An Enchanted Childhood~ Daycare:Week 4

We have been asked many times to write up our "lesson plans" so others could use them.  Honestly, we just spend a little time thinking about how we want the "school year" to look and go from there.  We wing-it a lot, doing impromptu things that add to our plans.  I am always amazed that anyone would think what we do is worthy of writing down for others to read, but here it goes!

This year, we are doing "Childhood Classics"--reading great children's books--you know, the kind every child should get to know, and then doing little activities to go with it.


Week 4~
We continued our study of plants, gardens, seeds, and seasons by reading The Carrot Seed and Miss Rumphius.  The Carrot Seed is the story of a little boy who plants a carrot seed.  No one thinks it will grow, but he faithfully cares for it each day and is rewarded with a huge carrot!  Miss Rumphius is the story of a lady who "makes the world a more beautiful place" by planting lupine seeds.

Monday--We read The Carrot Seed, emphasizing that a carrot is a root vegetable, during CircleTime.  For snack we ate carrots with ranch dip.  During CreativeTime, the children sponge painted one piece of card stock with orange paint and another piece with green.  As those were drying, we taped together 1/2 sheet of blue construction paper and 1/2 piece of brown (sky and earth).  We added cotton ball clouds and a foam circle sun.  We (meaning me) cut out the carrots and their green tops from the painted cardstock, helping the children to glue them into place.  We again talked about carrots being a root crop.  We followed up CreativeTime with a NatureWalk and a trip to check on the chickens and take a look at the garden.

Tuesday--Today we again read The Carrot Seed.  During SnackTime, we cut open apples and looked at the seeds.  During CreativeTime, we decorated (using markers) envelopes to use as seed packets for the green pepper and "Moon and Stars" watermelon seeds we saved and dried.  We watered our parsley seeds and checked in on our germinating seeds.  Yippee!  All of the children had at least one (and some had many) beans seeds that had sprouted.  We looked for the white root and the green stems!  During OutsideTime, we took a nature walk, observing various seeds along the way.  We helped nature with seed dispersal, by blowing the seeds off dandelions and sprinkling rose bush "seeds" along the path! 

Wednesday--Today we read Miss Rumphius.  We watercolor-painted lupines and made a "happy birthday and get well soon" card for one of the boy's uncle, during CreativeTime   During various "learning times", (of course they learn allll the time) we worked on the continent map, counted to 10, identified numbers to 5, sang and signed the ABCs and sang our song of the letter sounds for each childs' name. We then scurried outside to enjoy the falling leaves and temps warm enough for creek play!

Thursday--  Again we read Miss Rumphius.  For CreativeTime, we used our germinated seeds to do an art project.  We sorted the seeds into various stages of development.  Next, each child made a chart to take home, by gluing the seeds, seeds with roots, and seeds with roots and leaves onto cardstock.  During OutsideTime, we opened morning glory and cleome seed pods and sprinkled the seeds around the yard, "making the world a more beautiful place" like Miss Rumphius did in the book!

  

                                

Friday--We finished up the week by reading both our books again.  For CreativeTime, we mixed paimts to make purple, pink, and light blue.  Then, the children made "fingerprint" lupine flowers.  Afterwards, they used the leftover paint to "free" paint!  Before talking a walk to visit the chickens and play at the creek, we broke open milkweed pods and blew seeds everywhere, showing how the wind blows seeds.

**We had some excitement during CreativeTime--we brought in a frog--a rather large frog. It hopped out of Hannah's hands, into the plate of blue paint, and onto the floor leaving a trail of blue footprints! The children thought it was awesome!