Letter Safari Video

The Cub Cadets and Kinderstars went on a Letter Safari.  

Enjoy the video above.  If you cannot view it on my blog here is the link:

http://youtu.be/Kt35uJiBVvI

Desert Unit Week 1 February 22-26

Weekly Question and Vocabulary Related to book:

(sand, desert, coyote, howl, absorb, cactus)

Unit Book:Two Cool Coyotes

What is a desert?

Literacy Small Groups

Handwriting- We will begin a quick review of uppercase letter formations.  Focusing on straight line letters, we will practice writing the letters E and H  We will be working on our own letter formation books that will come home when our uppercase letter formations are complete.   

Initial Sounds Bingo- We will learn how to match initial sounds.  PLaying a bingo game children will listen for words that sound with the same initial letter sound to earn a point on their boards.  Practice this skill at home in car or at the dinner table! Try to produce words that begin with the same sound.  

Deleting the onsets- We will practice deleting the onset from words.  The onset is the beginning sound/s of a word and the rime is  all the sounds that follow it.  For example, in the word “bell” /b/ is the onset and /ell/ is the rime.  We will use picture cards to take physically take away the onset of the word to discover what the word is with just the rime left.  If we take away the /b/ in bell, we are left with /ell./

Handwriting- We will continue practicing straight line letters.  We will review and practice the formation for the letters U in our letter books.

Journals-We will write in our journals about animals that live in the desert.  We will add lots of detail to our illustrations and carefully sound out our words to write what we hear.

Handwriting/Letter Groups

We have begun formalized uppercase letter formations next week.  We will begin with straight line letters.  Please reinforce with your child that "we always start our letters at the top." This is an important skill in formations.

Math Small Groups

Patterned Snakes- Desert snakes have patterns all over them.   We will use paper links to make a pattern by alternating colors to make our own desert snakes.  We will be sure to check to see that our pattern repeats!  

Playdough Numbers- We will use number mats and playdough to mold numbers 1-10.  We will also count out the corresponding number of playdough dots to practice matching quantities to written numerals.

Playdough Pattern Snakes- We will use playdough to practice patterning.  Using beads, paper clips and buttons we will create and repeat our own patterns on our playdough snake.  Patterns can be made with almost anything at all- have fun patterning at home too!

Pattern/ Not a Pattern Sort- We will cut out a variety of pictures and determine whether or not they are patterns.  We will sort them into two categories: “ Yes”, it is a pattern and “No”, it is not a pattern. We will need to look closely at the pictures to see if they repeat as that is the key to patterns!

Pattern Trains- We will be using unifix cubes to create “pattern trains”.  Each child will be given a card with a pattern on it.  Then they will place their hand in a bag and choose a unifix cube.  If they need that color for their pattern, they will keep the cube.  If they do not need it, they will give the cube to a friend that needs it to complete their pattern. The goal of the game is for everyone to complete a pattern of 10 cubes.  

Centers

Art Table-Animal art to add to our mural (catcus hand prints, camel hand prints)

Block Area- Animals and blocks

Sensory Table-Sand (Animals, rocks, caves....)
Book Area- Exploring Books about jungle and desert
Easel-Markers and paper
Writing Table-Zookeeper Lists
Dramatic Play-Desert Burrows and Caves: Creating underground animal homes
Math, Puzzles, and Manipulatives- Counting cactus activity
Science - Sponges and water to explore  how water absorbs
Rug- Safari jeeps, animals, and people

Science/Social Studies/Math Circle Concepts
-What is a desert?
-How do animals live in a desert
-Aborbing Sponges/Sponges cut into catcus to show how water absorbs
-Compare and contrast jungle and desert animals

Preschool Life Skills 

- 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".
2. When I give you an instruction, do it "right away"
(Ask your child what do you do when your teacher tells you to do something.  They should reply "I do it right away." You can reinforce this at home too.  "Put your legos away and do it "right away""
3. When I give you  instructions, do them "right away" (multi-step directions)
4. When something is too hard say "Help me please"
5. When you want something from a teacher or friend, say "Excuse Me" to get their attention
6. When you want something from a teacher or friend, say "Excuse Me" to get their attention and then use your asking words(ie. May I have a turn?)

Songs, Word Plays, and Language

-Our Good Morning Chant

-Animals in the Desert Song

Classroom Motivational System
We will be learning classroom routines and expectations within our new classroom.  In order to create a successful and rewarding environment, each child will have a motivational system. Our classroom system promotes positive classroom behavior through positive peer modeling and teachers providing positive reinforcement for desired behaviors. 

Jungle Unit Week 2 February 8-12

-Reminder: We will be passing our Valentines to our friends on Friday, February 12th.  
Weekly Question and Vocabulary Related to book:

  Unit Book: Chameleon's Colors

Wha are jungle animals like?
(parrot, complain, splash,chase, collect, pattern )
Literacy Small Groups

Handwriting- We will begin a quick review of uppercase letter formations.  Focusing on straight line letters, we will practice writing the letters L and F.  We will be working on our own letter formation books that will come home when our uppercase letter formations are complete.

Letter Sounds- We will practice letter-sound correspondence with another fun qr code activity.  Using a qr code on our iPads, we will scan codes around our room to reveal a mystery picture and word.  We will match the beginning sound the letter that makes that sound and color the letter on our recording sheets.

Handwriting- We will continue practicing straight line letters.  We will review and practice the formations for the letters E and H in our letter books.

Journal- We will continue our journal writing and work to add spaces between our words.  We will use our senses to write about what we see, hear, touch, taste or smell in the jungle. We will have to use our imaginations and what we have learned about the jungle.

Handwriting/Letter Groups

We have begun formalized uppercase letter formations next week.  We will begin with straight line letters.  Please reinforce with your child that "we always start our letters at the top." This is an important skill in formations.

Math Small Groups

Pattern Binoculars- We will practice our patterning skills by making our own safari binoculars.  Using paper strips we will decorate our binoculars like patterned jungle animals.  We will be sure to have our pattern repeat and will use these binoculars on a special safari around our school. 

Patterns- We will use the story Chameleon’s colors to create our own patterned chameleons.  Using colored cubes we will make our own colorful chameleon by repeating an ABC pattern.  We will then use colored tissue squares to craft our chameleon and make it into another  fun class book.

Jungle Animal Roll & Write- We will use dot dice to roll and find numbers on our sheet. We will name and trace each number we find and try to trace them all!

Patterns- We will use legos to create a variety of pattterns. 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.

Centers

Art Table-Animal prints to add to our mural

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

Sensory Table-Jungle Habitats (Animals, rocks, caves....)
Book Area- Exploring Books about jungle and desert
Easel-Markers and paper
Writing Table-Zookeeper Lists
Dramatic Play-Zookeeper Vet(Taking Care of Jungle Animals)
Math, Puzzles, and Manipulatives- Playdough Mats to feed the giraffes according to the numbers on the mats.
Science - We are preparing to have a special visitor from the Science Center.
Rug- Safari jeeps, animals, and people

Science/Social Studies/Math Circle Concepts
-What is a pattern?
-How jungle animals camouflage in different environments
-What living things need
-Canopy, understory, and forest floor review.

Preschool Life Skills 

- 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".
2. When I give you an instruction, do it "right away"
(Ask your child what do you do when your teacher tells you to do something.  They should reply "I do it right away." You can reinforce this at home too.  "Put your legos away and do it "right away""
3. When I give you  instructions, do them "right away" (multi-step directions)
4. When something is too hard say "Help me please"
5. When you want something from a teacher or friend, say "Excuse Me" to get their attention
6. When you want something from a teacher or friend, say "Excuse Me" to get their attention and then use your asking words(ie. May I have a turn?)

Songs, Word Plays, and Language

-Our Good Morning Chant

-Down in the Jungle
-Five Little Monkeys
-Rhyming Time Song
-Jungle Movement

Classroom Motivational System
We will be learning classroom routines and expectations within our new classroom.  In order to create a successful and rewarding environment, each child will have a motivational system. Our classroom system promotes positive classroom behavior through positive peer modeling and teachers providing positive reinforcement for desired behaviors. 

Unit 5: Journey to a Jungle: February 1-5

Weekly Question and Vocabulary Related to book:

  Unit Book: Amazing Jungle

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

Rhyming-We will continue our practice rhyming.  Through a jungle bingo rhyming game we will learn to identify and produce rhyming words.  We will listen for words that rhyme to identify a rhyming pair however before we can place a marker on our boards we must come up with our own rhyming word to rhyme with the other words in the group.  We will use both real words and nonsense words to create our own rhymes

Letter V-We will learn what the uppercase and lowercase letter Vv looks like.  We will sort magnetic letters to find matches for Vv.  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.  Keep an eye out for Vv’s while out and about with your child!!

Rhyming-We will continue to practice producing our own rhyming groups.  Using a picture to get started, students will think of words that rhyme with the picture.  For each word they rhyme they will earn an animal stamp for their paper.  Have your child practice producing his/her own rhymes while riding in the car or waiting in line or for an appointment.  

Letter Y- We will learn what the uppercase and lowercase letter Yy looks like.  We will sort magnetic letters to find matches for Yy.  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 Yy’s with your child at home- ask him/her if it is upper or lowercase. 

