RING-O ACTIVITYKatie Eckleberry

Educ. 356 (Sandrick)

“The Plant Part Song”

The seed makes a plant.

The seed makes a plant.

With soil and rain and sunny days,

The seed makes a plant.

The roots find the water.

The roots find the water.

With soil and rain and sunny days,

The roots find the water.

The stem holds it up.

The stem holds it up.

With soil and rain and

sunny days,

The stem holds it up.

The leaves make the food.

The leaves make the food.

With soil and rain and sunny days,

The leaves make the food.

The flower makes the fruit.

The flower makes the fruit.

With soil and rain and sunny days,

The flower makes the fruit.

The fruit holds the seeds.

The fruit holds the seeds.

With soil and rain and sunny days,

The fruit holds the seeds.

“The Plant Part Song” (to the tune of “The Farmer in the Dell”) written by Mrs. Jones

The students will use this song to help them learn the parts of the plant. They can create movements to go along with the words of the song.

Science Indicator: K.4.2 Observe plants and animals, describing how they are alike and how they are different in the way they look and in the things they do.

Language Arts Indicator:K.7.4 Recite short poems, rhymes, and songs.

Gardner’s Multiple Intelligence: Musical, Bodily Kinesthetic, and naturalist.

“What is a Plant?”

This book describes that plants are living things. Here is a short section from the book. “Like us, they grow, feed, and produce young. There are lots of different kinds of plants, from weeds to trees. They may look different but we can group them together because they have some important things in common.”

“What is a Plant?” by Richard Spilsbury

For the activity, we will use snap cubes to measure pictures of different plants and some real and artificial plants. They will have a chart to fill out that they will list the object and then they will fill out how many snap cubes tall it is.

Science Indicator: K.2.2 Draw pictures and write words to describe objects and experiences.

Language Arts Indicator:K.7.3 Describe people, places, things (including their size, color, and shape), locations, and actions

Gardner’s Multiple Intelligence: Mathematical/Logical and Bodily Kinesthetic

“Curious George Plants a Seed”

Curious George watches Jumpy the squirrel bury an acorn in the yard. Upon learning that Jumpy is storing food for later, George decides to do the same. The man with the yellow hat comes home to find the kitchen empty and its contents buried in the yard! It’s time to teach George about what things grow and what don’t. George finally gets it right when he grows a beautiful sunflower from a seed.

“Curious George Plants a Seed” by H. A. Rey

The students will have a chance to do an experiment testing how important sunlight is for a plant to grow. The class will be split up into groups of 3 or 4. Since time is limited, they will plant flower bulbs that have already started to grow. Each group will plant two flowers. One will go into the dark closet and one will go on the window ledge. Each will be given the same amount of water daily. Each group must create a hypothesis on which plant will flourish and why. Each day the students will be asked to monitor the progress of their plants and write down or draw pictures of observations they make.

Science Indicator: K.2.2 Draw pictures and write words to describe objects and experiences.

• Language Arts Indicator: K.4.3 Write using pictures, letters, and words.

Gardner’s Multiple Intelligence: Naturalist and Interpersonal

Does A Kangaroo Have a Mother, Too?

"YES! A kangaroo has a mother. Just like you and me," responds Carle to the query posed by the title of his latest collage-filled book. Ten additional, identically phrased questions and answers follow, each centered on a different animal, including the lion, penguin, swan, bear, elephant and monkey. This limited, singsong text may make reading aloud repetitious, but Carle's collages are as vibrant and refreshing as ever. Innovative textures, quirky perspectives and glowing, jewel tones mark these stylized images of affectionate animal mothers and their endearing young. The final query ("And do animal mothers love their babies?") breaks the narrative pattern, though the rejoinder is just as predictable: "YES! YES! Of course they do. Animal mothers love their babies, just as yours loves you." Though this will likely not be the perennial favorite among Carle's creations, it has an appealing twinkle. At book's end is a roundup of the specific names of each animal baby, its parents and group name (e.g., for sheep: the baby is a lamb, a ewe and ram are its parents, a group is a flock).

Does A Kangaroo Have a Mother, Too?By: Eric Carle After reading the story, we will do a picture sort

using pictures of animals and their babies. We will use the ones from the story and several new animals as well.

Science Indicator: K.4.1 Give examples of plants and animals

Language Arts Indicator:K.4.8 Organize and classify information into categories of how and why or by color or size

Gardner’s Multiple Intelligence: spatial

Look Closer

In this story a small child looks carefully at such everyday objects as walls, fences, and flowers and discovers ladybugs, caterpillars, and other minute insects that inhabit the world.

Look CloserBy Brian and Rebecca Wildsmith

After the student’s have heard the story, and had a chance to look at the pictures, they will each be asked to make a story of their own. Each of their stories will be about finding smaller objects in larger ones. They will need to write captions to go along with their pictures.

Science Indicator: K.2.2 Draw pictures and write words to describes objects and experiences

• Language Arts Indicator: K.4.3 Write using pictures, letters, and words.

Gardner’s Multiple Intelligence: Verbal Linguistic and Intrapersonal

Edward the Emu

Edward is tired of being an emu, so he decides to try being something else for a change. First he spends some time swimming with the seals. Next, he lounges with the lions. He even slithers with the snakes. But Edward soon discovers that being an emu may not be so bad after all. So he heads back to his pen, only to find a big surprise awaiting him . . .Sheena Knowles' upbeat, rhyming text and Rod Clement's deliciously droll illustrations are sure to make readers laugh out loud in this whimsical picture book by the creators of Edwina the Emu.

