Unit 1 Week 2 Friends Unit (September 28-October 2)

Unit 1 Friends Are Special

Unit Books
Corduroy

Read Aloud:Friends Share

Weekly Question and Vocabulary Related to book:

What is a friend?

(friend, play, laugh, admire, together, enormous)

Literacy Small Groups

-Sentence Stack- We will segment a sentence into words. We will cut the sentence then put it back together. This concept will be introduced first with blocks to touch as a teacher models.
-Is it a Letter? We will cut then sort a variety of letters, numbers, and symbols.
-Sentence Clap- We will listen to a sentence then show how many words are in the sentence by touching blocks.  Then we will demonstrate this skill in a fine motor task.
-Write to Convey meaning- We will "write" a word then draw a picture to show its meaning.
-Corduroy Sequencing Story Pictures

Handwriting/Letter Groups

-Handwriting Without Tears Program-Colors and Shapes Books
-Mat Man (How to draw a person)

Math Small Groups

(Focusing on creating sets of 5 and introducing set of 10)

-Let's Trace our fingers- We will trace our fingers then color.  We will then use dot stickers with numbers 1-10 to show a set of 10
-Sorting by 3- We will sort by size and shape in three ways
-Sets of 5 Assessment- In groups, children will be asked to count out 5 objects and place them in clear bags.  They will hold them up and a friend will count their bag and tell them how many are in their bag.  (Peer Review)

Centers
Art Table- Number Sculptures

Block Area- blocks

Sand Table- beans
Book Area- Exploring Books about school
Easel-Markers and paper
Writing Table- crayons and paper
Dramatic Play- Toy Store (related to Corduroy)
Math, Puzzles, and Manipulatives- Letter Puzzles
Science -ramps
Rug- Jungle Animals

Science/Social Studies Circle
- We will be focusing on our curriculum of Preschool Life Skills during this time to help us transition into our new classroom.

1. When I call your name, stop what you are doing, look at me, and say ,"Yes".
-Discussing how we sit and listen in a group (our community classroom)

Songs, Word Plays, and Language

-Nursery Rhymes: Hey Diddle Diddle / Mary Had a Little Lamb

-Our Good Morning Chant

-ABC Rock by Steve and Greg

-Number Rock by Steve and Greg
-Shake Breaks (Go Noodle)
-Sing and Move- We will sing a song that has the word friend and together.  Each child will have one word and one instrument.  When they hear their word they will play their instrument.

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. 

Friends Are Special Unit (Unit 1 Week 1)

Unit 1 Friends Are Special

Unit Books

The Lion and The Mouse 

Weekly Question and Vocabulary Related to book:

What makes each of us special?

(thank, help, protect,kindness,patient, mighty)

Literacy Small Groups

-Sound Search- We will use Ipads to listen to sounds we hear.  We will use descriptive language to describe each sound. 

-Letters in my name game- Each child will have their name card.  Letters will be in a bag.  Each child will pull out a letter from the bag.  If they have the letter in their name they will keep it.  If it is not in their name they will find a friend that has the letter and give it to them.  The goal for everyone to make their name.  We will compare letters their letters in their name to a friend.  

-My self/My friend portraits- Each child will choose a friend at their table to draw.  They will draw themselves then draw a friend.  We will be trace letters/copying letters of our friends.  

-My name/Your name- We will create a chart and compare our names.  What letter do most friends have in their name? We will create a chart on our smart board.  

-Sound 1 and 2- We will be listening to sounds.  We will identify the initial and second sounds we hear.  This activity helps develop our listening skills in order to listen to beginning and ending sounds in words.  

Handwriting/Letter Groups

-Handwriting Without Tears Program-Letter L and F pages
-Mat Man (How to draw a person)

Math Small Groups

(Focusing on creating sets of 5)

-Using manipulatives we will count sets of 5 and placing them on a set of 5 frame (modeling 1:1 correspondence) Watch me count/Now you show me how you count

-Digging for Treasure-In sand, each child will dig and find objects in the sand. We will find 5 objects then we will find objects based on size, color, size.

-Using colored flip counters, we will flip then record the colors we flipped.  Each set of counters will be 5.  How many are red? How many are yellow? How many in all?

-Mouse Tails- We will color and cut out paper mouses.  Then we will put on a tail. Then we will put on 5 beads on the mouse tail.  

Centers
Art Table- Lion painting with plastic forks to create manes for lions

Block Area- blocks

Sand Table- sand exploration
Book Area- Exploring Books about school
Easel-Markers and paper
Writing Table- crayons and paper
Dramatic Play- Pet Shop (Pets are our friends too)
Math, Puzzles, and Manipulatives- Letter Puzzles
Science - Looking in mirrors (to connect with drawing our faces during small groups)
Rug- Jungle Animals

Science/Social Studies Circle
- We will be focusing on our curriculum of Preschool Life Skills during this time to help us transition into our new classroom.

