Jungle Unit Week 1 January 27-February 31

Unit Book: Amazing Jungle

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

Meet our Letterlander of the Week: 

Peter Puppy

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: P and p

Fine motor activity to reinforce letter this week: Putty (pulling putty to make P's big line down and building P in a letter tray)

We will be reinforcing "alligator fingers" and "always start your letters at the top.

Small Groups

Jungle Bingo Rhyming- Using jungle animal counters, we will play a rhyming bingo game. After saying the name of the pictures on each of our boards, we will listen to a word a teacher says. Then if we having the rhyming word we will place a jungle animal on the picture.

Jungle Rhymes- To continue our focus on rhyming words, we will match jungle vocabulary to words that rhyme. First, we will color and cut the pictures. Then we will match the pairs on our papers.

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 / jungle mural

Block Area- animals with blocks

Sensory Table-Water, leaves, frogs,
Book Area- Exploring Books about jungle and desert
Dramatic Play-Pet Vet (inspired by Peter Puppy)
Math, Puzzles, and Manipulatives- Playdough and sticks to make animal "cages"
Rug- Legos

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

-Down in the Jungle

-Rhyming Identifying games
-Jungle Movement Song