Little Red Hen (Community Unit Week 3) (January 3-5)

Unit Book

The Little Red Hen Makes a Pizza

Weekly Question and Vocabulary Related to book:

What can you do in our community?
(delicious, ingredient, lovely, sip, delicatessen, hardware store)


Literacy Small Groups

-Compound Chef- We will each receive a word. Then each child will cut the word into two parts. We will say each part of the word in isolation then put them back together. Then we will draw a picture of each word.

-Letter Matching Card Game- We reinforced letter pairs.  We will then play a matching “go fish” game where we had to make matches.  Some children will match uppercase to uppercase letters and other groups will match uppercase letters to their lowercase partners.   

-Say the Sounds-Little Red Hen Vocabulary Words Letter Books- We will identify pictures as targeted vocabulary words.  Then we will say the first sound and sort them to create a sound book.

-Journal Writing-We will be writing in our journals about in the style of a fairy tale. For example, We will use a sentence starters such as: Once upon a time........  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-Letters N and W

Math Small Groups

-Transform! -We will use play dough to form geometric shapes. For example, can you make a cube that looks like mine.  Other shapes we will try to make using playdough are cylinders, spheres, rectangular and prisms.

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

-Pizza Counting Book- We will be counting toppings to create a pizza book. We will reinforce 1:1 correspondence and tracing numbers to match the quantities.

-Cube Hunt

We will use clipboards and search our classroom for cubes.  Every time we find a cube we will record it on our clipboards

Centers

Art Table- Painting Pizzas with toppings

Block Area- blocks and community people

Sensory Table- Mixing bowls/spoons/Cups
Book Area- Exploring Books about community
Easel-Markers and paper
Writing Table- Making Lists
Dramatic Play-Pizza Shop
Math, Puzzles, and Manipulatives- Pizza Mania Math Game
Rug- legos

Science/Social Studies/Math Circle Concepts
-Mixing Ingredients
-Shopping Lists
-Healthy Choices
-Sorting solid shapes

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
-Make a Pizza song

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. 

BECC Open House for New Students

The Burlington Early Childhood Center (BECC) will be hosting an Open House for new students on Friday, January 27, 2017 from 1:00 p.m. to 2:00 p.m.  The BECC is an integrated public preschool for children ages 3-5.  We support children of all abilities in both general education and special education settings.  We also provide support in the areas of speech-language, motor, and social skill development.

Our Open House will provide families with an opportunity to view our programs, meet the teachers, and pick up registration packets to enroll their children for the 2017-2018 school year.  Students must be 3 years old by August 31, 2017 to be considered for enrollment for the fall of 2017.

For more information about registration/Open House, please call 781-270-1808.  For more information about our program, please visit the Burlington Early Childhood Center Website The BECC is located in Burlington High School at 123 Cambridge Street.  Our entrance is at the back of the building between the two playgrounds.

Gingerbread Week December 19-23

Unit Book:

The Gingerbread Man
The Gingerbread Boy
The Gingerbread Girl

Class Reward: We will be working toward a 

Vocabulary Related to book:

(catching, decorating, bakery, oven,dough, frosting)

Literacy Small Groups

-Sequencing Story- We will review the story elements from 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.

-Letter Vv- We will learn what the uppercase and lowercase letter Vv looks like.  We will sort magnetic letters to find matches for Vva.  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 Mm- We will learn what the uppercase and lowercase letter Mm. looks like.  We will sort magnetic letters to find matches for Mm.  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 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.

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.

Handwriting/Letter Groups

-Handwriting Without Tears Books- Letters V and M

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. 

Community Week 2 December 12-16

Reminder: Our Gingerbread Musical is on Friday December 16 at 10:45 promptly

Community Week 2 December 12-16 
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

-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.

-Letter Aa- We will learn what the uppercase and lowercase letter Aa. looks like.  We will sort magnetic letters to find matches for Aa.  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 people who help us 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.

-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 identify 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. 

Thumbs Up/Thumbs Down- 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. 

Math Small Groups
-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.  

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

-Rectangle Hunt-We used clipboards and searched our classroom and our school for rectangles.  Every time we found a rectangle we recorded it on our clipboards.

