This week marked our final week of studying Our Earth.  After last week’s exploration into plant parts and how they grow, we spent this week preparing to grow our own plants!  We are thrilled to start our third season in a plot at the Bremen St. Community Garden; it’s been such a wonderful part of our curriculum since our opening.  The children practice starting seeds and nurturing them to sprouts; they tend the garden and make sure it’s free of weeds; when the plants are ready, we harvest our fruits and vegetables; once we’ve harvested, we love integrating our own produce into our snack program!  This week, the Tugboats began sprouting seeds that we can plant in our plot, as well as some that the children can take home if they like.  We placed pinto and lima beans into wet paper towels, then tucked them into clear plastic bags and taped them to the window.  The children made predictions as to which beans would sprout first; we’ll see who’s correct!  We also are sprouting peas in wet paper towels.  These are sprouting on a warm, dry shelf.  Some of the afternoon kiddos helped plant seeds for peppers, eggplant, fennel, and winter greens like spinach, kale, and arugula.    Those seeds will go home with Erin to sprout under her grow lights until they are ready to go in the ground.

We had a visit from our favorite children’s librarian, Miss Emily!  Emily read us several books about gardening and plants, then helped us make our own paper gardens filled with colorful, unique flowers!  Later in the week, we made paper vegetable gardens with designated numbers of tomatoes, carrots, and peas.

This week in our letter studies brought the letter H.  The children identified a series of animals that begin with the letter H:  hummingbirds, hippos, honeybees, hedgehogs and hammerhead sharks!  We also practiced making halves into wholes.  The children were each given a half of a shape on a piece of colored paper.  We danced our booties off, but when the music stopped, we had to carefully find the other halves to our shapes!  Once all of the shapes were complete, we presented them to one another!