Tuesday, December 22, 2015

January Unit 4 Farms January 4-8

Happy New Year!

Unit Book:
What is a Farm

Weekly Question and Vocabulary Related to book:
What is a farm?
(barn, farmer, wool, silo, gate, map)

Literacy Small Groups
-Same Sound Bingo- We will practice identifying rhyming pairs with farm rhyming bingo.  After listening to the teacher say a word, children will repeat the word and then find a rhyming farm picture on his/her mat while working to get five in a row.

Letter L We will learn what the uppercase and lowercase letter Ll looks like.  We will sort magnetic letters to find matches for Ll.  We will also hunt for them in our names and the names of our classmates.  We will use crayons to hunt for them on our papers. Search for Ll's with your child at home- ask him/her if it is upper or lowercase.  


-We share sounds- We will be listening to sounds we hear in the beginning of words. We will match words that share the same sounds in the initial sound of each word. For example, cow and corn share the same sound. Gate and goat, wig and wagon, etc.

Letter G- We will learn what the uppercase and lowercase letter Gg looks like.  We will sort magnetic letters to find matches for Gg.  We will also hunt for them in our names and the names of our classmates.  We will use crayons to hunt for them on our papers.  Look for upper and lowercase Ggs at home, in the car or out and about!

-Journal Writing-We will be writing in our journals. We will be writing about our the foods we eat from the farm. 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. (I like to eat........). We will discuss foods that come from the farm to brainstorm.

Handwriting/Letter Groups
-Handwriting Without Tears Program-Straight Line Letter Books

Math Small Groups
Stack and Take Down 5 (Subitizing to 5)- We will use farm pictures to sort by number.  Using the skill of subitizing we will recognize quantities in dots and fingers.  We will decide quickly whether there are 1, 2, 3, 4 or 5.  We will work to be sure this skill is automatic.  The more practice we have with this the more automatic our responses will become


All the Ways to 5-We will play a game and try to show different ways to make 5 such as 2 fingers, 2 dots, or the number 2 are all different ways to show 2. We will play a game to demonstrate this skill up to the amount of 5.

Subsitizing Cube Tracing Activity- We will work more on our subitizing skills (the ability to quickly identify the number of items in a small set without counting) while also practicing numeral writing skills.  We will roll a dice to instantly recognize the quantity and trace that number on our papers.


Take A Stack and Roll- We will use a new tool called a part/part/whole mat to better understand numbers through five. We will use farm counters to break down numbers into parts.  For example, to make 5 (the whole number) we can use parts such as 1 and 4 or 2 and 3.  The two parts make the whole.  We will experiment using different numbers by placing our animals on the parts of our mats.   
Centers
Art Table- Barn animals for a farm mural
Block Area- farms
Sensory Table- Corn kernels (feed for hungry chickens)
Book Area- Exploring Books about community
Easel-Markers and paper
Writing Table- Upper Case and Lower Case Letter X coloring
Dramatic Play-Taking Care of Animals
Math, Puzzles, and Manipulatives- Letters in a room hunt using clipboards
Science -
Rug- legos

Science/Social Studies/Math Circle Concepts
-Farm Food Sort
-Animal Differences (2 legs/4 legs animals, animals that lay eggs/not lay eggs)
-Farm to Store process
-Farmer To Do List: What would be on the list?

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
-Our Good Morning Chant
-Farmer in the Dell
-Growing Sound (Things that grow)
-Listening to Rhythm in music

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. 

Gingerbread Musical Pictures




Thursday, December 17, 2015

December 14-23 Gingerbread Unit

Our Family Musical Performance: 
Tomorrow
Friday December 18 at 10:45 promptly.

Unit Book:
The Gingerbread Man
The Gingerbread Boy
The Gingerbread Girl
Vocabulary Related to book:
(catching, decorating, bakery,oven,dough, frosting)

Literacy Small Groups
-Sequencing Story- We will review the story elements from the The Gingerbread Man  Then discuss and look at pictures from the story.   Finally we will cut up to 6 pictures and placed them in sequential order to retell the story.  We will retell the story to a peer.

-Rhyming Pairs- We will review how rhyming words "sound alot alike" such as bat and cat. Then we will discuss rhyming words from our books such as cow and sow. Then we will match rhyming pairs in a chart.

-Thumbs Up- We will identify rhyming and non-rhyming word pairs. We will listen to two words and give a thumbs up or a thumbs down. Then we will cut and sort word pairs based on if they rhyme or do not rhyme. 

-In the Story/Not In the Story- We will discuss characters from our stories. Then we will color and cut the animals and sort them into two categories; In the Story and Not In the Story

-Journal Writing-We will be writing in our journals. We will be writing about our favorite character from our stories about gingerbread. 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.

Creating Lists- We will be creating lists of who were the characters in each of our stories. We will discuss characters that were the same in the stories and characters that were different.