Handwriting/Letter Groups

-Handwriting Without Tears Books- Letters K  and A.

Centers

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

Block Area- blocks and community people

Sensory Table- Squirting water on "fire numbers"
Book Area- Exploring Books about community
Easel-Markers and paper
Writing Table- Fire Equipment Lists/Dr. Kits
Dramatic Play-Airport/Firestation
Math, Puzzles, and Manipulatives- Band-Aid letter matching activity
Rug- tracks and roads

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

-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. 

Community Unit December 5-9

Community Unit December 5-9
Unit Book

The Two Promise Walk

Weekly Question and Vocabulary Related to book:

What is our community?
(bridge, traffic, restaurant, airport, forget, remember

Literacy Small Groups

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 Bb- We will learn what the uppercase and lowercase letter Bb looks like.  We will sort magnetic letters to find matches for Bb.  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 Rr- We will learn what the uppercase and lowercase letter Rr. looks like.  We will sort magnetic letters to find matches for Rr.  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 (starting 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.

Math Small Groups

-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.   

-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.  

-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.

Centers

Art Table- Gingerbread Men Trays

Block Area- blocks and community people

Sensory Table- shaving cream
Book Area- Exploring Books about community
Easel-Markers and paper
Writing Table- Creating Money
Dramatic Play-Taco Shop
Math, Puzzles, and Manipulatives- Gingerbread Playdough
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. 

Families Week 4- November 21-23, November 28-December 2

Early Dismissal at 11:30 on November 23
November 24 and 25 No School
December 1 No School (Parent/Teacher Conferences)

Unit Book

Antonio's Birthday Fiesta
Hooray A Pinata

Weekly Question and Vocabulary Related to book:

What do families do together for fun?
(guest, celebrate, decorate, musician, instrument)

Literacy Small Groups
-Introduction to Guiding "Reading"- (Thanksgiving Book)We will use basic reader books to introduce by looking at the pages in the books. We will reinforce reading concepts such as isolating words, counting the number of words on a page, words that are repeating, and 1:1 correspondence with words said aloud.

Syllable Take-Away- We will play a game to practice taking away syllables in words.  Using a mat with two syllable Thanksgiving pictures, we will guess the teacher’s word after she takes away one of the syllables.  We will use magnifying glasses to spot her word!  Practice taking away syllables in words with your child at home.  For example, say the word “party” and clap it together.  Then ask your child to take away the “par.”  What’s left?  “ty!”

-Syllable Sorting Game- Each child will be given a set of pictures on a bingo board. Each child will spin the spinner. If a child's spinner lands on a 2, they will place a block on their board on a 2 syllable picture such as turtle. Each child will get a turn until our boards are full. We will have pictures of 1 through 4 syllable words on our boards.

-Antonio's Birthday Fiesta sequencing Activity- After multiple readings and class discussion of our unit book, we will sequence pictures from Antonio's Birthday Fiesta.

-Introduction to Guiding "Reading"- (The Birthday Party)We will use basic reader books to introduce by looking at the pages in the books. We will reinforce reading concepts such as isolating words, counting the number of words on a page, words that are repeating, and 1:1 correspondence with words said aloud.

-Journals- We will be "writing" in our journals about what we like to eat with our family. Each child will draw a picture and be encouraged to say a brief statement about their picture. (ie. I like to eat pasta) We will draw a line for each word and have the children write the letters they hear. The goal is to introduce them to the concept of journaling not to have them write a sentence accurately.

Handwriting/Letter Groups

-Handwriting Without Tears Program- Letters Dd  and Pp.
We will learn what these uppercase and lowercase letters looks like.  We will sort magnetic letters to find matches.  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.

Math Small Groups

-How Many Cubes are Left? Students will practice taking away quantities with a cube game.  Using 5 cubes, students will take away the amount the teacher told them to.  They will say how many are left by coloring the remaining cubes on their paper.  To extend this activity, we will play a guessing game where the teacher uses a stack of five cubes and hides some behind her back.  Students will guess the number of cubes hiding based on the remaining cubes.

