Gingerbread Week December 16-20

Books This Week:

Gingerbread Man

Gingerbread Girl
Gingerbread Baby
Pancake Boy (Norwegian Tale with similar story elements of Gingerbread books to compare)

Concept For This Week:

-Patterns (Pattern in books and patterns in the environment)

-Rhyming Pairs

Meet our Letterlander of the Week: 
Golden Girl
We will continue to have a special art project based on this Letterlander.   We are creating an alphabet book that will be completed by the end of the school year.

This week we will be doing the following letter activities in small groups: 
Sorting Uppercase and Lowercase: G and g
Fine motor activity to reinforce letter this week: Tracing G in Gold Glitter
We will be reinforcing "alligator fingers" and "always start your letters at the top.
(How to make a G: G is a Center Starter " Start at the Top in the Center, Big Curve Down, Keep going up to middle, Little Line on top ")G is a Magic C Letter


Small Groups This Week:

-Rhyming Cookie Pairs- We will be labeling 2 cookies on a tray.  Then they will identify if the words rhyme or not rhyme.  We will then sort our cookie trays on our papers

-Gingerbread Turn Taking Game- We will take turns spinning a spinner and then record what the spinner lands on.  We will observe which colors the spinner landed on the most, least, or equal.

-Gingerbread House Letter Matching- In groups we will cut and then match letters onto our houses (matching uppercase to lowercase or lowercase to lowercase)

-Gingerbread House matching- We will be cutting pictures of rhyming picture pairs.  We will mix up our pictures.  Then we will place the rhyming pairs in the house.  We will put them in a baggie to take home.  Practice finding the rhyming pairs at home with your child.  

Centers

Art Table: Gingerbread Playdough

Block Area: blocks with gingerbread man

Sensory Table:Water and cups

Book Area: books about gingerbread

Dramatic Play: Cocoa Shop

Puzzles and Manipulatives: gingerbread man baking on Ipads

Community Week 4 December 9-13

Our Gingerbread Musical will be performed on Friday.  We look forward to seeing you then. 

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)

Meet our Letterlander of the Week: 
Quarrelsome Queen
We will continue to have a special art project based on this Letterlander.   We are creating an alphabet book that will be completed by the end of the school year.

This week we will be doing the following letter activities in small groups: 
Sorting Uppercase and Lowercase: Q and q
Fine motor activity to reinforce letter this week: Tracing Q in soil
We will be reinforcing "alligator fingers" and "always start your letters at the top.
(How to make a Q: Q is a Center Starter " Start at the Top in the Center, Big Curve Down, Keep going back to the top, Don't Forget to add the Queen's diagonal finger (she points)")Qis a Magic C Letter

Small Groups

-Number Hunt- We will search for hidden numbers in bowls. When we find them we will label and match the numbers on our papers. We will then color to record each number we find.

- 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.

- Stack and Roll-We will experiment with 3-dimensional blocks to determine if they roll, stack or do both.  Spheres roll. Rectangular prisms stack. Cylinders both roll and stack! Discuss geometrical shapes you find in your home and ask your child to predict if they will roll, stack or do both!

-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 the board.  Then we will play bingo to identify the shapes we know.

-Counters in a Cup- We will be counting 4 double-sided chips.  Working with a friend, we will dump the cup and count how many chips are yellow and how many chips are red. We will record our colors on our papers and compare them with another group.

Rhyming Bingo- We will be reviewing words that rhyme.  "They sound a lot alike at the end" Then we will be playing a rhyming bingo game.

Geometric Sorting- We have introduced the concept of 3D shapes: cube, cone, sphere, and cylinder.  We will sort real-world geometric shapes.  

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- Gingerbread bakery
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

-Neighbors Chant

Community Week 3 December 2-6

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)


Meet our Letterlander of the Week: 
Oscar Orange
We will continue to have a special art project based on this Letterlander.   We are creating an alphabet book that will be completed by the end of the school year.

