Aalva Class 2015-2016: It's Time To Plant!

Hello family and friends!

We've been having a great week in the Aalva class! Our chicks are still doing well and have grown so much since they've hatched. We have homes for all 9 of them and some of them are leaving our classroom this weekend. With so many chicks and such a small space, we felt that it was time to let some of them go ahead and get comfortable in their forever homes. We will be keeping a few of them until Spring break so that we can continue to observe them and watch them grow. As we've studied chickens, we've read that they enjoy eating seeds. This lead us to talking about flowers and spring and bugs. This will be our new exploration (as we continue to monitor our chicks, of course).

To start our week we read the book "Planting a Rainbow" by Lois Elhert. This book got us thinking about the different types of plants and what they provide for us. We discussed the difference between seeds and bulbs and their importance. We also talked about the importance of labeling our plants so we could remember what we're growing as well as remember the best way to care for each plant, since they all require different types of care. As we talked about different types of plants we discussed what plants have, what plants need, and what plants give to us. We then decided to do some planting. We learned that egg shells are great fertilizer for soil and since we have plenty of them we thought we'd give it a try. This was a great connection for us between chickens and plants! We started by cracking the top off an egg and cleaning it out. We then filled their egg shells with soil and placed some basil seeds inside of them. Finally, we watered them and placed them in the window to receive plenty of sunlight. Once our seeds begin to sprout inside the shell, we will transfer the whole thing into a pot and cover it with soil. We are predicting that the egg shell will help the basil to grow big as it provides the soil with loads of minerals and vitamins. Once we make the transfer, we will send the pots home and you'll have some basil to cook with!

In talking about the process of seeds to plants, we thought it'd be fun to watch the roots and stems leave the seed. In order to do this, each child made a bag to grow a seed in. We wet some paper towels and placed 3 beans inside each bag. We then hung them up in the windows for sunlight. Through doing this, we hope to be able to see the roots and stems sprout from our seeds. The kids have been checking their bags for changes daily. Once these beans grow further, we'll send them home for the kids to plant in a pot of their own. As we bagged these seeds we talked about the importance of rain and water for our seeds. We've noticed that our wet paper towels have kept our bags moist so that our seeds are staying watered on their own. We also talked about the importance of sunlight as we discussed where to hang them in our classroom. Like true scientist, we made predictions of what will happen to the seed in the bag. Here are some predictions we made:
- the seed will die
- the seed will grow
- nothing will happen to the seed (it will stay the same)
- the seed will double (it will make another bean)
- leaves will grow out of the bean
- the bean will grow roots
- the bean will grow more beans.

We also planted some lavender in our classroom this week! We each added soil and seeds to a large pot and placed it in the window. We're hoping to get some beautiful lavender before the school year ends! As we planted we discussed the importance of soil and the nutrients that it provides for the plant. We also talked about the seasons and the changes we see in plants throughout these different seasons. Miss Madison (our intern) did a lesson for us based around the seasons. She read us a book explaining the different seasons and their importance. She then conducted a writers workshop with the kids where they wrote and illustrated their favorite season and what they enjoyed about it. This was Miss Madison's last week with us. We hate to see her go but we look forward to her coming back to visit us! We said a farewell to her by giving her a book that we made. Each child drew a picture and said something about her. We also bought her a Pete the Cat book...one of our favorites...and each child signed it for her. The kids gave plenty of hugs and snuggles!

While discussing seeds we have also talked about the importance of seeds to other forms of wildlife. Since it's spring, we thought it'd be fun to get some birds eating our seeds. From working with our chicks, we've learned how much birds enjoy seed and are looking for some now that winter is over. Each child made their own bird feeder. We were actually able to find a recipe that did not require peanut butter (yay!). The kids mixed up all their ingredients and then pressed the mixture into cookie cutters to dry. They poked a hole in each one so we could string them. I hope you can find a place to hang them at home and hopefully see some bird action as well!

We also had some special guests come to our room this week. Three women from Carolina Gardens (an assisted living home) came by and read stories with us. It just happened that all 3 of them are retired teachers. They sat in groups with the kids and read books and talked with them. This was such a sweet time for both them and the kids! We are hoping to make this an event that can be done monthly.

It's been a great week of learning and planting! We're looking forward to exploring all the growth (seeds and chicks) that will happen in our classroom over the next few weeks!

Love,
Ms. Rachael

Approaches to Learning:

Demonstrate growing ability to predict possible outcomes based on prior experiences and knowledge.
Reason about events, relationships, or problems.
Represent prior events and personal experiences in one or more ways.
Demonstrate increasing ability to use prior knowledge to understand new experiences.
Demonstrate an increasing ability to organize actions and materials in the learning environment.

Social & Emotional:

Interact easily with familiar adults by engaging in conversations, responding to questions and following directions.
Participate in group life of the class.
Display emerging social skills of trying to take turns and talk with others during play.
Demonstrate with adult guidance simple techniques to solve social problems.

Language & Literacy:

Carry out simple directions and directives.
Complete a thought or idea when communicating with others.
Classify objects and information by observable attributes into predetermined categories.
Ask "how" and "why" questions about things in books and their environment.
Begin to use classroom resources such as books, charts, photographs and graphs to gain information about topics of interest.
Contribute to small group or whole class stories, rhymes or poems.
Combine some letters with pretend writing.

Mathematics:

Organize and represent data with real objects.
Understand and use positional words to describe the location of objects.
Sort and classify objects by one attribute.
Compare sets of no more than ten objects using the terms "more than" or "same as".
Show one-on-one correspondence through ten when counting real objects.
Begin to show an awareness of numbers in the environment.

Sprouting basil in egg shells...