Families Unit Week 2 September 29- October 3

Save The Date: Back to School Night October 15 at 5:30 (more info to follow)

Families Theme
Children will be exploring and talking about families and the many different ways families relate to and help one another. Through the Story Time books, children will hear about a boy who helps his family take care of his baby sister, a boy who realizes how much he has grown when a new baby arrives, a girl who behaves badly when she want attention, and a lonely stuffed bear who finds a new friend. Besides listening to stories, children will begin to recognize initial sounds in words and identify rhyming words as they build vocabulary and comprehension skills. They will also be participating in a variety of music, poetry, mathematics, science, and art activities during Center Time and in Small Groups.
Theme Concepts:
*Family members have role names: mother, father, sister, and so on.
*Some family members live together; some live in other places but are still family members.
*Grown-ups in a family take care of the children. Younger children need more care. Older children can help take care of younger brothers and sisters.
*Children sometimes get angry at parents and may feel that their parents don't love them as much as their siblings.
*Sometimes grown-ups in a family don't like things that children do and tell them to stop or be quiet.
*Families do things together that are fun.

Books This Week:
Noisy Nora byRosemary Wells
Owl Babies
Peter's Chair by Ezra Jack Keats

Small Groups:
Continued from last week:
-Watch Me Count (1:1 correspondence/number recognition)
-I pad Playhome app (family related vocabulary)
-Family Vocabulary Books (matching letters/writing)
New this week:
-Paint Chip Matching- We will explore paint chips from a hardware store and match the colors. This is related to Peter's chair. His family painted his old blue chair to pink for his baby sister.  As an extension, we will then match uppercase letters to their lowercase letters to create a paint chip train.
-Airplane Derby- We will create paper airplanes(just like Daniel airplane from our book Oonga Boonga).  Then we will fly our planes and see how far they go.  Children will then find the number that matches the distance the plane flew then put the same number sticker on their plane. We will compare our results with our friends.
-Peter's Chair Sequence- We will look at our unit book Peter's Chair and discuss the events in the story. Then each child will cut and paste the order of the story on a strip to retell the story through the pictures.


Centers
-Dramatic Play-  Peter's house.  We painted a large box and created a lifesized house for Peter.  We have unit vocabulary inside as well. Children can role play the story "Peter's chair" with props.
-Sensory Table- Painting Peter's chairs (we will put chairs in the sensory table with pink colored water and have the children "paint" the chairs using paintbrushes.
-Art Table- bottle shakers
-Writing- unit words
-Blocks- Block Play with family people
-Math-Sorting buttons by color, shape, and number of hole
-Library- Books about families

Let's Talk About It
-Time for Bed book
-Paper Airplanes and other folded paper objects
-Mixing paint and paint chips (related to Peter's chair)
-Cook Books and Recipes (related to Noisy Nora; when she follows a recipe with her mom)

Songs, Word Play, and Letters
-Syllables in words (our names, character names, unit words)
-Rhyming Words Song
-Dr. Jean Alphabet
-Stand Up
-Down by the Bay
-If your name starts with ____ raise your hand, jump, clap your hands (following directions game)

Handwriting
-We will be continuing our color books for the Handwriting Without Tears Curriculum. We will focus on proper grasp holding our stubby crayons. We are working on our color and shape books.

Preschool Life Skills
We are continuing to review our previous skills 1-2.
1-When a teacher calls your name, stop, look and say, "Yes".
2-When a teacher tells you to do something, do it "Right Away".

We will beginning our new skill this week:
3-When a teacher tells you to do 2 things, do it "Right Away".(multi-step directions)

Families Unit- Week 1

Families Theme
Children will be exploring and talking about families and the many different ways families relate to and help one another. Through the Story Time books, children will hear about a boy who helps his family take care of his baby sister, a boy who realizes how much he has grown when a new baby arrives, a girl who behaves badly when she want attention, and a lonely stuffed bear who finds a new friend. Besides listening to stories, children will begin to recognize initial sounds in words and identify rhyming words as they build vocabulary and comprehension skills. They will also be participating in a variety of music, poetry, mathematics, science, and art activities during Center Time and in Small Groups.
Theme Concepts:
*Family members have role names: mother, father, sister, and so on.
*Some family members live together; some live in other places but are still family members.
*Grown-ups in a family take care of the children. Younger children need more care. Older children can help take care of younger brothers and sisters.
*Children sometimes get angry at parents and may feel that their parents don't love them as much as their siblings.
*Sometimes grown-ups in a family don't like things that children do and tell them to stop or be quiet.
*Families do things together that are fun.

