An Enchanted Childhood~ Daycare:Week 3

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 3~

This past week, we chose How Groundhog's Garden Grew and The Tiny Seed as our books to read.  Groundhog's Garden is an adorable (and very educational) book that tells the life cycle of a garden.  The Tiny Seed tells the about the life of a seed.  Both books talk about gardens, planting and harvesting, and the seasons--perfect books for this time of year, with fall arriving and the beloved garden coming to an end.

Monday--read How Groundhog's Garden Grew, took a nature walk to see the garden (gathered veggies to bring home) as well as checking our volunteer pumpkins.  We also gathered acorns--lots and lots of acorns.

                                

Tuesday--read Groundhog's Garden again--discussing root vegetables, perennials, and the four seasons..  We used our acorns, gathered the day before, as part of our TableTime toys. During CircleTime, we sang a song about the four seasons "Winter, spring, summer, fall.  Thank you God for making them all."  We ate some very yummy candied acorns and some Moon and Stars watermelon for morning snack, while saving seeds for next year.  For CreativeTime, we used cute insect stickers to decorate plastic babyfood containers in which we next planted parsley seeds.  We then took a long nature walk, where we looked for seeds, seed pods, etc.  The children then visited the garden where they sadly learned the raspberries were done producing and there would be no more until next year.

Wednesday--read Groundhog's Garden yet again--taking a long time to point out the various plants and animals.  We watercolor-painted gardens for CreativeTime.  The children were all so proud of their garden paintings!  Once again, a long nature walk and a trip to the garden were turned into educational experiences--the children took their nature bags and filled them with all kinds of goodies along the way.  While eating lunch, we saved more watermelon and green pepper seeds for next year.  Before NapTime, we read In the Garden with Van Gogh.

 

Thursday--We used our insect and animal finger puppets to discuss the book How Groundhog's Garden Grew, talking about things like root crops, perennials, helpful insects, and our favorite veggies and berries in Poppaw John's garden.  We read The Tiny Seed by Eric Carle.  For CreativeTime, we planted bean seeds in small ziplock baggies with a paper towel soaked in water to start the germination process.  We will observe our seeds over the next few days/weeks to watch for the seeds to split open, roots to appear, and green leaves!  We also watered our parsley seeds that we planted Tuesday.

Friday--We read through both our books to finish up the week.  We repeated the finger puppet fun, reviewing important things about a garden, lifecycles of plants, seed dispersal, and more, as well as sang our "seasons" song during CircleTime. During CreativeTime, we made sunflowers and used real seeds for the center.  During OutsideTime, we again took a nature walk, gathering ferns, wildflowers, acorns, and other bits of nature (including a toad we caught and observed for a while.)  Next week, we will continue to study this theme as we read Miss Rumphius and The Carrot Seed.