1. When I call your name, stop what you are doing, look at me, and say ,"Yes".
-Discussing how we sit and listen in a group (our community classroom)

Songs, Word Plays, and Language

-Nursery Rhymes: Hey Diddle Diddle / Mary Had a Little Lamb

-Our Good Morning Chant

-ABC Rock by Steve and Greg

-Number Rock by Steve and Greg
-Shake Break Song (following directions)

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. 

Photos from our first week

 We had a fun first week.  Enjoy a few pictures of our activities.


 Kissing Hand Spinner Game










Raccoon number cube game.

Fine Motor activity squeezing sponges














Fine Motor activities of rolling playdough and using clothespins to pick up pom poms (AKA-Pom Pom Pick up game)

Week 2 of school- September 14-18

Book This Week:
The Kissing Hand by Audrey Penn
Chicka, Chicka, Boom, Boom
Little Miss Spider Goes to School
Thinking Thoughts, and Feeling Feelings(Incredible Flexible You)

Small Groups:
Literacy Small Groups

-Chicka Chicka Boom Boom letter sorting- Students will sort letters in 2 ways (uppercase/lowercase)
-Chicka Chicka Boom Boom Coconut Bowling-We will roll a "coconut" to knock over bowling pins.  Attached to the pins are letters. We will then record on a paper which letters they knocked down.
-Chicka Letter Bingo- Using counters we will find uppercase letters (with/without a model)
-Self Portraits and Writing Names for portfolios

Math Small Groups
-Counting the Letters in My Name- We will cut our names then use 1:1 correspondence to count the letters in our name.  We will create a class book to send home shortly.
-Coconut roll and color the number activity
-Size order- We will be cutting varied sizes of raccoons and place them in size order from left to right.

Handwriting/Fine Motor Skill Development Activities
Playdough Treasure Hunt: Hearts will be hiding in playdough.  Children will pinch them out and place them on a counting sheet of 5.
Continued Activities:
-Playdough Pinching and Rolling
-Squeezing sponges (to develop pincer grasp) to transfer water into a cup
-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- Open ended painting

Block Area- blocks

Sand Table- Dinosaur Dig (Plastic bones and paint brushes with sand)
Book Area- Exploring Books about school
Easel-Markers and paper
Writing Table- crayons and paper
Dramatic Play- Fall Flower Shop
Math, Puzzles, and Manipulatives- Letter Puzzles
Science - Looking in mirrors (to connect with drawing our faces during small groups)
Rug- Farms

Science/Social Studies Circle
- We will be focusing on our curriculum of Preschool Life Skills during this time to help us transition into our new classroom.

1. When I call your name, stop what you are doing, look at me, and say ,"Yes".
-Discussing how we sit and listen in a group (our community classroom)

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.
-Our Good Morning Chant

-ABC Rock by Steve and Greg

-Number Rock by Steve and Greg
-Shake Break Song (following directions)

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 can be explained more thoroughly in a tab on this blog.  

First Week of School September 8-11

First Week of School

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.

Book This Week:
The Kissing Hand by Audrey Penn
Chicka, Chicka, Boom, Boom

Small Groups:
Literacy Small Groups

-Alphabet Bingo- Students will identify and label uppercase letters on their bingo boards.  We will then color the box or trace the letter on the board.
-Letters in my Name/Letters not in my name- Students will cut strips of letters then sort into 2 categories of in my name and not in my name
-Story Sequencing-After listening to our story, we will discuss events that happened.   Then we will cut pictures from the story then place in order to retell the story to reinforce left to right progression.  Students will verbally retell the events.

Math Small Groups
-Patterning- We will create patterns using pictures from the Kissing Hand
-Graphing- We will spin a spinner that has pictures from our story.  Then we will record by coloring one box to show which picture the spinner landed on. We will then count to see which picture we recorded the most and least.
-Roll a Dice- We will roll a number cube. We will identify the number then find the same number on our papers then color it. 

-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)

Handwriting/Fine Motor Skill Development Activities
-Playdough Pinching and Rolling
-Squeezing sponges (to develop pincer grasp) to transfer water into a cup
-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- Tissue Paper Collages for first letter in our names

Block Area- blocks

Sand Table- Chicka, Chicka Trees, beans(as the coconuts), and letters
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- Farms

Science/Social Studies Circle
- We will be focusing on our curriculum of Preschool Life Skills during this time to help us transition into our new classroom.

1. When I call your name, stop what you are doing, look at me, and say ,"Yes".
-Discussing how we sit and listen in a group (our community classroom)

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

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 can be explained more thoroughly in a tab on this blog.