First Weeks of School (September 18-22)

First Weeks of School
We will begin our school year getting to know each other and establishing classroom routines. During the month of September, we will be focusing on developing classroom expectations, routines, and getting to know each learner. Our books for the first several weeks will pertain to transitioning to school and feelings about coming to school.
We will also use these books to have the students become familiar with our curriculum approach which is to use books to build on our classroom activities.

Books These Weeks:

Chicka Chicka Boom Boom Boom
The Lion and The Mouse

Small Groups:
Literacy Small Groups

-Chicka Chicka Boom Boom Bowling- We will roll a "coconut" to knock down bowling pins with letters on them.  We will stamp on our bowling recording sheet which letters we knocked down.

-Uppercase and Lowercase Sorting Coconut Trees- Each child will cut and sort a variety of uppercase and lowercase letters.

-Letters in our names class book- We will be cutting the letters in our name and counting how many letters are in our name. We will find the number and stamp it on our paper. This will become a book to share at home.

-Coconut Flipping- We will be presented with brown foam circle with letters on them "coconuts" and flip them using a pancake flipper. In order to flip on our turn we need to name the letter we see.
-Sounds At Home- We will be learning how to listen for sounds. Using an ipad, a teacher will play sounds that you can hear at homes such as running water and a door closing. Listening to sounds is the first step to listening to sounds in words.

Math Small Groups/Fine Motor Small Groups

-Roll a Dice Coconut Trees- We will roll a number cube. We will identify the number then find the same number on our papers then color it.

-Visual Discrimination Coconut Tree- We will follow a step by step visual model to build a coconut tree like in our story.

-Number Arch- We will be given a number arch. We will find the first number and the last number in the arch. Then we will take turns pulling numbers from our bag to match with the numbers 1-10

-Number Sequence- We will color and cut numbers up to 5 and match or place them into order

Centers
Art Table- Water colors to create a name card

Block Area- blocks, green felt and letters to create a Chicka Chicka boom boom tree

Sensory Table- Beans "coconuts" with letters and trees
Book Area- Exploring Books about school
Writing Table- crayons and paper
Dramatic Play- taking care of babies
Math, Puzzles, and Manipulatives- Pattern Blocks
Rug- Legos

Science/Social Studies Circle
- 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".
-Discussing how we sit and listen in a group (our community classroom)

Social Thinking Curriculum
During the course of the school year, we will be using a series of 6 books.
Our first book is Thinking Thoughts and Feeling Feelings.
Concepts Include:
What is a thought?
Your brain is a thought maker
What is a feeling?
Your heart is a feelings keeper

A feeling is something that happens in your body

Songs, Word Plays, and Language

-Down by the bay

-Our Good Morning Chant
-The Cub of Day, Who will it be?

-ABC Rock by Steve and Greg

-Number Rock by Steve and Greg
-Dino Stomp

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.  This system can be explained more thoroughly in a tab on this blog.