PLAYhouse preSCHOOL: Nature Tripping Week 2

Little Jade was down with the flu last week so we had to put off our lessons. This week, we continued our previous theme and the toddlers learned more about the different parts of a plant and the things they need to grow.  They learned to differentiate fruits, vegetables and flowers. They were also able to make a little garden of their own using scrap materials.

Music & Me Monday
Jade and I made up a song about what plants need to grow.  She loves singing the song during bath time.  She curls down and pretends to be a seed, gets up slowly and “grows” into a flower as I sprinkle water on her.  The lyrics and music changes each time as it is just one of our impromptu songs:

I’m a little seed, a pretty little seed. (Jade squats with head curled down)
Put me in some soil and pat, pat, pat. (Mama pretends to put Jade in a pot)
Place me where there’s sunlight and plenty of air.
Water me until I grow. (Mama pretends to water Jade – sprinkles water on her during bathtime)
Growing, growing, growing tall. (Jade uncurls and slowly stands up)
Now I’m a pretty little flower. (Jade sways from side to side, smiles, and exclaims, “I’m a flower!”

Thinking Tuesday
We answered some worksheets on counting from 1 to 20, completing patterns, and sorting. Jade has already mastered counting objects from 1 to 10 and has no difficulty recognizing numbers 1 to 10. She still needs more practice recognizing numbers from 11 to 20 though. When counting more than 10 objects, she would sometimes count an object twice so I taught her how to mark each item as she counts it. She’s able to complete ABAB and AABB patterns without difficulty but needs assistance with more complex patterns.  She was able to sort out the vegetables from the flowers without any help from me.

Jakei can already count by rote from 1 to 10 but can’t identify the numbers yet.  When asked to count a set of objects, he will always count up to 10 regardless of the actual number of objects.

Wonderful World of Wednesday
The little boy needed to be brought to his pedia on Wednesday morning so our art activity was rescheduled on Friday.  We made leaf imprints again, colored a picture using punched-out circles, and made our own little garden using scrap paper, used stirrers, stale ground coffee, and used plastic bowls.

Click here for the art activities we had this week.

Thursday Talkies
We answered worksheets from Homeschool Creations and 1+1+1=1 Tots School. I introduced rhyme to the toddlers using the rhyming words picture set from the Garden Preschool Pack. We finished off with a new set of plant-related words to enrich their vocabulary.

Again, these daily sessions last two hours at the most.  It takes the toddlers only about half an hour to finish the worksheets.  The rest of the morning is spent playing with their toys and reading books.

Our theme next week will be “What Can We See At the Zoo?”. If you have any ideas on how we can have fun learning about zoo animals, kindly share it with me.