Good morning, friends! It’s a beautiful sunny day here in Buffalo, NY and I think we are finally out of the woods here with snow (isn’t that sad?!) It’s about time. This is the time of year when everybody’s mental health soars and you realize that people actually live in the house next door to you! In my classroom, April is the month when we focus on planting and healthy eating! Planting is one of the themes that my grade level does every year together. We get a nice little kit shipped to us filled with soil and seeds and all the fixings for a planting unit.
Last year I started incorporating healthy eating into my planting unit because I realized how many of my kids had little or no exposure to fruits and vegetables. When I asked my class what their favorite fruit was one of them said “punch”….YIKES!!!! I thought what better unit to incorporate healthy eating and nutrition than during our planting unit? Let’s learn about what a healthy food is AND where it comes from! I am so envious of some of the really progressive districts in the country who have nutrition as part of their regular curriculum (and I don’t mean teaching the food pyramid like when we were kids…) Next year I want to invite some local farmers to our classroom for a “farm to table” presentation to teach the kids where food comes from.
This unit takes me about four weeks to complete- approximately two weeks of planting and two weeks of healthy eating. We start with planting (so we can get those seeds in the soil and watch them grow!) and then we slowly start incorporating fruits and vegetables into our discussions. Some of my little friends are even brave enough to taste some new foods!
To introduce plants we read lots of children’s books about seeds and planting. Fantastic Fun and Learning has an awesome roundup of book titles that are great for your planting unit.
One of the best resources for teaching planting to this age group is the videos from Brain Pop Jr. Moby and friends explain plants, the plant life cycle and plant adaptations in a very age appropriate way. I just love that Moby!
- In direct sunlight with water
- In direct sunlight without water
- In a dark closet with water
- In a dark closet without water
Here are the resources I use to teach planting and healthy eating!