This week we will be doing the following letter activities in small groups: 
Sorting Uppercase and Lowercase: O and o
Fine motor activity to reinforce letter this week: Tracing O in Orange Shaving Cream
We will be reinforcing "alligator fingers" and "always start your letters at the top.
(How to make an O: O is a Center Starter " Start at the Top in the Center, Big Curve Down, Keep going back to the top ")O is a Magic C Letter

Literacy Small Groups

-Letter Oo- We will learn what the uppercase and lowercase letters Oo look like.  We will sort magnetic letters to find matches for Oo.  We will then practice O in our Handwriting Without Tears books.

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

Beginning Sounds: Do They Match- We will be listening to the sounds we hear in the beginning of words.  We will “turtle talked”(said each sound in the word slowly) each pair of words.  We will identify the words that have the same beginning sound and not the same beginning sound.  Say these words with your child and to reinforce listening to sounds in words.

-Community Helper Bingo- We will review people who help us through their jobs in our community. Each child will be given a bingo board and asked to label who they think each community helper is. Then we will play a bingo game until we find all of the community helpers on all our boards.

-Segmenting Park Words- Students will practice segmenting words by onset and rime. Using park words, students will take turns segmenting words by their beginning sound and remaining ending sounds and blending them back together. Try this activity at home.

Centers

Art Table- Painting Pizzas with toppings

Block Area- blocks and community people

Sensory Table- Mixing bowls/spoons/Cups
Book Area- Exploring Books about community
Easel-Markers and paper
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

-Make a Pizza song

Community Week 2 November 25-27

Wednesday, November 27 (Dismissal at 10:40)

No School November 27-28 (Happy Thanksgiving)

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)

Letterlander Review: 
This is a short week so we told the children the Letterlanders are away on vacation:

Small Groups
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.  

Thumbs Up/ Thumbs Down- We will learn how to listen to the beginning sound of words.  We will compare two beginning sounds in words. Then we will discuss if we heard the same sound in both words.  For example mouse/mail: They both beginning the same sound /m/. We will place those pictures in the thumbs upside of our charts.  If you do not have the same beginning sound such as dog and paper, they would be placed on thumbs downside

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.

On-set Rime Community Helpers-We will practice blending the onset and rimes of spoken words.  The onset is the beginning part of the word and the rime is its entire ending.  For example, in the word “hat,” /h/ is the onset and /at/ is the rime. We will use our community theme to guess school and fire station words the teacher segmented and glued them to our buildings. 

Centers

Art Table- Turkey Art 

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
Dramatic Play-Firestation
Rug- tracks and roads

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

Songs, Word Plays, and Language

-Syllable Sound Off

-Turkey Pokey

-Firetruck Song

Community Week 1 November 18-22

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

Meet our Letterlander of the Week: 
Clever Cat
We will continue to have a special art project based on this Letterlander.   We are creating an alphabet book that will be completed by the end of the school year. 

This week we will be doing the following letter activities in small groups: 
Sorting Uppercase and Lowercase: C and c
Fine motor activity to reinforce letter this week: Tracing C in Confetti Trays
We will be reinforcing "alligator fingers" and "always start your letters at the top.
(How to make a C: C is a Center Starter " Start at the Top in the Center, Big Curve Down, Stop at the bottom ")

Small Groups

-Letter Cc- We will learn what the uppercase and lowercase letter Cc looks like.  We will sort magnetic letters into 3 categories: Uppercase C, Lowercase c, and Other Letters. We will then use hands-on materials to practice writing letter C.

Picture Partners- We will earn how some words begin with the same sound and some words do not.  We will identify pictures on two cubes. Then each child will roll the two cubes and named the two pictures.  We will identify if the pictures have the same sound in the beginning or not. For example, mouse and map are the same.  Duck and nest are not the same.

-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 besides.  Then we will challenge a partner to follow directional terms while using positional words to place the train.  

-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.

