Friday, December 23, 2016

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. 

Tuesday, December 20, 2016

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.

Friday, December 16, 2016

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. 

Friday, December 9, 2016

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. 

Tuesday, December 6, 2016

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.