Flowers!

On Wednesday we learned about flowers!

 

 I introduced our LAST letter friend for the year!  We have officially learned all the letters of the alphabet!  The kids thought the our letter F friend looks like Swiper the Fox!  Which then prompted everyone to sing "What does the fox say?" all day long!

I showed the kids our new letter cards and hands-on letter F...

The kids took turns tracing the letter F with their finger...

...then placing the letter F on the letter card.

They also took our peek-a-boo letter F down from our circle time display.

...and revealed the flower photo from inside.

We sang:

"First a flower, then a bean,

then a bean,

then a bean.

First a flower, and then a bean.

This is how it grows."

...tomato/pea/zucchini/pumpkin.

(Sung to the tune of "Do You Know the Muffin Man?")

The kids used their bodies to make the shape of the vegetables or fruit named.  Here the kids are using their body to show a pumpkin.  J is pointing to his head, B is rolled up in a ball, and L is using his hands!

Mother Goose provided us with these supplies to make a flower costume!

First the kids painted their flower the color of their choice...

Next, they glued sunflower seeds to the center of their flower.  We will need to wait for these to dry before we can attach them to the headband strip of paper, and play with them.  (See the next post to read about how the kids played with their flowers!)

For our next activity I asked the kids to tell me what types of flowers they have seen.  They were able to name Sunflower, Daisy, Rose, and Tulip.  I showed the kids this flower chart...

I also set out new pattern blocks and shape design mats that Mother Goose provided for us.  I explained to the kids what a Japanese flower garden is.  I challenged them to use the blocks to recreate the designs on the mat.  They could also create their own Japanese flower, bridge or other garden design on the blank mat.  (Japan is the country we are learning about this month.)

I also printed and laminated this flower number activity I found for free online.  The kids could choose a number to place in the center of the flower.  Then they count and place the same number of petals around the flower.

They had to spread out their petals or stack them for the higher numbers...

Next, we talked about what insects and animals need flowers.  I encouraged the kids to sit still the next time they are outside and watch to see what comes and visits the flowers (bumblebees, hummingbirds, butterflies, etc.)  I explained that the flowers on the plant attract the insects that pollinate them.  Pollination leads to flower reproduction.  I placed our flower photo from our letter F cards on one side of the room.  I covered it with yellow pom poms (pollen). 

I put the letter F card and other letter cards on the opposite side of the room.  I encouraged the kids to grab a tweezers, run to the flower, gather some pieces of pollen using the tweezers and then bring it over and place it on the letter F card.  This activity reinforced the concept of insects helping to pollinate flowers, letter recognition, fine motor, and gross motor skills as they carefully carried the pom poms over to the letter F card without dropping them.

The kids had a lot of fun with this!

When we went outside, I took out our Velcro vests and balls to reinforce this concept again.  The kids loved playing this.  They called it the "Bumblebee Game!"  Two kids spread out and pretended to be flowers.  They held on to the the balls that they pretended was the pollen.  The two people with the Velcro vests pretended to be bumblebees.  They ran to the flower and caught the ball on their vest (much like pollen sticks to the body of a bee).  They pretended to fly over to the other flower and gave the pollen to him/her.  They imagined they were pollinating the flowers by delivering the pollen (balls).

This became a popular game all afternoon.  The kids couldn't get enough of it!

Later on, the kids worked on the letter F page in their journal.  They traced their hand on their page...

...and then added flowers to their fingertips.

They practiced writing the letter F, and then completed the sentence, "The flowers are..."

"The flowers are colorful."

"The flowers are special."

These were our books for the day....

In the afternoon the kids worked on filling in the missing letters in their literacy workbook...

They also cut and pasted Daffodil flowers according to the directions given in their math workbook.  (The directions gave out positional words for the kids to follow.)

While outside the kids found the first inchworm of the season!