-How Many are Hiding? In partners, students will cover some counters with the cup.  Then they will color the amount not hidden to find out how many are hiding under the cup.

-Drop and Count-This is a fun recording game to reinforce the concepts of subitizing up to 5 objects and comparing math concepts such as more, less and equal.

-Spinner Takes It All- A set of attribute blocks will be in the middle of the table for all to share. Taking turns, each child will choose a spinner. One with colors and the other with shapes. They will choose the spinner and spin. They will take all the shapes that match to their attribute. After each child has had a turn we will discuss.

-Cupcake Math- We will practice matching written numerals to quantities.  After rolling a number dice, we will add sprinkles to our cupcake using our dot markers. When we finish we will discuss how many of each color we added and counted how many sprinkles we had altogether.

Centers

Art Table- Pinata construction

Block Area- blocks

Sensory Table- Confetti with Letters
Book Area- Exploring Books about families
Easel-Markers and paper
Writing Table- Draw a picture of your family and things you like to do with them
Dramatic Play-Birthday Party
Math, Puzzles, and Manipulatives- Cupcake letters in a room hunt using clipboards
Rug- Legos

Science/Social Studies/Math Circle Concepts
-Take Away Stories
-Going Away on vacations
-Celebrations of other cultures

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

-If your a girl/If your a boy direction 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. 

Mock Presidential Election

Our class voted in a mock presidential election.  Each child voted secretly by placing a block in a bag with Hillary Clinton's picture or in Donald Trump's picture.  We counted the results by adding them to a ten frame. We discussed who had more and less votes as we were tallying the results.    After tallying all of the votes, the decision was split.  Clinton received 7 votes and Trump received 7 votes as well.  We discussed how each candidate received equal or the same amount of votes.

Sound Harmonicas

Today our class took our "sound harmonicas" into the office to show Deborah the sound they made.  Then we took them outside and played them in the playground. The harmonicas were related to our unit book Oonga Boonga.  The grandfather in the story played a harmonica to help a baby stop crying.  Ask your child about their harmonica and about our unit book.
The sound harmonicas were put together thanks to Sean Musselman at the Burlington Science Center.  Attached are videos from the playground.  If you are unable to view them from your phone try a home computer.  Some videos on Blogger work do not seem to load on phones.

Family Unit Week 3 November 7-11 and 14-18

Reminders:
November 8: No School -Election Day
November10: No School-Teacher Professional Development Day
November 11: No School Veterans Day

Unit Book

Kevin and His Dad

Weekly Question and Vocabulary Related to book:

How does everyone in a family help?
(chore, clean, inside, outside, tidy, slippery, dust)

Literacy Small Groups

-Break a Word- (Compound Word Puzzles)We will use blocks and pictures of compound words to practice segmenting and blending syllables.  We will push the pictures together to say the compound word and then break the blocks apart  to say each syllable.  We will practice saying words without one of the syllables.   

-Journals- We will write more about our families.  We will write about something special we do with our family.  We will reinforce "turtle talk" to help use write letters for words. At this point we are hoping the children write letters and we are not looking for correct spelling in any way. We will journal about how we help our family.

-Guided Reading- We will introduce the concept of "reading" with a book called It is Fall. We will use 1:1 correspondence to count words, identify spaces between words, and use 1:1 correspondence to read along to the story. We will make connections regarding the picture and the text as well. We are not expecting students to be "reading" however exposing them to the concepts that are the prerequisites to reading.

-Compound Words- We will be pretending to be chefs as we put two words in a pot in order to create a new word. We will then draw a picture of the newly created compound word. (Sun and flower "mixed" together makes sunflower)

Handwriting/Letter Groups
-Handwriting Without Tears Program-We will learn what the uppercase and lowercase letter Ss and Jj looks like.  We will sort magnetic letters to find matches for Ss and Jj.  Then we will hunt for them in our names and the names of our classmates.  We will use crayons to hunt for them on our papers.

Math Small Groups

-Ways to Make 4 and 5- We will focus on the many ways to compose the number four.  First, we will use our fingers to show different ways to make 4.  For example, 3 fingers on one hand and 1 finger on another hand makes 4!  Then, we will use colored cubes to find out how many different combinations make the number 4.

