Preschool-3 virtual students began honing their consciousness of safe-guarding our Earth early in February. We had many conversations about the need for clean water. The students practiced virtually removing debris from lakes while reinforcing letter sounds. In the photos you will notice that Sarah, Steven, and Bryan take turns “removing” litter from a pond and putting the debris in the canoe corresponding to the sound of the object.
Later in March, our conversations turned to the air and how plants help to clean the air. The students received seeds along with a chart with which they made guesses on which seeds they received. Students had to follow specific directions based on the size of their seeds. They got the opportunity to work with soil, count spoons of soil, practice putting on gardening gloves and water their seeds. The planting occurred before the break and after the break, there were many happy seedlings as well as students. In the pictures, you see that Yug prepares his soil, Bryan gears up with gloves and Steven is happy to report that his plant is growing after break.
Later in early April, the conversation returned to water with April showers. We learned that water gets recycled in the water cycle. We also learned about the different cultures that made rain sticks. Students made rain sticks and manipulated them to make the sounds of hard rain, soft rain, and babbling brooks while providing the background sound effects for a story on the life cycle of a raindrop. Making rain sticks provided fine motor practice in pouring, coloring, and tweezing with fingers. In the pictures, Jade is plucking corn kernels for the stick, Yug and Steven are pouring rice. Jade is then spinning her rain sticks to make the soft sound of a babbling brook while Kai is making the sound of a rainstorm.
As Earth Day approached, the preschoolers listened to the story of Dr. Seuss’s The Lorax with its lesson of conservation and protection of the Earth. The children, like the Lorax, spoke for the trees. After cutting and coloring, the children became the Lorax and later made truffula trees from the story. Bryan, Sarah and Steven are speaking for the trees. Jade has saved three truffula trees.
On Earth day, the preschoolers listened to Todd Parr’s The Earth Book. They were given a challenge to test how much water is wasted when leaving the faucet on while brushing teeth by capturing it in a cup. Later, they made facsimiles of the Earth with the reminder that our Earth is mostly water. With this activity, they used their executive planning skills to show more water than land. Kai and Sarah show off their Earth. Yug helped add to the festivities of Earth Day by dancing and rocking out to the tune of Going Green.
The Preschool-3 On-Campus children began their celebration of “Earth Day,” on April 22, with a brief introduction to planet Earth and its place in our Solar System. Together, we looked at a Solar System model to see how the Earth travels around the Sun and where it is in relation to the Sun and the other planets. Following an introduction to our Solar System, we looked at a small globe of Earth and learned that there are two basic properties on the Earth’s surface – water and land. We then explored the interior of the Earth. The children helped their teacher prepare a play-dough Earth model which the teacher then cut in half to reveal the layers hiding within: the core, outer core, mantle, crust, water, and land. During choice time, the children made planet Earth arts-and-crafts collages using tissue paper and glue. They also painted their own Earth at the easel with blue, green and white tempera paint. We enjoyed listening to Earth Day story books, and we talked about ways that we can take care of the Earth. To finish our special day, we had a party for Earth and enjoyed butter cookies that looked just like our planet Earth.