Books This Week:
Oonga Boonga by Frieda Wishinsky
Peter's Chair by Ezra Jack Keats

Small Groups:
-Writing/Storytelling- Children will be encouraged to draw pictures in blank books and write letters or words for their illustrations.They will be encouraged to have a beginning, middle, and end.(first/then/at the end)
-Letter Matching- Children will match uppercase letters in small groups. Teachers will discuss the sounds for the matching letters.
-Science- We will be making harmonicas in small groups.  Using popscicle sticks, rubber bands and straws each child will make a sound "sandwich".  This is related to Grandpa's harmonica in Oonga Boonga.
-Family Vocabulary- We will be creating books that discuss the members of a family.  It will be related back to our Oonga Boonga and Peter's Chair
-Watch Me Count- Children will count objects from our unit and label each set with a number. We will be working with sets of 3, 7, and 15.
-I pad  app My Playhome (Which can be described as an interactive dollhouse.) Children will be able to explore this app and we will discuss what they are doing in their "dollhouse".

Centers
-Dramatic Play- Taking Care of Babies
-Sensory Table- Washing Babies
-Art Table- Making tissue paper collages
-Writing- Writing my name with letter stampers
-Blocks- Block Play with an alligator (role play of Peter's chair)
-Math-matching and sorting paint chips
-Library- Books about families

Let's Talk About It
-Learning how to take care of babies
-Harmonicas and other musical instruments
-Learning how to make bottle shakers for centers next week

Songs, Word Play, and Letters
-Five Green and Speckled Frogs on Touch It board
-Dr. Jean Alphabet
-Stand Up
-Down by the Bay
-If your name starts with ____ raise your hand

Handwriting
-We will be beginning our color books for the Handwriting Without Tears Curriculum.  We will focus on proper grasp holding our stubby crayons.

Preschool Life Skills
-When a teacher tells me to do something, I will do it, "right away"
Previous skills:
-When someone calls my name, stop, look and say yes.

Promoting fine motor

Today we used cotton swabs to paint. We used "alligator fingers" to hold the cotton swabs and dotted paint in each letter in our names. 

Raccoon masks will be sent home Friday

Everyone has had fun these first two weeks of school. Tomorrow we will be finishing our Kissing Hand book and getting to know each other unit. Next week we will be beginning our first Opening The World Of Learning(OWL) unit. The first unit is family. Everyone is very excited. 

Science center visit today

Today we walked to the Burlington Science Center in the high school to look at the animals. It was a fun way to spend a rainy morning. We saw turtles, frogs, gerbils, an alligator, and a parrot. 

Second Week of School -Sept. 15-19

Our first week together as a class was wonderful.  I hope all of your children were excited to come to school each day.  The children were also thrilled to earn their mystery bags. We are looking forward to another fun filled week next week.

I posted some photos of some activities from our first week. We played a "pom pom" pick up game which involved fine motor and counting.  We used the touch it board to identify the first letter in our names(object move after they touch the letter).  We also were introduce to our alligator clothespins to strengthen our hand muscles.

