The Carrot Seed

Hi Friends,

Last week we finished our unit on what plants need to grow. I am loving the content that I'm teaching this quarter! It is so engaging and fun for my little ones. The overarching theme of last week was plants, but more specifically, carrots. We used The Carrot Seed by Ruth Krauss as our focus text and it is truly one of my favorite children's stories. It is such a simple yet poignant tale about the tenacity of a little boy and his belief that despite what everyone tells him, his carrot will grow. I found this text very refreshing as it reminded me of the innocent sense of empowerment that I once had as a child and strive to maintain here in my adulthood.

We reviewed the sight word 'said' through our Make-a-Book center.

Remember, this center is not only designed to help students practice writing and gain recognition of their sight words, but it is a great opportunity for increasing their reading fluency as well. Make sure to have students read their story back to you every single day until it goes in their book boxes at the end of the week. Here are some delightful student samples:

In looking at the Language Arts Common Core Standards for kindergarten, students also sequenced picture cards to help prompt them in retelling The Carrot Seed, making sure to include key details. I actually created the picture cards myself and have uploaded them onto my teacherspayteachers account that you can access and download for free here. I also had students cut and paste the correct sequencing words (first, next, then, and finally) beneath each picture. Of course, you can differentiate this activity for students as you see fit. They look so great on our Bunches of Carrots wall!

For math we worked on measurement all week and in relating back to our plant/carrot theme, I had students color, cut, and order carrots by length and then label which one was the shortest and the longest. I made a measuring center with laminated construction paper carrots that students could use with linker cubes to practice measuring with nonstandard units as well. However, we never got to it due to behavior issues and my first year teacher classroom management. Maybe I'll be able to use it as a review of length during math centers this week. 

We also created a graph to see if boys and girls in Room 13 like or do not like carrots. I must say, I'm very impressed with my kinders. They like to eat their vegetables, well carrots at least! :)

For our writing block, I fully transitioned us into informative writing. Last week students were asked to write about what plants need to grow. I am not including the entire writing process like I did a couple weeks but you can see how my students' writing develops from main ideas into cohesively written pieces by the end of the week.

This is my plant. My plant needs water. I like my plant. My plant needs love.

Here is my plant. My plant needs sun and water. It grows in soil.

This is my plant. I put seeds in the soil. Then I put water.

I see the flower. It needs water and soil. The cactus needs sunlight.

I grew a plant. I gave it water and sunlight. It needs soil and wind too. I like my plants.

Lastly, my kiddos got to plant their beans at the planting center after studying what seeds need to grow. They completed the following 4-square to help them remember what seeds need.

Phew! What a jam-packed week huh? I'll leave you with some shots of my students enjoying their planting center.

Food for taught - make sure you plant extra beans ahead of time in case some stubborn beans refuse to germinate. You never know how sensitive some of your kiddos might be if everyone else has a sprout and they don't!

As always, thanks so much for reading!