Edward the Emu By: Sheena Knowles

After reading the story, the students will be asked to take each animal and decide how fast and slow they move and how they move. They will be provided picture cards of all the animals in the book and they will put them in order of speed. This will be completed in groups.

Science Indicator: K.3.2 Investigate that things move in different ways, such as fast, slow, etc.

Language Arts Indicator:K.4.8 Organize and classify information into categories of how and why or by color or size

Gardner’s Multiple Intelligence: Interpersonal, spatial, and bodily-kinesthetic

A Color of His Own

Every animal has a color of its own. "Parrots are green, elephants are gray, pigs are pink." But chameleons change color wherever they go. "On lemons they are yellow. In the heather they are purple." One chameleon is not pleased with his changeable appearance. He thinks, "If I remain on a leaf, I shall be green forever, and so I too will have a color of my own." Of course, what he doesn't take into account is the changes wrought by autumn, and soon the green chameleon is yellow, then red, and then tumbled to the ground for the long black winter night. It isn't until he befriends another older, wiser chameleon that our hero begins to find inner peace, even as his outer surface is transformed again and again.

A Color of His OwnBy: Leo Lionni

After reading the story the class will be split up into groups to question why a chameleon changes colors. They will be asked to create a poster with their ideas.

Science Indicator: K.1.1 Raise questions

about the natural world Language Arts Indicator: K.4.3 Write using

pictures, letters, and words. Gardner’s Multiple Intelligence:

Interpersonal and Verbal Linguistic

Skippyjon Jones

Kindergarten-Grade 3-This is a wildly wonderful book about a hyperactive kitten, Skippyjon Jones, whose head and ears are too big for his body, and whose imagination is too intense for his mama. According to her, he needs to do some serious thinking about what it means to be a Siamese cat instead of a bird (Skippyjon always wakes up and eats worms with his feathered friends). She sends him to his room, where he imagines he is a Chihuahua ("My name is Skippito Friskito./I fear not a single bandito"). Chock-full of rhyming chants and Spanish expressions, the feline's adventure as a doggy Zorro ends in chaos. His frazzled mother gives him a hug anyway and says, "Say good night, Skippyjon Jones." "Buenas noches, mis amigos," says the kitten, as he bounces on his bed all ready for another adventure. The buoyant and colorful cartoon illustrations match the exuberant text perfectly. Spanish-speaking children will be especially delighted by the words and humor; others may be a little bewildered by all of the foreign phrases and will need some explanation, but the story definitely has the potential of a fun read-aloud. A good multicultural offering.

Skippyjon Jones

The students will be asked to take a scene from the story and describe what the objects in that scene are made out of. They can draw pictures and use words to describe the objects.

Science Indicator: K.3.1 Describe objects in terms of the materials they are made of, such as clay, cloth, paper, etc.

Language Arts Indicator:K.4.3 Write using pictures, letters, and words

Gardner’s Multiple Intelligence: Verbal linguistic

Garden Friends Song

I’m a slow old snail and I have no feetI slide on my tummy to find things to eatI leave a trail of slime wherever I goAnd I’m always running late ‘cause I’m so slow 

I’m a busy little ant and I have a lot of friendsI go in search of food in a line that never endsAnd oh we work so hard by the end of the dayI crawl inside my bed and I sleep the night away 

I’m a pretty butterfly and I spread by wingsI flit from flower to flower and I love all sorts of thingsAnd when the sun shines out and it’s a glorious dayI hear the birdies sing and I sing along hooray!Oh yes I hear the birdies sing and I sing along hooray

Garden Friends Prue Whoo: Australian Songwriter

This song is a great song for teaching garden Bugs and insects. The students will learn the song and then investigate the way the insects in the song move and where they live.

Science Indicator: K.3.2 Investigate that things move in different ways, such as fast, slow, etc.

Language Arts Indicator:K.7.4 Recite short poems, rhymes, and songs.

Gardner’s Multiple Intelligence: Musical and Bodily-Kinesthetic

Track DetectiveDo you like wild animals?

Do you wanna know where they live?

Well, if you want to know where the animals go

Than I have some advice to giveYou see, I’m a track detective, I’m

trackin’ animals all the timeAnd if you want to know where the

critters all goWell, you'd better get yourself

outside Chorus:

And we’ll track track track in the mud

Track track track in the sandTrack track track in the snow

Then we’ll know where the critters go!

Oooh, oooh, ooh do da dada do da Track Detective

Oooh oooh, ooh do da dada do da

Track Detective Animals leave clues behind, like

footprints feathers and trailsThere’s a nest in a tree, a chewed-

up leafSome snake has shed its scales

We’re gonna prowl like the wise old owl

Observing and always awareWe’ll move without a sound, look

around up and downAnd the animals won’t know were

thereChorus

We'll learn to see what the animals see

And move like the animals moveYou’ll be a track detective so you’ll

all have the cluesAnd you’ll know that it’s easy to do

Chorus

Track DetectiveJeff Wolin

This song is great for teaching children how to look for animal characteristics. After listening to the song the children will be asked to create a story about an animal they tracked down using clues from the song.

Science Indicator: K.4.2 Observe plants and animals, describing how they are alike and how they are different in the way they look and in the things they do.

Language Arts Indicator:K.4.2 Tell a story that the teacher or some other person will write.

Gardner’s Multiple Intelligence: Musical and Verbal Linguistic