Friends Unit Nov. 17-21

Pinata Party- Nov. 25 Children will be "inviting" stuffed animal friends from home.  We will be creating a pinata in school for our party.  Please look for the Pinata party notice next week.

In Unit 2, children will be talking about friendship, how to be a good friend, and ways to resolve conflicts with friends. Through the Story Time books, children hear about the importance of being who you are, helping friends, enjoying special times together, and getting along. In addition to listening to stories, children will learn to identify rhyming works and beginning letters and sounds in words, as they build vocabulary and comprehension skills. They will also participate in a variety of music, poetry, math, science, and art activities.

Theme Concepts:

-A friend is someone we like and want to spend time with. Friends like to do things together. They enjoy each other's company.
-We can have more than one good friend, and we might like to do some things with one friend and other things with other friends.
-Friends usually share with and help one another.
-Friends may have arguments and get mad at one another. Usually, friends work out their problems and continue to be friends.
-We can make new friends and also keep old friends.

Books this week

Hooray a Pinata
Dandelion
The Doorbell Rang

Small Groups
-Phonemic Awareness- We will be playing sound hopscotch.  Children will label letters on a hopscotch board on the rug. Then they will find an object that begins with the letter.   After they find each object and place it on the board, they will also place a sticker on their paper.  When everyone finds the objects in the group, we will all play the hopscotch game together.
-Grocery Store List- We will each choose 3 objects from a supermarket flyer that we would like to buy.  Then using "ear spelling" we will write the letters we hear. We are not expecting words to be spelled correctly.  We are listening for the letters we hear in each word.
-Turn taking game- We will be playing a board game in a small group to reinforce waiting for our turn and turn taking language.
-Math- Sharing cookies with the hungry monkeys.  We will be introducing the concept of dividing objects to share with our friends.  In groups, we will share 12 bananas with 2 hungry monkeys. How many will each monkey have? Then we will change the number of bananas and see how the numbers change.

Centers
Blocks- Blocks
Sensory Table-yellow yarn to cut for a Dandelion mural
Dramatic Play- Ice Cream Shop
Library- A variety of books about friends
Art Table-painting fish scales for a mural
Easel- Water Colors
Puzzles-  Puzzles
Manipulatives-tangrams
Writing Center- fancy pens

Song, Word Play and Letters
Poems- Five Juicy Apples, Five Little Owl in an old oak tree
Songs- Big Pig Song (Rhyming words)
Literacy Skills- Frog Jump Letters(building letters F,E, R,D, P, N,M)

Handwriting
-We will be working.on on "straight line" letters (ie. L,T,I) for the Handwriting Without Tears Curriculum within our workbooks as well as other hands on activities.
-Friendship Bracelets Envelopes
-Self Portraits

Preschool Life Skills
We are continuing to review our previous skills 1-4.
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".
3-When a teacher tells you to do 2 things, do it "Right Away".
4-When something is too hard, first try then say,"Can you help me please?"
New Skill with this week:
5. "When you want something from a teacher or friend and they are doing something, say, "Excuse me" to get them to look at you."