| Spring Unit |
| We study all about spring, eggs/oviparous animals, and plants during this unit. |
Journal Topics:
*What do plants need to grow?
*What kind of garden would you like to tend?
*Draw a plant and label its parts.
*Which plants are yummy? Which plants are/would be yucky?
*Draw an egg with a tiny crack. Write about the animal
inside, trying to hatch out. What is it thinking? How is it
feeling?
*Now draw yesterday's animal hatching! What is it thinking
now? Use speech bubbles to express what it's "saying."
*Draw 2-3 stages of a chick's development in the egg. (We do
this after candling our eggs over a period of 10 days.)
*In the spring...
*What do plants need to grow?
*What kind of garden would you like to tend?
*Draw a plant and label its parts.
*Which plants are yummy? Which plants are/would be yucky?
*Draw an egg with a tiny crack. Write about the animal
inside, trying to hatch out. What is it thinking? How is it
feeling?
*Now draw yesterday's animal hatching! What is it thinking
now? Use speech bubbles to express what it's "saying."
*Draw 2-3 stages of a chick's development in the egg. (We do
this after candling our eggs over a period of 10 days.)
*In the spring...
Shared Reading
Chickens by Diane Snowball
What Hatches From an Egg?
by Norma L. Gentner
Chickens by Diane Snowball
What Hatches From an Egg?
by Norma L. Gentner
Focus Poetry
"Eggs"
"Peck, Peck, Peck"
"Eggs"
"Peck, Peck, Peck"
Center Ideas:
art: paint a flower, then use computer labels to identify the
parts, use liquid starch and colored tissue paper squares to
decorate egg shapes
fine motor: perforate a flower shape, trace an Easter egg and
use a variety of lines (bumpy, broken, looping, wavy, zigzag,
straight) to decorate it, flower scribble art, chick scribble art
ABC: sort plastic letters into letters found in the word "spring"
and letters not found in the word "spring," use yellow crayon
to highlight those letters (found in "spring") in the newspaper
writing: "Plants need...." "What hatches from an egg?" "In the
spring, I..."
science: observe chicken eggs in the incubator for changes,
reading chicken manuals depicting the chicks' developmental
stages
art: paint a flower, then use computer labels to identify the
parts, use liquid starch and colored tissue paper squares to
decorate egg shapes
fine motor: perforate a flower shape, trace an Easter egg and
use a variety of lines (bumpy, broken, looping, wavy, zigzag,
straight) to decorate it, flower scribble art, chick scribble art
ABC: sort plastic letters into letters found in the word "spring"
and letters not found in the word "spring," use yellow crayon
to highlight those letters (found in "spring") in the newspaper
writing: "Plants need...." "What hatches from an egg?" "In the
spring, I..."
science: observe chicken eggs in the incubator for changes,
reading chicken manuals depicting the chicks' developmental
stages
Literature:
How a Seed Grows by Helene J. Jordan
The Carrot Seed by Ruth Krauss
From Seed To Plant by Gail Gibbons
A Seed Grows by Pamela Hickman
One Bean by Anne Rockwell
Eating the Alphabet by Lois Ehlert
Growing Vegetable Soup by Lois Ehlert
The Tiny Seed by Eric Carle
*After reading one or all of these books, we
brainstorm and list all the plants we can think of,
sorting them into edible plants and non-edible plants.
Students will complete their own Plants! booklet: page 1-
A (carrot) is a plant. It is (edible). We can (eat) it.
page 2- A (banana) is a plant. It is (edible). We can (eat)
it.
page 3- A (potato) is a plant. It is (edible). We can (eat)
it.
page 4- A (tree) is a plant. It is (non-edible). We can
(climb) it.
Students will fill in the blanks and illustrate each page
using their own drawings, magazine pictures, or clip art.
Planting a Rainbow by Lois Ehlert
*After reading this great Ehlert book, students are
given their own "rainbow" books (1/4 size strips of
colored paper stapled into a booklet- red, orange,
yellow, green, blue, purple). Next, we go through
magazines (first as a class, then independently)
searching for pictures of plants and flowers. Students
share their findings with the entire class. We discuss
on which page (red, blue, orange, etc.) the flower would
go. We search some more, then they go to their tables
to finish independently. Students will search for
flowers, cut them out, glue them on the appropriate
color page, then write about the flowers on each page.