Journal Writing- Using our writing journals, we will write about our favorite jungle animals.  We will carefully sound out each word and some of us will even  practice using our fingers to add spaces between words in our sentences.  We will work hard to add colorful details to our animal illustrations.  We are becoming fabulous writers!

Handwriting/Letter Groups

- We will be begin formalized letter formations next week.  We will begin with straight line letters.  Please reinforce with your child that "we always start our letters at the top." This is an important skill in formations.

Math Small Groups

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.”  Use the “Pattern Snakes” activity sheet to have some fun with this at home.

Centers

Art Table-Animal prints to add to our mural

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
Easel-Markers and paper
Writing Table-Zookeeper Lists
Dramatic Play-Zoo
Math, Puzzles, and Manipulatives- Playdough and sticks to make animal "cages"
Science - We are preparing to have a special visitor from the Science Center.
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

Preschool Life Skills 

- 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".
2. When I give you an instruction, do it "right away"
(Ask your child what do you do when your teacher tells you to do something.  They should reply "I do it right away." You can reinforce this at home too.  "Put your legos away and do it "right away""
3. When I give you  instructions, do them "right away" (multi-step directions)
4. When something is too hard say "Help me please"
5. When you want something from a teacher or friend, say "Excuse Me" to get their attention
6. When you want something from a teacher or friend, say "Excuse Me" to get their attention and then use your asking words(ie. May I have a turn?)

Songs, Word Plays, and Language

-Our Good Morning Chant

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

Classroom Motivational System
We will be learning classroom routines and expectations within our new classroom.  In order to create a successful and rewarding environment, each child will have a motivational system. Our classroom system promotes positive classroom behavior through positive peer modeling and teachers providing positive reinforcement for desired behaviors. 

Farm Unit Week 4 How does food get from the farm to your house? January 25-29

Book Order Due by 8 AM on January 22 if you interested in ordering

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)

Literacy Small Groups

Rhyming-We will practice our rhyming skills.  Using dot markers we will hunt for farmily words that rhyme with the word the teacher says.

Letter Roll and Write- We will roll a cube with straight line letters (T, I, E, L,H). Then we will record which letter each child rolls by writing down on on recording sheet. We will talk about the sound each letter makes as well.

Rhyming Ipads Activity- We will continue our practice rhyming with a fun rhyming activity on our iPads.  Using a qr code reader, we will scan codes around our room.  We will need to listen to the word on our ipad and circle the word that rhymes on a recording sheet.

Letter E- We will learn what the uppercase and lowercase letter Ee looks like.  We will sort magnetic letters to find matches for Ee.  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 Ee’s with your child at home- ask him/her if it is upper or lowercase.

Journal Writing-  Once we have learned about an orange’s journey to our homes in the middle of winter, we will write about it in our journals. We will make our own list and write the steps an orange takes to get to our homes.  We will slowly turtle talk our words and write the sounds that we hear. We will illustrate our thoughts using many colors and details .

Handwriting/Letter Groups

-Handwriting Without Tears Program-Straight Line Letter Books

Math Small Groups

Take Away Stories- We will use orange pom poms to practice subtraction 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.  Use this activity at home to help your child practice the skill of taking away.

Part/Part/Whole- We will look more at whole numbers and number parts.  Using pigs in a pen, we will take a whole number and use our pigs to make number parts.  For example, using the number 7 we can place our pigs into 2 parts: 5+2, 6+1, 3+4, etc.  Try this activity at home!

How many are left? We will continue to work on our subtraction skills by solving farm story problems.  We listen to a math story dictated by the teacher and use animals counters to solve how many are left.  We will then trace our answers on our recording sheet.

Orange Segmenting- We will segment a paper orange into 6 parts. We will show how parts of the orange can equal a whole. (ie. 2parts and 4 parts are 1 whole)

Centers

Art Table-Finishing our farm animal books

Block Area- farm animals

Sensory Table-Washing produce(sponges, plastic fruit, soapy water)
Book Area- Exploring Books about community
Easel-Markers and paper
Writing Table-Farm Lists
Dramatic Play-Lemonade Stand
Math, Puzzles, and Manipulatives- Letters in a room hunt using clipboards
Science - Farm animal skulls from the Science Center
Rug- legos

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

Preschool Life Skills 

- 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".
2. When I give you an instruction, do it "right away"
(Ask your child what do you do when your teacher tells you to do something.  They should reply "I do it right away." You can reinforce this at home too.  "Put your legos away and do it "right away""
3. When I give you  instructions, do them "right away" (multi-step directions)
4. When something is too hard say "Help me please"
5. When you want something from a teacher or friend, say "Excuse Me" to get their attention
6. When you want something from a teacher or friend, say "Excuse Me" to get their attention and then use your asking words(ie. May I have a turn?)