10 Frame Pumpkin Seeds- We will introduce a 10 frame. We will show them that it is two 5 frames put together to make 10 frames. Then we will color and cut 10 seeds. We will take turns rolling a number cube and placing the correct number of seeds in the 10 frame. We will make a note to start placing the seeds from the left to right as well as from top to bottom to reinforce directionality. We will also count how many empty frames there are. On our last turn, we will glue down the number we roll too.

-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.

Centers

Art Table- Firefighter dog hats

Block Area- blocks and community people

Sensory Table- bridges and boats
Book Area- Exploring Books about community
Dramatic Play-Birthday Party
Math, Puzzles, and Manipulatives- Puzzles
Rug- tracks and roads with trains

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

Songs, Word Plays, and Language

-Syllable Sound Off

-Neighbors Chant

-Firetruck Song

Family Week 4 November 14-15

Reminder No School November 11-13
Parent Conferences on November 13
Book Orders Due November 14

Unit Book

Antonio's Birthday Fiesta
Hooray A Pinata

Weekly Question and Vocabulary Related to book:

What do families do together for fun?
(guest, celebrate, decorate, musician, instrument)

Small Groups and LetterLander Review
Letterlander review- We will review the letters and sounds that we have learned so far this school year.  We will label a set of pictures and figure out the letter that makes that sound.  Ask your child at home to say the picture and the sound that begins each picture.  (For example: Turtle says /t/ like Talking Tess)

Guess My Rule- We will play a sorting game use a mat. We will give your child a category and have your child sort the provided pictures into the circle that fit the category. Play this game at home: Use any small objects that can be sorted into a group (think pasta of different shapes and sizes, different types of coins, buttons, etc.) Sort the objects by one, single rule (that you do not reveal.) As you sort one by one, have your child try guess your rule!  Some rule ideas may be: It has to be small or it has to be a specific color or shape. Get creative! Challenge your child to create and sort by a rule while you guess their rule. This may take some additional modeling and practice. After all items are sorted, discuss the similarities among the items in the circle and why the other objects did not fit the rule.

-Cupcake Math- We will practice matching written numerals to quantities.  After rolling a number dice, we will add sprinkles to our cupcake using our dot markers. When we finish we will discuss how many of each color we added and counted how many sprinkles we had altogether.

Centers

Art Table- Painting Pinatas/Birthday Cakes

Block Area- blocks

Sensory Table- Confetti with Letters
Book Area- Exploring Books about families
Easel-Markers and paper
Writing Table- Draw a picture of your family and things you like to do with them
Dramatic Play-Birthday Party
Rug- Legos

Science/Social Studies/Math Circle Concepts
-Going Away on vacations with your family
-Celebrations of other cultures

Family Week 3

Unit Book

Kevin and His Dad

Weekly Question and Vocabulary Related to book:

How does everyone in a family help?
(chore, clean, inside, outside, tidy, slippery, dust)

Meet our Letterlander of the Week

Umpy Umbrella

This week we will be doing the following letter activities in small groups: 
Sorting Uppercase and Lowercase U  and u
Fine motor activity to reinforce letter this week: Water Trays
Handwriting Without Tears: Letter U
We will be reinforcing "alligator fingers" and "always start your letters at the top.
(How to make an U: " Start at the Top, Big Line Down, then little curve up to the Top")

Small Group Letter Book: Decorating U to look like Uppy Umbrella

(Each week we will be adding a page to our letter book which will be staying at school until we complete all of our letters.  We are creating our own individual Letterlander book

Literacy Small Groups

- Deleting Syllable Game- We will play a game to practice taking away syllables in words.  First, we will look at each picture and clapped the syllables. Then, we will guess the teacher’s word after she took away one of the syllables.  We will use a dot marker to make our guess. Remember we are exposing them to listening to parts of words and this skill does not need to be mastered.

-Zones of Regulation- Our friend Kate (social worker) will come in for an activity related to our emotions and how to regulate them appropriately.

Syllable Spinner Game- We labeled words on our bingo boards and clapped the syllables of the word. Then taking turns we spun a number spinner. Next, we found the pictures that had the same number of claps.  Clap the syllables at home with your child to reinforce this skill.  

