- chart paper
- five favorite foods from Eating the Alphabet
- marker
- name cards
- tape
- fewest
- least
- most
- plant
MA Standards:
Mathematics/Counting and Cardinality/PK.CC.MA.5: Use comparative language, such as more/less, equal to, to compare and describe collections of objects.
Head Start Outcomes:
Social Emotional Development/Self-Concept and Self-Efficacy: Identifies personal characteristics, preferences, thoughts, and feelings.
Literacy Knowledge/Early Writing: Uses scribbles, shapes, pictures, and letters to represent objects, stories, experiences, or ideas.
PreK Learning Guidelines:
English Language Arts/Composition 16: Use their own words or illustrations to describe their experiences, tell imaginative stories, or communicate information about a topic of interest.
Draw and Write Together: Plants We Like
© Commonwealth of Massachusetts, Department of Early Education and Care (Jennifer Waddell photographer). All rights reserved.
STEM Key Concepts: There are many different types of plants; Many foods that animals, including humans, eat come from plants; We eat certain leaves, roots, fruits, and seeds
ELA Focus Skills: Concepts of Print, Sequencing, Vocabulary
Educator Prep: Make a copy (preferably color, or color in a black and white copy) of five foods from Eating the Alphabet that children determined as “favorite” foods. Make a two-column graph and glue the pictures along the left-hand column. Label the graph “Plants We Like.” Display the graph.
Tell children they are going to make a graph that will show which of the plants on the graph is the one they like best.
- Have children name each fruit or vegetable as you point to it on the graph. Have them describe each plant and say whether they have ever eaten it or not.
- Ask children to think about which plant from the list they like best.
- Have children to take turns taping their name cards next to their favorite fruit or vegetable, forming rows from left to right.
Talk about the completed graph. Count the rows with children. Prompt with questions such as,
- Which plant do most children like to eat? Have children describe what they like about it.
- Which plant do the fewest number of children like to eat? Have children describe what they like about it.
Have children decorate their name cards with their plant of choice.
Adaptation: You may wish to limit younger children’s choices to just three fruits OR three vegetables rather than a mix of both.
English Language Learners: If children are not familiar with the fruit and vegetable choices, have actual items for children to touch and smell as they name each one. If you don’t have the actual items, use photographs of the foods or the book Eating the Alphabet for reference. Help children describe each food. For example, say, The apple is red and juicy. Have children repeat.