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.