Seeds, Flowers, and a Garden of Math and Literacy Centers

I'm a little behind!!! Trying to catch up on posts!!  We did our plant unit a few weeks back.  On the first day of our unit, I like to give them a lima bean. We talk about the different parts of a lima bean and we do a little exploration of our bean.

I found these FABULOUS FREEEEE printables a few years ago at aimsedu.org!!! Click on the picture below for a direct link to these printables!!

After some seed exploration, it's time to "plant" our seeds. Each child gets three lima beans. They put them between a napkin and give the napkin a few squirts with the spray bottle.  The napkin is then placed in a plastic baggie. Be sure to leave the bag open so than air can get in!!

Next, we staple the bag to the back of our sprout houses!! I made these little sprout houses to display our seeds in. Makes it easy to see who's seeds are whose and just adds a bit of cuteness to it:)  You can click on either of the pictures below to grab a free copy of my sprout houses.

Well, let me just tell you that I made my little sprout houses and thought they were so cute and fun and was excited to  offer them as a freebie and THE VERY SAME WEEK I hopped on over to Kindergarten Crayons and guess what?!?! Fran had a Sprout house too...and I'm pretty sure it's way cuter than mine!!!! Ha!!! So, go check hers out too!;)

The next day, after we plant our beans-I read Jack & the Beanstalk. I don't have a copy of this book-so, I asked teachers around my school if I could borrow a copy of theirs. Well, if you decide to read Jack and the Beanstalk to your Kinders-BE CAREFUL which version you choose!!!!! Good thing I previewed this book before I read it!!!!!  Ha!!!!

After we read the book we did this writing activity. Would you climb the beanstalk???

Then we made this adorable craftivity!! You can get this super cute craft and writing prompt from Laura Martin at Peace Love and First Grade!! Soooo cute! ;) Thanks, Laura!

I LOVE this adorable little book called Tops and Bottoms!!

Here is the anchor chart that we made to go with the book! I got this idea from First Grade Fever!

I also snagged this freebie from  Plants Press!!

Here are a few of the centers we did this week. You can find ALL of these centers in my Growing a Garden of Math & Literacy Centers Pack!!!

Measurment:

Quantities to 20

Number Bonds-Here's an example of the differentiation that you will always find in my centers packs. The above/on level student get this:

My approaching level students match the number bond to the ten frame (matching colors) The dots help them to see what the number sentence will be. There are 6 dots-how many more do you need to make 10?

Adding and subtracting:

 counting syllables....it's funny how adding a pair of garden gloves to clap your syllables with can make this center soooooo much more fun and exciting! ;)

 Building sentences: