Unit 1 week 1 Friends Are Special

Unit 1 Friends Are Special

Unit Books

The Lion and The Mouse 

Weekly Question and Vocabulary Related to book:

What makes each of us special?

(thank, help, protect,kindness,patient, mighty)

Literacy Small Groups

-Sound Search- We will use Ipads to listen to sounds we hear.  We will use descriptive language to describe each sound. 

-Letters in my name game- Each child will have their name card.  Letters will be in a bag.  Each child will pull out a letter from the bag.  If they have the letter in their name they will keep it.  If it is not in their name they will find a friend that has the letter and give it to them.  The goal for everyone to make their name.  We will compare letters their letters in their name to a friend.  

-My self/My friend portraits- Each child will choose a friend at their table to draw.  They will draw themselves then draw a friend.  We will be trace letters/copying letters of our friends.   

-Sound 1 and 2- We will be listening to sounds.  We will identify the initial and second sounds we hear.  This activity helps develop our listening skills in order to listen to beginning and ending sounds in words.  

Handwriting/Letter Groups

-What’s My Letter? (L l)

We learned what the uppercase and lowercase letter Ll  looks like.  We sorted magnetic letters to find matches for Ll.  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.

-What’s My Letter?(F f )

We learned what the uppercase and lowercase letter Ff looks like.  We sorted magnetic letters to find matches for Ff. .  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 L and F-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

(Focusing on creating sets of 5)

-This week, we read a story about a lion & a mouse who lived in the jungle.  We will use animal counters in the jungle to practice counting to five.  After each of the following tasks, we will count our animals as a group.  No matter where the animals are placed, we had 5 animals every time.

This will help us understand that as long as there were no animals added or taken away, the quantity remained the same.  Use the mat and included animals to review these skills at home.

-Digging for Treasure-In sand, each child will dig and find objects in the sand. We will find 5 objects then we will find objects based on size, color, shape.

-Using colored flip counters, we will flip then record the colors we flipped.  Each set of counters will be 5.  How many are red? How many are yellow? How many in all?

-Mouse Tails- We will color and cut out paper mouses.  Then we will put on a tail. Then we will put on 5 beads on the mouse tail.  

Centers
Art Table- Lion painting with plastic forks to create manes for lions

Block Area- blocks

Sand Table- sand exploration
Book Area- Exploring Books about school
Easel-Markers and paper
Writing Table- crayons and paper
Dramatic Play- Pet Shop (Pets are our friends too)
Math, Puzzles, and Manipulatives- Letter Puzzles
Science - Looking in mirrors
Rug- Jungle Animals

Science/Social Studies Circle
- 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".
-Discussing how we sit and listen in a group (our community classroom)

Songs, Word Plays, and Language

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

-Our Good Morning Chant

-ABC Rock by Steve and Greg

-Number Rock by Steve and Greg
-Shake Break Song (following directions)
-Dino Stomp

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. 

First Weeks of School September 12-16/ September 19-23

First Weeks of School
We will begin our school year getting to know each other and establishing classroom routines. During the month of September, we will be focusing on developing classroom expectations, routines, and getting to know each learner. Our books for the first several weeks will pertain to transitioning to school and feelings about coming to school.
We will also use these books to have the students become familiar with our curriculum approach which is to use books to build on our classroom activities.
We will begin our first unit during the week of September 23rd.  Our first unit will be "Friends".

Books These Weeks:

The Kissing Hand
Chicka, Chicka, Boom, Boom
How Do Dinosaurs Go To School?

Small Groups:
Literacy Small Groups

Chicka Chicka Boom Boom
-Letters in my Name/Letters not in my name- Students will cut strips of letters then sort into 2 categories of in my name and not in my name
-Chicka Letter Stamping- Each child will pull a letter card and then use a bingo dobber to stamp the same letter
-Chicka Chicka Boom Boom Bowling- We will roll a "coconut" to knock down bowling pins with letters on them.  We will stamp on our bowling recording sheet which letters we knocked down.
-Uppercase and Lowercase Sorting Coconut Trees- Each child will cut and sort a variety of uppercase and lowercase letters.
-Coconut Tree Letter Bean Bag Throwing- Each child will receive a bean bag with a letter.  They will name the letter, then gently toss it onto a coconut tree(brown paper with green leaves on top)
Kissing Hand
-Alphabet Bingo- Students will identify and label uppercase letters on their bingo boards.  We will then color the box or trace the letter on the board.
-Tracing Letters in our Name Bingo- We will playing a bingo game where each child will have the letters in their name on.  When a teacher reveals a letter, they will look on their boards and trace the letter.
-Story Sequencing-After listening to our story, we will discuss events that happened.   Then we will cut pictures from the story then place in order to retell the story to reinforce left to right progression.  Students will verbally retell the events.


Math Small Groups/Fine Motor Small Groups
Kissing Hand
-Patterning- We will create patterns using pictures from the Kissing Hand
-Graphing- We will spin a spinner that has pictures from our story.  Then we will record by coloring one box to show which picture the spinner landed on. We will then count to see which picture we recorded the most and least.
-Roll a Dice- We will roll a number cube. We will identify the number then find the same number on our papers then color it.
-Memory Game- We will use picture cards from our unit story to play a memory game.
-Number Recognition Roll and Cover- We will roll a number cube with the numbers 1-6.  Each child will roll the cube and place a cube on the number they rolled onto their recording sheets.
Chicka Chicka Boom Boom
-Roll a Dice Coconut Trees- We will roll a number cube. We will identify the number then find the same number on our papers then color it. 

-Self Portraits and Name writing samples (We will add these to your child's portfolio to monitor the wonderful progress they will make in preschool this year)
-Playdough Pinching and Rolling to create letters to place on coconut trees
-Squeezing sponges (to develop pincer grasp) to transfer water into a cup
-Pom-Pom pickup (We will roll a number cube then use our alligator fingers to pick up the correct number of pom-poms)

Centers
Art Table- Tissue Paper Collages for first letter in our names/Raccoon Masks/Hand tracing and decorating for a class mural

Block Area- blocks

Sand Table- Sand/ Chicka, Chicka Trees, beans(as the coconuts), and letters
Book Area- Exploring Books about school
Easel-Markers and paper
Writing Table- crayons and paper
Dramatic Play- dishes, cookware, and food (restaurant role play)
Math, Puzzles, and Manipulatives- Pattern Blocks
Science - Looking in mirrors (to connect with drawing our faces during small groups)
Rug- Legos

Science/Social Studies Circle
- 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".
-Discussing how we sit and listen in a group (our community classroom)

Songs, Word Plays, and Language

-Action Bingo Song:

There was a class that had a boy/girl, and _____was his/her name-o

(Each child chooses an action for others to follow)

Jump, Jump, (name), Jump, Jump, (name), Jump, Jump, (name) ,

We're glad you're in school today.
-If your happy and you know it.
-Here we are together at school
-Our Good Morning Chant
-The Cub of Day, Who will it be?

-ABC Rock by Steve and Greg

-Number Rock by Steve and Greg
-Dino Stomp

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.  This system can be explained more thoroughly in a tab on this blog.