Week 2: Plants

Another Tuesday, another preschool session! I have the first shift, so I teach for three weeks in a row and then I am completely done for the rest of the semester. This is nice, since the baby is due shortly after the third class. The kids have been really good and it is so much fun for Emily and Caleb to have some friends come over for a couple of hours.
Today we talked about seeds and plants. This was a much easier lesson to plan than manners!

We always start with opening the Joy School windows for each student that is there. They actually really love this.














One of my neighbors did the real Joy School program for one of her other kids, so she had the poster left from that. She also had this weather chart that we talk about at the beginning. I let the kids look out the window and then decide what the weather is like. Then we talk about what kind of clothes they should choose to wear. Too bad it is always hot and sunny here. Today was exciting because it was cloudy and hot. I love that one of the kids (besides Caleb) always moves the arrow to Rain when I give him a turn. He also told me he put on a raincoat to walk to preschool.

Then we talked about seeds needing dirt, water, and sun to grow and made a poster together about that. I had the shapes pre-cut and I just let the kids tape everything on and draw the sun and water.

Then we planted some beans. I'm not sure if they'll really grow, but I thought the kids would have fun playing in the dirt, poking holes, and planting beans.

While we were outside we collected leaves for leaf prints. As you can see, I think that might be an activity for an older group. The two at the bottom are by the two older kids.

Books are always a hit with this group, so we read Jack's Garden by Henry Cole to introduce the idea of seeds and plants. We also read Big Black Bear by Wong Herbert Yee to review manners (they love this one - it's the best one I looked at about manners) and This is the Firefighter by Laura Godwin and Below by Nina Crews as attention-getters when the kids were getting antsy.
They really like those last two books, if any of you future teachers are looking for good reading.

The time really went too fast - I think I would have been fine to have them for three hours, which is never something I thought I would say. I think the kids learned some good basics - what a seed needs to grow, what leaves are for, and what roots are for. Joseph thought I should teach them all to say "photosynthesis" just to impress parents, but we didn't get to that. :) Maybe that's what we would have used an extra half hour for!

I know this was a lot of detail, but I thought it might be helpful for anyone else out there looking for lesson ideas.