Roots...

On Thursday our Mother Goose lesson was all about the roots of a tree...

The kids started out the morning working in their workbooks again.  They worked on the letter A page in their literacy workbook...

They also cut and pasted the pictures on this page according to the directions.  The directions worked on positional words (under, beside, above, etc.)...

The kids also worked on this number, counting, and writing activity in their math workbook...

During circle time I gave the group a stick and asked them to try and get it to stand on one end.  They quickly discovered the stick was unable to do this.  This led us to talk about the importance of roots.  Roots helps a tree to stand firmly in the ground, and they drink the nutrients from the soil.

We sang, "R-O-O-T-S" to the tune of "Skip to My Lou."

Next we talked about the different parts of a tree: trunk, limbs, branches, leaves, roots, etc...  We also discussed whether or not we believed a tree to be living or nonliving.  I explained that anything that grows is living.  We played a song from our "In the Orchard" CD and the kids planted their feet firmly on the floor like a tree.  They moved only their "trunks" and "branches" to the music.

Next we used these looking glasses to find items shown on our new theme poster for the month...

Before pointing to each picture on the poster, the kids have to say positional words to describe where each picture is located.

How deep do you think roots can grow?  We discussed that the roots of a tree are often the same size as the branches above it.  The kids were given a new journal for the month of October.  They wrote their name on the cover, and drew a picture of a tree and its branches with the same size of roots underneath the soil.

Next, we headed outside to investigate and discover any roots that we could find!  The tree in my front yard has very big roots that have grown towards the surface of the ground.  The kids were amazed with how hard the roots were.  I explained that they were hard because they were very big and very old.  Not all roots are hard, like the roots of a small flower.

This was our book for the day...