October 14-17 Family Unit

Save The Date: Back to School Night October 15 at 6:30
Book Fair will also be open during open house night
No School Monday Columbus DayFamilies 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
Knuffle Bunny by Mo Willems
Whistle for Willie by Ezra Jack Keats

Small Groups:
Marble Play / Exploration- We will explore marbles using magnifying glasses, mirrors, and flashlights.  We will draw what we see and talk about our observations.
Sorting Buttons- We will be coloring a variety of buttons. Then cutting, sorting, and gluing by the number of holes the buttons have.
Alphabet Bingo- We will play alphabet bingo in small groups.  We will reinforce letter identification and letter sounds.
Unit Vocab Books- We will continue with our vocab books.

Centers
-Dramatic Play- Laundromat- Related to Knuffle Bunny.  We will look for Knuffle Bunny in the washing machine like in the story
-Sensory Table- Water Play with Squirt bottles.
-Art Table- Knuffle Bunny Laundry Art Project
-Writing- unit words
-Blocks- Block Play with animals to reinforce that animals are part of a family (baby/mother)
-Math/Manipulative- Puzzles and Paint Chips
-Science- Magnifying Glasses
-Library- Reading to babies

Let's Talk About It
-Pets as members of your family
-Who has a stuffed animal at home (related to Corduroy)
-Piggy Banks (related to Corduroy) preview of how we are going to make them
-Social Skills- What are kind words we can use to our friends

Songs, Word Play, and Letters
-Syllables in words (our names, character names, unit words)
-Rhyming Words Song
-Dr. Jean Alphabet
-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 will be focusing on Mat Man and how we use different lines to build him.

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

Social Thinking-We will be using thought bubbles on sticks to role play our feelings.