They love to read each others' books because they're
always different!
Jack's Garden by Henry Cole
Flower Garden by Eve Bunting
The Reason For a Flower by Ruth Heller
*After reading any of these books, we discuss all sorts
of "parts" (parts of a car, parts of our bodies, parts
of a tree, parts of a chair, etc.). Using the overhead
projector or the chalkboard, we draw an object and
label each of its "parts." We usually draw/discuss at
least 2 different objects before turning the discussion
to parts of a flower. Each student draws a flower
clearly depicting the stem, petals, leaves, roots, etc.
Students use computer labels to identify each part. On
the backside, student choose another object (chair,
body, apple, jet, etc.) to draw and label each of its
parts.
This can be extended by finding objects around the
school (or homework project) which are made up of
parts. Disassemble the objects and "misplace" a few of
the parts. Allow them to reassemble the objects.
Discuss an object's usefulness without all its parts.
The same applies to plants. Students return to their
pictures to write about each part's use to the object:
The leg is important because it holds up the table .
The leaf is important because it makes chlorophyll .
It's Not Easy Being a Bunny by Marilyn Sadler
*This great story about P.J. Funnybunny teaches
students to be themselves... even when it doesn't seem
fun or easy.
As a response to this story, students create an
egg-shaped booklet.
1. The cover is a pink, paper oval titled It's Not Easy
Being A Bunny by Marilyn Sadler. This page has a vertical
line drawn down the middle. (Students will cut on this
line to assemble the booklet.)
2. The back page is a white oval with the sentence
frame:
It's not easy __________________.
3. To assemble the booklet, students cut along the
vertical line on the pink oval, then use a brass brad to
attach the pink halves to the top of the back page.
The 2 halves slide open ("Pacman-style") to reveal the
back page.
4. Students illustrate/complete the sentence frame
with something they find "not easy" but definitely
worthwhile... something they hope to soon accomplish
(ride a bike, behave all day, read a whole book, climb a
tree, swim underwater, etc.)
5. Last, students turn the booklet over (so the back
page is on top), draw a bunny face on the white oval,
and move the pink halves upward to look like bunny
ears.
I Love You Little One by Nancy Tafuri
The Runaway Bunny by Margaret Wise Brown
*These two tales depict a parent's love for her
offspring. Students love to listen to them again and
again. Students create a "love card" to their parents
using the story pattern from The Runaway Bunny:
If you ________________, then I'll ____________. However, we
reverse the storyline. Students love the silly idea that
their parents would runaway from them. So they come
up with ideas to foil their parents' imagined plans... "If
you become a sock, then I'll become a shoe." "If you become
a star, then I'll become an astronaut and visit you." "If you
become a book, then I'll become a librarian to take care of
you."
White Rabbit's Color Book by Alan Baker
The Golden Egg Book by Margaret Wise Brown
Egg by Robert Burton
A Nest Full of Eggs by Priscilla Belz Jenkins
Inside An Egg by Sylvia A. Johnson
Egg To Chick by Millicent Ellis Selsam
Chickens Aren't The Only Ones by Ruth Heller
The Carrot Seed by Ruth Krauss
From Seed To Plant by Gail Gibbons
A Seed Grows by Pamela Hickman
One Bean by Anne Rockwell
Eating the Alphabet by Lois Ehlert
Growing Vegetable Soup by Lois Ehlert
The Tiny Seed by Eric Carle
*After reading one or all of these books, we
brainstorm and list all the plants we can think of,
sorting them into edible plants and non-edible plants.
Students will complete their own Plants! booklet: page 1-
A (carrot) is a plant. It is (edible). We can (eat) it.
page 2- A (banana) is a plant. It is (edible). We can (eat)
it.
page 3- A (potato) is a plant. It is (edible). We can (eat)
it.
page 4- A (tree) is a plant. It is (non-edible). We can
(climb) it.
