Make It Move Unit 8 Week 1 May 22-26

Make It Move  Unit 8 Week 1

Unit Book:  Oscar and the Cricket

Weekly Question and Vocabulary Words:
What are different ways things move?
(bounce, fast, slow, still, direction, muscle)

Literacy Small Groups

Ending Sounds

We will review ending sounds with a fun bowling game.  Using mini bowling pins, we will segment 3 sound words.  For each sound we hear we will place one pin on our mats.  After we identify and color the sounds we heard on our papers, we will get a chance to use a ball to knock down our pins.

Lowercase Letter Review Formation

We will review lowercase letter formations. We will practice these letters using magna doodles, chalkboards, salt trays, etc.  We will rainbow write and pencil practice the letters as well.

Word Balls

We will practice carefully tapping and sounding out words by individual phonemes (or sounds.)  We will crack open mystery balls that contain three letters and a toy.  We will say the name of the toy slowly and tap each sound we hear.  We will use the letter to build that word and record it on our papers.

Journal Writing

We have been learning about things that move or help us move.  This week, we will write in our journals about things that move or help us move on our playground. We will use our turtle talk and work to add finger spaces between our sentences.  We will continue to add details and colors to make our illustrations pop.

Math Small Groups

Comparing Lengths w/Balls & Ramps

We will compare lengths while having fun with balls.  Using three different kinds of balls, we will take turns rolling them down a ramp.  We will use cubes  measure how far each ball rolled and compare their lengths.

Measuring with Oscar

We will use a card with this week’s story character, Oscar, to compare lengths around our classroom.  We will hunt for items that are longer and shorter than our Oscar card and record them on our papers.

Finding  Same Lengths

We will continue to experiment with measurement.  Using snap cubes make towers of a set quantity.  We will measure items from our classroom to find objects that are the same length as each tower.  We will illustrate objects that we find that are the same length.  

How Far Can You Blow a Ball?

We will have fun experimenting and comparing lengths of balls we move.  Using a straw, students will have a chance to blow a cotton ball and a pom pom to see which could be blown further.  They will use paper strips to measure how far each ball was blown and record it for a class book.  

Number Formations

Using the Handwriting Without Tears program as a guide, we will continue to practice forming numbers 1-10.  This week, we will practice number 10 and review past numbers using wooden sticks, chalkboards or magna doodles and in our letter formation books.

Centers

Art Table- ramp painting

Sensory Table- water beads
Book Area- Exploring Books about movement
Easel-Markers and paper
Writing Table-Word Ball Activity
Dramatic Play- Tool Shop
Math, Puzzles, and Manipulatives- How far can the car roll?
Rug- Ramps with cars
Block Area- block ramps with balls to roll

Science/Social Studies/Math Circle Concepts
-Roll, Blow, Bounce(How things move)
-Measure it!
-Comparing length(Comparing short and long)
-Simon Says (Movements)

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 a
way"
(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
-Vowel Bat

-Alphabet Chant using sign language
-Letter Sounds

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 behavior

Shadows and Reflections Week 4 May 15-19

Shadows and Reflections Unit Week 4

Unit Book:  The Puddle Pail

Weekly Question and Vocabulary Words:
Why can’t we hold on to shadows or reflections?
(collection, illustration, ordinary, puddle, proud, disappear)

Literacy Small Groups

Diving Letter Review- We will review letter formation for our diving letters. We will practice these letters using Magna doodles, chalkboards, salt trays, etc.  We will rainbow write and pencil practice the letters as well.

Rhyming Collections- In our story this week, Ernst collected puddles in his pail to discover beautiful collections of shadows and reflections that could be held inside.  We will review our rhyming skills to make collections of rhyming words.  We will use our own special rhyming pail to collect picture cards that rhyme with our picture card.  We will illustrate our collections.  Ask your child to name his/her rhyming collection.

 Long Vowel Sounds- We will learn that sometimes vowels make the sound of their own name.  For example, in the word “cute” the letter u says it’s name.  We will play a vowel race game. After carefully listening to the words the teacher says, we will use a dot marker to stamp the vowel that says it’s own name.  We will find out which vowel will win the race!

Rhyming Game inspired by the Little Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly Song. We will find rhyming pairs to feed the little old lady.

Math Small Groups

Sharing Pails- We will make another class book while practicing sharing quantities fairly.  Using cubes, we will share a set amount among three pails.  We will need to put any leftovers to the side to be sure each pail has an equal amount.  We will record our work using stickers to create our class book.

Shapes to make Shapes- We will use pattern blocks to make hexagons. Using triangles, trapezoids and rhombuses, we will work to fill the shape of a hexagon.  We will count the number of each shape we used and record our answers in our books.