Books This Week:
The Kissing Hand by Audrey Penn
Chicka Chicka Boom Boom
Corduroy Goes to School by Don Freeman

Small Groups:

-Kissing Hand Spinner Game-In small groups, we will spinner a spinner and the children will record what story related picture it lands on. We will discuss more, less, and equal.
-1:1 correspondence books- Focusing on the numbers 6-10, we will cut strips of kissing hands.  Then reinforcing 1:1 correspondence, count then glue the correct number of hands into a books.
-Kissing Hand Memory Game- We will first discuss vocabulary picture cards from the Kissing Hand book.  Then the picture cards will be used to play a memory game.  We will be focusing on turn taking and labeling vocabulary from the cards.
We complete our small groups in a 3 day cycle.  The following activities will be started this week then completed next week. :
-Uppercase or Lowercase Letter Identification Game- We will label uppercase letters when the letter is pull from a bag.  Then we will stamp a coconut tree to record the letter that we pulled from the bag.
-Coconut Math- We will roll a number cube and count the dots.  Then we will color in the coconuts on a tree that match the number.
- Visual Discrimination Activity- We will follow a visual direction to build our own coconut trees.

Centers
Art Table- Hand print names (making prints for each letter in our name)

Block Area-blocks with cars (encouraging them to build ramps with cars)

Sand Table- Molding Sand and forms
Book Area- Exploring Books about school
Easel-Markers and paper
Writing Table- Name puzzles to create a bear paw
Dramatic Play- Grocery Store
Math, Puzzles, and Manipulatives- I Pad apps
Rug-Building tracks for cars that move

Songs, Word Plays, and Language
-Touch It Board Letter Find- Children will be playing an erase to reveal letters game

-Alphabet Action Song

-The Cub of Day, Who will it be?

-ABC Rock by Steve and Greg
-Color Train by Dr. Jean

-Number Rock by Steve and Greg
Current Preschool Life Skill
-When I call your name, stop what you are doing, look at me, and say "yes."  (Our goal is to have them do this within 2 seconds.  This is especially difficult when the children are participating in preferred activities)

First Week of School Sept.8-12

First Week of School
September 8-12

We will begin our school year getting to know each other and establishing classroom routines. During the month of September, we will be focusing on developing classroom expectations, routines, and getting to know each learner. Our books for the first several weeks will pertain to transitioning to school and feelings about coming to school.
We will also use these books to have the students become familiar with our curriculum approach which is to use books to build on our classroom activities.

Books This Week:
Starting School by Franzesha Ewart
The Kissing Hand by Audrey Penn
Guess How Much I Love You by Sam McBratney

Small Groups:

-First Day of School Picture for Portfolios

-Self Portraits and Name writing samples (We will add these to your child's portfolio to monitor the wonderful progress they will make in preschool this year)
-Introduction to Fine Motor/Handwriting activities

-Name Puzzle- cutting the letters of their name and assembling them in order in book (A class book will come home shortly)

Handwriting/Fine Motor Skill Develpment Activities
-Playdough Pinching and Rolling
-"Writing" with our fingers in rice trays
-Pom-Pom pickup (We will roll a number cube then use our alligator fingers to pick up the correct number of pom-poms)

Centers
Art Table- Bingo Dobbers

Block Area- blocks

Sand Table- sand and sand toys
Book Area- Exploring Books about school
Easel-Markers and paper
Writing Table- crayons and paper
Dramatic Play- dishes, cookware, and food (restaurant role play)
Math, Puzzles, and Manipulatives- Pattern Blocks
Science - Looking in mirrors (to connect with drawing our faces during small groups)
Rug- Doll Houses

Songs, Word Plays, and Language

-Action Bingo Song:

There was a class that had a boy/girl, and _____was his/her name-o

(Each child chooses an action for others to follow)

Jump, Jump, (name), Jump, Jump, (name), Jump, Jump, (name) ,

We're glad you're in school today.
-If your happy and you know it.
-Here we are together at school
-Our Good Morning Chant
-The Cub of Day, Who will it be?

-ABC Rock by Steve and Greg

-Number Rock by Steve and Greg

Preschool Life Skill

-When I call your name, stop what you are doing, look at me, and say ,"Yes".

Classroom Motivational System
-We will be learning classroom routines and expectations within our new classroom.  In order to create a successful and rewarding environment, each child will have a motivational system. Our classroom system promotes positive classroom behavior through positive peer modeling and teachers providing positive reinforcement for desired behaviors.  This system will be explained more throughly in an upcoming blog posting.