- leaves
- plant
- seed
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.
Logic and Reasoning/Reasoning and Problem Solving: Classifies, compares, and contrasts objects, events, and experiences.
Language Development/Expressive Language: Uses language to express ideas and needs.
Language Development/Expressive Language: Uses increasingly complex and varied vocabulary.
PreK Learning Guidelines:
English Language Arts/Language 3: Communicate personal experiences or interests.
English Language Arts/Reading and Literature 12: Listen to, recite, sing, and dramatize a variety of age-appropriate literature.
Watch Together: “Exploring Small Spaces” #2 (PEEP live-action clip)
STEM Key Concepts: Respect the environment and do not harm plants and other living things; A collection of objects can be compared and sorted
ELA Focus Skills: Active Viewing, Speaking and Listening, Vocabulary
Tell children they are going to watch PEEP and the Big Wide World “Exploring Small Spaces.” Tell children you are going to play the video through once without pausing.
Say, As you are watching I want you to notice if any of the things the children see on the ground are the same as things you collected at the farm or around the school.
Replay the video and pause the video a few times to ask children to describe something they found that is similar to what the children in the video found. Encourage them to use texture, shape, color, and size vocabulary in their descriptions.
English Language Learners: Children may not be able to find the words to identify what they want to describe. Have pictures of plant parts on the ground on display. You may want to review the plant parts before viewing the video a second time. Point to and name different plant parts and have children repeat them after you. Use a sentence frame with children. Say, This is a leaf. This is a piece of grass. This is a piece of tree bark.
Educator Tip: Watching and discussing the selected PEEP stories and live-action video clips can spark and extend children’s interest and understanding of plants. We suggest that children watch the video clips after they have had an opportunity to do their own initial exploration of plants. That way your children can compare their experiences and discoveries with those shown on the video clip and think about what additional plant explorations they might like to try.
