Week of April 1st!

Reminders / Notices

• Dismissal is at 12:00 noon on Monday, April 8th.
• Parents are invited to join their children on Thursday, April 11th at 8:30 a.m. to celebrate The Week of the Young Child.  Parents and children may participate in science experiments that will be set  up in the gymnasium. 
• Parent-Teacher Conferences are on Friday, April 12th.
• Easter Recess begins Friday, April 12th, after dismissal.  School resumes on Monday, April 29th.

Unit Topic:

Plants 

Essential Question for the Unit:

 How do plants grow and why are they important?         

Focus Questions for this Week:

 What are plants?     

Focused Learning activity for the week:

Mrs. Gonzalez and Mrs. Tavares will work with students in the dramatic play center.  Teachers and students will transform the center into a flower shop.  Teachers will discuss the roles available to students in the flower shop and what each job requires.  Students will be able to choose the job, "customer", "cashier", or "florist" and assume the roles they have selected.  

Pre-K Common Core Learning Standard Addressed:

PK.CKW.7 (Social Studies): Develops a basic understanding of economic concepts within a community.

Foundational Text for the Week:

The Curious Garden by Peter Brown

Pre-K Common Core Learning Standard Addressed:

PK.CLL.11 (Reading Standards for Literature): With prompting and support, make connections between self, text and the world around them (text, media, social interaction).

QUESTIONS THAT WILL BE ASKED THROUGHOUT THE WEEK:

Level 1: Recall

• Where did the garden start growing? Where did the garden spread?
• What did Liam do in the winter?

Level 2: Skill/Concept

• How does the city look at the beginning of the book? How does the city look at the end of the book? Do you prefer the way it looks at the beginning or the end? Why?
• The book says that Liam didn’t feel like a gardener at first but after a while he did. Why do you think that happened?
• Other people in the city decided to be gardeners too. Why do you think they wanted to be gardeners?

Level 3: Strategic Thinking

• Do you think the people in the city felt different after there were many gardens and plants growing in the city? Why or why not?
• How do plants and gardens make you feel?

Level 4: Extended Thinking

• Can you be a gardener? Why or why not?
• If you were going to grow a garden, what would you need? What would you do?

Lessons and activities for the week:

Blocks- Students will be invited to build a garden using blocks and materials added to the block center.

Pretend Play- The teacher will turn Dramatic Play into a flower shop by adding pretend flowers, containers, pictures of flower arrangements, cash register, notepad, writing utensils etc. Children can pretend to make, buy, and sell floral arrangements. Vocabulary words such as bouquet, floral arrangement, florist, and flower will be highlighted.

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 discuss 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- Students are invited to read books about our theme, plants.

Writing- Students will write letters on a sheet of construction paper.  They can glue seeds onto the letter.  Teacher will talk with students about words that start with the letter.

Sensory- Sand and water, or play-doh.

For more information on the Lesson Plan, click HERE!

If there are any questions regarding the Pre-K for All program that can not be answered by the office or classroom teacher, please feel free to contact the

Help Line at 888-227-8175