Unit 8: Plants We Eat

Sing the greeting song and signal a child to say his or her name. Repeat until every child is included.

Discuss vegetables with children. Review the book Eating the Alphabet: Fruits & Vegetables from A to Z from last week.

Let children freely explore a variety of vegetables and compare them to the plants they are growing.

Recite the chant about carrots and act out the motions. Repeat with different plant foods.

Read the book and focus children on why the girl thinks her garden is ugly. 

Play the Between the Lions video “You Never Hear the Garden Grow.” Have children act out the movements.

Play a game of Duck, Duck Goose, but change the words to Flower, Fruit, Vegetable.

Use the Target Letter and Word Routine to introduce children to the letter “Vv” and the word vegetable.

Use the Sandpaper Writing Routine to help children trace and being to “write” the letter “Vv.”

Send a Family Connection letter home with children.

Sing the greeting song and hold up a name card. Have child recognize and say his or her name. Repeat until every child is included.

Define “community” and talk about community gardens with children. 

Play the Between the Lions video “Chicks and Salsa.” Have children listen for the vegetables in the story.

Sing the song and encourage children to act out the actions.

Help children dictate or write riddles about root and leaf vegetables.

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

Children take turns choosing objects from a bag of objects and determining whether or not the object begins with the letter sound /v/.

Take children to a community garden to let them observe growing plants.  

Sing the song and hold up a name card. Each child claps his or her name parts. Repeat until every child is included.

Have children use sensory descriptive language to talk about and compare different roots and leaves.

Have children return to their bean plants to explore and record changes in the plants.

Reread the story. Focus children on the words used to describe the vegetables and the garden.

Discuss opposite words and then sing the song. 

Display a chart of different leaf and root vegetables. Have children graph which they like best.

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

Draw a large letter “V” on the ground and have children march along the letter.

Sing the greeting song and point to a name on the chart. Have that child stand. Repeat until every child is included.

Discuss vegetable parts that people eat, including flowers. 

Take children outside to explore flowering plants. Have them compare these plants to other plants they observed.  

Recite the poem. Have children act out the animals in the poem.

Reread Chicks and Salsa. Have children name root or leaf vegetables they recognize.

Have children use descriptive vocabulary to describe root and leaf vegetables. Invite them to draw the vegetables to illustrate their descriptions.

Have children trace a “V” stencil and then decorate the letter.

Sing “Here We Go Round the Alphabet” and have children walk around a circle of the alphabet letters. 

Sing the song and hold up a name card. Have the child say his or her name and clap the word parts. Repeat until every child is included. 

Read the poem “If I Could Have a Garden.” Ask children which vegetables they would plant in their gardens.

Review the vegetables from the week and make a leaf and root vegetable salad to eat.

Review the word aroma and sing the song. Have children name a food smell they love.

Read a book about plants and have children identify the leaf and root plants in the story.

Play this adaptation of “Doggie, Doggie, Your Bone is Gone” to help children build listening skills.

Play the Between the Lions video “Fred Says: vacuum.” Have children clap the word parts in vacuum.

Use the Tell Me What You Hear Routine to help children hear the beginning sound /v/.

Revisit children’s charts, drawings, and pictures from the week.  Review leaf and root vegetables, letter and letter sound /v/, and the word vegetable.