SUPERHERO TRAINING CAMP: WEEK 2;
HELPFUL
Man, I am sure struggling with tomorrow's training camp!
It has been unusually rainy for this time of year and it is bringing all of our attitude's down a notch. My plan for this camp session was to go outside and plant flowers in our flower beds. However, there's a pretty high chance of rain tomorrow so I had to do some adjusting.
I decided, after much debate, that I would go ahead and go forward with the session and bring it inside if I had to. So, I went today and purchased all the flowers and potting soil and I'm just going to have the kids plant them in biodegradable peet pots and plant them at a later date when it's not so rainy.
THE BOOKS:
I went with a gardening theme for this one. I thought what better way to be helpful to our environment than to plant flowers for all of our creatures to enjoy? I wanted to emphasize that there are lots of things, every day things, around them that are helpful, not just people. A tree is helpful to us because they provide oxygen, a flower is helpful to a butterfly, a butterfly is helpful to pollinate and in turn, is helpful to other bugs, ect.
We are reading:
My Garden by Kevin Henkes
Waiting for Wings by Lois Ehlert
A Leaf Can Be...by Laura Purdie Salas
After we read books and before we start planting, I'm going to do one of my favorite science experiements. I did this last year for Fizz!Boom!Read! and the kids were crazy for it. I'm going to set out four different cups and plant four different seeds in each one. Each seed will be watered with a different liquid to see which ones grow: vinegar, sugar water, regular water and salt water. I thought this would tie in with being helpful, since we are going to see which ones help the seeds to grow. I'll have each child make a prediction about which seed will grow the fastest and will check on them each week.
THE PLAN:
If we are inside, I'm going to lay down plastic tablecovers on the floor and split my group of 30 up into 3 teams. Each team will be at a table and they each get to plant a flower of their own. It will be relatively the same if we are outside, just a whole lot less crowded!
THE SNACKS:
I did not realize how much children love carrots until I started my job here. EVERY time I have served carrots, they have been gobbled up! I wanted to serve them this time because in
My Garden, the little girl says that if she had her own garden, carrots wouldn't exist because she didn't like carrots. I always make a fruit tray, so I'm using mangos and some summer fruits to try and lift our spirits a little bit. Lastly, because I always have to keep with the superhero theme, I'm going to be making Captain America Puppy Chow, which I will post a picture of and instructions for how to make on a separate post.
WISH ME LUCK!!!
UPDATE WITH PICTURES!
So, I have to admit, this was one of my favorite "story time" sessions I have ever done. The kids were so responsive to learning about how flowers and nature are helpful to us that all they wanted to do was help them in return. It was the sweetest thing and so heartwarming to see their concern for our environment.
We planted flowers in peet pots indoors because the ground was so wet. They loved it and all took such care in planting them. I didn't get many pictures, so here's just a few:
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| The blue team with my wonderful summer assistant, Whitney! |
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| Flowers the kiddos planted. We were able to plot some this afternoon! |
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| More flowers! |
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| They were being so careful. The cutest! |
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