myGanBlog: Animals and Garden Beans

Animals and Garden beans...what do they have in common?

A Look At this week:

They were both discussed during this short week! We were closed Wednesday and Thursday this week so there was not nearly as much going on. However, we did continue our discussion on animals this week. In math this week we focused on our pattern block animals. It is always interesting to watch how each child comes up with different ways to use the pattern blocks to match the animal cards! For our language development the children were able to use the animal zoo again. They have really enjoyed learning about animals that start with each letter. It has also been fun to listen to them using more animal names in the classroom. On Monday there were a few children that were really excited to talk about ostriches. In home living we pretended to be a parent as this goes with the book, "Does a Kangaroo Have A Mother Too?" This book as well as "Slowly, Slowly, Slowly Said the Sloth" were our main books, as well as Eric Carle books. In blocks the children continued to build a zoo. For art this week the children created animals out of playdough.

With our reading of "Slowly, Slowly, Slowly Said the Sloth" we talked about fast and slow. We played a game where we followed a leader who had to do something either fast or slow. The children enjoyed trying to come up with different ideas of what to do! They also had the chance to walk (to go get their lunched and wash their hands) slowly, just like a sloth.

We had a very nice discovery this week! While watering the plants on Tuesday, I noticed we had our first garden bean! Then we noticed another one growing as well. After letting the children look for this great discovery, we picked the large garden bean and sampled it! Although our garden may not look the prettiest, it did work and that was the exciting part.

Listening In:

This is the discussion that took place while talking about the garden bean. Most of the conversation took place while outside. The children first came out, not sure what we were going to look at but the conversation quickly led them to see!

Tyrus: Oh, poor plants.

Morah Amanda: What are we growing?

Levi: Corn.

Morah Amanda: And?

Mussie: Garden beans.

Levi: The cantaloupe is not going to even grow.

Morah Amanda: What do you think I saw when I looked at the plants while watering them?

Mussie: The corn is growing tall.

Morah Amanda: What else did I find? One of them we will leave there and you can show your parents.

Mussie: I think everything is growing.

Tyrus: I see a bean!

Mussie: That's just a rock.

Morah Amanda: What is this? (pointing to a bean)

Tyrus: A bean!

Mussie: A garden bean!

Miriam: Our garden bean is growing.

Mussie: That is yum!

I picked the large bean and we went back inside.

Morah Amanda: Tell me about the garden bean.

Miriam: It grows.

Lizzy: Do we get to eat it?

Miriam: I see dark.

Levi: There are peas inside it.

Tyrus: I see the seeds.

We break the garden bean into pieces and taste it.

Morah Amanda: How does it taste?

Class: Good!

Morah Amanda: What taste did it have?

Mussie: A bean taste.

Tyrus: A lemon taste.

Levi: A pea taste.

Lizzy: I don't want to eat it anymore.

Looking Ahead:

Next week we will be finishing our study of animals. We are going to use a few more Eric Carle books as we finish up. One of these will be "The Mixed Up Chameleon." We will be doing a science experiment with trying to change a chameleon's color as well as we will write about what animals we would like to be. Hopefully the weather will be nice so that we can still take our trip to the zoo, a perfect way to end a three week study of animals!