Desert Week 2 (March 2-6)

Weekly Question and Vocabulary Related to book:

What are desert animals like?
Unit Book: The Gingerbread Cowboy
(lizard, cowboy, herd, spider, sniff, burrow)

Meet our Letterlander of the Week: 

Annie Apple

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: A and a

Fine motor activity to reinforce letter this week: cornstarch and water to form A and a

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

Small Groups

Beginning Sounds in the Desert- We will look at 3 different pictures and say the words.  We will identify the words that share the same sounds and put them on the same cactus  The one picture that has a different beginning sound we will put in the sand. 

Desert Math "addition"- We will be creating a desert scene by placing two different types of desert animals.  We will count the animals that are the same and trace the numbers. Then we will count all of the desert animals in the scene.  Then we will trace the "whole number" below the scene.  This is exposing them to the concept of part/part/whole. 

Desert Syllable Sorting- We will label desert vocabulary.  Then we will clap the syllables of each of the vocabulary words.  We will then sort the pictures into a chart based on the number of syllables each word has. 

QR Codes- Using an Ipad, we will scan qr codes. A picture will appear on the Ipad which we will label and then identify the sound we hear in the beginning of the word. We will then trace, rainbow write and draw a picture of the word we said.

Whole Group Science Activity- Using different materials, we will try to build a bridge for the gingerbread cowboy to get across the river to avoid the fox.  We will predict then experiment with materials such as pipe cleaners, straws, popsicle sticks, blocks, etc.  We will try to think of whey some materials worked better than others. 

Centers

Art Table- Playdough

Block Area- Animals and blocks

Sensory Table- Water and sponges (absorb concept)
Book Area- Exploring Books about jungle and desert
Dramatic Play-Camping
Science - Sponges and water to explore  how water absorbs
Rug- Building shelter from the sun in the desert

Science/Social Studies/Math Circle Concepts
-Absorbing water (how do cactus store water??)
-Desert Animals Video
-Compare and contrast desert animals to jungle animals

Desert Week 1 (Feb.24-28)

Unit Book: Two Cool Coyotes

Weekly Question and Unit Words
What is a desert?
(sand, desert, coyote, howl, absorb, cactus)

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: K and k

Fine motor activity to reinforce letter this week: chalk boards

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

Small Groups

Two Cool Coyote Initial Sounds Sunglasses- We will be listening to the initial sound we hear in words.  When two pictures have the same beginning sound we will pair them together to create a “pair” of sunglasses for our Two Cool Coyotes. 

Desert Vocabulary Books- We will be reviewing our unit vocabulary from our unit book Two Cool Coyotes. We will write or trace the beginning letter for each of our words. We will also review the definition of each word and we will recall the word from our story.

Desert Animals- Using desert animal manipulatives, we discussed different animals that live in the desert. We will talk about the colors of the animals and why the animals are brown and grey. We will talk about how they need to be these colors to hide and camouflage in the desert sand. Then we will draw pictures of what we learned.

Save the Animals- In this fine motor small group, animals have rubber bands around them and using our "alligator fingers" we need to free the animals by removing all the bands. We will then draw a picture of our favorite animal.

Snake word rolling- We will roll a letter cube with the letters snake on it. We will then rainbow write the letter that was rolled in a graph on our papers. One of the sides has a snake on it. We need to watch each friend's turn to roll because if the snake is on top we need to make the sound of a rattlesnake. We will also note which letter we rolled the most, least, or equal.

Centers

Art Table-cactus painting with forks to make spikes

Block Area- Animals and blocks

Sensory Table-Sand and  desert animals (Animals, rocks, caves....)
Book Area- Exploring Books about jungle and desert
Dramatic Play-Singing (Cub Cadet Idol)
Rug- Safari jeeps, animals, and people

Science/Social Studies/Math Circle Concepts
-What is a desert?
-How do animals live in a desert
-Compare and contrast jungle and desert animals

Jungle week 3 (Feb.10-14)

Unit Book: 
Giraffes Can't Dance
Weekly Question and Vocabulary Related to book:

What makes each animal special? What makes you special?

(clumsy, slim, baboon, warthog, amazing)

Meet our Letterlander of the Week: 

Red Robot

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: R and r

Fine motor activity to reinforce letter this week: Red salt in trays

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

Small Groups

Elephants Ears- We will be making elephant ears to help us be better listeners to the first sound in words. We will put on our ears and then listen to a word a teacher says. We will say the sound and then find the elephant with the letter on it that makes the same sound.

Save the Animals- Fine motor activity- The animals need our help. Our jungle animals will have rubber bands tied on them and they will be taped to the table. It is our job to use our "alligator fingers" to pull the bands and tape off to free all of them.

Patterns- We will use legos to create a variety of patterns. We will then record our patterns by coloring on a recording sheet. We will compare our patterns with our friends to see how they are the same or different.

Syllable Segmenting- We will be working on our syllable segmenting using jungle words. After we clap the jungle vocabulary, we will then cut and sort the words based on the number of syllables we hear in the words.

Beginning Sounds in the Jungle- After we are given 3 pictures, we will name the pictures and then identify the 2 pictures that share the same sounds. We will place the 2 same sound pictures in the jungle and the picture that does not share the same sound will go in the river.

Valentine Exchange- We will give our friends their valentines in a whole group activity. We will reinforce conversational words such as "Lisa, Happy Valentine's Day" and"Thank you" as we give our friends their cards. We will also remind them to look at their friends in the eyes as they are talking to them.

Centers

Art Table-Valentine's Day Bag decorating

Block Area- Zoo animals 

Sensory Table- Cornstarch and Water
Book Area- Exploring Books about jungle and desert
Writing Table-Jungle Stamping
Dramatic Play-Hot Cocoa (making cocoa for our friends)
Rug- Safari jeeps, animals, and people

Science/Social Studies/Math Circle Concepts
-What is a pattern?
-What special skills/traits does each animal have?