On Wednesday we learned about beans! When I asked the kids what beans look like, they instantly said they are "GREEN!" My goal for the day was to introduce them to many more types of beans!
First, we gathered together and I gave a handful of dried beans to each child. I asked them to place their beans in a row. I was amazed at how many different things I saw...
This little cutie spread her beans apart but didn't quite understand what a "row" meant. This activity gave me the opportunity to teach her.
N made a row with her beans...
L separated his beans and then made them into rows...
J made a pattern with his row of beans!
These two boys copied each other. They made a row, but then decided to change their row so it looked like a mouth. They added eyes and a nose to make a bean face!
Next, I set out our hands-on letters and numbers we are learning about this month. We sang "Plant a Bean" to the tune of "Skip to My Lou..."
"Plant, plant, plant a bean.
Plant, plant, plant a bean.
Plant, plant, plant a bean.
Plant it on the Y."
I called one child at a time to put a bean on the number or letter I named each time we sang the verse.
For our first activity, Mother Goose provided us with this bilingual book titled, "The Rabbit is Hungry." I read the book in English and then in Spanish with the kids. Then I encouraged them to complete the pages by coloring food they think a rabbit would like to eat, and cutting and pasting the provided photos to their corresponding page.
"A ninja rabbit..."
A few of the kids labeled their food with words!
Next, the kids worked on the color pink page in their journal. They colored their bird pink, and then added some soil and green bean plants. They wrote the sentence, "My beans are pink." They used a q-tip to add pink green beans to their plant. They thought this was super silly!
I provided red, white and pink paint for them to experiment mixing with...
For our next activity, I gave the kids a small sample of some cooked beans. We tried black beans, kidney beans, garbanzo beans, and Lima beans!
I didn't want to overwhelm the kids with a huge portion. Sometimes new foods can be scary to young children. I encouraged the kids to try a bite of each bean. I also provided them with a sticker that said, "Make Today a Try Day!"
They were a bit hesitant, but curious at the same time...
About half of the kids LOVED them! They ate their whole amount, and asked me to serve them for a meal sometime.
Check out that empty cup! Wow! I think she even surprised herself!
"Ewww, I am not gonna like this..."
"Hmmmm...."
"Sure, I'll give a fake smile just to be polite."
The sticker made it all worth it! :)
Beans are important to eat because they are full of fiber and protein. They also give us energy and build strength! After our bean snack we headed outside to burn off some energy! We could feel our muscles getting stronger by the minute! Lol!
We did a few exercises on the patio together to show off our super strong muscles!
Jumping jacks...
Push ups...
After we came in from outside, I set out this bean activity. I placed dried beans in two bowls, and also provided two spoons, and our number 10 counting card.
The kids could scoop the beans and transfer them to the other bowl. I also encouraged them to scoop one spoonful of beans and estimate how many beans they had. They counted to verify if their estimate was correct or not. Then they scooped the beans again and tried to get 10. They checked their amounts by using the number 10 counting card.
I also read our "Jack and the Beanstalk" story again that Mother Goose Time provided for us this month. I set out the story telling pieces to allow the kids to play with and retell the story in their own way.
I love that Mother Goose Time also provides discussion questions to go over at the end of the story. This builds comprehension and vocabulary.
I also encouraged the kids to listen to our "Jack and the Beanstalk" CD story in our listening center again.
This was our book for today. It was another excellent recommendation by Mother Goose Time!
The kids found a partner and played a game from their math workbook with dried beans...
I also worked one-on-one with each child and helped them to write a new ending to a story in their literacy workbook...
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