- garden
- leaves
- plant
- root
- stem
- unfurl
MA Standards:
English Language Arts/Speaking and Listening/SL.PK.MA.2: Recall information for short periods of time and retell, act out, or represent information from a text read aloud, a recording, or a video (e.g., watch a video about birds and their habitats and make drawings or constructions of birds and their nests).
Head Start Outcomes:
Language Development/Receptive Language: Attends to language during conversations, songs, stories, or other learning experiences.
Literacy Knowledge/Print Concepts and Conventions: Understands that print conveys meaning.
Literacy Knowledge/Print Concepts and Conventions: Understands conventions, such as print moves from left to right and top to bottom of a page.
Literacy Knowledge/Print Concepts and Conventions: Recognizes words as a unit of print and understands that letters are grouped to form words.
PreK Learning Guidelines:
English Language Arts/Language 2: Participate actively in discussions, listen to the ideas of others, and ask and answer relevant questions.
Watch Together: “You Never Hear the Garden Grow” #1 (BTL clip)
STEM Key Concepts: Plants have different parts: roots, stems, leaves, and fruit; Plants grow in places where they get their needs met
ELA Focus Skills: Active Listening and Viewing, Vocabulary
Educator Prep: Print out the Between the Lions “You Never Hear the Garden Grow” poem chart before gathering children.
Before You Watch
Review that a garden is a space that’s used for growing plants. Sometimes it’s a place in the ground, but sometimes gardens can be made in boxes or other containers.
Draw attention to the poem chart and read aloud as you point to each word. Discuss the meaning of any unfamiliar words, such as split, heaves, unfurl, pierce, and vines. Then tell children they are going to watch a video poem about a garden called Between the Lions “You Never Hear the Garden Grow.” Set a listening focus for children by asking them to listen to how the narrator describes how the plants grow and to think about how their plants grow in similar ways.
After You Watch
Display the plant diagram you made when you set up the room for this unit or show one from a plant book. Review the roots, stem, and leaves of the plant.
- Emphasize how the roots grow down. They “shove” and “reach” down into the ground. Have children move their hands and fingers like roots.
- Explain how a stem shoots up through the ground. Have children move their hands upward like stems.
- Describe how leaves unfurl and open. Have children wiggle their fingers as leaves unfurl.
Watch the video again and have children act out the motions of the plants as the poem is recited.
You Never Hear the Garden Grow
Row on row,
You never hear the garden grow.
Seeds split.
Roots shove and reach.
Earth heaves.
Leaves unfurl.
Stems pierce the ground.
Pea pods fatten.
Vines stretch and curl.
Such growing going on without a sound!
(“You Never Hear the Garden Grow” by Lilian Moore. Used with permission. Text © by Lilian Moore. All Rights Reserved.)
Social Emotional Tip: Help children build confidence in their own ability and an appreciation for the ability of others by offering opportunities for them to share in group experiences.
