Raccoon observation in our classroom

The Burlington Science Center gave us a stuffed raccoon to observe more closely. At choice time, we drew our observations. 

Reflections Unit April 25-29

April Vacation Week (April 11-15 No school)
Back To School - April 25- 29 Reflections Unit
Shadows and Reflections Unit Week 2

Unit Book:  Raccoon on his own

Weekly Question and Vocabulary Words:
What is a reflection?
(silently, scatter, shiny, reflection, mirror, dull)

Literacy Small Groups

Letters-  We will practice the lowercase  formation of the letter q using a variety of mediums.  This may be in the form of Magna doodles, chalkboards, salt trays, etc.  We will rainbow write and pencil practice the letter q as well.This is another magic C letter-first, we start by making a lowercase c and continue on to make an q

Snake Cube Letter Sounds- We will roll a letter cube with the letters in the word snake. Then each child that landed on the letter will say the letter name, its sound and a word that begins with that letter.  We will chart them by tracing the letter and compare which letter was rolled the most, least, and/or equal.

Memory Game- We will play a memory game using the animals from this week’s story Raccoon on his Own.  Players will take turns and flip pairs to try to make a match.  We will need to remember where each card was to try to make each match.   

Letters- We will learn to write the lowercase letter l. Lowercase l is a diving letter.  It starts at the top and dives straight down.   We will practice this letter using magna doodles, chalkboards, salt trays, etc.  We will rainbow write and pencil practice the letter l as well.

Journal Writing

This week, we will recount the events of Raccoon’s journey down the river.  In our journals, we will draw and label all the animals Raccoon saw on his journey.  We will do our best to put them in sequence and say each word slowly to hear as many  sounds as we can.  We are becoming wonderful writers!

Math Small Groups

Raccoon’s Friends- After reading the story, Raccoon on his Own, we will create animals from the story using paper shapes.  We will discuss how the shapes become each part of the animal  and add details using markers.

Snake Patterns- In Raccoon on His Own, raccoon comes across a snake on his journey down the river. We will review patterns and shapes using shapes to make our very own pattern snake.  First, we will use blocks, then we will use paper shapes to create our snake.  

How Many Cubes Long?- We will experiment with length and measurement.  Using cubes, we will measure the frog’s log.  We will write the number of how many cubes we used and compare the lengths of each log using words like: long, short,  more, less. Experiment with measurement at home!

Alligator Greater Books- We will compare numbers and quantities to make a fun alligator book.  We will use alligator chompers to emulate the <,> symbol.  After carefully counting fish we will move our chompers so the alligator eats the greater quantity.

Number Formations

Using the Handwriting Without Tears program as a guide, we will continue to practice forming numbers 1-10.  This week, we will practice numbers 7 & 8 using wooden sticks, chalkboards or Magna doodles and in our letter formation books.

Centers

Art Table- turtle log coloring and painting turtles(folding paper to see "reflection")

Sensory Table- reflective tinsel with swamp animals
Book Area- Exploring Books about shadows and reflections
Easel-Markers and paper
Writing Table-Writing the room using vocabulary words
Dramatic Play- Eye Doctor (pretend glasses and letters)
Math, Puzzles, and Manipulatives-Reflective and non-reflective sorting independent activity
Rug- Animals
Block Area- blocks with mirrors (building by looking at reflection in mirror)

Science/Social Studies/Math Circle Concepts
-Floating Boats
-Moving Circles
-What am I? (shape clues)
-Reflections all around us

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

-Someone sitting by the pool reflection song
-Alphabet Chant using sign language
-Letter Sounds

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 behavior

Shadows and Reflections April 11-15

Shadows and Reflections Unit Week 2

Unit Book:  Moonbear's Shadow

Weekly Question and Vocabulary Words:
What makes shadows change?
(wide, noon, short, long, cast, deep)

Literacy Small Groups

Letters- We will practice the lowercase  formation of the letter d using a variety of mediums.  This may be in the form of magna doodles, chalkboards, salt trays, etc.  We will rainbow write and pencil practice the letter d as well.This is another magic C letter-first, we start by making a lowercase c and continue on to make a d.  