--Inside/Outside- We will use mats and counters to tell math stories with a up to a set of 5. After we tell stories to our group, we will draw a picture of our math story and explain our math story to our group.

-How Many in the House?-We will use house mats and people counters to act out math stories. Partners will take turns telling stories about a number of family members that were in the house and some joining the group. They will show these problems with their counters and tell how many altogether.  Our house will have 2 five frames and stairs to challenge us to use both five frames in our math stories.

Button It Up- In this week’s story, Kevin & his Dad, Kevin and his father did the laundry together.  We will play a Button it Up math game to practice adding buttons and matching our total quantity to a number.  After listening to a number story about buttons we will place them on our mats. We will carefully count how many altogether and found the number to match that quantity.  

Centers

Art Table- Handprints (How we help our families)

Block Area- House and families 

Sensory Table- washing dishes with bubbles (related to story)
Book Area- Exploring Books about families
Easel-Markers and paper
Writing Table- Draw a picture of your family and things you like to do with them
Dramatic Play-Dress Up Area
Math, Puzzles, and Manipulatives- Letters in a room hunt using clipboards
Rug- dollhouse and families

Science/Social Studies/Math Circle Concepts
-House Chores? What are they? How can we help?

- How to take care of pets?
-How many are hiding? (5 objects altogether, hid your eyes, cover 2 objects and ask how many are hiding)

STEM Week in the Cub Cadets

This past week our class conducted a variety of STEM activities:
In an effort to boost students’ interest and raise awareness of science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) education, Massachusetts has declared a statewide STEM Week from October 21-25, 2019, and is asking educators at all grade levels to participate by planning lessons, events, and activities focused on science, technology, engineering, and math throughout the week. Students from pre-kindergarten through high school and postsecondary institutions will be encouraged to take part in hands-on learning that aligns topics across STEM subjects and connects to other curricula.

Exploring Gravity

We looked around our classroom for materials to use in an experiment.  A teacher held the object out and then we observed the speed it fell to the ground.  For example, the block fell quickly and made a loud sound, the feather took longer to fall to the ground.) We talked about why we think the objects fell differently. We notice the heavier the object was the quicker it fell like the block. The lighter objects like the feather and tissue took longer to fall to the ground.

Marble Mazes in the Sensory Table

-We constructed marble mazes in the sensory table this week.  They enjoyed watching the marbles on-ramps, marble wheels, and marble drops.  

Ramp Racing

-We talked about ramps in the whole group. We talked about how ramps are simple machines and they help us move objects from one place to another. We then made predictions which ramp would make the car go further. (long, medium, or short ramp) The children raced the cars down the ramps and we marked the spot where the cars stopped. We discovered the longer ramp made the car go the furthest distance and the short ramp made the car go the shortest distance. We then added cars and ramps to the block center.  We explored on our own how to build ramps and how to change the speed of the cars.  When the ramps were diagonal, the cars moved. When the ramps were flat, the cars did not move.

Building Towers

-We used shaving cream to build block towers.  We used shaving cream to help hold the blocks together.  We counted to see how many blocks we could build in our towers before they fell.  We recorded the colors we used on our papers too.

Pumpkin Volcano
First, we cut a hole at the top of a pumpkin. Then we added the chemical baking soda inside.  We made predictions about what would happen if we added a new chemical like vinegar. A teacher poured in vinegar and we discussed what happened.  We learned that when some chemicals are mixed together it can cause a chemical reaction.



Class Pets
To conclude our week of science, we went to the science center on Friday to bring back gerbils to visit our classroom. We will be observing them over the next few weeks. Ask your child about them.

If you have not requested to follow our classroom on Instagram please look us up. We post pictures from our classroom more frequently than our blog. Search "cubcadetclassroom" and request to follow.

