Community week 4- The Ugly Vegetables

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

-Put out the Fire- We will pull letters out of a bag and then label the letter and repeat the letter sound. After we find the letter on our fire engine papers we will put the letter in a bucket of water for an extra fun step.

- Community Houses- We will be rainbow writing our names on houses and cutting out squares and triangles to create a house name for each of us.

-Onset/Rime- We will be working on listening to sounds in words specifically onset and rime. Onset is the first part of the word we hear and the rime is the second part. For example: dog /d/ is the onset and /og/ would be the rime.

-Map of our school community- We will be talking about how maps help people get from one place to another in our communities. After looking at one in a book and then finding the high school map and looking at how it helps us we will create our own maps. The maps will show how we get to school and places we see on the way as well.

-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.

-Shape Bingo- We will each create our own bingo boards by cutting and gluing shapes to a board.  Then we will play bingo to identify the shapes we know. 

-Handwriting Without Tears Handwriting Book- G and S

-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.

Centers

Art Table- Painting with Vegetables (rolling vegetables in paint) 

Block Area- blocks and vegetables to make gardens

Sensory Table- Garden (Dirt, shovels, seeds, seed packets)
Book Area- Exploring Books about community
Easel-Markers and paper
Writing Table- Gingerbread coloring
Dramatic Play-Pizza Shop
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

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

Happy Thanksgiving

Community Week 3 Nov. 26-30

No School Thursday -Parent Conference Day

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

-Letter Gg and Ss- We will learn what the uppercase and lowercase letters Gg and Ss look like.  We will sort magnetic letters to find matches for Gg and Ss.  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.

-Fire Hydrant Letter Matching- We will match letter pairs in small groups.

-Pizza Crust Letter Matching- We will be matching uppercase and lowercase letters on our pizzas in 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.

-Favorites and Not-Favorites- In our unit story, the characters had items they liked and did not like. We will be creating a favorites list and making a list of items that are not our favorites. We will talk to friends at our table and compare items that are the same and not the same on our lists.

-Story Sequencing- We will sequence story elements from our unit story the Little Red Hen makes a Pizza. We will reinforce left to right progression as we use the pictures to retell the story in small groups.

-Journal Writing-We will be writing in our journals about community helpers that keep us safe and healthy. (ie police, firefighters, doctors, etc)

Centers

Art Table- Painting Pizzas with toppings/Firefighter hats

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

Songs, Word Plays, and Language

-Syllable Sound Off, Compound Boogies

-Compound word break up game song

-Neighbors Chant
-Make a Pizza song

Community Week 2 Nov. 19-21

Half Day- Wednesday 10:40 Dismissal

No School Thursday and Friday Nov. 22&23

Community Week 2 
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)

Small Groups
-Roll and Paint the Fire- We will roll a cube and subitize the number rolled. We will then find the number on our papers and use Q-tips to paint the fire with red, yellow, and orange paint.

Turkey Subitize- We will subitize amounts of objects on turkey feathers and sort them quickly onto our turkeys.  Subitizing is recognizing a set of objects without counting.  This is an important skill to master before reading.  

-Handwriting Without Tears Books- Letters O  and Q

Centers

Art Table- red, yellow, and orange paint(fire colors)

Block Area- blocks and community people

Sensory Table- red, yellow, orange shredded paper(to look like fire) and cotton(smoke)with firetrucks and firefighters
Book Area- Exploring Books about community
Easel-Markers and paper
Dramatic Play-Airport/Firestation
Rug- tracks and roads

Science/Social Studies/Math Circle Concepts
-Take Away Stories
-Locating things in our neighborhoods
-Safety in our neighborhoods
-Jobs in our community

Songs, Word Plays, and Language

-Syllable Sound Off, Compound Boogies

-This little light of mine

-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. 

Class Reward

On Wednesday, we earned a class reward and was able to eat our snack in the high school cafe.  We had been working on following the "group plan."  Every time a teacher noticed that the whole class was following the same plan we earned a pom-pom in our bucket.  We earned 10 pom poms.  It was a fun reward. 

Community Week 1 (November 13-16)

Community Unit 
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

-Letter Oo- We will learn what the uppercase and lowercase letter Oo looks like.  We will sort magnetic letters to find matches for Oo.  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 Qq- We will learn what the uppercase and lowercase letter Qq. looks like.  We will sort magnetic letters to find matches for Qq.  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.

-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.  

-Popcorn Letter Game- We will take turns pulling a "popcorn" out of a bucket and labeling the letter on it. Then we will record the letter we pulled out. To add a twist, some popcorns have the word POP on it. When a child pulls out the word POP they say pop and stand up. The group stands up with them and says pop as well. This encourages everyone to attend when their turn is over.

Band-Aids on Bears- We will be cutting and gluing bandaids on letter boo-boos onto the bear to match the letters on the bear. Some matches will be uppercase to uppercase and others will be uppercase to lowercase.

Centers

Art Table- Doctor Kits

Block Area- blocks and community people

Sensory Table- bridges and boats
Book Area- Exploring Books about community
Easel-Markers and paper
Dramatic Play-Taco Shop
Math, Puzzles, and Manipulatives- Puzzles
Rug- tracks and roads with trains

Science/Social Studies/Math Circle Concepts
-Take Away Stories
-Locating things in our neighborhoods
-Safety in our neighborhoods
-Jobs in our community

Songs, Word Plays, and Language

-Syllable Sound Off, Compound Boogies

-Our Good Morning Chant

-Neighbors Chant

-Firetruck Song

A note from our school nurse

Dear Parents and Guardians,

As we approach flu and cold season I wanted to take a moment to remind everyone about Burlington Public Schools policy and procedures regarding when and when not to send your child to school. Please review the "Red, Yellow, Green Light" illness guidelines found here. It is imperative that every student and staff member abide by these guidelines to keep our school healthy and safe. At school, we encourage and teach proper handwashing to limit the spread of disease. Please help your child with this at home as well. Please remember that this is important to keep every child safe, especially our students with immunodeficiencies. I kindly ask for your cooperation with this and please don't hesitate to contact me with any questions or concerns. 

Sincerely,

Jessica Gearin MEd, BSN, RN

BECC School Nurse