Where’s the Sound?- We will continue to practice segmenting words by sound. We will play another round of Where’s my Sound? Using clothespins to slowly segment each word, we will listen for the /m/ sound.  We will determine whether we hear the sound at the beginning, middle or end of the word and record our guesses on our sheet.

Letters - We will learn to write the lowercase letter s. Using magna doodles, chalkboards or salt trays we will practice the formation.  We will rainbow write and pencil practice the letter s as well.This is another magic C letter-first, we start by making a lowercase c and continue on to make an s.

Journal Writing- In our story this week, Moonbear’s shadow followed him wherever he went. We will write about where our shadows follow us.  We will turtle talk to sound out each word in our sentence and carefully illustrate our ideas using details.   

**Science Center Presentation on Shadows and Reflections** Mr. Musselman from the Burlington Science Center will be coming to our school to discuss shadows and reflections with our classroom.

Math Small Groups

Flat Shapes- Several units ago, we learned that we can view all sides of 3D shapes.  Now, we will take those shapes and make them into 2D shapes.  We will take 3D solid shapes and trace their faces to create 2D versions of the shape.  

Bears in a Cave- In our story this week, Moonbear experimented with his shadow. We will continue our practice with parts of numbers to make a whole.  Using bears in a cave, we will add some brown bears with some black bears.  We will create our own number sentences to show how many altogether.

Pattern Block Puzzles- We will explore a variety of 2d shapes using pattern block puzzles.  After spinning for a shape, we will work to complete our puzzles.  We will name & discuss each shape and its attributes as we play.  

Shape Hunt- After learning about the attributes of a circle, triangle, square, rectangle, hexagon, rhombus, oval and trapezoid we will go on a special shape hunt.  Searching around our classroom, we will look for objects that resemble each shape and record our work on our papers.

Number Formations- Using the Handwriting Without Tears program as a guide, we will continue to practice forming numbers 1-10.  This week, we will practice numbers 5 & 6 using chalkboards or magna doodles and in our letter formation books.

Centers

Art Table- fish  painting

Sensory Table- water and fishing rods
Book Area- Exploring Books about shadows and reflections
Easel-Markers and paper
Writing Table-Paper and words to trace
Dramatic Play- Eye Doctor (pretend glasses and letters)
Math, Puzzles, and Manipulatives-
Rug- Boat and fishing for letters
Block Area- blocks with flashlights to create block shadows

Science/Social Studies/Math Circle Concepts


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?)
7. When someone is in your way or if you want something, "Excuse Me, May I ______?"

Songs, Word Plays, and Language

-Our Good Morning Chant

-Shadows Letter on smartboard
-I see shadows (tune of frere jacques)
-Letter Sounds

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 behavior

Shadows and Reflections April 4-8

Shadows and Reflections Unit Week 1

Unit Book:  Whistle for Willie

Weekly Question and Vocabulary Words:
Why do we see shadows? 
(dark, light, shadow, practice, errand, whirl)

Literacy Small Groups

Lowercase Letters- We will practice the lowercase  formation of the letter a using a variety of mediums.  This may be in the form of magna doodles, chalkboards, salt trays, etc.  We will rainbow write and pencil practice the letter a as well.This is another magic C letter-first, we start by making a lowercase c and continue on to make an a.

Robot Segments- We will use the picture cards from Whistle for Willie to segment words using our robot voice.  We will listen for the individual sounds in each word.  Then, we will count the sounds we hear in each word.  We will sort the words by two or three sounds.

Lowercae Letters- We will learn to write the lowercase letter g. Using magna doodles, chalkboards or salt trays we will practice the formation..  We will rainbow write and pencil practice the letter g as well.This is another magic C letter-first, we start by making a lowercase c and continue on to make an g.

