to

The  Strawberry  Patch

*Thanks to all the members of TA who contributed information*

Books:

Cook-a-Doodle-Doo

The Poky Little Puppy - remember the pictures of him in the strawberry patch?

The Little Mouse, The Red Ripe Strawberry, and The Big Hungry Bear ~ Audrey Wood

The First Strawberries: A Cherokee Story ~ Joseph Bruchac

Strawberry Shortcake series

Strawberries Are Red ~ Petr Horacek

Sweet Strawberries ~ Phyllis Reynolds Naylor

Berries For the Queen: A Book About Patience ~ Janet Noonan

Arianna and the Strawberry Tea ~ Maria F. Faulconer

My Mother Plants Strawberries Big Book ~ Ada Alma Flor

Will You Take Me to Town On Strawberry Day? ~ Marilyn Singer

Dudley and the Strawberry Shake ~ Peter Cross

 It's a Strawberry Fact!

Strawberries are the only fruit with seeds on the outside.
The average strawberry has 200 seeds.
Long ago, strawberries were used as a medicine for fever, throat infections, bad breath, etc.
Strawberries are the first fruit to ripen in the spring.
Strawberries are a member of the rose family.
Americans each 3.4 pounds of fresh strawberries each year.
Over 53% of seven to nine year olds picked strawberries as their favorite fruit.
Strawberries grow on a vine.  The plants have a white bloom with a yellow center.

 

 

Strawberries

Strawberries are good,
Strawberries are fine.
I love strawberries so much,
I eat them all the time!

~ Author Unknown ~

 

Stuffed Strawberries: Fingerpaint a large sheet of paper with red paint.  When the paint is dry, use green Bingo stampers to add green dots to the paper. (it's OK if the green looks more black than green)  When all paint is dry, fold the paper in half with the paint to the outside.  Starting at the fold line, cut a strawberry shape ... DO NOT CUT DOWN THE FOLD LINE.  Staple the sides of the strawberry leaving an opening to stuff it.  Cut two identical stems with leaf "caps" from green construction paper.  Stuff the strawberry and staple between the leaves and stem.  You can making tracing templates for the students to trace off the strawberry and the stem/leaves, or just run the stem/leaves pattern through the copy machine.  Then they could cut out their own strawberry, stem and leaves.

Read Cook-a-Doodle-Doo and make mini strawberry shortcakes.

 

Math Facts: Here is a math game that could be a file folder game---the strawberries have math facts on them (3 +2, 5 + 4).  Print the strawberries on red paper.  On the file folder (or a posterboard) draw some vines.  Draw a 5 vine, a 9 vine, etc.  The kids will have to place the strawberries on the right vine.  Each vine will have multiple strawberries.  Ex. 9 vine = (5+4), (6+3), (7+2), etc.  Shared by Janna

 

Strawberry Taste Test: fresh strawberries, strawberries dipped in chocolate, strawberry ice cream, strawberry shake, strawberry pie, strawberry cake, strawberry shortcake, strawberry jam, strawberry jello, strawberry bread, strawberry muffins, strawberry jigglers, strawberry yogurt, strawberry smoothie, strawberry Jolly Ranchers.  Graph everyone's favorite creating a pictograph using strawberry cut-outs or pages from a strawberry notepad.

 

Curly Locks

Curly Locks, Curly Locks,
Wilt thou be mine?
Thou shalt not wash dishes,
Nor yet feed the swine;
But sit on a cushion and sew a fine seam
And feed upon strawberries, sugar and cream.

~ a nursery rhyme ~

 

Curly Locks printables

http://www.niteowl.org/kids/curly2.html

http://www.niteowl.org/kids/curly1.html

 

Making Words: This is a cute activity, but I haven't gotten around to making it yet.  A strawberry plant has white blooms with a yellow center.  Create the bloom and write a word in the center.  Laminate the bloom.  Attach a length of green yarn to the bloom and tape the end of it to keep it from fraying.  Using clipart, an Ellison cut-out or notepad pages, create strawberries with leaf caps.  Program each strawberry with a letter to form the word on the bloom.  Laminate the strawberries and then punch a hole in the top of each strawberry.  The students will build the word on the flower by stringing the appropriate strawberry letters onto the vine in the correct order. 

 

Building Sentences: Use the same format for the idea above, but leave the word off the bloom.  Program your strawberries with words to be used for building sentences. 

 

Word Order: This skill is on the second grade MCT test I believe.  To practice the concept, use the same format for Making Words and Building Sentences above.   Create a sentence by programming a word on each strawberry.  Place the vine and strawberries in a ziplock bag or other container.  Only one sentence per container.  The student will remove the vine and strawberries, then create the sentence by placing the words on the vine in the correct order.  You can give clues by using a capital letter for the beginning of the sentence and a period after the last word (or other ending mark). 

 

Counting: Program strawberries without the leaf "cap" with green dots.  Use a pencil eraser or Qtip to make the dots.  Program the green leaf caps with the corresponding numbers.  Students count the "seeds" on the strawberries and match to the correct numbers on the leaf caps.

 

Art Project: Cut strawberries with leaves from red foam.  Have students paint the leaves green and glue on tiny green beads or sequins for seeds.

 

A Strawberry emergent reader to purchase

 

Feltboard Story: Shared by Jo Kramer

I made strawberries with red and green felt.  Then I took a Sharpie marker to make dots representing the seeds on the strawberries.  This is pretty basic because I have preschoolers but we love it.  Then we sing this rhyme....I give the child a strawberry basket when they come up for their turn.
 
