Kindergarten Lesson Plan on Pilgrims, Planting & Harvesting Crops

Kindergarten Lesson Plan on Pilgrims, Planting & Harvesting Crops
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In today’s lesson, the class will review facts learned so far about the ships, Pilgrims, and the first Thanksgiving. For today’s lesson plan, here is a list of the materials that you will need to present it in its fullest capacity:

Photos of ships

Photos of Pilgrims

A variety of seeds

Lima beans

Soil

Resealable plastic bags

Paper towels

Reproducible pictures of fruit

Cornucopias that were made in the Native American unit

Circle Time Discussion

Review facts about ships, show children ship photos, both old and modern. Discuss the differences and similarities.

Review facts about Pilgrims. Discuss how the Pilgrims must have felt when they came to a new land.

Discuss that the Pilgrims landed in the winter, but were not prepared for the cold temperatures and soon ran out of food. Many of the Pilgrims decided to return to England. A lot of people died during that first winter, because they were not prepared with food and for inclement weather.

The Indians helped the Pilgrims that remained. They taught them how to fish properly, how to hunt and how to grow a garden.

Show children a variety of seeds. Discuss with them how plants grow from seeds.

Activity

Planting Seeds

Provide each child with a plastic resealable bag.

Allow each child to scoop a small amount of dirt into the bag.

Place a wet paper towel inside of the bag.

Plant two lima beans in the soil of each child’s plastic bag.

Hang all bags in the window to be able to get as much sunlight as possible.

Have the students journal the procedure with words or pictures. Provide a guideline. First we _____. Next we _______, and so on.

The plastic bag will act as a green house and the lima been will begin to sprout. The children will be able to track the progress by viewing the roots in the plastic bag.

Teach the children about what the seeds need to sprout: Soil, sun, and water.

Have the students journal again, drawing and labeling the roots. Define root.

Transplant the seeds into cups when they have sprouted.

Art

Allow children to color pictures of fruits and vegetables.

Instruct children to cut out the pictures and adhere them to the cornucopia.

Math Skills

Larger or Smaller

Compare the sizes of a variety of seeds.

After the children have observed and discussed the sizes, on the board or a chart, create a graph to track the seed sizes from largest to smallest.

Language Skills

Rhyme Time

On a set of pre-cut ships, write rhyming words.

Instruct the children to match the words that rhyme.

Extend the concept by, asking for the children to verbally provide additional rhyming words from today’s lesson. The teacher gives the students a word to rhyme, like sun, ship, seed, and the students name a word that rhymes.

This post is part of the series: Pilgrim Unit

pilgrim unit

  1. Kindergarten Pilgrim Lesson: Planting & Harvesting
  2. Kindergarten Thanksgiving Lesson Plan: Make a Pilgram Hat & Collar
  3. Friday Fun: An Easy Activity Ends the Unit on Pilgrims