Lesson plan- Sharing

Nature School Feb. 20th, 2012
Sharing

Welcome song

We’ve been talking about love with Valentine’s this month. Today let's learn about sharing! Sharing is another way we show love for our friends and family.

Letter of the Day:
S for sharing
Who can tell me what sharing is?
When you share a toy with a friend, does it mean they keep it forever? No :) It’s good for me to remember that when I’m having a hard time sharing. Who feels happy when they share? I do!

Sharing Chart:
There are so many things that are more fun to do with a friend than alone. Let’s fill out a sharing chart. Let’s say whether we like doing these things with a friend or family, or doing them all alone (some things on the chart could go either way, for instance “reading a book”).

Playing a game
Eating cookies
Brushing teeth
Getting Dressed
Going on a bike ride
Going for a hike
Eating dinner
Snuggling
Seeing a rainbow
Reading a book
Finding a beautiful flower
Playing with trains or cars
Playing dress up
Making music
Brushing your hair
Doing chores

Group Sharing:
Everyone brought something that they would like to share with the other kids. Let’s take turns sharing with one another about what we brought.

Books:
Rabbit’s Gift- http://www.amazon.com/Rabbits-Gift-George-Shannon/dp/0152060731
The Please and Thank You Book- http://www.amazon.com/Please-Thank-Book-Little-Golden/dp/0375847588

Rhyme:
Three little sailors set out to sea.
They worked together happily.
Everyone cleaned, everyone rowed,
Everyone fished, everyone sewed.
When they got home
They stood side-by-side.
Their boat full of fish,
Their hearts full of pride!

Game:
Picture puzzles- this game will help teach the children to work together and share with one another.
Find pictures from National Geographic or any other magazine with neat pictures. Mount them onto cardstock. Cut in half. Make sure you have enough for each child to get a half. Pass out the puzzle pieces. Tell the children they need to find their puzzle partner. Let them play the game multiple times by gathering and re-distributing the picture puzzle pieces.

Hands On:
Packet of Sugar Snap Peas
Dirt/Potting soil
Egg carton cut up into individual little cups

Planting peas- I brought seeds, dirt, and egg carton cups for everyone to plant a pea seed. This pea seed will grow into a pea plant with LOTS of sugar snap peas to share with your friends and family. Planting seeds is such a special way to share with others, because with one seed, you can have a big beautiful plant grow. Plants make our planet happy too! When we plant seeds, we are sharing the beauty of the earth with others too.

The Great Backyard Bird Count

Hey all nature lovers- the Great Backyard Bird Count begins on Feb. 17th and runs for four days. Get outside with your kiddos and get ready to count birds!

http://www.birdsource.org/gbbc/kids

Sense of Smell (winter version) Lesson Plan

*We have an arboretum here in Seattle that has a "Winter Garden". This specialty garden is full of winter blooming trees, flowers, and bushes. It is incredible at this time of year! Some of my favorite winter blooming trees and plants are hamamelis (witch hazel), sarcococca (sweet box or Christmas box), helleborus (Christmas rose- although it is not part of the rose family), camellia, some early blooming prunus, and my absolute favorite Daphne. If you live in a city that has an arboretum or botanical garden, most likely it will have some wonderful winter-blooming plants. Winter is one of my favorite times to visit a garden. Seeing and smelling flowers in the winter feels like a gift from heaven and really lifts my spirit out of the doldrums of the cold and gray winter. Anyway, here is the lesson plan from last week:

Sense of Smell (winter version)

Letter of the day- N for nose!

What do we use our noses for? To smell! What do you think would happen if we couldn’t smell or we didn’t have a nose? We wouldn’t be able to taste our food very well. Isn’t that weird? Do you remember the last time you had a cold? Did your food taste different? That’s because our nose has cells that work when we eat food and tell our brain what our food tastes like.

Who is happy they have a nose? I sure am! Let’s take a walk and practice using our nose to discover the good smells that we find in nature. If you smell something that you really like, share it with everyone, please :)

Rhyme: (As you walk along, find a place that has some flowers and some dirt. Have the kids take a deep breath of air, then chat the rhyme together. Have the children fill in the blanks with each verse. When you get to the dirt verse, scoop up a handful and have the children get close and smell. They will all have very different ideas about what it smells like! We had kids say "applesauce, toes, stinky, toast, etc). 

The air smells ________

How do I know? 

My nose told my brain, 

So it must be so.
Flowers smell ______
How do I know?
My nose told my brain,
So it must be so.

The dirt smells ______

How do I know?

My nose told my brain, 

So it must be so.



Games:
Smelly cups-
Prep- cut up an egg carton into individual little cups, one cup for each child in your class.
Give each child a egg carton cup. Find an area with a diversity of vegetation. Let them spend a few minutes picking up things from the ground or picking flowers, needles, dirt, leaves, grass, etc. that they find interesting to smell. Have them place a few items in their cup. Call the kid back together and tell them that we are going to play a game where we use our noses. Have the kids stand in a circle. Ask them to close their eyes and when you say “pass”, pass their cup to the left. They smell the cup in front of them for a moment then open their eyes to see what it is. When you say pass, they do it again and again, until all the cups have made it around the entire circle. Let the children talk about what different things they smelled and what they thought about the smells. Were they surprised? Did the smelly cups smell good, stinky, flowery, christmasy, spicy, strong, grassy? What was their favorite smell? 

*note- this ended up panning out a bit differently than I had envisioned. Some of the kids were adamant about holding on to their little cup and did not want to pass it around. We ended up just walking around and smelling one anothers cup rather than passing them


Pretend Play:
Let's act out some animals that are "super smellers!"
-Dogs are super smellers! Have you ever watched a dog smell? How does the dog do it? Let’s pretend to be dogs! Let’s use our noses to tell us about the world around us!”

-Bats are super smellers! Let's fly around catching insects with our good sense of smell.

-Sharks are super smellers! Let's swim around using our sense of smell to catch fish to eat.

-Rats are super smellers! Let's squeak like a rat and use our noses to find some garbage to eat :)

Sensory:
Scented playdough- I made three different scented playdoughs; cinnamon and cloves, rosemary, and peppermint. Give each child a little piece of playdough, let them smell it and play with it. Ask them which each playdough reminds them of. Which do they like the best.



Craft: Scented Flower
Materials:

Cotton balls enough for each child (with perfume or essential oil on each)

Felt flower cut outs

Paper flower cut outs

Floral wire

Directions:

Give each child of of each of the materials. Take the wire and poke through paper and felt, around the cotton ball and back through the felt and paper. Twist to make a stem.