Stuffed Animal Day Today

We had fun today bringing in our stuffed animals from home.  This was a group reward our class has been working towards.  We earned 10 pom poms in our reward bucket by doing good work in our classroom.  It was fun having our stuffed animal friends come to school.

Jungle Unit (Week 1) January 28- February 1

Weekly Question and Vocabulary

Unit Book: Amazing Jungle

What is a jungle?
(trunk, twig, branch, explore, hunt, graze, jungle)

Small Groups

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.

Search and Sorting Letters A and V- We will be working on the diagonal line letters A and V. We will sort uppercase letters and lowercase letters onto our letter charts. Then we will search our papers for uppercase A and V and lowercase A and V.

Journal Writing- Using our writing journals, we will write about our favorite jungle animals.  We will carefully sound out each word and write the letters we hear. We will work hard to add colorful details to our animal illustrations.  

Patterns- We will begin learning about patterns.  Using cubes, we will duplicate a pattern from our papers.  We will then try to extend the pattern and color our papers to show our work. Patterns are everywhere- look for them both inside and outside- be sure they repeat before calling it a pattern!

Rhythm Patterns- We learn more about patterns by using our bodies to make our own rhythm patterns.  We will practice repeating movements with our bodies (clapping, tapping, etc) then we will make our own pattern strips to make rhythm patterns.  For example, we can tap, tap, clap, tap, tap, clap or shake clap, shake, clap.  Try these at home

Nature's Patterns- Patterns can be seen in our natural world.  We will explore patterns on familiar jungle animals by looking at & discussing photos of a zebra, tiger, tropical bird and snake.  We will then recreate their patterns using cut paper and glue.

One Less Jungle Game- We will practice the concept of one less using a jungle dice game.  After rolling the dice, we will count out that many counters and then take away one.  We will color that many animals on our sheet.  We will challenge ourselves to guess how many without using the counters after a few tries.  We will also discuss more and less concepts.

Pattern or Not- We will play a  fun “Pattern or Not” game.  Using beads and pipe cleaners (snake body) we will create and extend a partner’s pattern. After some practice extending patterns we will challenge one another to decide if the design we made for our partner is a “pattern or not.”  

Centers

Art Table- Sloth for jungle 

Block Area- Zoo animals with labels for children to create zoo cages

Sensory Table-Water, leaves, frogs,
Book Area- Exploring Books about jungle and desert
Dramatic Play-Zookeeper  (Taking care of zoo animals)
Math, Puzzles, and Manipulatives- Playdough and sticks to make animal "cages"

Rug- Safari jeeps, animals, and people

Science/Social Studies/Math Circle Concepts
-What is a pattern?
-Patterns in nature
-Day and Night animals
-Patterns in sounds

Songs, Word Plays, and Language

-Our Good Morning Chant

-Down in the Jungle
-Five Little Monkeys
-Rhyming Identifying games
-Jungle Movement

Book Orders Due Thursday Jan. 24

On Tuesday we will be sending home our book orders for you. 
Please order by Thursday, January 24th so we can receive our books before February.
 Thanks so much

Our classroom code is JBTVN

https://orders.scholastic.com/JBTVN

Farm Unit (An orange in January- week 4-January 22-25)

No School January 21, MLK Day
Unit Book: 
An Orange in January

Weekly Question and Vocabulary Related to book:

How does food get from a farm to your house?
(plump, drenched, transport, journey, segment, gleamed)

Small Groups

Moo Alphabet Game- We will draw cards one at a time and label the letter on our card. Students will need to be watching others because one of the cards has a cow on it. It has a cow everyone has to stand up and say MOOOOO! This is a fun letter labeling game.

-Orange in January Playdough Math Mats- We will use our fine motor skills to make small oranges for trees. Inspired by our unit book

-Handwriting Without Tears Program-Letter Formation Books (R and K)-

Take Away Stories- We will use orange playdough to practice math story problems on an orange tree. We will “pick” the oranges from the tree to discover how many are left and will even try to solve how many oranges were picked.  We will send home orange playdough with your child to make oranges and make math stories.

Beginning Sounds on the Farm- We will listen to a letter sound then find the letter on a pig. We will then record the letter on our papers.

Centers

Art Table-Orange Tree Creations(using pipe cleaner trees we will bead "fruit" on the trees)

Block Area- farm animals

Sensory Table-Washing produce(sponges, plastic fruit, soapy water)
Book Area- Exploring Books about farm
Dramatic Play- Farm Stand (Fruit Stand)
Math, Puzzles, and Manipulatives- Letters in a room hunt using clipboards
Rug- Bristle Blocks

Science/Social Studies/Math Circle Concepts
-Planes, trains, and automobiles
-What Does It Do?
-Good for you food

Songs, Word Plays, and Language

-Our Good Morning Chant

-Farmer in the Dell
-Apples and Bananas Song
-Rhyming Identifying games
-Simon Says (Farmer Lisa Says.....)

Scooter Visited Our Classroom Today

We have been working toward a class reward over the past weeks.  If we each earned 5 stars then added a pom pom into a group reward bucket.  We earned enough pom poms to have Scooter the high school assistance dog come to our classroom.  We brainstormed questions we could ask about Scooter and his friend Christina was happy to answer them all.  We then had a chance to pet Scooter.  At the end of our visit, we played a game with Scooter.  We played "Scooter-Says".  Scooter listened well to the directions and hopped, laid down, and sat up to play the game.  Scooter was a great jumper!!
Thank,you Scooter and Christina!

Farm Unit Click Clack Moo (Week 3-January 14-18)

Weekly Book and Vocabulary

Click, Clack, Moo

Why do farmers have animals?