Family Week 2 October 28-Nov 1

Reminder: Our Harvest Parade will be on October 31.  
Please have your child wear their costume to school if they wish to dress up. Wearing a costume is not required to participate in the parade.  We will parade in the high school visiting the cafe, central offices, high school guidance, etc.  This is a fun school-wide event. 

Unit Book
Oonga Boonga/Quinto Day and Night

Read Aloud:Keisha Then and Now

 Weekly Question and Vocabulary Related to book:

How do family members care for one another?
(lullaby, sob, tear, care, baby, pediatrician)

Meet our Letterlander of the Week

Impy Ink and his Ink Pen

This week we will be doing the following letter activities in small groups: 
Sorting Uppercase and Lowercase:I  and i
Fine motor activity to reinforce letter this week: Dry Erase Markers and Boards
Handwriting Without Tears: Letter H
We will be reinforcing "alligator fingers" and "always start your letters at the top.
(How to make an I: " Start at the Top in the Center (I is a center starter), Big Line Down, Frog Jump up to the corner, Little Line at the top, Little Line at the bottom")

Small Group Letter Book: Decorating I to look like Impy Ink
(Each week we will be adding a page to our letter book which will be staying at school until we complete all of our letters.  We are creating our own individual Letterlander book

Small Groups

-Family Member Syllables- We will draw members of our family and then recording the number of syllables for each member. Ask your child to show you who has the most "claps" in their name.  Who has the same

- Sequencing our storybook- We will sequence our story of The Little Old Lady Who Was Not Afraid of Anything by writing numbers, rainbow writing words,  and discussing the ordinal position of each element. To extend this activity we will take turns to retell the story to our small groups. 

-5 Little Emotional Pumpkins- We cut and arranged a 5 frame of pumpkins on a fence. Then we discussed each emotion of the pumpkin and retold the song using ordinal terms. " The first little pumpkin said I'm feeling scared".

-Scarecrow Math- We cut and placed 5 black crows on our scarecrow in different positions by listening to verbal directions. We counted each time we changed the position of the crows to reinforce the concept of 5. We can move objects to different spots and we always have 5.

Centers

Art Table- Pumpkins Heads (from the Little Old Lady book)

Block Area- House and families 

Sensory Table- washing babies with soap
Book Area- Exploring Books about families
Dramatic Play-Taking care of babies/Pediatrician
Science -Making Sound Harmonicas
Rug- farms (animal farmilies)

Science/Social Studies/Math Circle Concepts
-How do we grow up?

- Math Concept- Stack & Take Down Four Cubes-We will work on understanding that no matter the order we count them, objects in a set remain the same.  We will use a set of blocks to build a house and counted them carefully.  Then, we used the same set of blocks to build a new house.  Each time, we counted the blocks to find the quantity stayed the same no matter what order we counted them in.  

Gravity Concept Today

This week our class will be exploring STEM concepts to participate in STEM week. Today we discussed gravity. We learned that the Earth has a force that pulls us down “like a magnet”. Using two different objects we observed how a heavy and a light object fell to the ground. (A weighted blanket and a balloon) We learned the heavier an object the fast it fell and the lighter object fell slower. We also explored gravity during choice time. We painted on a straight surface and observed how the paint went down. We also watched marbles roll down marble ramps.  Ask your child today about these activities.

Family Week 1

Unit Books
Quinito, Day and and Night
Noisy Nora

Read Aloud:A Family is a family
*We will also have a special reading of The Little Old Lady Who Was Not Afraid of Anything to go along with seasonal happenings

 Weekly Question and Vocabulary Related to book:

Who is in my family?
(Family, messy, neat, busy, hush, sticky, loud)

Meet our Letterlander of the Week

Harry Hat

This week we will be doing the following letter activities in small groups: 
Sorting Uppercase and Lowercase: H and h
Fine motor activity to reinforce letter this week: Dry Erase Markers and Boards
Handwriting Without Tears: Letter H
We will be reinforcing "alligator fingers" and "always start your letters at the top.
(How to make an H: " Start at the Top, Big Line Down, Frog Jump up to the corner, Big Line Down, Little Line in the Middle")