-Counters in a Cup (4): We will use two-toned counters to tell about the number 4.  We will use 4 counters in our cups.  After dumping  out the counters we will tell how many of each color we had and how many counters altogether. Students will tell a story about their counters such as, “I have 3 red counters and 1 yellow counter.  I have 4 in all!”

-How Many in the House?-(Inside/Outside)We will use house mats and people counters to act out math stories. Partners will take turns telling stories about a number of family members that were in the house and some joining the group. They will show these problems with their counters and tell how many altogether.   

How many Upstairs and Downstairs?- We will reinforce counting items up to 10. Each child will be given a mat that has a ten frame upstairs and a ten frame downstairs. We will take a number out of bag and then place the number in the upstairs 10 frame. We will repeat this with the downstairs. Then we will compare upstairs to downstairs using math terms such as more, less, and equal.

-Finding Sets- As a large group, we will read a story about how objects come in threes. Then we will talk about how things can come in sets such as we have 2 ears. We will go on a hunt of things in our school that are part of a set.

Centers

Art Table- Paper Airplane Decorating and Constructing

Block Area- House and families 

Sensory Table- washing dishes with bubbles (related to story)
Book Area- Exploring Books about families
Easel-Markers and paper
Writing Table- Draw a picture of your family and things you like to do with them
Dramatic Play-Laundromat
Math, Puzzles, and Manipulatives- Letters in a room hunt using clipboards
Science -Gerbils from the science Center
Rug- dollhouse and families

Science/Social Studies/Math Circle Concepts
-House Chores? What are they? How can we help?

- How to take care of pets?
-We all need food. Why?  
-How many are hiding? (5 objects all together, hid your eyes, cover 2 objects and ask how many are hiding)

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)

Songs, Word Plays, and Language

-Syllable Sound Off

-Our Good Morning Chant

-Compound word break up game song

-If your a girl/If your a boy direction song
-Compound Boogie
-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. 

Unit 2 Families (Week 2) October 31-November 4

Unit Book
Oonga Boonga

Read Aloud:Keisha Then and Now

 Weekly Question and Vocabulary Related to book:

How do family members care for one another?
(lullaby, sob, tear, care, baby, pediatrician)

Literacy Small Groups

-Build a Word(What's In My Bag)-We are learning about the onset and rimes of words.  The onset is the fancy term for the beginning sound of a word and the rime is the string of sounds that follow.  For example, for the word “pig” the sound /p/ is the onset and /ig/ is the rime.  We will be playing a game called "What's in my bag?" We will send home instructions so you can play this game at home too.

-Build More Words -We will use magnifying glasses to be word detectives.  Using a game board with assorted pictures, we will find the word that the teacher segmented by onset and rime.  (Examples: f-ork=students found the word fork.)  (Large Group Activity)

-Journals- We will do more journal writing to write about what we like to do with our families.  After the teacher modeled saying a word slowly (like a turtle  and listening for sounds, students tried their own writing.  It is perfectly okay if their writing is simply drawings, symbols or just a few letters at this stage. We are improving and building confidence each week.  

Handwriting/Letter Groups

-Handwriting Without Tears Program-We will learn what the uppercase and lowercase letter Qq and Gg looks like.  We will sort magnetic letters to find matches for Qq and Gg.  Then we will hunt for them in our names and the names of our classmates.  We will use crayons to hunt for them on our papers.
Handwriting Without Tears Magic C Book- Letters Q and G

Math Small Groups

Pumpkin Math/ Use the Loop- We will practice counting objects in any order to understand that we always have the same amount no matter what order we count it.  We will pom/poms/cotton balls to drop on our pumpkin mat.  Some will fall in the pumpkin and some did not.  No matter where we started counting or how many fell on/off the mat we always had the same amount. A home activity will follow.
Stack a Tower (Quantities of 4)-We will be making sets of 4 with blocks. Students will be encouraged to make towers of 4. We will reinforce concepts such as 1:1 correspondence and discussing how the last number we say tells us how many.