(letter, snoop, furious, typewriter, electric, demand)

Small Groups

Beginning Sounds on the Farm- We will review listening for the same beginning sounds in words. We will say three words and decide which two have the same beginning sound.  We will place the words that begin with the same sound in a barn and the one that doesn’t belong will be thrown in the mud! 

Search and Sorting letters R and K. We will be sorting uppercase letters from their lowercase letters and then searching for them on our papers.

Letter Corn Seach- We searched through a sensory bucket filled with corn kernels to find letters.  After we found them we named the letter, said the sound, and named something beginning with the letter.  Then we recorded the letter on our corn husks. 

Journals- Writing about our favorite animals from the farm. We will use "ear" spelling by writing the letters we hear in words.

Onset Rime Game- We will be guessing farm animals by listening to the rime of words. For example, "I'm thinking of a -ow. Can you guess what animal I'm thinking about?" This helps them learn the skill of listening to sounds in words and prepares them to read and write later.

Click Clack Moo Math-Using cow counters and barn math mats, we will practice more/less/equal concepts by counting and placing our cows on our mats.  We will compare quantities and work to make them equal.    We will also learn about number parts.  Use this activity with your child to extend math learning at home.

Centers

Art Table- Click Clack Art

Block Area- farm animals and tractors

Sensory Table- Pigs in the mud (brown paint with cornstarch and water)

Book Area- Exploring Books about community

Dramatic Play- Office / computers/ envelopes/ letters

Math, Puzzles, and Manipulatives-yellow playdough, yellow feathers, counting chicken mats

Rug- Barns and animals

Science/Social Studies/Math Circle Concepts

-Tracks that vehicles make

-Wheat from the farm

-Good for you food
-Take Away Stories

Farm Unit (Otis- Week 2- January 7-11)

Weekly Question and Vocabulary Related to book:

Otis

How do machines help farmers?

(tractor, startle, parade, fancy, pond, soil)

Literacy Small Groups

What's Missing? How Does it End? We will learn about how words sound when the onset (beginning sound) is deleted from the word.  We will sing a farm song where students need to guess the farm animal or item based on hearing just the rime (entire ending.) We will place a marker to on a picture mat to make our guess.  

Onset Rime Bingo- We will segmenting words by onset & rime.  Using things found on a farm, we will practice saying words by segmenting the beginning sound and entire ending. We will work on a new skill to take away the beginning sound and say only the ending of each word (deleting the onset) to cover a spot on our board.

Story Sequencing- After reading the story Otis, we will cut pictures from our unit book. We will then trace numbers on strips. Next we will place the pictures in order to retell the story. We will retell the story orally to recall the events from our book.

Handwriting/Letter Groups

-Handwriting Without Tears Program-Diving Letters books P and B

Math Small Groups

How Many Animals in the Barn? We will work on our counting and subitizing skills to fill our barn with animals.  Using a dot dice, we will roll to determine how many animals to place in our barn using a 10 grid.  We will discuss how many animals we have and how many more we need to fill our barn.  After playing this game with counters, we will play our final round with dot stickers to make our own animals to take home.

Stuck in the Mud- We will use animals counters to recreate a scene from the Otis story.  This time more than one animal will be stuck in the mud.  Using our counters we will hide animals under a card and leave some showing.  We will have to guess how many animals are stuck in the mud given out total number of animals.  Using dot stickers, we will make our own number stories to share

Farm Animal Roll- We will roll a cube with animals on it then record our results on our papers. We will talk about the most, least, and equal amounts.

Letter Cow- We will listen to the teacher tell us a letter then we will find it on our papers. We will place a sticker on the letter and make the sound of the letter.

Centers

Art Table-Farm animal with stencils

Block Area- farm animals

Sensory Table- Popcorn with chickens and tractors

Book Area- Exploring Books about community

Easel-Markers and paper

Dramatic Play-Collecting eggs from the hen house

Math, Puzzles, and Manipulatives- sorting farm animals

Rug- Trio Blocks

Science/Social Studies/Math Circle Concepts

-Caring for plants

-Reenact the book Otis

-Wheat from the farm

-How Many Scoops

Farm Unit (Week 1- January 2-4)

Unit Book:
What is a Farm

Weekly Question and Vocabulary Related to book:

What is a farm?
(barn, farmer, wool, silo, gate, map)

Literacy Small Groups

Letter P and B- We will learn what the uppercase and lowercase letters Pp and Bb look like.  We will sort magnetic letters to find matches for Bb and Pp.  We will also hunt for them in our names and the names of our classmates.  We will use crayons to hunt for them on our papers. Search for Pp's and Bb's with your child at home- ask him/her if it is upper or lowercase.  

-We share sounds- We will be listening to sounds we hear in the beginning of words. We will match words that share the same sounds in the initial sound of each word. For example, cow and corn share the same sound. Gate and goat, wig and wagon, etc.

-Roll and Write letters- We will roll a letter cube to review our straight line letter formation. In this turn-taking game, we will focus on directionality (start at the top, frog jump to top,etc)

Animal Legs- We will book browse to research what animals look like and focus on how they are the same or different. We will then create a chart to show animals with 2 and 4 legs.  

Centers

Art Table- Barn animals for a farm mural/Farm animals for individual books (This will be an ongoing activity at the art table)

Block Area-tractors

Sensory Table- yellow paper (hay) with animals
Dramatic- Tool Shop

Songs, Word Plays, and Language

-Our Good Morning Chant

-The farmer in the Dell
-Growing Sound (Things that grow)
-Listening to Rhythm in music
Farms Bingo Song