Small Group Letter Book: Decorating H to look like Harry
(Each week we will be adding a page to our letter book which will be staying at school until we complete all of our letters.  We are creating our own individual Letterlander books

Small Groups

-Sound Eggs- In our unit story, Nora made a variety of different sounds.  We will be listening to different mystery sounds in eggs and trying to match them to objects we think are inside of them.  We will cut and glue our results.
-What's in My Bag- We will be listening to parts of words(onset-rime) We will be listening to 2 parts of word and saying the word together. (ie C- AR). We will have an object in the bag and having them guess what is in the bag by presenting it in onset-rime.
-Block Towers- We will be creating sets of 5 by building towers of 5 and recording the colors we used for each set.  We will be using shaving cream in order to construct our towers as well.  We reinforced 1:1 correspondence and the concept of "total" (in all).

-Subitize How Many?- We will be subitizing (knowing the total of how many without counting) with quantities 1, 2, and 3. We will try to know how many are hiding under a bucket quickly before the teacher covers the total. This is an important skill to learn in both math and reading readiness. We will be using fly swatters to show our answers too for a fun twist.
-Matching Quantities- We will be recognizing sets quickly they sorting quantities onto our charts. Try sorting these cards at home with your child (we call this subitizing)

-Kate will continue to talk to us about our emotions

Centers
Art Table- Marble Painting

Block Area- Blocks

Sand Table- marble mazes
Book Area- Exploring Books about family
Writing Table- Playdough with Family mats (We will create our families faces using play dough)
Dramatic Play- Musical instruments
Rug- legos

Science/Social StudiesCircle Concepts
Everyone Has A Home (People and Animals)
Science Exploration Activities (STEM week)

Friend Unit Week 4 Oct. 14-18

Reminder: No School Monday, October 14


Unit Book
Matthew and Tilly

Read Aloud:We Are Friends

Weekly Question and Vocabulary Related to book:

How Do Friends Get Along?
(happy, apologize, argue, accident, sad, mad)

Meet our Letterlander of the Week

Talking Tess

This week we will be doing the following letter activities in small groups: 
Sorting Uppercase and Lowercase: T and t
Fine motor activity to reinforce letter this week: Salt Trays with Talking Tess inside
Handwriting Without Tears: Letter T
We will be reinforcing "alligator fingers" and "always start your letters at the top.
(How to make an E: " Start at the Top in the Middle (It's a center starter), Big Line Down, Frog Jump up to the corner, Little Line at the Top")

Small Group Letter Book: Decorating T to look like Tess
(Each week we will be adding a page to our letter book which will be staying at school until we complete all of our letters.  We are creating our own individual Letterlander books

Small Groups
-Social Small Group-We will discuss ways to be a good friend.  We will relate our conversations to events from our unit book Matthew and Tilly.  Then we will cut, sort and paste pictures of things we discussed. 

-Sequences Unit Book- We will rainbow numbers in a frame then sequence the events in our story.  We will each take turns retelling the story to our group.  We will also use our book to look for details in the book. 

-Syllable Sorting-We will be clapping the sounds we hear in words by clapping. We will remind them that we tap words in a sentence we hear but we clap the individual sounds we hear in only one word. We will use unit words from our story to reinforce vocabulary development. 

-Emotions Whole Group Activity with Kate: Kate (Social Worker) will talk to us about our Emotions. She will discuss how we feel and also how we can react appropriate to situations. 

