Thursday, January 28, 2016

Unit 5: Journey to a Jungle: February 1-5

Weekly Question and Vocabulary Related to book:

  Unit Book: Amazing Jungle
What is a jungle?
(trunk, twig, branch, explore, hunt, graze, jungle)
Literacy Small Groups
Rhyming-We will continue our practice rhyming.  Through a jungle bingo rhyming game we will learn to identify and produce rhyming words.  We will listen for words that rhyme to identify a rhyming pair however before we can place a marker on our boards we must come up with our own rhyming word to rhyme with the other words in the group.  We will use both real words and nonsense words to create our own rhymes

Letter V-We will learn what the uppercase and lowercase letter Vv looks like.  We will sort magnetic letters to find matches for Vv.  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.  Keep an eye out for Vv’s while out and about with your child!!


Rhyming-We will continue to practice producing our own rhyming groups.  Using a picture to get started, students will think of words that rhyme with the picture.  For each word they rhyme they will earn an animal stamp for their paper.  Have your child practice producing his/her own rhymes while riding in the car or waiting in line or for an appointment.  

Letter Y- We will learn what the uppercase and lowercase letter Yy looks like.  We will sort magnetic letters to find matches for Yy.  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 Yy’s with your child at home- ask him/her if it is upper or lowercase. 

Journal Writing- Using our writing journals, we will write about our favorite jungle animals.  We will carefully sound out each word and some of us will even  practice using our fingers to add spaces between words in our sentences.  We will work hard to add colorful details to our animal illustrations.  We are becoming fabulous writers!

Handwriting/Letter Groups
- We will be begin formalized letter formations next week.  We will begin with straight line letters.  Please reinforce with your child that "we always start our letters at the top." This is an important skill in formations.

Math Small Groups
Patterns- We will begin learning about patterns.  Using cubes, we will duplicate a pattern from our papers.  We will then try to extend the pattern and color our papers to show our work. Patterns are everywhere- look for them both inside and outside- be sure they repeat before calling it a pattern!

Rhythm Patterns- We learn more about patterns by using our bodies to make our own rhythm patterns.  We will practice repeating movements with our bodies (clapping, tapping, etc) then we will make our own pattern strips to make rhythm patterns.  For example, we can tap, tap, clap, tap, tap, clap or shake clap, shake, clap.  Try these at home


Nature's Patterns- Patterns can be seen in our natural world.  We will explore patterns on familiar jungle animals by looking at & discussing photos of a zebra, tiger, tropical bird and snake.  We will then recreate their patterns using cut paper and glue.

One Less Jungle Game- We will practice the concept of one less using a jungle dice game.  After rolling the dice, we will count out that many counters and then take away one.  We will color that many animals on our sheet.  We will challenge ourselves to guess how many without using the counters after a few tries.  We will also discuss more and less concepts.

Pattern or Not- We will play a  fun “Pattern or Not” game.  Using beads and pipe cleaners (snake body) we will create and extend a partner’s pattern. After some practice extending patterns we will challenge one another to decide if the design we made for our partner is a “pattern or not.”  Use the “Pattern Snakes” activity sheet to have some fun with this at home.
Centers
Art Table-Animal prints to add to our mural
Block Area- Zoo animals with labels for children to create zoo cages
Sensory Table-Water, leaves, frogs,
Book Area- Exploring Books about jungle and desert
Easel-Markers and paper
Writing Table-Zookeeper Lists
Dramatic Play-Zoo
Math, Puzzles, and Manipulatives- Playdough and sticks to make animal "cages"
Science - We are preparing to have a special visitor from the Science Center.
Rug- Safari jeeps, animals, and people

Science/Social Studies/Math Circle Concepts
-What is a pattern?
-Patterns in nature
-Day and Night animals
-Patterns in sounds

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"
5. When you want something from a teacher or friend, say "Excuse Me" to get their attention
6. When you want something from a teacher or friend, say "Excuse Me" to get their attention and then use your asking words(ie. May I have a turn?)