Students will fill in the blanks and illustrate each page
using their own drawings, magazine pictures, or clip art.
Planting a Rainbow by Lois Ehlert
*After reading this great Ehlert book, students are
given their own "rainbow" books (1/4 size strips of
colored paper stapled into a booklet- red, orange,
yellow, green, blue, purple). Next, we go through
magazines (first as a class, then independently)
searching for pictures of plants and flowers. Students
share their findings with the entire class. We discuss
on which page (red, blue, orange, etc.) the flower would
go. We search some more, then they go to their tables
to finish independently. Students will search for
flowers, cut them out, glue them on the appropriate
color page, then write about the flowers on each page.
They love to read each others' books because they're
always different!
Jack's Garden by Henry Cole
Flower Garden by Eve Bunting
The Reason For a Flower by Ruth Heller
*After reading any of these books, we discuss all sorts
of "parts" (parts of a car, parts of our bodies, parts
of a tree, parts of a chair, etc.). Using the overhead
projector or the chalkboard, we draw an object and
label each of its "parts." We usually draw/discuss at
least 2 different objects before turning the discussion
to parts of a flower. Each student draws a flower
clearly depicting the stem, petals, leaves, roots, etc.
Students use computer labels to identify each part. On
the backside, student choose another object (chair,
body, apple, jet, etc.) to draw and label each of its
parts.
This can be extended by finding objects around the
school (or homework project) which are made up of
parts. Disassemble the objects and "misplace" a few of
the parts. Allow them to reassemble the objects.
Discuss an object's usefulness without all its parts.
The same applies to plants. Students return to their
pictures to write about each part's use to the object:
The leg is important because it holds up the table .
The leaf is important because it makes chlorophyll .
It's Not Easy Being a Bunny by Marilyn Sadler
*This great story about P.J. Funnybunny teaches
students to be themselves... even when it doesn't seem
fun or easy.
As a response to this story, students create an
egg-shaped booklet.
1. The cover is a pink, paper oval titled It's Not Easy
Being A Bunny by Marilyn Sadler. This page has a vertical
line drawn down the middle. (Students will cut on this
line to assemble the booklet.)
2. The back page is a white oval with the sentence
frame:
It's not easy __________________.
3. To assemble the booklet, students cut along the
vertical line on the pink oval, then use a brass brad to
attach the pink halves to the top of the back page.
The 2 halves slide open ("Pacman-style") to reveal the
back page.
4. Students illustrate/complete the sentence frame
with something they find "not easy" but definitely
worthwhile... something they hope to soon accomplish
(ride a bike, behave all day, read a whole book, climb a
tree, swim underwater, etc.)
5. Last, students turn the booklet over (so the back
page is on top), draw a bunny face on the white oval,
and move the pink halves upward to look like bunny
ears.
I Love You Little One by Nancy Tafuri
The Runaway Bunny by Margaret Wise Brown
*These two tales depict a parent's love for her
offspring. Students love to listen to them again and
again. Students create a "love card" to their parents
using the story pattern from The Runaway Bunny:
If you ________________, then I'll ____________. However, we
reverse the storyline. Students love the silly idea that
their parents would runaway from them. So they come
up with ideas to foil their parents' imagined plans... "If
you become a sock, then I'll become a shoe." "If you become
a star, then I'll become an astronaut and visit you." "If you
become a book, then I'll become a librarian to take care of
you."
White Rabbit's Color Book by Alan Baker
The Golden Egg Book by Margaret Wise Brown
Egg by Robert Burton
A Nest Full of Eggs by Priscilla Belz Jenkins
Inside An Egg by Sylvia A. Johnson
Egg To Chick by Millicent Ellis Selsam
Chickens Aren't The Only Ones by Ruth Heller
Math/Graphs:
Science/Social Studies:
Links:
Plants
Spring, Kites, and Rainbows Unit
Signs of Spring Unit
April Links
"It Started as an Egg"
Rain
Bugs
Plants
Spring, Kites, and Rainbows Unit
Signs of Spring Unit
April Links
"It Started as an Egg"
Rain
Bugs