Centers
Art Table- Chalk drawing/"Friendship Bracelets"

Block Area- blocks and people

Sand Table- Searching in colored rice for uppercase and lowercase letters
Book Area- Exploring Books about friends
Manipualtive Table: Playdough to make Ice Cream
Dramatic Play- Ice Cream Stand
Rug- Legos (working together theme)

Friends Unit Week 3 Oct 7-11

Unit Books
Oscar is Cold

Read Aloud:We Are Friends
-We will reenact the story of Oscar is Cold with props

Weekly Question and Vocabulary Related to book:

How Do Friends Help Each Other?
(listen, arrive, exclaim, share, help, shiver)

Meet our Letterlander of the Week

Eddy Elephant

This week we will be doing the following letter activities in small groups: 
Sorting Uppercase and Lowercase: E and e
Fine motor activity to reinforce letter this week: Salt inside writing trays
We will be reinforcing "alligator fingers" and "always start your letters at the top.
(How to make an E: " Start at the Top, Big Line Down, Frog Jump up, Little Line at the Top, Little Line in the Middle, Little Line a the Bottom")

Small Group Letter Book: Decorating E to look like an elephant

(Each week we will be adding a page to our letter book which will be staying at school until we complete all of our letters.  We are creating our own individual Letterlander books

Small Groups

-Letters in our name class book- We will be creating a class book to show the number of letters we each have in our names. Before assembling the book we will be comparing who has the most, least and equal number of letters.

-Sequencing The Story Oscar is Cold - We will book browse the story Oscar is Cold at our tables. We will discuss elements of the story and sequence the events to retell the story.

-Oscar is Cold Vocabulary and Positional Activity- We will be using an Oscar prop to place him on a variety of objects based on positional terms.  (ie: put Oscar on the blanket) See details on the paper to try this at home.

-Your name/My name- We will be cutting the letters in our names and then creating a chart with a friend to show the letters that are the same and different. 

-Syllables in My Friends Names-In small groups, we will practice clapping the sounds/syllables each of our friends have when we say their name. (ie.Li-sa   Lisa has 2 claps in her name) Then we completed a chart below for the friends in our small groups. Try this at home with family members with your child.   

How Many Friends are in the bus? We will use people counters to practice counting to five using school bus stories. (ie. “Four friends came on the bus.  The bus will stop and one friend came on. Let’s count to see how many friends are on the bus?) After putting the people in different places, we will count them to discover that the quantity stayed the same each time no matter what order we count them.  We then will glue pictures of our friends to fill the school bus “five frame”. We will move pictures of our friends and every time we count 5.

Centers
Art Table- Color color painting (blue shades)

Block Area- blocks to build bear caves for hibernation

Sand Table- Artic Animals  
Book Area- Exploring Books about friends
Easel-Markers and paper
Dramatic Play- Camping (Making Smores)/ Role play of story
Math, Puzzles, and Manipulatives- Finding Letters in a room hunt using clipboards
Rug- tracks and cars

Back To School Night Tonight October 3

Back To School Night Tonight (6:30-7:00)

Tonight is our back to school night when parents are welcome to visit our classroom.  I will have a classroom presentation beginning at 6:30. This is a time when we will discuss our day and skills we are learning to prepare us for kindergarten.  We look forward to seeing you.  

Friends Unit - Week 2 Sept.30-Oct 4

Reminder: Back to School Night is October 3 at 6:30
Parents are invited to visit our classroom and learn more about your child's school day.  We look forward to seeing you!!

Unit Books
Corduroy

Read Aloud: Friends Share

Weekly Question and Vocabulary Related to book:

What is a friend?

(friend, play, laugh, admire, together, enormous)

Meet our Letterlander of the Week: 
Firefighter Fred

This week we will be doing the following letter activities in small groups: 
Sorting Uppercase and Lowercase: F and f
Fine motor activity to reinforce letter this week: Magnet Boards to create letters with magnet strips and magnet chalk to trace them
We will be reinforcing "alligator fingers" and "always start your letters at the top.
(How to make an F: " Start at the Top, Big Line Down, Frog Jump up, Little Line at the Top, Little Line in the Middle")

Small Group Letter Book: Decorating F to look like a firefighter

(Each week we will be adding a page to our letter book which will be staying at school until we complete all of our letters.  We are creating our own individual Letterlander books

Small Groups

-Corduroy Sequencing Story Pictures

-Is it a Letter Sorting- We will be talking about letters and why they are important.  They make our names, words in a book, signs all around us, etc.  We will then cut, sort, and glue letters into a chart.  We will also sort all of the symbols and numbers that are not letters. 

