Make It Move Week 3 and 4 (May 28-31/June 3-7)

Make It Move  Unit 8 Week 3 and 4

Unit Books: Gilberto and the Wind
                            The Wind Blew

May 31: Our End of the Year Celebration (10:30-11:00)

Weekly Question and Vocabulary Words:
How does wind make things move?
(float, twist, umbrella, burst, blur, pinwheel, sailboat, balloon)

How do machines help us move?
(repair, build, empty, carry, raise, crane)

Small Groups

Syllable Books
We will be clapping and recording the number of syllables in words related to transportation
and how things move

Straw Airplanes
We will be constructing straw airplanes and then using them in an experiment to see how far they can go

Lego Building Stop and Build Game
We will draw number cards that have numbers up to 10 or 20 on them. As each child draws a card they will say the number and count the correct number of legos. We will continue this until a student draws a card that says "Stop and Build". We will then build with our legos until a timer goes off. Then we will start the game again.

Number Hunt in Colored Rice
Using containers filled with colored rice and numbers, we will take turns using tweezers to take out a number and record it on our papers.

Rhyming Bingo

We will continue to practice rhyming.  This week, we will focus on producing our own rhyming words.  While playing a round of rhyming bingo, children will need to produce a word that rhymes with a picture on their mat to cover that space.  They will work to get five in a row to win.

Rhyming Race

We will work as a team to blow a ball to the finish line with a fun rhyming game.  After flipping a card, each child will get a chance to produce a word that rhymes with that picture.  When they do, they will use a straw to help blow the ball  If they cannot, a new card will be drawn.  We all win when the ball reaches the finish line!

Special Letter Writing

We will review our special letters using Magna doodles, chalkboards, salt trays, etc.  We will rainbow write these letters as well.

Journal Writing

In next week’s story, Gilberto and the Wind, we will read about many different things we can do on a windy day.   We will use details and lots of color to illustrate our ideas.

Lego Building Letter Game

In this game a teacher will say a consonant sound.  Then each child will find the corresponding letter to match the sound.  When we all fill up our boards, we will then use the legos we placed on the letters to build a group creation.

How much does it hold?

Using cubes, we will compare how much different size cups could hold.  First, we will predict the amount that would be needed to fill the cup to the top.  Then we will count how many cubes are needed for each and write the number.  We will compare quantities and circle the cup that holds more cubes.

Cup Fulls of Sand

We will fill buckets with sand to recognize and compare how much sand fits in different sized containers. Using the same size cup, we will fill each bucket with sand and count how many we used to fill each.  We will compare the size of each bucket with the amount we used to fill them. The bigger the bucket, the more sand we need.  The smaller the bucket, the less sand we need.

How much can I hold?

We will recall how in our unit book The Cool Pool how someone used scoops to fill empty objects.  We will use our hands as scoopers to pull out counters from a container.  We will record how many counters each friend collect will collect,  We will then compared who collected the most, least, and if any amounts were equal.  

Spin and Write Numbers

We will spin a spinner then write the number it lands on. We will compare which numbers we land on the most, least or equal.

Will the Wind Blow it?

We look at a variety of objects. Then we will make predictions to see if the objects will blow in the wind. After we make our predictions will use "wind" to see if the objects move. Next, we will record what happened and talk about why.

Centers

Art Table- kite creations/windsocks/pinwheels

Sensory Table- boats with a fan nearby to create movement/Water wheels (water movement)
Book Area- Exploring Books about wind movement
Dramatic Play-Dunkin Donuts/ "Beach" with pool and umbrella
Math, Puzzles, and Manipulatives- Floor Puzzles
Rug- Tents to build
Block Area- blocks

Science/Social Studies/Math Circle Concepts
-Air, land, water movement
-What blocks move in the wind experiment
-Measuring Capacity
-Filling Containers
-How does the wind feel?
-Push, Pull, Go Book

Songs, Word Plays, and Language

-Our Good Morning Chant
-Big Pig
-Windy Weather song

-Alphabet Chant using sign language
-Letter Sounds Song

Thank You Dyanna for helping us learn

Today we visited the High School Career Day.  We wanted to thank and congratulate our friend Dyanna for completing her internship in our classroom.  We are very grateful for all of her hard work helping us throughout the day.  She helped prepare lessons for our classroom and helped us complete them successfully.  Congratulations Dyanna!!! 

