In May we will implement our last unit of the school year: “Growing Things”.
Here are the books we are reading this month:
What Are We Learning?
Living things need food (nutrients), water (moisture), and proper living conditions – habitats (rocks, nests, soil, swamp) – to survive. The children are making bird feeders and worm farms.
Plants have a life cycle.
Plants have parts that provide different functions. These parts have specific names; roots, seed, bulb, stem, leaf, flower, blossom, petals. We are exploring many different kind of seeds and learning how to plant and grow them.
Some animals, such as reptiles, fish, and birds, hatch from eggs. Shells often protect the growing animal before eggs hatch.
Some animals (mammals) are born alive and require a variety of support to grow into their mature, adult forms.
Plants, animals, and people grow at their own pace. Various phases of a human’s development are given specific names, such as infant or baby, toddler, child, and adult.
Animal and plant growth is often measured to determine whether the animal or plant is healthy. To measure growth, measuring tools designed to measure length are used. Nonstandard, as well as standard, units are used to measure lengths of objects. We will measure ourselves and plant growth.
We are talking about feelings of pride and about going to a new school, and we also will learn about exploring differences, being tolerant, and helping others.
In Math, our focus is counting to and back from 10 and adding small numbers. We are also practicing to quickly recognize the sum of small groups. We are learning to describe shapes in terms of their attributes (sides and corners) and compose shapes to make pictures and designs.
Children continue learning about letter names and sounds, rhyming words, and all of the other skills needed for beginning reading.