Weeks 23: March 7-11 - Good Gardens

Good Gardens

Most of the kids from the Seeds and Garden programs on our joint field trip to the Botanical Gardens of Caguas.

This was a very exciting week! On Friday, we all went on a field trip to the Botanical Gardens in Caguas where we explored many different types of plants and flowers. God gave us a beautiful day and we were also able to celebrate and honor Derek for his birthday. The families were able to spend time with each other and get to know each other a little more. Check out the photo gallery below to see some amazing nature photos (Thanks parents for contributing so many of them!)

THE GARDEN

It was another great week at the Garden as we continued learning about the plagues in Egypt. This week we saw in the story how the locusts came to Egypt and ate the crops and hail fell from the sky and killed animals and people. Even so, the Pharaoh’s heart became more hardened each time.

Egypt also had the plague of darkness, and the people could not see a thing. Nonetheless, on the other side in Goshen, the people had light and were safe and protected from all the plagues that were upon Egypt. Lastly, one of the saddest plagues happened: the first born child of each household and the first born of the animals were also going to die. There was great mourning, wailing and lamenting in Egypt that day. Finally, Pharaoh told Moses he would let everyone go. Next week, we will see what happens after this!

The children at circle time keep practicing the months of the year and days of the week (In English and Spanish). In activity time we drew, played with blocks, planted in the garden, picked spinach, played with brain flakes, and played in the kitchen.

One of the kids’ favorite activities was playing at the sensory table with dirt and our new insect toys. They all expressed their curiosity about insects. What did they want to know about insects? Why are they different colors, why do they bite, how strong are they? etc. They also wanted to learn more about beetles, ladybugs, butterflies, camouflaging insects and more.

We are excited to keep learning about insects!

SEEDS

MEMORY VERSE FOR SEEDS

“And he is the head of the body, the church...”

— Colossians 1:18

One of the most fascinating things about History after the age of exploration is recognizing how the events of one place in the world always affect the lives of people in other places. We learned this was true with France as the ideas of freedom and equality that sparked revolution in America, soon ignited a fire in France as well. The French Revolution began a very dark time in the country’s history and we added these events to our timeline. Back in America, we continued to learn about the different states that ratified the constitution. We have now covered about 8 states so far in our binders. Check out the photos in the gallery below.

*We were excited to welcome Stella’s mom, Dana, as our guest teacher, explaining to us about soil health.*

Seeds are essential for helping scientists classify plants. In fact, besides plants being vascular or non-vascular, whether they make seeds or not is the second question scientists ask themselves. We learned plants can make seeds that are in a “container” (Angiosperms) like peanuts, sunflowers, apples , and papayas and seeds that are uncovered (Gymnosperms) like with pines. We learned that before there is a container for the seeds, there is a flower because a flower’s job is to make seeds. The kids loved cracking open some of these containers and munching on peanuts and sunflower seeds in class. We were also able to plant some beans and flowers during a special studio time with Ms. Yessenia, after learning from Ms. Dana, and will keep an eye on them as we continue to learn about seeds this week.