Make It Move Week 2 (May 20-24)

Make It Move  Unit 8 Week 2

Unit Book:  A Little Bit More

Weekly Question and Vocabulary Words:
What can we do to make things move?
(push, pull, roll, weigh, heavy, light)

Small Groups

Lowercase Letter Formation

We will working on lowercase letter formation of e and i . We will practice these letters using magna doodles, chalkboards, salt trays, etc.  We will rainbow write and pencil practice the letters as well.

Parking Lot Game

We will continue to work on listening for the first sound in words in this fun car game. Each child will have a set of "parking spots" that have pictures on them. They are going to "park" the cars on the spots that share the same beginning sound. (eg;the C car will park on the cat)

Simple Machine Construction

We have been learning about simple machines in school such a a ramp, lever, and wheels.  We learned that these simple machines help us to move objects and do work.  In small groups we used these materials to create our own machine and tested to see if it helped us move objects and do work. Then we recorded how our machines looked on our papers using paper shapes and crayons to add details.  

Comparing Weight

Using a balance scale we weighed classroom objects and compared.  We used language such a heavier and lighter as we placed objects on the scale.  Then we illustrated our results.

Dump It Out
Using a dump truck filled with double sided color chips we took turns dumping the chips to see how many different ways we can count to 5. (eg: 2 red and 3 yellow are 5 chips)

Measuring Length of (Frogs on a log)
We will be using unifix cubes to measure logs that a frog is sitting on. We will reinforce where to start measuring when counting how many long the logs are (Left to right)

Centers

Art Table- car track painting

Sensory Table- Construction Site
Book Area- Exploring Books about movement
Dramatic Play- bowling alley
Math, Puzzles, and Manipulatives- Weighing Station
Rug- Doll houses
Block Area- blocks to measure with

Science/Social Studies/Math Circle Concepts
-Push and Pull
-Starting Line (where we start when measuring)
-Taller and Shorter
-Working Together

Songs, Word Plays, and Language

-Our Good Morning Chant
-Vowel Bat
-Big Pig 

-Letter Sounds

Make it move week 1 May 13-17

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

Beginning 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.

Diving Lowercase Letter Formation

We will working on lowercase letter formation of r and p . We will practice these letters using magna doodles, chalkboards, salt trays, etc.  We will rainbow write and pencil practice the letters as well.

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.

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. On Friday, your child is invited to bring in a ball to roll. We will compare how far all of the balls roll.

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.

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.  

Centers

Art Table- ramp painting with cars

Sensory Table- ping pong balls (find the word ball)
Book Area- Exploring Books about movement
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)


Songs, Word Plays, and Language

-Our Good Morning Chant
-Vowel Bat

-Alphabet Chant using sign language
-Letter Sounds

Saying Thank You

 We have been busy saying thank you to all of the school staff that help us during the school year.
We made a special card and gave flowers to Sandy our secretary on Secretaries Day last week.
Today was Nurses Day so we surprised Jess with a special card and flowers today thank you for helping us when we are not feeling well.
We are lucky to have these wonderful ladies in our school!

Shadows and Reflections Week 4 (May 6-10)

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 Lowercase Letters- We will practice these letters using Magna doodles, chalkboards, salt trays, etc.  We will rainbow write and pencil practice the letters as well. Letters this week will be m and n.

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.

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 be reviewing all our numbers using wooden sticks, chalkboards or magna doodles and in our letter formation books.

Journal Writing- In our journals we will be "writing" and drawing pictures based upon our unit books. "What type of collections do you collect?"

Centers

Art Table- painting pail reflections 

Sensory Table-mirrors with light table
Book Area- Exploring Books about shadows and reflections
Writing Table-Writing the room using vocabulary words
Dramatic Play- Tace Shop
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

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