Where’s the Sound? - We will practice segmenting words by sound.  We will use clothespins to slowly segment each word and listen for the /t/ sound.  We will determine whether we hear the sound at the beginning, middle or end of the word and record our guesses on our sheet.  

Journal Writing- In this week’s story, Peter wished he knew how to whistle.  We will make a personal connection to the story and write and draw about what we want to learn to do.  We will practice turtle talking (slowly saying our words to hear their sounds) and adding spaces between our words.  We are also working on our detailed drawings to correlate with our writing.

Math Small Groups

Fill Up the Frame Game- In pairs, we will roll a number cube and subitize the amount of dots we see.  Then each child will place the amount of dots of the cube.  We will identify how many dots each child has and how many empty spaces there are.  The goal is to fill up a ten frame.  

Shape Shadow Sorting-We will sort 2D shapes by their attributes.  Using the black shadows of squares, rectangles, circles, ovals, rhombuses and triangles, we will sort them by the number of corners they have. We will discuss each shape as we sort.

1,2,3 Shape Share- We will play a game to practice dividing quantities fairly.  Working in pairs, students will put 1-5 fingers behind their backs. On the count of three they will reveal their amount and count the fingers altogether.  Using that number of shapes, they will use paper shapes to share equally and problem solve to share any leftover shapes.  

Guess my Shape- Students will work in pairs to play a shapes guessing game.  Using a mystery shape hidden under a box, students will describe (corners, sides) the shape to their partner without naming the shape.  Partners will try to guess the mystery shape based on their partner’s description.  

Number Formation Practice- Using the Handwriting Without Tears program as a guide, we will continue to practice forming numbers 1-10.  This week, we will practice numbers 3 and 4 using wooden sticks, chalkboards or magna doodles and in our letter formation books.

Centers

Art Table-Chalk on black paper

Block Area- blocks with flashlights to create block shadows

Sensory Table- water with floating objects to see shadows of objects
Book Area- Exploring Books about shadows and reflections
Easel-Markers and paper
Writing Table-Paper and words to trace
Dramatic Play-Movie Theater
Math, Puzzles, and Manipulatives-
Rug- Legos
Science/Social Studies/Math Circle Concepts
-Shadows and Shapes
-How to change the shape of shadows
-Using blocks and light to make shadows
-Shape attributes

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

-Shadows Letter on smartboard
-I see shadows (tune of frere jacques)
-Letter Sounds

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 behavior

Unit 6 Week 4 Earth and Sky March 28-April 1

Earth and Sky Unit Week 3

Unit Book: Think Green

Weekly Question and Vocabulary Words:
How can we take care of the Earth?
(plastic, aluminum, recycle, paper, seperate, harm, bin)

Literacy Small Groups

Letter/Sound Correspondence- We will practice matching vowels with their sounds.  These letters (a,e,i,o,u) are often the most difficult to master for young learners.  Using magnetic letters, we will pull a vowel from our cup.  Beginning by placing our marker or crayon on the matching vowel, we will stretch out the vowel sound to reach the picture that makes that sound while tracing the line.  We will continue pulling vowels from our cup until all vowel sounds have been practiced three times each.

Handwriting-We will begin formal instruction on how to form lowercase letters.  Since lowercase letter formations  are new to most of us, we will learn these at a slower pace and use a variety of mediums to practice each letter.  This may be in the form of magna doodles, chalkboards, salt trays, etc.  We will rainbow write and pencil practice each letter  well.  This week, we will practice letters c & o.  These are magic C letters- Once we know how to make the lowercase c, we will learn to make many other letters that also begin that way.

Segmenting & Blending Sounds- We will continue our practice segmenting and blending sounds heard in words. Using three sounds words, we will color and cut out pictures puzzles.  We will use those puzzles to practice blending words together and then taking them apart.  Repeat this activity at home to help your child build this skill.

Journals- We will continue our practice writing in our journals.  This week, we will write about taking care of our earth.  We will slowly sound out words to write a sentence about one way we can help keep our planet a great place to live.

