Harrison Halls: Plants Unit

Hello everyone! Harrison Halls has successfully completed our second unit: Plants! This unit went about two and a half weeks, a little longer than our previous one.

We started out by introducing the topic to the kiddos with a poster of the plant life cycle and read the book We Plant a Seed. We also added the song “Farmer Plants the Seeds” to our Welcome Routine to get them to go through the actions of planting and harvesting.

1- Sensory “Reading”

While reading our book the kids got some Play-Doh to hold. Little did they know we had put beans in there as a surprise! Sylas was the first to discover the surprise and it was great to watch his face look around to see if anyone was seeing what he was seeing!
In a rookie move (d’oh!) we did the water activity BEFORE the paint activity! What, are we new here??

2- Ice-blasters

We went outside for a bit too with this unit (it’s so hot here in Phoenix we can’t be outside for too long!) and tried to melt down ice cubes I had made and filled with plants from a walk Patrick and I had taken the day before. I also threw in a few drops of essential oils in the water before freezing it to add a fun little twist as well as a nod back to our 5 senses unit. The kids used their “ice blasters” (water guns) to release the plants inside! Some friends even got extra tools to help them with the task!⠀

3- Sensory Painting

We also used our plants as brushes and it was quite fun! I tried having secret messages out of white crayon show up with them painting but I used tempera paint instead of watercolors and it did not work out. The kids loved using the pain regardless, good thing we try to go with the flow over here! We tried it a few days later with watercolors and it worked out!

4- Counting Petals

This was a two-in-one activity that had our kiddos practicing their counting. We counted the petals on flowers and then matched the digit to the center of the flower. Kind of like the star activity in our last unit. Then they were given a digit to put on their paper and create their own funky flowers with sensory materials as the petals. Lots of fun and learning!

5- Science in Action! Avocado Life Cycle

Our in house plant lady, Ashley, was awesome enough to bring in an avocado plant in its different stages. The kids were able to see the seed still in the fruit, then a sprouted seed, then the big potted plant.

6- Plant Creatures

After posting about this activity on our Instagram, I learned that some people might call them Mr. Hairies and I love it. We got a bunch of chia seeds and mixed them in with some soil. Then we filled stockings with the soil mixture and added googly eyes and noses made with rubber bands. The fishnets worked best for the chia seeds because they didn’t have to struggle to grow through the tiny little holes in stockings. If we ever do this again, it will probably be done with grass seed as it grows thinner than the chia seeds.

7- If You Give a Pig a Pancake Sequencing

This was one of the harder activities done with our oldest kids and it involved sequencing the story If You Give a Pig a Pancake Sequencing. We read the story through once and then went through it a second time with our activity sheet. I’m going to do a second blog post for this because it comes with printables you can have!

8- Plant Parts Dash

This one was a fun review of our plant parts. We went over and labeled our class avocado plant with labels paper clipped to its parts. Then we did a sort of gallery walk around the room of different examples of all of those plants. Some of those areas also included actual plant parts (the roots area had beets and yams). Finally, we called out plant parts and the kids had to dash over to that area. It took quick feet AND a quick wit to play this game!

This unit was great and the kids are learning so much! Follow us on Instagram @sonoranstylemama to keep up with our fun!

Welcome to Harrison Halls!

Hi friends! We have been hard at work over here trying to get something really excited kick-started…drum roll please… a homeschool preschool, Harrison Halls.

Two friends who both happen to be teachers, along with their sisters and their kids, were brainstorming of ways to create meaningful learning during these crazy times. Each of us were already working on things on our own so why not bring us all together?, we asked. So we did! We found a curriculum that goes through a number of units that cover all kinds of fun stuff. The kids just got through a two week unit on The 5 Senses and it was so much fun! If you’re interested in the curriculum I will post the link for purchase here.

We are loosely following the curriculum; more like using it as a jumping point for the weeks’ lessons and activities that will suit our kids’ learning styles and schedule best.

Our children range from ages 1-4 and everyone participates, with modifications, so that each child gets a rich learning experience!

Apart from keeping our minds healthy, our children are also being taught to keep their bodies healthy with help from our in-house massage therapist, Dusty with Phoenix Holistic (some of the kids refer to him as “Dad”). With our “fun movement time”, the kids work on Fundamental Movement Skills which are essential building blocks for competency in movement.

So tune in for our first unit wrap-up of The 5 Senses!

Also make sure to follow us on Instagram @sonoranstylemama 🙂