I'm very lucky to teach just outside our Nations Capitol surrounded by the Cherry Blossoms. I try I teach a small unit on the Cherry Blossoms and wanted to share what I've done over the years from 2nd grade through my kindergarteners. The lessons begin with the book, Cherry Blossom Friends which I purchased through the Smithsonian a few years back. I have my typed lesson plans below from 2nd grade.
I coordinated with my music teacher and I taught the kids the song Sakura that I learned when I was a child. We learn the song in both English and Japanese. I have the music for the kids from the music text books and I have a CD with a copy of the song to sing in the room.
Next we made a cherry blossom art project depicting the cherry blossom trees and the Jefferson Memorial with the tidal basin in the background. Many of my students have been down there and this image matches one of the first pages in the book so they love it!With my kinders this year I read the same book but due to limited time I didn't get to work on the music with them. We made our own fingerprint cherry blossom trees using watered down brown paint to paint the branch and then they used finger prints to make the flowers.
This is our spring Cherry Blossom center I had the kids do. They traced a tree and used tissue paper to glue on the flowers. They had to draw a spring scene and write about what they like to do in the spring. They loved our little unit!
- Lindsey
