Unit 8: Plants We Eat

Sing the greeting song, hold up three name cards and greet those children by name. Repeat until every child is included.

Pass around salad sprouts and have children explore and describe them.

Discuss plants children can and cannot eat. Have them continue to explore their plants and record changes in their science notebooks.

Prepare sprout seeds for planting with children.

Read the book Chicks and Salsa with children and focus on how the animals in the story solve their problem.

Sing the song and encourage children to suggest other plants for additional verses.

Use the Target Letter and Word Routine to introduce children to the letter “Ff” and the word farm.

Use the Sandpaper Writing Routine to help children trace and begin to “write” the letter “Ff.”

Send a Family Connection letter home with children.

Sing the song and have three children find their name cards. Repeat until every child is included.

Talk about how animals, including humans, eat plant parts and plants that grow in many different places.

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

Play the guessing game with children to help them hear and identify the beginning letter sound /f/.

Take children outside to explore plants and look for evidence that animals have been eating the plants.   

Have children rinse the sprout seeds and record any changes they observe in the plant.

Reread the book and discuss how people eat different foods all over the world.

Sing the greeting song and clap the syllables in each child’s name.

Discuss the parts of plants that animals and humans eat. 

Have children collect plant parts on the ground and compare them to the sprouts they are growing inside.

Help children sort the plant parts they collected outside.

Play the video PEEP and the Big Wide World “Collecting and Sorting.” Discuss how the children in the video sort their collections.  

Read about plant foods that begin with every letter of the alphabet and have children identify which part of the plant each food is from.

Have children make a graph of their favorite plants to eat.

Play the video Between the Lions “Words Beginning with ‘f.’” Have children repeat the /f/ words.

Play a rhyming game using different plant foods.

Sing the greeting song. Hold up a name card as child claps word parts in his or her name. Repeat until every child is included.

Talk about how food is a basic need, and how people often choose foods that taste good to fill that need.  

Have children compare plant foods by having them taste, smell, feel, and look at fruits and vegetables.   

Assign children to rinse the seeds again. Then observe and record how the sprouts have changed.

Play the video Between the Lions “Chicks and Salsa.” Focus children on the plants the animals use in their recipes.

Reread the story and have children call out the names of the plants they know.

Talk about recipes. Have children bring in a recipe from home to add to the class’s “Our Recipe Book.”

Have children trace and decorate an “F” stencil cutout. 

Play the video Between the Lions “Word Morph: fox-foot-football.” Then have children repeat the tongue twister, “Five funny foxes find fun.”   

Say the chant and signal to a child to clap his or her name. Then have everyone clap the name. Repeat until every child is included.

Provide an assortment of vegetables and have children describe how the vegetables taste.

Have children check and measure their sprouts. Then observe and measure the plants they repotted outside.

Pick the sprouts and combine them with other vegetables left over from the week to make a salad.

Sing the song, emphasizing the change in each word.

Read Chicks and Salsa, Eating the Alphabet, or another book about plants animals (including humans) eat.

Play the video Between the Lions “Colors and Food.” Have children name other plants that are the same color as the plants in the video.

Play the video Between the Lions “Chicks and Salsa.” Have children act out scenes in the show.  

Describe a fiesta and make a “Fiesta Foods” book by having children draw pictures of plant foods that begin with the letter “F.”

Have children clap the parts of different plant foods. Count the number of word parts.

Use the Tell Me What You Hear Routine to help children review the /f/ sound.

Revisit the charts, objects, and pictures from the week.  Review plant parts, edible plants, and taste, “Ff,” /f/, and farm.

Send a Family Connection letter home with children.