Earth and Sky Week 1 March 27-31

Earth and Sky Unit Week 1

Unit Book: Night Shift Daddy

Weekly Question and Vocabulary Words:
What happens when day changes to night?
(cloud, awaken, day, star, snore, night)

Literacy Small Groups

Day and Night Sorting- We will be discussing activities that we do during the day and at night.  We will color and then cut pictures.  Students will then sort the pictures.

Mystery Sounds- Using a mystery bag, students will practice listening for beginning sounds and matching those sounds to the corresponding letter.  One student will pull three picture cards from a the mystery bag and say them for the group.  Students will use a dot marker to record the letter that makes that sounds try to get four in a row! 

Phoneme Segmenting- We will begin learning how to segment phonemes in words.  Phonemes are individual sounds heard in words.  For example, the word bike has three phonemes we can hear- /b/-i/-/k/.  This skill lends itself to the turtle talk we use to journal write.  We will use chip to slide and count the number of phonemes we hear for each picture.  We will then say it ourselves while using a dot marker to mark each phoneme. (This will be presented in a large group this week and then presented again in a small group)

Handwriting Without Tears

-Magic C Letters: s and q

We will be working on lowercase letters s and q. We will be using magnet boards, colored salt trays, chalk boards, or shaving cream to form these letters within our small group time. We will then expose the children to the Fundation lines. Fundations is the curriculum used in kindergarten. We will be exposing the students to the language (ie. sky line, plane line, grass line, and worm line) when forming our letters. 

Math Small Groups

Night Numbers- We will work to recognize, name and write numbers 1-10.  We will dim the lights and use flashlights to search our classroom for number stars in the “night sky.”  We will trace each number on our recording sheet after we found each one.  

Starry Night Math- We will practice recognizing and subitizing numbers 1 through 3. After rolling a number cube, children will recognize the number then find the set of stars to match the sum (subitizing) and put them in a cup. Finally, each child will add how many stars they added to their cup.  When the game is over, they will use those stars to fill up the night sky on their paper.

How Many Ways- We will discover the many combinations that make a whole number.  Using 6 colored chips, we will begin with our counters in all one color. One by one we will flip a counter to make a number combination. For example, 1 yellow and 5 red make six, 2 yellow and 4 red make six.  There are many ways to make the number 6!

How Many Am I Hiding- We will have fun playing a guessing game that will help us learn to count on to get to a given number.  Using 5 cubes, we will hide some behind our backs and reveal the leftover cubes.  Players will have to count on to guess the hidden amount and record it on their sheet

Star Gazing Counting Book- We will practicing matching quantities to written numerals while making our own star gazing counting book.  We will identify numbers 5-10 and trace their formations.  Then, we will cut and count out that many stars to paste on each page of our book.  

Centers

Art Table-Day and Night painting (multi-step activity)

Block Area- Building Rocket ships with blocks

Sensory Table- black beans with stars sorting
Book Area- Exploring Books about sky and earth
Easel-Markers and paper
Writing Table-Day /Night Words
Dramatic Play-Space Station
Math, Puzzles, and Manipulatives-Independent activity
Rug- Legos
Science/Social Studies/Math Circle Concepts
-Energy from Electricity (lights)
-Going to Sleep Routines
-What Do I spy?
-Making and Breaking sets to count

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"
5. When you want something from a teacher or friend, say "Excuse Me" to get their attention
6. When you want something from a teacher or friend, say "Excuse Me" to get their attention and then use your asking words(ie. May I have a turn?)

Songs, Word Plays, and Language

-Our Good Morning Chant

-Season Song
-Space Man Song (counting 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. 

Desert Unit Week 2 (March 20-24)

Weekly Question and Vocabulary Related to book:

What are desert animals like?
(lizard, cowboy, herd, spider, sniff, burrow)

Unit Book: The Gingerbread Cowboy

Literacy Small Groups
Letters and Sounds- We will work to match sounds with their corresponding letters.  We will be using words from our unit.

Compare and Contrast- We will discuss animals from the jungle and animals from the desert. We will look in books to see how they are the same or different. Then we will create a chart in small groups.

Letter Sound Rolling Game: We will roll a letter cube with letters we have already learned. After rolling the cube, we will say the letter, the sound, then find it on our papers. We will then trace the letter. We will try to roll all of the letters on our paper. Some groups will also try to think of words that begin with the same sound as a challenge.

Journals: We will be "writing" in our journals. Each child will choose an animal that they learned about that lives in the desert. They will try to write the letters they hear in the animals name and write what they hear. We are encouraging students to write letters they hear so the word may not look like the way we read them.

