Sweet Smiles Preschool: Gardening Dramatic Play

On Tuesday we learned about roots!

During circle time I introduced the kids to our new letter Y friend!

I also showed them our letter Y cards provided by Mother Goose Time...

We sat in a circle and passed around the hands-on letter Y. The kids took turns tracing it with their finger...

Then one volunteer revealed what was inside the peek-a-boo letter Y...

We followed the movements as we sang:

"Roots deliver food to plants,

(Touch feet on "roots deliver" then knees, hips, head.)

Food to plants,

(Touch knees, hips, head.)

Food to plants,

(Touch knees, hips, head.)

Roots deliver food to plants,

(Touch feet on "roots deliver," then knees, hips, head.)

So that they can grow.

(Hold arms out wide.)

...air to plants.

...nutrients.

(Sung to the tune of "Mary Had a Little Lamb.")

Mother Goose provided us with the following book. It is awesome! It concentrates on counting, number recognition, colors, and also throws in a fun joke on every page! Before reading I asked the kids what their favorite fruit or vegetable is. We wondered if we would see their favorites in the book.

The following three pages were the kids favorite jokes! They giggled a ton!

Knock knock.

Who's there?

Lettuce.

Lettuce who?

Lettuce in. It's cold out here!

Knock Knock.

Who's there?

Turnip.

Turnip who?

Turnip the music. I love this song!

What's the scariest fruit?

BOO-berries!

Where do you think yams grow? The kids thought yams grow on trees, but I explained they grow underground. I placed 10 yams under a brown sheet. We imagined the brown sheet was soil. I asked the kids to feel around the top of the sheet and find a yam. They pretended to dig for yams as they chose one from under the sheet.

I imagine some of the kids had never even held a yam before. They were surprised at how hard they felt...

When all of our yams were collected, we used them to build a large letter Y...

I told the kids to find a partner and get out their nap-time blanket. They asked their partner to close their eyes while they hid something under their blanket. Their friend felt the top of the blanket and tried to guess what their friend hid underneath. They checked to see if their guess was correct or not.

They imagined they were digging for root vegetables in the garden!

Next, I set out a tray full of root vegetables. We passed the vegetables around and explored them by looking, feeling, and smelling them...

Later on in the day we ate beets with our lunch, and carrots for our snack. We also tasted radishes with our snack! The kids were not a big fan of the radishes. Tomorrow we will eat yams with our lunch!

The kids got a little silly. A mustache...

Radish hair...

A long parsnip nose...

Mother Goose provided us with a diamond/rhombus shape and yarn. We discussed that carrots and yams look similar to a diamond/rhombus shape.

I asked the kids to make a garden picture with their diamond/rhombus. They glued their shape on a piece of white paper and added details. I encouraged the kids to pull apart the yarn, cut it into pieces and glue it onto the diamond/rhombus. We imagined the yarn represented roots.

Next, we discussed the importance of roots and how water moves through them. Mother Goose provided us with this science experiment card...

To demonstrate how roots absorb water and nutrients from soil, I filled two cups with water. I changed the color of one cup of water to blue, and one cup to yellow (with food coloring). I rolled up a few paper towels and placed the ends in each glass. Immediately we could see the water being absorbed into the paper towels, much like roots!

After a while, the colors mixed at the top of the paper towel and mixed together to make green!

Mother Goose provided us with new journals. I asked the kids to write their name on their journal and draw picture of a garden. We discussed the difference between plants that need sun, and plants that need shade.

The kids worked on the letter Y in their literacy workbook...

They also colored all of the diamonds/rhombuses they found in their math workbook...

These were our books for the day. We talked briefly about Cinco de Mayo. We ate tacos for lunch!

Check out our new dramatic play area!!!!! I set it up to be a garden/flower shop!

There are flowers dangling down from the ceiling upon entering the room...