Week of 4/1

Dear Yellow Room Families,,

We had another exciting week! Below is an update on what the Yellow Room children learned this week in school. 

Theme this week:

• We began our in depth study on Life Cycles. This week we focused on the stages of plants.  

Classroom Activities:

• Our little scientists began our study by listening to the book From Seed to Plant by Gail Gibbons. We then followed up with a one of kind project.....we planted seeds!  We were elbow deep in soil as the children worked in groups planting different flower seeds, such as: Poppies, Zinnias, and Sunflowers.  
• We continued our discussion on plants by discovering that some plants are edible and grow from beans. We read One Bean by Anne Rockwell.  The children learned that a bean plant has five stages: the seed, roots, shoot, stem and leaves and a full-grown plant – words that quickly became part of our vocabulary.  We germinated lima beans and grew them in our very own greenhouses that are hanging on our window inside the classroom.  We witnessed the seed coat open and the shoot grows incredibly fast before our eyes!   
• In our art center, the children used their finger muscles to rip paper and create their very own yellow sunflower. 
• As a follow up, for writing we asked ourselves what will happen to our bean and what will our bean need to grow. The children recalled so many facts from all of our discussions this week. These writings are accompanied by illustrations and will hang in the hallway for you to enjoy.

• In science, we reviewed the parts of a flower plant and conducted an exciting experiment. After passing around white carnations the children noticed it did not have any roots. We then questioned how our flowers would drink water without the roots. After adding a few drops of food coloring to water we placed six white flowers in six different cups of water. After observing for three days, we concluded that plants drink water from the ground up through their roots. The water traveled up the stem and into the petals of the flower. Although, our flowers didn’t have roots anymore they were still able to pull water up from the cup into the stem and up through the flower to the petals. 
• Lastly, the Yellow Room students looked into their crystal balls and predicted what their lima bean plants will look like once they are fully grown. These drawings are up in the classroom, so come on in and take a look.
• In math, the children each received a math mat in the shape of a flower pot with a number in the center. They then had to correctly identify the number and count out REAL beans/seeds and place it on the mat.  They also created and extended their very own flower pattern.

Books we read:

• Lola Plants a Garden, by Anna McQuinn
• One Bean, by Anne Rockwell
• How a Seed Grows, by Helen J. Jordan
• Once There Was a Seed, by Judith Anderson and Mike Gordon
• Grow it! A Child's Play Book, Illustrated by Georgie Birkett

• The Curious Garden, by Peter Brown

Songs we sang:

• In Music, we sang "Feeling Groovy. "

Places we visited:

• In PE, we worked on our bounce catches.
• In yoga, we worked on our lotus pose.
• In library Lindsay began a second chapter book with us. We completed the first chapter of Season of the Sandstorms (A Magic Tree House Book) by, Mary Pope Osborne

Reminders:

• Thursday, April 11th: Writopia Film Screening @ 1:30 (Kids MUST have an adult attend.)
• Thurs. & Fri., April 25th-26th:  Parent Teacher Conferences (Parents only, haha! - babysitting available)
• Thursday, May 16th: Brooklyn Bridge (Kids MUST have an adult chaperone.)
• Friday, May 31st:Field Day (Kids MUST have an adult chaperone.)
• Friday, June 7th: Last Day of School Breakfast 8:30-9am (Kids MUST have an adult attend.)
• Monday, June 10th:Graduation

Enjoy the photos and have a great weekend!

Sincerely,

The Yellow Room Teachers