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Visiting the Earl Burns Miller Japanese Garden

Lesson Ideas

In order to reinforce your student's learning experiences at the Garden, we have created several lessons that you might consider completing before your visit. By connecting the Garden field trip to your curriculum, you can use the excitement and interest of the students' experiences to make concepts more relevant and provide strong support for your classroom instruction. These activities are closely aligned with the Science Content Standards for California Public Schools, as noted below.

Kindergarten

Life Sciences

Different types of plants and animals inhabit the Earth. As a basis for understanding this concept :

• Students know how to observe and describe similarities and differences in the appearance and behavior of plants and animals (e.g., seed-bearing plants, birds, fish, insects).
• Students know stories sometimes give plants and animals attributes they do not really have.
• Students know how to identify major structures of common plants and animals (e.g., stems, leaves, roots, arms, wings, legs).

Investigation and Experimentation

Scientific progress is made by asking meaningful questions and conducting careful investigations. As a basis for understanding, this concept and addressing the content in the other three strands, students should develop their own questions and perform investigations. Students will:

• Observe common objects by using the five senses.
• Describe the properties of common objects.
• Describe the relative position of objects by using one reference (e.g., above or below).
• Compare and sort common objects by one physical attribute (e.g., color, shape, texture, size, weight).
• Communicate observations orally and through drawings

Possible Open Court Connections

Level K, Unit 8: By the Sea

When planning your field trip, we recommend that you think carefully about what you will do before, during and after your visit. Ask yourself:

• What can I do to prepare students for the experience before we go?
• What will we do while we are there? What do I want students to discover?
• What can I do after the visit to reinforce student learning?

The activities described here provide ideas for each of these parts.