 
Here comes (child's name) to pick the strawberries,
Here comes (child's name) to pick the strawberries,
Here comes (child's name) to pick the strawberries,
Way down south at the strawberry patch.
 
Pick (number) strawberries, put 'em in your basket,
Pick (number) strawberries, put 'em in your basket,
Pick (number) strawberries, put 'em in your basket,
Way down south at the Strawberry Patch.
 
Strawberry Necklace: I have also painted walnuts red, hot glued a green piece of yarn on to make a necklace then cut a stem, cut a hole in the center of that and slid it down the yarn and glued it into place.  Shared by Jo Kramer

Alphabet Matching: I also have half strawberries that match; one has the uppercase letter on it, the other has the lower case letter on it to coordinate with The Big Hungry Bear book when mouse cuts the strawberry in half.  Shared by Jo Kramer

Art: We have also dipped the side of a green plastic strawberry basket in green paint then stamped it onto a sheet of paper.  Then I cut strawberry shapes and stem shape from a sponge and had the kids stamp strawberries with stem on the basket.  Then we wrote I love (whoever) "berry" much.  For older kids you could do I love my (mom) "berry" much because........Shared by Jo Kramer

Thanks, Jo, for sharing all your wonderful ideas!

 

Culminating Activity:  I like to end each unit with something yummy to eat.  It's kind of becoming a signature of mine.  One of my students told a new student that we usually end the unit with something good to eat! :)  So for this unit I would either have the students make strawberry sundaes or strawberry shortcake.  Of course, whichever I chose would NOT have been included in the taste test.  Really good strawberry shortcake can be made using a yellow cake mix or sliced up pound cake.  Add some thawed, frozen strawberries that have been mixed with a little sugar on top of the cake .. juice and all.  Top that with Cool Whip.  You HAVE to let it sit overnight in the frig for this to be SCRUMPDELICIOUS!  I make mine at home in a glass casserole dish, but you could have each student make their own in a clear, plastic cup.  Have them put cubed cake in the bottom, then layer strawberries and top with Cool Whip.  Of course if you prefer, you can use fresh strawberries instead of the frozen.  I just prefer frozen for this.  You can serve this with Strawberry Lemonade .. YUM!

 

Strawberry shakes are just strawberry ice cream and milk blended together in the blender.  Or vanilla ice cream, strawberries, and milk.

 

You can turn either of these activities into "academics" by having students either follow oral directions, picture card directions, or have them read and follow a simple recipe (second grade benchmark).   Afterwards you could have them answer comprehension questions about the recipe.

 

Resources:

Let's Eat Strawberries booklet (TEC3507 I Can Make It, I Can Read It - Spring - Gr. 1)

Berry Pickin' Math (The Mailbox Apr/May 2001)

Strawberry Pattern (TF0300 March Idea Book)

Red Berries .. Ripe Berries .. Strawberries (Centered on Learning - Spring - PreK-K)

 

 

Links:

A Strawberry

http://www.teachersbookbag.com/spring.html

 

Sweet Strawberries

http://www.kidsdomain.com/craft/berries.html

 

3-D Fruit Craft
http://www.enchantedlearning.com/crafts/plants/fruit/index.shtml

 Arts & Crafts>Food: Strawberry

http://www.preschooleducation.com/astrawberry.shtml

 

Preschool Education Snacks > Food: Strawberry

http://www.preschooleducation.com/cstrawberry.shtml

http://www.preschooleducation.com/tstrawberry.shtml

 

Art

http://www.perpetualpreschool.com/preschool_themes/strawberries/art.htm

 

Family Fun: Delicious Strawberry Recipes

http://familyfun.go.com/recipes/family/specialfeature/strawberries_sf/

 

Strawberry Theme

http://stepbystepcc.com/foods/strawberries.html

 

Fill the Strawberry Patch (printable)

http://www.bry-backmanor.org/actpag204.html

 

The Little Mouse, the Red Ripe Strawberry, and the Hungry Bear

http://www.arkansas.gov/childcare/services/printedmats/pdf/story/strawberry.pdf

 

Strawberry (printable)

http://darensberries.com/COLORING/Berry1.jpg

http://www.raindrop.org/rugrat/fun/cstrawberry.gif

 

Strawberries (printable)
http://www.abcteach.com/Activities/strawberries.htm

http://darensberries.com/COLORING/StrawberriesThree.jpg

http://www.preschoolcoloringbook.com/color/strawberry.shtml

http://www.5aday.com/pdfs/kids/coloring/strawberries.pdf

http://home.t-online.de/home/Guido-Eiter/Bilder/pflanzen/002/Erdbeeren.gif

 

Suzy Strawberry (printable)

http://www.agr.state.nc.us/markets/kidstuff/dotf/strawb.htm

 

Strawberries in basket (printable)

http://www.homespunkids.com/prodspics/8255/strawberries.jpg

 

Strawberry Shortcake coloring pages

http://lnlweb.com/strawberry/coloring.html

http://www.coloriages.net/s/strawberry/index.html

http://members.fortunecity.com/colorbook/shortcake.htm

 

Wild Strawberry (printable)

http://www.fs.fed.us/r6/uma/urban/frve1f.htm

http://www.fs.fed.us/r6/uma/urban/frve1b.htm

 

Strawberry Shortcake Shrine

http://reiny.tripod.com/SSC.html

 

Printable Paper Dolls (Strawberry Shortcake)

http://www.angelfire.com/hi/sscake/paperdolls.html

 

 

3.19.05

updated 5.7.06

Hit Counter scripts