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.