Week of April 16!

Theme for the month:

Plants 

Student Outcomes: Enduring understandings that the student should have by the end of the unit: 

•   Plants are living things; every part of a plant has an important function.
•   Plants grow from seeds and need water, nutrients and light to live. 
•   Plants are all around us.
•   There are many different types of plants.
•    Plants are important for many reasons.

LEARNING CENTERS AND ACTIVITIES:

Blocks- The teacher will wrap blocks in green, brown and other color papers and invite children to use them to create stems, tree trunks, soil etc.  Paper, scissors, and tape will be supplied for children to create leaves, flowers etc. to add to their plants. Pictures of plants will be available for children to reference as they build. Teacher will discuss the parts of the plants and types of plants they are creating, highlighting vocabulary words such as branch, flower, leaves and stem. 

Pretend Play-The teacher will turn Dramatic Play into a farmers market by adding pretend vegetables and fruits,flowers containers and pictures of flower ,cash register, notepad, writing utensils etc. Children can pretend to make, buy and sell fruits, vegetable or floral arrangements.

Art- The teacher will supply pipe cleaners as well as tissue paper circles. Children can pierce the middle of the tissue paper circles with the pipe cleaner, adding as many as they would like, then fold the circles up to create a flower. After creating these flowers children can use them in the Dramatic Play flower shop.

Science- The teacher will provide individual pictures of the plant life cycle. Students will be asked to sequence the pictures. The teacher will provide pictures /diagrams for children to refer to as they play and talk with them about each stage in the life cycle. 

Math- The teacher will cut out several paper watermelons, add a number to each one, and ask children to put the appropriate number of seeds on each watermelon.Students are encouraged to write the corresponding number.

Library- The teachers will create a felt board with pieces that represent the growth of a plant. The children will be invited to sequence the pieces. The teacher will use the appropriate vocabulary words with children such as seed, bud, bulb, seedling and sprout to scaffold children’s learning.

Writing- The teacher will write letters on index cards. The children will be provided with seeds to place on the letters. The teacher will talk with children about the letters they chose to create and some of the words that start with those letters. Children will be encouraged to glue the seeds on to the letters. 

Technology-  Weekly learning games on iPads are provided.  

Sensory- Sand and water, or play-doh.

Some of the books we will read this week are

The Vegetables We Eat by Gail Gibbons

Planting a Rainbow by Lois Ehlers

Lesson Plan Link

Reminders (Mark your calendar) 

• Our Spring Show will be on Tuesday, April 24^th at 9:00a.m.
• Dismissal will be at 12:00 noon on Friday, April 27^th. 
• Parent-Teacher Conferences will be on April 27^th from 3p.m. to 8 p.m

Dear parents, 

If you have any questions about the UPK for All program that the teacher or school is unable to answer please feel free to contact: The Archdioceses Help Line at 888-227-8175 from 9:00 A.M. - 5:00 P.M. or by Email at catholicschool.upk.arch.ny.org.