- chart paper
- marker
- environment
- grow
- needs
- plant
MA Standards:
English Language Arts/Speaking and Listening/SL.PK.MA.1: Participate in collaborative conversations with diverse partners during daily routines and play.
English Language Arts/Language/L.PK.MA.6: Use words and phrases acquired through conversations, listening to books read aloud, activities, and play.
MA Draft Standards:
Life Sciences/Ecosystems; Biological Evolution/LS2/4.B: Using their experiences in the local environment and other evidence, raise and discuss questions about the basic needs of familiar organisms and how they might meet their needs. (Clarification statement: basic needs include water, food, air, shelter, and light for most plants)
Head Start Outcomes:
Language Development/Receptive Language: Attends to language during conversations, songs, stories, or other learning experiences.
PreK Learning Guidelines:
English Language Arts/Language 2: Participate actively in discussions, listen to the ideas of others, and ask and answer relevant questions.
Science and Technology/Life Sciences 10: Observe and identify the characteristics and needs of living things: humans, animals, and plants.
Talk Together: More About Plant Helpers
© Commonwealth of Massachusetts, Department of Early Education and Care (Jennifer Waddell photographer). All rights reserved.
STEM Key Concepts: Plants get their needs met from the environment (their habitat); Some plant parts are below the ground and some above; Earthworms are animals that live in the soil, underground
ELA Focus Skills: Listening and Speaking, Vocabulary
Review the discussion you had last week about plants growing on their own outdoors and plants being cultivated. Talk about how children help the plants in the classroom meet their needs, for example, by putting them in dirt, giving them water, and making sure they get enough sun. Then ask children to think about plants they have observed growing outside on their own, and the animals they have noticed on or around those plants. Ask questions such as,
- Do you think any of those little animals might help the plants grow? How do you think so?
Record children’s responses on chart paper.
Tell children that this week they will be learning about animals and other living things in the environment that help plants meet their needs.