Songs, Word Plays, and Language
-Our Good Morning Chant
-Down in the Jungle
-Five Little Monkeys
-Rhyming Identifying games
-Jungle Movement

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, January 21, 2016

Farm Unit Week 4 How does food get from the farm to your house? January 25-29









Book Order Due by 8 AM on January 22 if you interested in ordering

Unit Book: An Orange in January

Weekly Question and Vocabulary Related to book:
How does food get from a farm to your house?
(plump, drenched, transport, journey, segment, gleamed)

Literacy Small Groups
Rhyming-We will practice our rhyming skills.  Using dot markers we will hunt for farmily words that rhyme with the word the teacher says.

Letter Roll and Write- We will roll a cube with straight line letters (T, I, E, L,H). Then we will record which letter each child rolls by writing down on on recording sheet. We will talk about the sound each letter makes as well.

Rhyming Ipads Activity- We will continue our practice rhyming with a fun rhyming activity on our iPads.  Using a qr code reader, we will scan codes around our room.  We will need to listen to the word on our ipad and circle the word that rhymes on a recording sheet.

Letter E- We will learn what the uppercase and lowercase letter Ee looks like.  We will sort magnetic letters to find matches for Ee.  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 Ee’s with your child at home- ask him/her if it is upper or lowercase.

Journal Writing-  Once we have learned about an orange’s journey to our homes in the middle of winter, we will write about it in our journals. We will make our own list and write the steps an orange takes to get to our homes.  We will slowly turtle talk our words and write the sounds that we hear. We will illustrate our thoughts using many colors and details .

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

Math Small Groups
Take Away Stories- We will use orange pom poms to practice subtraction story problems on an orange tree. We will “pick” the oranges from the tree to discover how many are left and will even try to solve how many oranges were picked.  Use this activity at home to help your child practice the skill of taking away.

Part/Part/Whole- We will look more at whole numbers and number parts.  Using pigs in a pen, we will take a whole number and use our pigs to make number parts.  For example, using the number 7 we can place our pigs into 2 parts: 5+2, 6+1, 3+4, etc.  Try this activity at home!

How many are left? We will continue to work on our subtraction skills by solving farm story problems.  We listen to a math story dictated by the teacher and use animals counters to solve how many are left.  We will then trace our answers on our recording sheet.

Orange Segmenting- We will segment a paper orange into 6 parts. We will show how parts of the orange can equal a whole. (ie. 2parts and 4 parts are 1 whole)

Centers
Art Table-Finishing our farm animal books
Block Area- farm animals
Sensory Table-Washing produce(sponges, plastic fruit, soapy water)
Book Area- Exploring Books about community
Easel-Markers and paper
Writing Table-Farm Lists
Dramatic Play-Lemonade Stand
Math, Puzzles, and Manipulatives- Letters in a room hunt using clipboards
Science - Farm animal skulls from the Science Center
Rug- legos

Science/Social Studies/Math Circle Concepts
-Planes, trains, and automobiles
-What Does It Do?
-Good for you food
-Track the Sun

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"
5. When you want something from a teacher or friend, say "Excuse Me" to get their attention
6. When you want something from a teacher or friend, say "Excuse Me" to get their attention and then use your asking words(ie. May I have a turn?)

Songs, Word Plays, and Language
-Our Good Morning Chant
-Farmer in the Dell
-Apples and Bananas Song
-Rhyming Identifying games
-Simon Says (Farmer Lisa Says.....)

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. 

