Friday, October 28, 2016

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. 

Thursday, October 27, 2016

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.  




Tuesday, October 25, 2016

Scholastic Book Order Due November 3



  •  

  • 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

Thursday, October 20, 2016

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. 

Friday, October 14, 2016

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. 

Friday, October 7, 2016

Friends Are Special Week 3 (Oct.11-14)

Unit 1 Friends Are Special
Unit Books
Reminder: No school October 10 (Columbus Day)
Oscar is Cold
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 Help Each Other?
(listen, arrive, exclaim, share, help, shiver)

Literacy Small Groups
-Syllable Segment:We used dot markers to keep track of the different parts we heard in words.  Using compound words, we made one dot for each part of the word and then said the words altogether.
-Blend and Break:(Word Parts) We used our hands to clap compound words and hear their parts.  For each part we heard, we moved one cube on our paper and colored in squares to record our work.
-Sequencing The Story Oscar is Cold
-Constructing New Words- We will take 2 words and create a new word (compound words) We will cut then assemble a compound word chart to reinforce the blend and break concept.
-Journal Writing.

Handwriting/Letter Groups
-What’s My Letter? Small Groups (Tt)
We learned what the uppercase and lowercase letter Tt  look like.  We sorted magnetic letters to find matches for Tt.  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 T -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
-What is my rule? We will create a rule and sort by that rule.  For example, if it is red, it goes in the circle: if you can eat it, it goes in the circle.  We will use props then completed a fine motor task with this skill.
-Who’s First? We will learn about ordinal numbers (1-5) by using dot cards to line up in order of our cards.  Then we  will use animal counters to and dot cards to line up our animals by ordinal numbers as well. Then we will draw the animals in their order.
-Count my number- We will reinforce counting to 10.  A teacher will show a dot number card and then have children show that amount on a ten frame mat? Discussing how many more we need to make 10? Count empty spaces. If we put one more on how many will will have? ....


Centers
Art Table- Color color painting (blue shades)
Block Area- blocks
Sand Table- water with Artic animals and icebergs
Book Area- Exploring Books about school
Easel-Markers and paper
Writing Table- Friendship writing
Dramatic Play- Camping (Making Smores)
Math, Puzzles, and Manipulatives- Finding Letters in a room hunt using clipboards
Science -Living and Non-Living
Rug- tracks and cars

Science/Social Studies Circle Concepts
What keeps us warm?
Living and Non-Living

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

Unit 1 Friends Are Special (Week 2) What is a friend? Oct 3-7

Unit 1 Friends Are Special
Unit Books
Corduroy
Read Aloud:Friends Share

Weekly Question and Vocabulary Related to book:
What is a friend?
(friend, play, laugh, admire, together, enormous)

Literacy Small Groups
-Sentence Stack- We will segment a sentence into words. We will cut the sentence then put it back together. This concept will be introduced first with blocks to touch as a teacher models.
-Is it a Letter? We will cut then sort a variety of letters, numbers, and symbols.
-Sentence Clap- We will listen to a sentence then show how many words are in the sentence by touching blocks.  Then we will demonstrate this skill in a fine motor task.
-Write to Convey meaning- We will "write" a word then draw a picture to show its meaning.
-Corduroy Sequencing Story Pictures
Handwriting/Letter Groups
-What’s My Letter? Small Groups (E,e) (H,h)
We learned what the uppercase and lowercase letter Ee and Hh look like.  We sorted magnetic letters to find matches for Ee and Hh.  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 E and H-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 and introducing set of 10)
-Let's Trace our fingers- We will trace our fingers then color.  We will then use dot stickers with numbers 1-10 to show a set of 10
-Button Sorting by 3- We will sort by size and shape in three ways. After reading the story Corduroy we will use buttons to practice sorting.  We will sort our buttons into various groups and record our work on our sorting sheets
-Sets of 5 Assessment- In groups, children will be asked to count out 5 objects and place them in clear bags.  They will hold them up and a friend will count their bag and tell them how many are in their bag.  (Peer Review)
- Sets of 5 or Sets of 10- We will be using 5 Frames or 10 Frames to count sets of objects.  Some groups will review how to create sets of 5 and some groups will be introduced to creating sets of 10


Centers
Art Table- Number Sculptures
Block Area- blocks 
Sand Table- buttons
Book Area- Exploring Books about school
Easel-Markers and paper
Writing Table- crayons and paper
Dramatic Play- Toy Store (related to Corduroy)
Math, Puzzles, and Manipulatives- Letter Puzzles
Science -ramps
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)
2. When a teacher tells me to do something, "I do it right away."


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 Breaks (Go Noodle)
-Down in the jungle 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.