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.....)

Classroom Motivational System
We will be learning classroom routines and expectations within our new classroom.  In order to create a successful and rewarding environment, each child will have a motivational system. Our classroom system promotes positive classroom behavior through positive peer modeling and teachers providing positive reinforcement for desired behaviors. 

Emergency Situation Yesterday

Below is a message from our Director's Blog.  I am a Burlington parent as well as a teacher in town so I understand your concerns.  Our classroom was dismissed by the time this event took place. I am proud to be part of the wonderful staff at BECC and watch every staff member move into action to ensure every child was cared for.  

January 19, 2016

Dear Parents/Guardians,

Burlington High School received an anonymous Skype phone call this afternoon threatening the school.  The Emergency Response Team was immediately gathered, which includes school personnel and the Burlington Police Department.  After evaluating the situation, and due to the fact that many other schools in Massachusetts received this type of threat last Friday, and many more today, the police assessment was that this was a low level threat and most likely a hoax.

Students at the BECC were dismissed as a result of this threat (those students in our morning programs were already home).  All BECC employees did a fantastic job of keeping the children calm in this atypical situation.

At this time, school is scheduled to take place on Wednesday.  There will be an increased police presence in the all of the Burlington Schools tomorrow during both arrival and dismissal times, and we will update everyone if the situation changes.

Going forward, a reverse 911 call should go out to all families notifying them of any situation.  BECC staff will follow-up with phone calls to make sure that we make contact directly with you or another one of your child’s emergency contacts.

On Wednesday afternoon, please check your child’s backpack when he or she gets home as there will be a letter describing the specific BECC procedures in more detail.

If you have questions or concerns about this incident or your child’s safety, please do not hesitate to call me at 781-273-7632 or e-mail me atclark@burlington.bpsk12.org.

Sincerely,

Deborah Clark

Farm Unit Week 2 January 11-15

Unit Book:Otis

Weekly Question and Vocabulary Related to book:

How do machines help farmers?
(tractor, startle, parade, fancy, pond, soil)

Literacy Small Groups

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.  

Letter W- We will learn what the uppercase and lowercase letter Ww looks like.  We will sort magnetic letters to find matches for Ww.  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.  Look for upper and lowercase Ww’s at home, in the car or out and about!

Onset Rime Bingo- We will review 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.

Letter R- We will learn what the uppercase and lowercase letter Rr looks like.  We will sort magnetic letters to find matches for Rr.  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 Rr’s with your child at home- ask him/her if it is upper or lowercase.

Journal Writing

We will write  in our journals about what plants need to grow. We will slowly turtle talk our words and write the sounds that we hear. We will illustrate our thoughts using many colors and details .

Handwriting/Letter Groups

-Handwriting Without Tears Program-Straight Line Letter Books

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

Making Five- We will work to make combinations of 5.  Using cube trains, we will start with a given number of cubes (0-4.) We will count on to find out how many more cubes we need to add to make 5 cubes in all. We will record our answers by coloring in the additional cubes on our sheets.

Otis Number Writing and Sequence- We will write the numbers 1 through 6 on a strip. Then we will color ,cut, then place pictures in order to retell our story of Otis.

Centers

Art Table- Fruit and Vegetable Prints

Block Area- farms

Sensory Table- Alphabet Soup
Book Area- Exploring Books about community
Easel-Markers and paper
Writing Table-Farm Lists
Dramatic Play-Tools Shop
Math, Puzzles, and Manipulatives- Letters in a room hunt using clipboards
Science - Wool
Rug- legos

Science/Social Studies/Math Circle Concepts
-Caring for plants
-Reenact the book Otis
-Wheat from the farm
-How Many Scoops

Preschool Life Skills 

- 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".
2. When I give you an instruction, do it "right away"
(Ask your child what do you do when your teacher tells you to do something.  They should reply "I do it right away." You can reinforce this at home too.  "Put your legos away and do it "right away""
3. When I give you  instructions, do them "right away" (multi-step directions)
4. When something is too hard say "Help me please"
5. When you want something from a teacher or friend, say "Excuse Me" to get their attention

Songs, Word Plays, and Language

-Our Good Morning Chant

-Farmer in the Dell
-Freeze Game
-Simon Says (Farmer Lisa Says.....)

Classroom Motivational System
We will be learning classroom routines and expectations within our new classroom.  In order to create a successful and rewarding environment, each child will have a motivational system. Our classroom system promotes positive classroom behavior through positive peer modeling and teachers providing positive reinforcement for desired behaviors.