Handwriting/Letter Groups
-Handwriting Without Tears Program
-Visual Discrimination Puzzle of a Gingerbread- We will

Math Groups
-How many long are objects? We will use a gingerbread ruler to measure how long objects are. For example, a marker is 6 gingerbread long and a book is 8 gingerbread long. We will compare by using more, less, and equal vocabulary words.

-Gingerbread spinner tally game- We will spin a spinner than record each time we land on a color. We will continue until we have a set of 10 colors. Then we will see which color had the most, least or if any results were equal.

-Subsitizing Card Game- Children will take turns being a "teacher". They will show a card with an amount on it. Then the other players will show a card that shows the same amount but in a different ways. (For example, 4 fingers, 4 dots, number 4, 4 lines, etc).This will be done without using 1:1 correspondence to know how many.

-Gingerbread Counting- We will color and cut a variety of gingerbread men in sets. Then we will place the sets in sequential order. Then we will write the number for each set

Centers
Art Table- Painting with cinnamon, Gingerbread man painting
Block Area- blocks
Sensory Table- tinsel of gold and silver
Book Area- Exploring Books about gingerbread
Easel-Markers and paper
Writing Table- Writing paper/Playdough
Dramatic Play-Bakery Shop with Gingerbread Cookies
Math, Puzzles, and Manipulatives-puzzles
Rug- legos

Science/Social Studies/Math Circle Concepts
-Good Choices
-Take Away Story Telling (Taking bites of cookies)
-How animals move (run, fly, swim,.....)

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
-Thumbs Up to rhyming and non-rhyming pairs
-Syllable Sound Off, Compound Boogies
-Our Good Morning Chant
-5 Little cookies in the bakery shop
-Songs for our musical

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. 

Thursday, December 3, 2015

Unit 3 Week 4 Community December 7-11

Unit Book:
The Ugly Vegetables
Weekly Question and Vocabulary Related to book:
What kinds of communities do people live in?
(neighborhood, vine, stem, sprinkle, neighbors, aroma)

Literacy Small Groups
-Sequencing Story- We will review the story elements from the The Ugly Vegetables  Then discuss and look at pictures from the story.   Finally we will cut up to 6 pictures and placed them in sequential order to retell the story.  We will retell the story to a peer.

-Rhyming Bingo- We will review how rhyming words "sound alot alike" such as bat and cat. Then we will play a game of bingo by listening to a word then finding the picture that rhymes with the word we heard.

-Thumbs Up- We will identify rhyming and non-rhyming word pairs. We will listen to two words and give a thumbs up or a thumbs down. Then we will cut and sort word pairs based on if they rhyme or do not rhyme.

-Letter Nn- We will learn what the uppercase and lowercase letter Nn looks like.  We will sort magnetic letters to find matches for Nn.  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. We will be writing about our favorite vegetables to relate to our story The Ugly Vegetables. 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.

Handwriting/Letter Groups
-Handwriting Without Tears Program-Mat Man-Draw a person reinforcement

Math Small Groups
-How Tall Can It Be? We will combine foam cubes to build new shapes. After exploring the cubes, we will stack the cubes on top of one another to see how tall it can be. Then we will record on a data sheet how tall the tower became. Then we will identify which number was the most, least, and if any were equal.

-Stack, Roll, or Both? We will experiment with 3 dimensional blocks to determine if they roll, stack or do both.  Spheres roll.  Rectangular prisms stack.  Cylinders both roll and stack! Discuss geometrical shapes you find in your home and ask your child to predict if they will roll, stack or do both!

-Shapes from Shape-We will use 3 dimensional shapes to duplicate creations we see in a picture.  We will discuss the shape and positions of our blocks as we build.  Some of us will even try to draw our creations!

-Building A Cooperative Community-The Kinderstars and Cub Cadets will join together to build the Burlington  Community.  Using 3D shapes, children will work in teams to create community buildings  such as Shaws, Town Hall, CVS and Dunkin Donuts.  We will discuss the shapes we used and how we positioned our blocks to build our creations.  

Centers
Art Table- Painting with Cars (rolling cars in paint)
Block Area- blocks and community people
Sensory Table- Garden (Dirt, shovels, seeds, seed packets)
Book Area- Exploring Books about community
Easel-Markers and paper
Writing Table- Upper Case and Lower Case Letter X coloring
Dramatic Play-Shoe Store
Math, Puzzles, and Manipulatives- Letters in a room hunt using clipboards
Rug- legos

Science/Social Studies/Math Circle Concepts
-Soil (What is it and what is in it?)
-Describe a garden
-Food We Like to Eat

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
-Thumbs Up to rhyming and non-rhyming pairs
-Syllable Sound Off, Compound Boogies
-Our Good Morning Chant
-Compound word break up game song
-Neighbors Chant
-Songs for our musical

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.