Grassheads!

Is anyone else bummed about the groundhog's six more weeks of winter? Here in Utah, the weather is just teasing us. Yesterday it was sunny and 65 degrees. This morning we woke up to snow. Being a California girl at heart, I was not very excited. I tried to convince my husband that I wasn't getting up until it stopped snowing, but he didn't think that would go down with the kids very well. 

If you are missing the beautiful green of spring and summer like me, I have just the solution for you!

We had a lot of fun growing grass this year and creating some fun characters with some funky hair. (Sorry about the bad pictures, I had to snap a few before these guys went home the next day.) We like to use clear cups so the kids can observe the roots and grass as it starts to sprout.

We found this fast growing grass seed at home depot and they weren't kidding. It did grow really fast.

I printed some cartoon eyes and mouths on sticker paper. I used the kind that you find in the address labels section that is a full sheet. I also printed each child's name so they could watch their grass head grow.

We filled the cup half way with dirt

Push seeds into the dirt.

Filled the rest of the cup and put it in the window to get sunlight. I watered it every other day and pretty soon we had some long haired grass heads.

Brandon thought it would be fun to cut his hair into a mohawk.

Spring Time Song with Finger Puppets

 Spring is upon us and summer is fast approaching. In our neck of the woods, everyone is planting their gardens and the roses are starting to bloom. Here is a fun spring time song with finger puppets for the kids to play along while you sing. 

It is titled In the Leafy Tree Tops. It is from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints children's songbook. The song can be listened to or downloaded at lds.org. Or you can go directly to the song here.

When we sing this each child has a flower on a popsicle stick and a bird finger puppet. Cut out the circles where the beak should be and their thumb and pointer finger become the beak. My holes are a little small, so you might have to cut a little bigger than what is drawn. I printed the bird to be about 5 inches tall.

In the Leafy Tree Tops

 In the leafy treetops, the birds sing "Good morning."

They're first to see the sun.

They must tell ev'ryone.

In the leafy treetops, the birds sing "Good morning."

In my pretty garden, the flowers are nodding.

"How do you do?" they say.

"How do you do today?"

In my pretty garden, the flowers are nodding.

I hope you have a great spring and that the birds sing and flowers bloom in your garden!

G is for Growing Grass

 We are so excited to have some new class members in our class. They aren't the smartest bunch in the class, but they are going to have some awesome hair in a couple of weeks!

Meet the Grass Heads

We planted these during letter G week and talked about how seeds grow. Since grass starts with G, we decided to plant some. To make it more fun, we added faces to our containers and the kids are having fun watching their hair grow. It's like the poor man's chia pet. ; )

This is what they look like after a week and a half. (Sorry for the poor quality picture. I think I might need to ask Santa for a new camera this Christmas. )

The cool thing about these guys (once their hair grows in) is you can practice those awesome scissors skills like we talked about before, here. The kids can cut their hair or style it. however they want. It's pretty fun! I'll keep you posted on how they are doing. 

 Making one is pretty easy too! 

• Print out some cartoon faces. I printed some out from here. 
• Glue them onto a clear cup. You want to use clear because then you can see the roots grow.
• Add some dirt, a thick layer of grass seeds, then another layer of dirt. 
• Water it about once a day and watch your grass heads grow their own hair!

Jack in the Beanstalk

I think this has been one of my favorite days of school all year. To conclude our study on plants, we read about the ultimate plant: Jack's beanstalk.

We read Jack and the Beanstalk by Steven Kellogg. If you haven't read this version of the story, you are missing out. It is a long story and I was worried about the children losing interest, but they stayed with me the whole time because the pictures and the rhythm of the story are hypnotic. It is the best!

I had laminated pictures of the story out of order. The kids told me what happened in each picture and I wrote a caption using their words at the bottom with an overhead marker. Then, we sequenced the pictures on a "story line." Next, we made our own easy beanstalks.

What you need:
Green construction paper for leaves and beanstalk
Cotton balls
Glue
String

What you do:
1. 2.

3. Add cotton balls for the clouds

4. Add leaves all along the spiral
5. Hang it up!

S is for Seeds

Continuing our study on plants . . .

We read the book From Seed to Plant by Gail Gibbons. We reviewed the parts of a plant. We talked about what a plant needs to grow. Then, we planted seeds.

G is for Garden Graph

As part of our month study on plants, we talked about gardens.
We read the book Tops and Bottoms by Janet Stevens.

Then we taste tested different vegetables that grow in gardens. The kids decided if they liked the vegetable and then we graphed the results. We tasted carrots, cucumbers, broccoli, cauliflower, celery, and peas in a pod. It was good to help the kids take a step out of their comfort zone, to try new foods. I was surprised that cauliflower seemed to be the most popular vegetable. Interestingly enough almost all the kids said that they liked each vegetable they tasted. I have a sneaking suspicion that they wouldn't be as amiable if these vegetables were served at dinner.

Unfortunately I didn't get any pictures, maybe next time!

G is for ground and grows

Wow! I have a whole month of activities to catch up on. Maybe it has something to do with having a new baby or something like that, I don't know. Anyway, thanks for being patient! I hope you enjoy the things we did this month as much as I have!

We talked about plants this month and did a lot of fun plant activities.

The first day we read the book A Tiny Seed by Eric Carle and talked about how plants grow in the ground. Then we made these parts of a plant pictures. The activity is pretty self explanatory.
As an extension, you could have the students label the parts of a plant.