Plum Garden Planner – May 4-18, 2010
May 4 – May 18 Kindergarten / Plum Garden planner
In the next two weeks, we will continue to inquire about the growth process of plants and learn how plant and human lifestyles are interdependent. Here are my questions for the children to reflect upon: How do flowers pollinate? What do you know about edible plants?
Language: We will continue to learn the new lesson—Lesson 5, 悄悄话 / Whispering. We will continue to write our fourth poem “我想 I want” The children and I will start brainstorming a story topic. We have made a group storybook called “A Happy Bean.” I will record the children reading it. I will email each family with the audio file and book attachments. The children will also learn new vocabulary from our weekly inquiries: “How do flowers pollinate? And, What do you know about edible plants?
Math: We will introduce how to count money, counting by 2’s, 5’s, and 10’s to 100. The children will understand the purpose of money and how it is used. They will learn how to identify coins and other values. They will learn how to count small amounts of coins and how to compare numbers. Therefore, the children can practice their coin counting for when they sell their plants.
Science and Life Science: We have discussed the right foods for our worms and what they cannot eat. The children will continue to learn more about worm composting. We will continue to learn about chlorophyll (叶绿素) and how a plant goes through the process of photosynthesis (行光合作用). We will be discovering different flowers and taking a very close up look within the insides of them. We will explore the parts of a flower, such as the stamen / 雄蕊, pistil / 雌蕊, ovary / 子房, pollen / 花粉, and calyx / 花萼. The children will learn about the different functions that each part of a flower has. The children will discover the Campsis Radicans Trumpet Creeper Vine flowers that have bloomed so beautifully in our schoolyard. They will be a “plant doctor” and take a very close-up look at the inside of various flowers, fruits, and seeds. We will explore different kinds of fruits and vegetables. The children will learn how to identify which parts of the fruits and vegetables we eat, such as: a carrot is the root part, a broccoli is the flower part, a head of lettuce is the leaf part, an eggplant is the fruit part, a pea is the seed part, and a celery is the stem part, and etc. We will also taste them. We will discover different kinds of seeds and how a tiny sunflower seed can grow into a very tall flower. We will learn about where fruits and seeds come from and how they develop.
Art: We will use colorful tissue paper to make a spring scenery collage. We will make paper flowers and cards for Mother’s day. We will also make a Chinese styled flower fan. The children will learn how to use watercolors to paint flowers on rice paper.
Social Studies and PSE: We will learn why animals need vegetation to survive and how plant seeds are carried by animals, insects, and the wind (also know as pollination). The children will understand that plants’, humans’, and animals’ lives are closely related to each other.
Singing: We will continue to learn and sing, “Knowing the parts of a plant/认识植物的身体.” We will also learn another new song “Planting a seed/种种子.”
