Transcript

Teacher: Since were working on a spring planting theme, I thought it would be a good idea to turn the sandbox into a garden. From the local dollar store, I purchased lots of supplies and tools that the children could use in the garden center. The focus is oral language, and we want the children to be able to use oral language in different contexts, and different settings. And they come to school with a variety of background experiences, and knowledge about planting and gardening. So, even before we put the sand table as garden, we have to do lots read alouds, poetry, songs about gardening and planting, just to build their background knowledge. And we talk about the conversation what would it look like at the garden? What kinds of things do you talk about when youre gardening? What are the tools you use? How do you use the tools? And we would build all that language together, and have the children practice and model for the rest of the class. 

We have some gardening gloves, so we would talk about how the children use the gardening gloves to keep their hands clean and to protect themselves. And of course, a sun hat, and they love the sun hats, to keep the sun off their heads when theyre gardening. I purchased packages of seeds, and then I just made copies of the packages so that they could put a clothespin on, so that when they plant their seeds, they can put this at the end of the row, just like a real gardener would do. And I just have some lima beans for seeds. And all of the gardening tools  and we call them by their proper names, and in the conversations the children are expected to use the specific language for the center. So I always take photographs of the tools, and do it on the photocopier so that the children can see the actual pictures, and I label them  so we have rakes, and a hoe, and shovel. And then, when the plants start to grow, they can actually grow the plants and grow the flowers. And theres the watering can, to water the plants, and weve also talked about the sunshine, and all the things plants need to grow. So its just a great opportunity for them to practice their oral language. 

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