite contrary,

How does your garden grow?

With silver bells

and cockleshells

And pretty maids all in a row.

3.  A Flower Song

Sung to “The More We Get Together”

If I could be a flower

A flower, a flower

If I could be a flower, What kind would I be?

A daisy, a pansy, a tulip, a lilac,

If I could be a flower, I would be a (child fills in the blank)

4.  Flowers, Flowers

Sung to “Frere Jacques”

Flowers, flowers

flowers, flowers

Everywhere

Here and there

We smell the pretty flowers

We pick the pretty flowers

See them here

See them there

5. Little Seed…

(I’m a Little Teapot)

Here’s a little seed in the dark, dark ground.

Out comes the warm sun, yellow and round.

Down comes the rain, wet and slow.

Up comes the little seed, grow, grow, grow!

Teaching Concepts for Outdoor Experiences

1.  Cloud Watching – take blue construction paper, white paint, and a variety of paintbrushes and have the children paint clouds they see in the sky.  What do the clouds look like? How do they move? What happens when they cover the sun? What colors of clouds are there?

2.  Nature Walk – What signs of Spring do you see? Baby animals? Green leaves? Bugs? Flowers?  What signs of Spring do you feel? Warmer air? Wind?

3.  Rain Gauge – Make one from a clear container by marking inches along the outside with a ruler and permanent marker. Place the gauge outside and support it so it will not topple. Have the children check each morning for overnight rainfall, or after a rainstorm or shower during the day. Graph the amounts of rainfall for the month.

CLASS Concepts

Use a graph to track the weather. The children count the sunny, cloudy and rainy days.  Ask questions that promote higher-order thinking skills: “What have we had more of?” This gives the children the opportunity to compare the rows on the graph. Reinforce the process of comparison by explaining that the children know that there have been more sunny days because “it is the biggest row.” Connect their discussion about today’s weather with the weather earlier in the week. By using the weather graph as a platform for making comparisons, the teacher is using concepts and ideas that are a part of the children’s everyday experiences.  This is an activity that can be done every day during morning circle time as a way to get away from a more rote style of teaching.

Teaching Concepts for Distance Learning

Scavenger hunt

You can gather a list or some ideas include looking for particular shapes, colors, items that are a certain length, or items that start with a particular sound. Find different kinds of flower and garden materials that are safe and with adult supervision.

Show and Tell.

Tie it to a learning objective. Ex: Bring something that is red. Bring something that starts with the letter P. Bring something you can wear on your hands, arms, feet, etc.