Make a Match Partner Game- We will use dot cards to play a fun game to help us recognize quantities to five without counting and practice the skill of “subitizing.”  Students each will have a deck of dot cards.  They will turn over a card simultaneously and have to quickly tell if they had the same amount without counting.  Once they match all their cards the game was over.

Centers

Art Table- Paper Airplane Decorating and Constructing

Block Area- House and families 

Sensory Table- cornstarch and water
Book Area- Exploring Books about school
Easel-Markers and paper
Writing Table- ABC stamps
Dramatic Play-Taking care of babies
Math, Puzzles, and Manipulatives- Letters in a room hunt using clipboards
Science -Making Sound Harmonicas
Rug- dollhouse and families

Science/Social Studies/Math Circle Concepts
-How do we grow up?

- Math Concept- Stack & Take Down Four Cubes-We will work on understanding that no matter the order we count them, objects in a set remain the same.  We will use a set of blocks to build a house and counted them carefully.  Then, we used the same set of blocks to build a new house.  Each time, we counted the blocks to find the quantity stayed the same no matter what order we counted them in.  

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)

Songs, Word Plays, and Language

-Syllable Sound Off

-Our Good Morning Chant

-Number Rock by Steve and Greg

-If your a girl/If your a boy direction song
-Go Noodle Songs
-Cross Over Song(promoting crossing midline of our bodies)

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. 

Pictures from our Harvest Soiree Parade

Science Center Visit

Yesterday we visited the Burlington Science Center.  A high school volunteer took out a snake and tortoise for us to take a closer look.  We are looking forward to having an animal visit our classroom in the upcoming months.  

Scholastic Book Order Due November 3

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• Class Code - JBTVN
• Order Due Date -  11/03/16
  
  
  Dear Families,

  
  

  This month’s Scholastic Reading Club flyers are now available! Please take a few moments to explore the selection together and let your child help choose books he or she is excited to read.

  
  

  Please place your order online at scholastic.com/readingclub where you’ll find a wide selection of quality children’s books that are just right for your child’s reading level and interests.

  
  

  Please do not send in paper orders with money.  It is easy to order online and our books arrive much more quickly.  Plus, with every online book order, our classroom earns a free book or supplies for our classroom.  Thanks so much for your help!

  
  

  Lisa Bottiglio

Family Unit Week 1 October 24-28

Unit 2 My Family
Reminder: Harvest Costume Parade October 27
Notice in Folders to explain

Unit Book
Quinito, Day and Night

Read Aloud:A Family is a family

 Weekly Question and Vocabulary Related to book:

Who is in my family?
(Family, messy, neat, busy, hush, sticky)

Literacy Small Groups

-Clap Your Name. We will be creating a class book based on how many claps are in our names.  We will now compare common objects to the number of claps in our names.
-The Name Game- We will clap the syllables in our family members’ names.  We will draw a picture of each member of our family then color in a square for each syllable in their name.
-Letters -We will learn what the uppercase and lowercase letter Cc looks like.  We will hunt for them in our names and the names of our classmates.  We will use crayons to hunt for them on our papers.
-Journal- We will writing about our families in our new journals.  We will draw a picture about who is in our family and tell a teacher our words.  After the teacher modeled saying a word slowly (like a turtle  and listening for sounds, students tried their own writing.  It is perfectly okay if their writing is simply drawings, symbols or just a few letters at this stage.
-Letters in Our Names-We will learn what the uppercase and lowercase letter Oo looks like.  We will hunt for them in our names and the names of our classmates.  We will use crayons to hunt for them on our papers.

Handwriting/Letter Groups

-Handwriting Without Tears Program Letters C and O

Math Small Groups

-How many? We will be working on the skill of recognizing quantities without counting (fancy term: subitizing.)  We will play a game where students had to quickly tell how many objects were hidden under a plate once the plate was removed.  After guessing with our words, we will play another round where students had to slap the quantity 1, 2, or 3 quickly when they recognized the quantity under the plate.

