Pre-K 4    Week of May 16, 2022

Please Read All The Reminders

Monday, 5/16

 •Please remember to send sleeping mats to school!!!

Thursday, June 9th, 9:00am- End of Year "Moving Up Ceremony" in the gymnasium.

(Four (4) Adults Permitted per Child)

Wednesday, June 15th, 9:00am- Father's Day "Donuts with Dad" Celebration in the gymnasium.

(One (1) Adult Permitted per Child)

If you or your child is experiencing fever, fatigue, congestion, headache, vomiting, or any other covid-like symptoms the night before school, please remain home and obtain a negative result before coming to the school building. If you or your child tests positive and were present any day of the school week, please notify the teacher. Remote work is always available for students at any time.

As always, please make sure to read the OLQM school blog for additional updates and information located HERE!

Contact info:

MrTaraza@olqmnyc.org (I usually try to reply within the same day).

 If there are any questions regarding the 3-K/Pre-K for all program that can not be answered by the office or classroom teacher, please feel free to contact the

Help Line at 888-227-8175

Unit Topic:

Plants

Essential Question:

How do plants grow and why are they important?

Focus Question for The Week:

Why are plants important?

Foundational Text for The Week:

Rah, Rah, Radishes! A Vegetable Chant by April Pullsey Sayre

Level 1: Recall

What are some of the vegetables in this book? Who gets a “thank you” in this book?

Level 2: Skill/Concept

There is a page in this book about sweet corn. It says to “shuck an ear.” What does it mean to “shuck an ear” when you are talking about sweet corn? This book suggests many different things we could do while we read. Let’s look and see if we can find and try some. Examples include: Carrots are calling, take a bite! Broccoli, cauliflower, shout it out! Pile up peppers Celebrate celery, give a cheer! Root for rutabagas. Bounce for beets! Potatoes. Tomatoes. Yum a yam! Slice ‘em. Mash ‘em. Wham! Wham! Wham!

Level 3: Strategic Thinking

Have you ever had any of the vegetables in this book? What did you think? If you haven’t had any of 30 these vegetables, which ones do you think you might want to try? Why? What do you notice about the vegetables in this book? Why is it important to observe, or look carefully at something?

Level 4: Extended Thinking

This book is all about vegetables. Why do you think the author, April Pulley Sayre, might have wanted to write a book about vegetables? Vegetables can be different colors. We saw many of them in this book. Why do you think vegetables are different colors?

Focused Learning Activity for The Week

Life Cycle of a Plant Sequencing

 

Invite children to further explore a diagram of the Life Cycle of a Plant. As you go through the stages, point to each picture and describe what is going on in each stage. Tell children that plants make their own food through photosynthesis. Plants take Co2 and produce clean air O2 for us to Breathe. 

Provide children with sequencing cards and ask them to draw what a seed/plant needs in order to grow?

 

Extension:

Children will also be encrouraged to place a popcorn kernel into a ziplock bag and provide it with water and sunlight to watch the seed sprout and grow.

Pre-K Common Core Learning Standard(s) Addressed

PK.AL.4

Exhibits curiosity, interest, and willingness to learn new things and have new experiences.

PK.MATH.7 PK.SCI.4 PK.SCI.9

Identifies first and last related to order or position. Observes familiar plants and animals (including humans) and describes what they need to survive. Plans and conducts an investigation to dertermine the effect of sunlight on Earth's surface.

 

Lessons and Activities for the Month

Blocks

Add pictures of plants, gardens, green roofs, farms etc. to the walls of the Blocks/Construction Center for children to reference as they work.

Dramatic Play

Turn Dramatic Play into a flower shop by adding pretend flowers, containers and pictures of flower arrangements as well as a cash register, notepad, writing utensils, etc.to the center. Children can pretend to make, buy, and sell floral arrangements, and explore the idea of buying and selling goods or services. As you play with the children, use and highlight vocabulary words such as bouquet, floral arrangement, florist, and flower.  √ Opportunity for Assessment What does the child understand about the relationship between buying and selling goods?

Art

Provide an assortment of portraits by Kehinde Wiley that include plants in the background. Invite children to observe the art and create their own art in a similar style. They may want to create a similar background and include their own portrait or the portrait of someone else.

Science

Add plants to the science area or throughout the classroom for children to observe and assist in caretaking.

Math

Provide an assortment of seeds and beans as well as trays or containers for sorting. Children can sort by seed color, size, design, or by categories of their choosing. If children need assistance in determining categories for sorting, model sorting for them, sharing your thoughts and sorting criteria aloud as you work.

Library

Students are invited to read fiction and non-fiction books about our theme, Plants.

Writing

Create a plant encyclopedia with pictures and names of an assortment of plants that may be familiar as well as those that may be novel to the students (be mindful of the experiences and cultures of the children in your class as you consider familiarity and novelty). Children can draw and label pictures of plants that are near the places they live or on their way to school, or they can focus on other plants they find interesting.

Sensory

Use green foam pieces to create water lilies, add them to the water in the sensory table along with toy ducks and invite children to play in the pond.

For more information on the Lesson Plan, click HERE!

To view this weeks' foundational text, please click HERE!

 

If you have any questions or concerns, you can email me at MrTaraza@olqmnyc.org or email Mrs. Zogka at MrsZogka@olqmnyc.org. 

 

If there are any questions regarding the Pre-K for All program that cannot be answered by the office or classroom teacher, please feel free to contact the Help Line at 888-227-8175