Montessori Curriculum – Cultural & Language

Book choices for today:

What Plants Give Us    Janet Riehecky
Mirror Mirror   Allan Fowler
Reflections   Webb & Fairclough
Reflections   Ann Jonas
People Need Plants   Mary Dodson Wade

Botany: (first circle)

Need for lesson – Plants Give Us card set.

Botany 18

We have learned many things about plants. Plants start out as a seed. Inside of the seeds are the tiny plants waiting to grow. As the plant grows we learned that they can make their own food. Plants give us many things. When we talked about fruits and vegetables we learned that when eat a vegetable, like a carrot, we are eating a part of the plant. We are eating the root of the carrot plant. Fruits are the seed part of a plant that we eat. Plants also give us things like medicine and wood to build furniture and houses with. We get wood from trees. Trees are a kind of plant. The Cotton plant gives us cotton which can be spun into threads and yarns so clothes and things like towels can be made. Plants are very helpful and important in our lives.

Lets look at some pictures of plants and match them to the things they give us.

Art:

Plants Give Us – Have pre-cut leaf shapes, magazines, scissors, and glue sticks. Children can search through the magazines and cut out pictures of things we get from plants. The pictures can be glued onto the leaf shape to make a collage of the things plants give us.

Science: (second circle)

Need for lesson – A basket or tray with objects that show a reflection and those that do not; mirrors, foil, small cookie sheet pan, polished piece of silver, picture frame, plastic items, a piece of cardboard, etc.

Talk with the children about reflections. Tell the children that when something gives you back a picture of what is in front of it, it is called a reflection. Demonstrate the basket of things that give us a reflection and the things that do not.

Additional Work:

Mirror Fun – Have some words spelled correctly and some backwards on laminated cards. On other laminated cards make pictures of half of shapes. Show the children how the mirror can reflect things backwards and how half of a heart can look like a whole heart in the mirror.