Unit 3 Community Weeks 1 and 2 November 16-25

November 25 Half Day (Dismissal 11:30)
No School November 26 and 27 (Happy Thanksgiving)
Unit Book

The Two Promise Walk

Weekly Question and Vocabulary Related to book:

What is our community?
(bridge, traffic, restaurant, airport, forget, remember
Unit Book
A Day in the Life of a Firefighter
Weekly Question and Vocabulary Related to book:
What do workers in our community do? 
(firefighter,emergency, equipment, protect, community helper, rescue)

Literacy Small Groups

Monday through Friday Small Groups (Nov16-20)

Onset and Rime: We will practice blending the onset and rimes of spoken words.  The onset is the beginning part of the word and the rime is its entire ending.  For example, in the word “hat,” /h/ is the onset and /at/ is the rime.  We will use our community theme to guess school and fire station words the teacher segments and glue them to our buildings.  

-Letter Pp- We will learn what the uppercase and lowercase letter Pp looks like.  We will sort magnetic letters to find matches for Pp.  We will hunt for them in our names and the names of our classmates.  We used crayons to hunt for them on our papers too.

-Segmenting Park Words- Students will practice segmenting words by onset and rime. Using park words, students will take turns segmenting words by their beginning sound and remaining ending sounds and blending them back together. Try this activity at home.

-Letter Jj- We will learn what the uppercase and lowercase letter Jj looks like.  We will sort magnetic letters to find matches for Jj.  We will hunt for them in our names and the names of our classmates.  We used crayons to hunt for them on our papers too.

-Journal Writing-We will be writing in our journals about our favorite place in our community.  We will focus on the directionality of our writing (staring at the left and continuing to the right of the page) and continue our  practice turtle talking and listening for sounds in our words.  Remember, writing is a developmental skill and we are all working at our own pace and improving each week.

Monday through Wednesday Small Groups (Nov23-25)

-Picture Perfect Pairs- We will learn how some words begin with the same sound and some words do not.  We will then identify pictures on two cubes.  Then each child will roll the two cubes and named the two pictures.  We will identif if the pictures had the same sound in the beginning or not.  For example, mouse and map are the same.  Duck and nest are not the same. 

 -Letter Dd- We will learn what the uppercase and lowercase letter Dd looks like.  We will sort magnetic letters to find matches for Dd.  We will hunt for them in our names and the names of our classmates.  We used crayons to hunt for them on our papers too.

-Letter Kk- We will learn what the uppercase and lowercase letter Kk looks like.  We will sort magnetic letters to find matches for Kk.  We will hunt for them in our names and the names of our classmates.  We used crayons to hunt for them on our papers too.

Handwriting/Letter Groups

-Handwriting Without Tears Program-Colors and Shapes Books

Math Small Groups
Monday through Friday Small Groups (Nov16-20)

-Positional Word Train-Students will work to use positional terms to move a train around a train station scene based on a teacher’s directions.  We will practice words such as above, over, below, behind, next to, in between, in front of and beside.  Then we will challenge a partner to follow directional terms while using positional words to place the train.  

-From Home to School- Students will work to use location words to make a map of three landmarks they see on their way from home to school.  After drawing a  picture of each, they will describe their walk or ride to a friend.   

-Turkey Math- We will practice the ability to take away or subtract numbers through math stories.  Using a turkey template and feathers, we will take away a set of feathers to find out how many were left.  Use the math mat and feathers sent home to extend this learning with your child.

-Take Away- We will use the skill of taking away to feed a hungry boy some cookies.  Using playdough, students will feed the boy a given amount of cookies to tell how many cookies the baker had left.  

Monday through Tuesday Small Groups (Nov16-20)

-What’s in the bag?- We will reach into a bag and felt a variety of geometric shapes.  We will discuss the terms cube, sphere, cylinder, cone.  We will discuss the attributes of each shape.

Geometric Sorting- After reviewing geometric shapes, we will sort real world geometric shapes.

Centers

Art Table- red, yellow, and orange paint(fire colors)/ syllable roads

Block Area- blocks and community people

Sensory Table- Squirting water on "fire numbers"/Shaving Cream
Book Area- Exploring Books about community
Easel-Markers and paper
Writing Table- Creating Money /Fire Equipment Lists
Dramatic Play-Airport/ Taco Restaurant
Math, Puzzles, and Manipulatives- Letters in a room hunt using clipboards
Science - We will be saying goodbye to our gerbils from the science Center
Rug- tracks and roads with trains

Science/Social Studies/Math Circle Concepts
-Take Away Stories
-Locating things in our neighborhoods
-Giving Directions
-Safety in our neighborhoods
-Prisms
-Jobs in our community

Preschool Life Skills 

- 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".
2. When I give you an instruction, do it "right away"
(Ask your child what do you do when your teacher tells you to do something.  They should reply "I do it right away." You can reinforce this at home too.  "Put your legos away and do it "right away""
3. When I give you  instructions, do them "right away" (multi-step directions)
4. When something is too hard say "Help me please"

Songs, Word Plays, and Language

-Syllable Sound Off, Compound Boogies

-Our Good Morning Chant

-Compound word break up game song

-Neighbors Chant
-Firetruck Song
-Nursery Rhymes: Hush Little Baby, Hickory Dickory Dock

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.