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.