Unit 7: Watch It Grow

Sing the greeting song and signal children whose names have the correct number of syllables for each verse to stand up.

Talk about plant needs. Introduce things in the underground environment that help plants meet their needs.

Have children investigate the soil outside and collect things in it they want to share with others.

Discuss how worms help plants meet their needs. Then set up a worm habitat with children.

Read Wonderful Worms by Linda Glaser and help children focus on how worms help prepare the soil plants grow in.

Have children draw and dictate or write a fact they learned about how worms help plants.

Have children stretch and squeeze like worms as they sing the song.

Use the Target Letter and Word Routine to introduce children to the letter “Ww” and the word worms.

Use the Sandpaper Writing Routine to help children being to “write” the letter “Ww.”

Send a Family Connection letter home with children.

Sing the greeting song. Sing to children with the most syllables first to names with the least syllables last.

Revisit the worm habitat and discuss the changes that have taken place.

Take children outside to explore soil in different areas and to compare tree roots and plants’ roots.

Play the video PEEP and the Big Wide World “Experimenting with Seeds.” Compare the video’s experiment to the children’s experiment with seeds.

Play the video Between the Lions “Wonderful Worms” and talk about how worms work in the soil.

Have children wiggle as they recite the poem. Review the letter “Ww” and the word worms.

Have children draw and dictate or write something they learned about the underground environment.

Use the Letter in Our Names Routine to help children find the letter “Ww” in their names.

Repeat the sentence “Willie wiggled wildly.” Challenge children to say the sentence three times.  

Sing the greeting song and signal children whose names have the correct number of syllables for each verse to wiggle.

Discuss how vegetables have been picked from the soil of the garden or farm that they were grown in.

Have children work in groups as they continue to explore outdoor plants and soil.

Read Vegetable Garden by Douglas Florian and discuss plants, how they change, and how their needs are met.

Have children walk along a large uppercase “W” on the floor.

Watch the video Between the Lions “Words Beginning with ‘w.’ Have children wave each time they see the letter “w.”

Sing the greeting song and have a child clap a friend’s name. Repeat until every child is included.

Review how worms help gardens. Create a tunnel and have children “worm” their way through the tunnel.

Determine two groups to have children explore the worm habitat or their plants with magnifying lenses.

Remind children how worms help plants. Have children sing the song to the class’s worms.

Reread the story and discuss the vegetables in the book and what children learned about gardening.

Discuss characteristics of seasons. Have children draw pictures of the different seasons outdoors and dictate or label the correct season for each picture.

Have children hop for each syllable they hear in various words.

Watch the video Between the Lions “Worm Watches.” Have children wiggle when they hear the letter sound /w/.

Have children decorate an outline of the uppercase letter “W.” Name objects that begin with “W.”

Have the class clap the syllables in a child’s name. Repeat until every child is included.

Review the activities children did this week. Have each child tell one thing he or she learned about plants.

Have the groups switch areas so children explore both the worm habitat and their plants.

Recite the poem and have children move like a growing seed.

Reread Vegetable Garden by Douglas Florian and point out the rhyming words as you read.

Guide children on how to play the interactive game about sharing flowers.

Play a rhyming game with some words from Vegetable Garden.  

Sing the song and have children wiggle when they hear a /w/ sound.

Watch the video Between the Lions “Lions Wiggling.” Have children wiggle along with the lion family as they demonstrate none, some, and all.

Revisit the charts, objects, and pictures from the week.  Review plant needs, underground environments, and gardening, “Ww,” /w/, and worms.

Send a Family Connection letter home with children.