Handwriting Without Tears

-Magic C Letters: g and d

We will be working on lowercase letters d and g. We will be using magnet boards, colored salt trays, chalk boards, or shaving cream to form these letters within our small group time. We will then expose the children to the Fundation lines. Fundations is the curriculum used in kindergarten. We will be exposing the students to the language (ie. sky line, plane line, grass line, and worm line) when forming our letters. 

Math Small Groups

Waxy Numbers- We will practice identifying and naming numerals to 10.  Using wax sticks, we will practice making each number while others in the group guess the number made.  We will trace our guesses on our recording sheet.

Pattern review- We will create our own desert patterns.  Using desert cutouts and a pattern grid, we will create our own patterns.  We must be sure that they repeat to be a pattern.

Sandy Numerals -We will practice forming numerals through 10.  Using sand trays, we will practice writing numerals with our finger.  We will then trace numbers on our papers with glue and sprinkle them with sand to make sandy desert numbers.  Ask your child to trace these numbers with his/her finger when dry while naming each one.

Math Stories: (Desert Word Problems) Children will be using desert animals to make a math story. We will use 1:1 correspondence to count the animals we add to our desert picture. Then we will write the number of animals we added.

Centers

Art Table- Playdough

Block Area- Animals and blocks

Sensory Table- Water and sponges (absorb concept)
Book Area- Exploring Books about jungle and desert
Easel-Markers and paper
Writing Table-Desert Words
Dramatic Play-Gingerbread Bake Shop
Math, Puzzles, and Manipulatives-Wiki Sticks to create numbers
Science - Sponges and water to explore  how water absorbs
Rug- Building shelter from the sun in the desert

Science/Social Studies/Math Circle Concepts
- Sink or Swim
-Desert Animals Video
-What is a numeral?
-Compare and contrast desert animals to jungle 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""
3. When I give you  instructions, do them "right away" (multi-step directions)
4. When something is too hard say "Help me please"
5. When you want something from a teacher or friend, say "Excuse Me" to get their attention
6. When you want something from a teacher or friend, say "Excuse Me" to get their attention and then use your asking words(ie. May I have a turn?)

Songs, Word Plays, and Language

-Our Good Morning Chant

-Animals in the Desert 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. 

Desert Unit Week 1 (March 13-17)

Unit Book: Two Cool Coyotes

Weekly Question and Unit Words
What is a desert?
(sand, desert, coyote, howl, absorb, cactus)
Literacy Small Groups

Two Cool Coyote Initial Sounds Sunglasses- We will be listening to the initial sound we hear in words.  When two pictures have the same beginning sound we will pair them together to create a “pair” of sunglasses for our Two Cool Coyotes. 

Deleting the onsets- We will practice deleting the onset from words.  The onset is the beginning sound/s of a word and the rime is all the sounds that follow it.  For example, in the word “bell” /b/ is the onset and /ell/ is the rime.  We will use picture cards to take physically take away the onset of the word to discover what the word is with just the rime left.  If we take away the /b/ in bell, we are left with /ell./

Journals-We will write in our journals about animals that live in the desert.  We will add lots of detail to our illustrations and carefully sound out our words to write what we hear.

Desert Vocabulary Books- We will be reviewing our unit vocabulary from our unit book Two Cool Coyotes. We will write or trace the beginning letter for each of our words. We will also review the definition of each word and we will recall the word from our story.

Handwriting/Letter Groups
-Magic C Letters: c and o

We will be working on lowercase letters. We will be using magnet boards, colored salt trays, chalk boards, or shaving cream to form these letters within our small group time. We will then expose the children to the Fundation lines. Fundations is the curriculum used in kindergarten. We will be exposing the students to the language (ie. sky line, plane line, grass line, and worm line) when forming our letters. 

Math Small Groups

Patterned Snakes- Desert snakes have patterns all over them.   We will use paper links to make a pattern by alternating colors to make our own desert snakes.  We will be sure to check to see that our pattern repeats!  

Playdough Numbers- We will use number mats and playdough to mold numbers 1-10.  We will also count out the corresponding number of playdough dots to practice matching quantities to written numerals. We will roll out snakes and then form them to the numbers.

Playdough Pattern Snakes- We will use playdough to practice patterning.  Using beads, paper clips and buttons we will create and repeat our own patterns on our playdough snake.  Patterns can be made with almost anything at all- have fun patterning at home too!

Pattern Trains- We will be using unifix cubes to create “pattern trains”.  Each child will be given a card with a pattern on it.  Then they will place their hand in a bag and choose a unifix cube.  If they need that color for their pattern, they will keep the cube.  If they do not need it, they will give the cube to a friend that needs it to complete their pattern. The goal of the game is for everyone to complete a pattern of 10 cubes.  

Desert memory game: We will play a memory game using vocabulary from our unit.