Tangram Shape Activity- We will use special shapes called tangrams to make objects based on their shadows.  We will manipulate a set number of shapes to fill in the shadow of a boat, house, dog, swan, cat and candle while learning that shapes can be combined and manipulated to make other shapes.  Once we’ve completed the puzzle using real shapes, we will glue paper shapes onto our shadows to take them home.

Guess My Collection- We will sort shapes by various attributes (sides, corners, color, size, shape.)  Using pails, we will make our collection based on one or two rules.  (For example: shapes in my collection have 4 sides.)  We will sort our shapes according to our rule and challenge our friends tp guess the rule of our collection.

Number Formations

Using the Handwriting Without Tears program as a guide, we will continue to practice forming numbers 1-10.  This week, we will practice numbers 9 & 10 using wooden sticks, chalkboards or magna doodles and in our letter formation books.

Centers

Art Table- painting pail reflections 

Sensory Table- magnet tiles with light table
Book Area- Exploring Books about shadows and reflections
Easel-Markers and paper
Writing Table-Writing the room using vocabulary words
Dramatic Play- Submarine with periscopes to look through
Math, Puzzles, and Manipulatives- concave mirrors to look at how mirrors can change images
Rug- Bucket Sorting
Block Area- blocks with mirrors (building by looking at reflection in mirror)

Science/Social Studies/Math Circle Concepts
-How can reflection change
-Collections (making a rule)
-Shapes inside of 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"
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

-Someone sitting by the pool reflection song
-Alphabet Chant using sign language
-Letter Sounds
-Cool Pool Song with visual

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 behavior

Shadows and Reflections Week 3 May 8-12

Shadows and Reflections Unit Week 3

Unit Book:  Raccoon on his own

Weekly Question and Vocabulary Words:
What is a reflection?
(silently, scatter, shiny, reflection, mirror, dull)

Literacy Small Groups

Letters-  We will practice the lowercase formation of the letter j using a variety of mediums.  This may be in the form of Magna doodles, chalkboards, salt trays, etc.  We will rainbow write and pencil practice the letter j as well.

Snake Cube Letter Sounds- We will roll a letter cube with the letters in the word snake. Then each child that landed on the letter will say the letter name, its sound and a word that begins with that letter.  We will chart them by tracing the letter and compare which letter was rolled the most, least, and/or equal.

Memory Game- We will play a memory game using the animals from this week’s story Raccoon on his Own.  Players will take turns and flip pairs to try to make a match.  We will need to remember where each card was to try to make each match.   

Letters- We will learn to write the lowercase letter f.  We will practice this letter using magna doodles, chalkboards, salt trays, etc.  We will rainbow write and pencil practice the letter f as well.

Journal Writing

This week, we will recount the events of Raccoon’s journey down the river.  In our journals, we will draw and label all the animals Raccoon saw on his journey.  We will do our best to put them in sequence and say each word slowly to hear as many sounds as we can.  We are becoming wonderful writers!

Math Small Groups

Raccoon’s Friends- After reading the story, Raccoon on his Own, we will create animals from the story using paper shapes.  We will discuss how the shapes become each part of the animal  and add details using markers.

Snake Patterns- In Raccoon on His Own, raccoon comes across a snake on his journey down the river. We will review patterns and shapes using shapes to make our very own pattern snake.  First, we will use blocks, then we will use paper shapes to create our snake.  

How Many Cubes Long?- We will experiment with length and measurement.  Using cubes, we will measure the frog’s log.  We will write the number of how many cubes we used and compare the lengths of each log using words like: long, short,  more, less. Experiment with measurement at home!

Alligator Greater Books- We will compare numbers and quantities to make a fun alligator book.  We will use alligator chompers to emulate the <,> symbol.  After carefully counting fish we will move our chompers so the alligator eats the greater quantity.

Number Formations

Using the Handwriting Without Tears program as a guide, we will continue to practice forming numbers 1-10.  This week, we will practice numbers 7 & 8 using wooden sticks, chalkboards or Magna doodles and in our letter formation books.

Centers

Art Table- "a secret" project

Sensory Table- reflective tinsel with swamp animals
Book Area- Exploring Books about shadows and reflections
Easel-Markers and paper
Writing Table-Writing the room using vocabulary words
Dramatic Play- Eye Doctor (pretend glasses and letters)
Math, Puzzles, and Manipulatives-Reflective and non-reflective sorting independent activity
Rug- Animals
Block Area- blocks with mirrors (building by looking at reflection in mirror)

Science/Social Studies/Math Circle Concepts
-Floating Boats
-Moving Circles
-What am I? (shape clues)
-Reflections all around us

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

-Someone sitting by the pool reflection song
-Alphabet Chant using sign language
-Letter Sounds

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 behavior