Ugly Vegetables (Community Unit Week 4) January 9-13

Unit Book:
The Ugly Vegetables

Weekly Question and Vocabulary Related to book:

What kinds of communities do people live in?
(neighborhood, vine, stem, sprinkle, neighbors, aroma)

Literacy Small Groups

-Sequencing Story- We will review the story elements from The Ugly Vegetables  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 Bingo- We will review how rhyming words "sound alot alike" such as bat and cat. Then we will play a game of bingo by listening to a word then finding the picture that rhymes with the word we heard.

-Thumbs Up- 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.

-Letter Xx and Yy- We will learn what the uppercase and lowercase letter Xx and Yy looks like.  We will sort magnetic letters to find matches for Xx and Yy 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 vegetables to relate to our story The Ugly Vegetables. 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.

Handwriting/Letter Groups

-Handwriting Without Tears Program- X and Y

Math Small Groups

-How Tall Can It Be? We will combine foam cubes to build new shapes. After exploring the cubes, we will stack the cubes on top of one another to see how tall it can be. Then we will record on a data sheet how tall the tower became. Then we will identify which number was the most, least, and if any were equal.

-Shapes from Shape-We will use 3-dimensional shapes to duplicate creations we see in a picture.  We will discuss the shape and positions of our blocks as we build.  Some of us will even try to draw our creations!

Vegetable Memory Game- We will use memory cards with vegetables we recalled from our unit book.

Shape Hunt- We will be hunting for 3-dimensional shapes within our school.   We will be creating a class book about our experience.

Centers

Art Table- Painting with Vegetables (rolling vegetables in paint) Making Chef Hat for our Pizza Demonstration in the Cafe

Block Area- blocks and community people

Sensory Table- Garden (Dirt, shovels, seeds, seed packets)
Book Area- Exploring Books about community
Easel-Markers and paper
Writing Table- Upper Case and Lower Case Letter X coloring
Dramatic Play-Vegetable Stand
Math, Puzzles, and Manipulatives- Puzzles
Rug- legos

Science/Social Studies/Math Circle Concepts
-Soil (What is it and what is in it?)
-Describe a garden
-Food We Like to Eat

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

-Compound word break up game song

-Neighbors Chant

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.