-Let’s Make Sets- After practicing the ability to instantly recognize groups of 2, 3, & 4 with flashcards, we will sort pictures of those quantities and tried hard not to count them one by one but instead recognize the quantity in the group.
-Let's Compare- We will use bagged sets of objects to compare sets of 1, 2, 3, & 4 quantities without counting. We will look to find out which had “more” and which had “less.”  As a follow-up activity, we will play a fun memory game where we instantly recognize quantities and tried to find matches.
-How Many Memory Game- We will use picture cards that have group of 1, 2, and 3. We will play a memory game using our subitizing skills

Centers
Art Table- Family Portrait Frames

Block Area- House and families 

Sand Table-Black Beans with stars (Day and Night)
Book Area- Exploring Books about school
Easel-Markers and paper
Writing Table- ABC stamps
Dramatic Play- Lemonade Stand
Math, Puzzles, and Manipulatives- Puzzles
Science -Gerbils from the science Center
Rug- trains

Science/Social StudiesCircle Concepts
Food Groups/Everyone Has A Home

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".

Songs, Word Plays, and Language

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

-Our Good Morning Chant

-Number Rock by Steve and Greg

-If your a girl/If your a boy direction song
-Little Old Lady Who Was Not Afraid of Anything Song
-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 Unit: Week 4 October 17-21

Back to School Night 
Tuesday, October 14th at 6:30-7:00
Presentation  6:30-7:00 for parents

Unit 1 Friends Are Special

Unit Book
Matthew and Tilly

Read Aloud:We Are Friends
-We will reenact the story of Oscar is Cold with props


Weekly Question and Vocabulary Related to book:

How Do Friends Get Along?
(happy, apologize, argue, accident, sad, mad)

Literacy Small Groups

-Syllable Segment:We used this week’s story, Matthew & Tilly to clap and sort pictures by their number of syllables.  We sorted by 1,2, & 3 syllables.  Have fun clapping syllables at home.
-Is it Big? Is it Little? We used magnetic letters to make our name using an uppercase letter at the beginning and lowercase letters for the rest.   Then we cut the letters of our name and sorted them by uppercase and lowercase letters.
-Segment Words in a Sentence- We will segment the sentence "I like to play." by cutting between each word. Then we will put the sentence back together again. We will draw a picture about the sentence.
-Matthew and Tilly- We will cut and sort pictures from our unit book Matthew and Tilly to retell the story.

Handwriting/Letter Groups

-What’s My Letter? Small Groups (Ii) (Uu)

We learned what the uppercase and lowercase letter Uu and Ii look like.  We sorted magnetic letters to find matches for Uu and Ii.  We hunted for them in our names and the names of our classmates.  We used crayons to hunt for them on our papers.  Search for these letters at home.  Remember to help your child name the letter.
-Letters U and I-We will be using a hands-on approach(ie. sand, colored chalk, shaving cream) to reinforce correct letter formation.  Then we will practice in our Handwriting Without Tears (HWT) books

Math Small Groups

-Remember, Remember-We used pictures from this week’s story, Matthew & Tilly to play a memory matching game.  We had to pay close attention to which pictures in the group were the same and which were different.
- Sort It Out- We used a number of new manipulative to sort objects by one attribute.  First, we sorted objects only by size and then by color.  We played the Guess my Rule game again for more practice.
- 10 Frame Trains: We will spin a spinner. Then will count how many cubes we need to place on our 10 frame trains. The goal is to fill every child's trains.

Centers
Art Table- Chalk drawing

Block Area- blocks and people

Sand Table- Searching in colored rice for uppercase and lowercase letters
Book Area- Exploring Books about school
Easel-Markers and paper
Writing Table- ABC stamps
Dramatic Play- Ice Cream Stand
Math, Puzzles, and Manipulatives- Finding Letters in a room hunt using clipboards
Rug- city toys (signs/cars/people/buildings)

Science/Social StudiesCircle Concepts
-Sorting and Classifying Animals

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""

Songs, Word Plays, and Language

-Building Syllable Ice Cream Cone Chart Whole Group
-Little Old Lady Who Was Not Afraid of Anything

-Our Good Morning Chant

-Friendship song involving words to identify.  They will play their instrument when they hear their word

-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.