Centers

Art Table-Animal art to add to our mural (catcus hand prints, camel hand prints)

Block Area- Animals and blocks

Sensory Table-Sand (Animals, rocks, caves....)
Book Area- Exploring Books about jungle and desert
Easel-Markers and paper
Writing Table-Desert Letters
Dramatic Play-Camping
Math, Puzzles, and Manipulatives- Counting cactus activity
Science - Sponges and water to explore  how water absorbs
Rug- Safari jeeps, animals, and people

Science/Social Studies/Math Circle Concepts
-What is a desert?
-How do animals live in a desert
-Aborbing Sponges/Sponges cut into catcus to show how water absorbs
-Compare and contrast jungle and desert 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""
3. When I give you  instructions, do them "right away" (multi-step directions)
4. When something is too hard say "Help me please"
5. When you want something from a teacher or friend, say "Excuse Me" to get their attention
6. When you want something from a teacher or friend, say "Excuse Me" to get their attention and then use your asking words(ie. May I have a turn?)

Songs, Word Plays, and Language

-Our Good Morning Chant

-Animals in the Desert Song
-Pattern songs
-Magic C 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. 

Jungle Unit Week 2 (March 6-10)

Unit Book: 
Chameleon's Colors
Weekly Question and Vocabulary Related to book:

What are jungle animals like?

(parrot, complain, splash, chase, collect, pattern )

Literacy Small Groups

Letter Sounds- We will practice letter-sound correspondence with another fun qr code activity.  Using a qr code on our iPads, we will scan codes around our room to reveal a mystery picture and word.  We will match the beginning sound the letter that makes that sound and color the letter on our recording sheets.

Lowercase Letters- We will be working on lowercase letters u and c this week. We will be using magnet boards, colored salt trays, chalk boards, or shaving cream to form these letters within our small group time. We will then expose the children to the Fundation lines. Fundations is the curriculum used in kindergarten. We will be exposing the students to the language (ie. sky line, plane line, grass line, and worm line) when forming our letters. 

Journal- We will continue our journal writing and work to add spaces between our words.  We will use our senses to write about what we see, hear, touch, taste or smell in the jungle. We will have to use our imaginations and what we have learned about the jungle.

Handwriting/Letter Groups

Letters u and c

Math Small Groups

Patterns- We will use the story Chameleon’s colors to create our own patterned chameleons.  Using colored cubes we will make our own colorful chameleon by repeating an ABC pattern.  We will then use colored tissue squares to craft our chameleons.

Jungle Animal Roll & Write- We will use dot dice to roll and find numbers on our sheet. We will name and trace each number we find and try to trace them all!

Patterns- We will use legos to create a variety of pattterns. We will then record our patterns by coloring on a recording sheet. We will compare our patterns with our friends to see how they are the same or different.

Jungle Roll and Write- We will roll one dice or two dice. Then we will count the dots and say how many in all. Then students will write the number to record the number they rolled.

Centers

Art Table-Animal prints to add to our mural

Block Area- Zoo animals with labels for children to create zoo cages (Welcome to the Zoo)

Sensory Table-Jello and snakes, frogs, and fish.  "Swampy Water"
Book Area- Exploring Books about jungle and desert
Easel-Markers and paper
Writing Table-Zookeeper Lists
Dramatic Play-Cub Cadet Zoo- Buying Tickets and visiting animals
Math, Puzzles, and Manipulatives- Playdough Mats to feed the giraffes according to the numbers on the mats.
Science - Crystal the African Parrot from the Science Center is visiting our room
Rug- Safari jeeps, animals, and people

Science/Social Studies/Math Circle Concepts
-What is a pattern?
-How jungle animals camouflage in different environments
-What living things need
-Canopy, understory, and forest floor review.

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"
5. When you want something from a teacher or friend, say "Excuse Me" to get their attention
6. When you want something from a teacher or friend, say "Excuse Me" to get their attention and then use your asking words(ie. May I have a turn?)

Songs, Word Plays, and Language

-Our Good Morning Chant

-Down in the Jungle
-Five Little Monkeys
-Rhyming Time Song
-Jungle Movement

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. 

African Parrot in our classroom

We have been enjoying our visit from Crystal, an African Grey Parrot, from the Burlington Science Center.  In our unit of the jungle, we have been learning about the three parts of a jungle(canopy, understory, and forest floor).  We have been discussing how different animals live in the different parts of the jungle because what each part has for the animals to live.   We learned that Crystal would live in the canopy because there is sunlight which helps plants to grow food for the parrots to eat.  

 Some of our students found books in our library about parrots and then wanted to show Crystal the pictures.  They had the idea that perhaps she would feel happy to see some of her parrot friends.  

 We have also given Crystal fruit and observed how she eats.