-Corduroy Lacing- We will color pictures of Corduroy from our unit book.   Then with help, we will put holes on him and lace a string around our bears.  We will then stuff the bears to create our own Corduroy bears.

-Train Words- We will be learning the phonemic skill of tapping words in a sentence.  Using a train, we will tap each part of a train for each word in a sentence stated aloud.  This reinforces 1:1 correspondence and listening skills for reading development later on.  These early skills need to be developed to have a strong phonemic awareness. 

-Button Five Frames- First we will use real buttons to place inside our five frames.  A teacher will tell a "math story" while students place each button on. (ie: "Cordoroy found 2 buttons, put 2 buttons in the 5 frame, Lisa found 3 more, How many do we have in the 5 five frame? Let's count") Then we will be color our own 5 buttons on our papers. Then we will cut out the buttons and put them into a 5 frame.

-10 fingers.  We will be reinforcing our concept of 5 frames by pointing out how our hands are like 5 frames.  Each hand has 5 fingers and all together we have 10 fingers.  We will trace and color our hands then put dot stickers on our hands to show the 2 sets of five. 

Centers
Art Table- Piggy Banks/ Corduroy Bear Project

Block Area- blocks and bears (building bed for Corduroy)

Sand Table- buttons
Book Area- Exploring Books about friends
Writing Table- crayons and paper
Dramatic Play- Shoe Store (related to Corduroy)
Math, Puzzles, and Manipulatives- Letter Puzzles
Rug-

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)
2. When a teacher tells me to do something, "I do it right away."

Friends Unit (Week 1) September 23-27

Unit Books

The Lion and The Mouse 

Weekly Question and Vocabulary Related to book:

What makes each of us special?

(thank, help, protect, kindness, patient, mighty)

Meet our Letterlander of the Week: 
Lucy Lamp Light

This week we will be doing the following letter activities in small groups: 
Sorting Uppercase and Lowercase: L and l
Fine motor activity to reinforce letter this week: Chalk Boards with chalk and wet sponges
We will be reinforcing "alligator fingers" and "always start your letters at the top.
(How to make an L: " Start at the Top, Big Line Down, Little Line at the Bottom")

Small Group Letter Book: Decorating L to look like a lamp
(Each week we will be adding a page to our letter book which will be staying at school until we complete all of our letters.  We are creating our own individual Letterlander books)

Small Groups this Week:

-Sound Search- We will use Ipads to listen to the sounds we hear.  We will use descriptive language to describe each sound. This game reinforces listening skills and gets us ready to listen to sounds in words which a beginning sound in phonemic awareness.

-Letters in my name game- Each child will have their name card.  Letters will be in a bag. Each child will pull out a letter from the bag.  If they have the letter in their name they will keep it. If it is not in their name they will find a friend that has the letter and give it to them.  The goal for everyone to make their name. We will compare letters their letters in their name to a friend.  

-Digging for Treasure-In sand, each child will dig and find objects in the sand. We will find 5 objects then we will find objects based on size, color, shape. Each child will be placing the objects into a 5 frame. Five frames help us with the later skill of subitizing which is knowing how many objects there are without count them one at a time.

-Mouse Tails- We will color and cut out paper mouses.  Then we will put on a tail. We will then count out 5 beads and place them in our 5 frames. Then we will put on 5 beads on the mouse tail to help develop fine motor skills.

Centers

Art Table- Lion faces using forks to paint on the lion mane with yellow and orange paint

Block Area-  making homes for jungle animals with blocks

Sensory Table- sand with colored collections
Manipulatives-Gears for building together
Book Area- Exploring Books about friends
Dramatic Play- Role Playing Jungle (like in our story)
Rug- Jungles

Science/Social Studies/Math Circle Concepts:

- 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".

Social Thinking Concepts for this week:
-Thinking a Thought and Feeling a Feeling