Wednesday, January 20, 2016

Emergency Situation Yesterday

Below is a message from our Director's Blog.  I am a Burlington parent as well as a teacher in town so I understand your concerns.  Our classroom was dismissed by the time this event took place. I am proud to be part of the wonderful staff at BECC and watch every staff member move into action to ensure every child was cared for.  
January 19, 2016
Dear Parents/Guardians,
Burlington High School received an anonymous Skype phone call this afternoon threatening the school.  The Emergency Response Team was immediately gathered, which includes school personnel and the Burlington Police Department.  After evaluating the situation, and due to the fact that many other schools in Massachusetts received this type of threat last Friday, and many more today, the police assessment was that this was a low level threat and most likely a hoax.
Students at the BECC were dismissed as a result of this threat (those students in our morning programs were already home).  All BECC employees did a fantastic job of keeping the children calm in this atypical situation.
At this time, school is scheduled to take place on Wednesday.  There will be an increased police presence in the all of the Burlington Schools tomorrow during both arrival and dismissal times, and we will update everyone if the situation changes.
Going forward, a reverse 911 call should go out to all families notifying them of any situation.  BECC staff will follow-up with phone calls to make sure that we make contact directly with you or another one of your child’s emergency contacts.
On Wednesday afternoon, please check your child’s backpack when he or she gets home as there will be a letter describing the specific BECC procedures in more detail.
If you have questions or concerns about this incident or your child’s safety, please do not hesitate to call me at 781-273-7632 or e-mail me atclark@burlington.bpsk12.org.
Sincerely,
Deborah Clark

Thursday, January 7, 2016

Farm Unit Week 2 January 11-15

Unit Book:Otis

Weekly Question and Vocabulary Related to book:
How do machines help farmers?
(tractor, startle, parade, fancy, pond, soil)

Literacy Small Groups
How Does it End? We will learn about how words sound when the onset (beginning sound) is deleted from the word.  We will sing a farm song where students need to guess the farm animal or item based on hearing just the rime (entire ending.) We will place a marker to on a picture mat to make our guess.  

Letter W- We will learn what the uppercase and lowercase letter Ww looks like.  We will sort magnetic letters to find matches for Ww.  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 Ww’s at home, in the car or out and about!

Onset Rime Bingo- We will review segmenting words by onset & rime.  Using things found on a farm, we will practice saying words by segmenting the beginning sound and entire ending. We will work on a new skill to take away the beginning sound and say only the ending of each word (deleting the onset) to cover a spot on our board.

Letter R- We will learn what the uppercase and lowercase letter Rr looks like.  We will sort magnetic letters to find matches for Rr.  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 Rr’s with your child at home- ask him/her if it is upper or lowercase.

Journal Writing
We will write  in our journals about what plants need to grow. We will slowly turtle talk our words and write the sounds that we hear. We will illustrate our thoughts using many colors and details .

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

Math Small Groups
How Many Animals in the Barn? We will work  on our counting and subitizing skills to fill our barn with animals.  Using a dot dice, we will roll to determine how many animals to place in our barn using a 10 grid.  We will discuss how many animals we have and how many  more we need to fill our barn.  After playing this game with counters, we will play our final round with dot stickers to make our own animals to take home.

Stuck in the Mud- We will use animals counters to recreate a scene from the Otis story.  This time more than one animal will be stuck in the mud.  Using our counters we will  hide animals under a card and leave some showing.  We will have to guess how many animals are stuck in the mud given out total number of animals.  Using dot stickers , we will make our own number stories to share

Making Five- We will work to make combinations of 5.  Using cube trains, we will start with a given number of cubes (0-4.) We will count on to find out how many more cubes we need to add to make 5 cubes in all. We will record our answers by coloring in the additional cubes on our sheets.

Otis Number Writing and Sequence- We will write the numbers 1 through 6 on a strip. Then we will color ,cut, then place pictures in order to retell our story of Otis.

Centers
Art Table- Fruit and Vegetable Prints
Block Area- farms
Sensory Table- Alphabet Soup
Book Area- Exploring Books about community
Easel-Markers and paper
Writing Table-Farm Lists
Dramatic Play-Tools Shop
Math, Puzzles, and Manipulatives- Letters in a room hunt using clipboards
Science - Wool
Rug- legos

Science/Social Studies/Math Circle Concepts
-Caring for plants
-Reenact the book Otis
-Wheat from the farm
-How Many Scoops

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"
5. When you want something from a teacher or friend, say "Excuse Me" to get their attention

Songs, Word Plays, and Language
-Our Good Morning Chant
-Farmer in the Dell
-Freeze Game
-Simon Says (Farmer Lisa Says.....)


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.