Exploring and Caring for the Garden

The preschoolers absolutely loved our Garden Themed Center.  Each week we focused on the language of different garden related topics.  During the first week, we discussed what kinds of things we would find in gardens, including the fact that there were different types of gardens.  (e.g. vegetable gardens, flower gardens, rock gardens, etc.)  Then we learned how to plant a new garden & care for it once it was alive and growing.  Thirdly, we talked about what kinds of animals and/or bugs a person could find in a garden.  The preschoolers even got to touch real worms & caterpillars in the sensory table, plant some real seeds and watch them grow (over a foot tall) and even plant some real flowers to take home.  Lastly, the preschoolers learned how to choose items from a garden so that they could pick them and enjoy them inside.

During this unit, we also cared for some caterpillars/silk worms.  We watched them eat, grow around 10 times their original size and then spin themselves into some amazing, yellow cocoons.  The preschoolers loved caring for these "class pets" and couldn't wait to see them each morning.  (We would like to say a special thank you to Ms. Kristi for sharing these special creatures with us.)  Ms. Kristi also came into our classroom afterwards and showed us how to spin the silk from their cocoons into real thread for making clothes!