Gardens and Plants Theme

In the spring when we talk about gardens and plants, we try to take a field trip to our local garden park and nature preserve. We talk about using our senses to explore the plants at the park and end our trip with some ice cream. Back in the classroom, we use flowers and veggies in our many centers. We sort the flowers by color. We set up a flower shop in our dramatic play center. I lay out paper shapes and the students use the shapes and their imagination to create a flower, making sure it has all of the parts that we discuss in our science lesson (leaves, petals, stem, roots). We plant seeds in pots for our moms and take them home as a surprise. There are many good gardening books we read. Here are a few of them:
*"Lola Plants a Garden"
*"The Surprise Garden"
*"Growing Vegetable Soup"
*"In the Tall, Tall Grass."
I also have a collection of seeds that the students can explore and sort and even guess what the seeds will grow in to.

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Pumpkin Theme

Every October we learn about pumpkins. Mini pumpkins are brought into the Science Center for every child and we investigate them with magnifying lenses and our senses. We also cut the top off of a large pumpkin and scoop the seeds out to investigate as well. I allow every child who is interested, a turn scooping seeds out. I never require the students to help if they are not interested. In the Literacy Center, we use mini pumpkin erasers to trace around letters. Pumpkin stickers can also be used. We take a field trip to a local pumpkin patch where every child is allowed to pick a pumpkin to take home. In the Fine Motor/Sensory Center, we make pumpkin pie with orange playdough and rolling pins. We also count and make patterns in the Math Center with pumpkin erasers or manipulatives. In the Pumpkin STEAM box, I include mini pumpkins, leaves, acorns, magnifying lenses and orange slices of pool noodles that the children can play and experiment with. The Dramatic

Cookies Theme

Who doesn't love cookies? We have an entire theme based on cookies and it is one of my favorites! We incorporate a lot of counting into our cookie theme. We count chips onto cookies in our Math Center. We count cookies and clip the correct numeral in our Fine Motor/Sensory Center. We serve cookies at the bakery in the Dramatic Play Center. We also practice numeral recognition and matching and fine motor skills using cookies and pom poms. We have taken a field trip to a local bakery some years and other years made cookies together as a class but in both situations, we have decorated them and enjoyed eating them. There are several cookie stories we read including: *"The Gingerbread Boy" *"The Gingerbread Girl" *"Whose Stole the Cookies from the Cookie Jar?" *"The Doorbell Rang" *"May I Please Have a Cookie?" *"The Duckling Gets a Cookie" *"If You Give a Mouse a Cookie" At our A

Apple Theme

Another theme we cover in the fall is Apples. In our Math Center, we make Apple Stew using apple erasers, bowls, ladles, and recipe cards. We also use apple manipulatives to count and sort. In the Science Center, I place apple slices, apple seeds, whole apples and magnifying lenses. The students are able to investigate the apples. We practice gluing by placing just a dot of glue inside each dot on an apple. This strengthens their hands and we use glitter glue in red, yellow and green to make it more interesting. At the Writing Center I have the students draw apples and add details. Words related to apples can be posted in the Writing Center for children who are ready and interested in copying words onto their paper. Apple shaped papers can also be placed at the Writing Center to make it more engaging. In the Fine Motor/Sensory Center, children try stacking apples and counting to see how high they can go. Some books about apples that we read include: *"

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