Throughout the past month, the children have been studying the life cycle of plants and flowers. The children have been so much fun to watch as they have been guiding their learning through observation, experimentation, and questioning.
We began shortly after we came back from spring break with listening to the classic tale of “Jack and the Beanstalk”. We read three different versions and decided which one we liked the best. The children then planted their own “Jack bean” in a small plastic bag with a wet cotton ball. We taped their bags to the classroom windows so that the kids could watch the bean swell and begin to form its root. Once the first root appeared, the children began to slowly transfer their bean into their cup of soil. We used clear cups so the children could observe the roots and stem emerge over a period of several days! We kept an observational journal entry where they children drew a picture of their “beanstalk” plant over a period of four weeks. It was really a neat project!
At the end of April we also started our classroom greenhouse where we planted three different kinds of flowers! Each child had the choice of which type of flower seed they wanted to plant: Morning Glory, Blue Forget-Me-Not’s, or Purple Forget-Me-Not’s! They were responsible for watering and making sure their flowers were getting enough sun light and water. The students had a blast “watching their garden grow”! I was able to capture a few sweet moments of them during this part of our unit! (It was a messy unit with usually dirt or mud all over my hands, so it was hard to take pictures with my camera!)
Another favorite part of this unit was that we visited our TWO school gardens when the weather was cooperating. We read several stories out in the learning garden, and transferred our flowers from our greenhouse into new pots and soil in the ABC garden in the front of our school. We also had 8 of our families in room 121 join Student Council in late April for our school’s annual playground clean-up day! Thank you for making our school grounds cleaner and brighter for all to enjoy!
We’ve had a wonderful time watching your children grow this year!
Preschool in the City with Mrs. Gabelman 
These are so much fun Ms. Hopkins. We’re so sad the year is coming to an end. We will miss you very much. This has been an amazing year for Ceci.