Math Small Groups

Duplo Sharing -We will learn what it means for quantities to be equal.  Equal quantities have the same amount.  Starting with a set number of Duplo blocks we will take turns adding blocks to make two towers.  When all the blocks have been used we will compare the towers to be sure they look the same and then count them to be sure they have the same amount of blocks in each tower.

Sharing Fairly- We will learn how to divide items equally into two groups.  Using a number dice, we will roll a number.  Using that number of bottles, we will sort the bottles fairly among the two recycling bins.  Each bin must have an equal number of bottles.  We will also learn that any leftover bottles can’t be placed into a group since it would make the group not equal.

Two Tree Sharing -We will continue our practice dividing quantities equally with a springtime tree sort.  Using a set number of spring objects we will sort them equally among the trees.

Sharing Fairly with Leftovers- After learning how to divide items equally into two groups, we will learn how to divide leftovers fairly.  Using an odd number dice, we will roll an odd number.  Using that number of paper sheets,  we will sort the sheets fairly among the two recycling bins.  Each bin must have an equal amount. When we come across the leftover sheet, we will cut it in half to be sure we have the same (or an equal) amount in each bin.  

Number Formation Practice- Using the Handwriting Without Tears program as a guide, we will continue to practice forming numbers 1-10.  This week, we will practice numbers 1 & 2 using wooden sticks, chalkboards or magna doodles and in our letter formation books.

Centers

Art Table-Recycled collages

Block Area- Recycling Center

Sensory Table- soil and tools for the soil
Book Area- Exploring Books about sky and earth
Easel-Markers and paper
Writing Table-Paper and words to trace
Dramatic Play-Flower Shop
Math, Puzzles, and Manipulatives-Spring Trees
Rug- Legos
Science/Social Studies/Math Circle Concepts
-Sharing Equally
-Sharing Leftovers
-Reusing our things from our house
-Recycle
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

-Pick up the Litter Game (using letters on "trash")
-Let's Go Green
-Letter Sounds

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 6 Week 3 Earth and Sky March 21-24 (No School Friday)

Earth and Sky Unit Week 3

Unit Book: A Time for all Seasons

Weekly Question and Vocabulary Words:
What changes in each season?
(summer, spring, winter, fall, perfect, chilly, bud)

Literacy Small Groups

Handwriting- We will be focusing on diagonal letters, we will practice writing the letters M and N  We will be working on our own letter formation books that will come home when our uppercase letter formations are complete.   

Ending Sounds Car Sort- We will use a car with a word. Then we will "drive our cars" on a road and stop at the ending sound. We will listen and identify the ending sound and place the car in the chart below.

 Ending Sounds- We will use frogs to practice segmenting sounds in words.  We will do one frog hop for each sound we hear.  On the last hop in each word, we will listen carefully for ending sounds and sort our pictures accordingly.  

Handwriting-We will review the formations for uppercase letters formed with diagonal lines.   We will review and practice the formations for the letters W, X, Y, and Z in our letter books.

Math Small Groups

Fill up the Frame Game- In pairs, we will roll a number cube and subitize the amount of dots we see.  Then each child will place the amount of dots of the cube.  We will identify how many dots each child has and how many empty spaces there are.  The goal is to fill up a ten frame.  

Sort for parts of 10-We will continue our work with adding parts to make a whole number.  This week, we  will work with the number 10.  Using the Mystery Cup game, we will dump and count ten cubes.  After sorting them into two parts we will record how many of each part to make a total of ten.

Towers to Nine- We will practice identifying numerals and matching quantities to numerals 1-9. We will use a number spinner to identify numbers 1-9.  We will  build towers with the corresponding number of cubes.  After we’ve built a tower for each number we will trace the numerals on our paper.

Seasonal Number Book-We will continue to practice parts of whole numbers.  Using pink tissue paper as spring cherry blossoms, we will use a whole number 6-10 and count out that many blossoms.  We will glue some blossoms to the tree and glue some that have fallen on the ground. We will trace numerals to show the whole number of blossoms as well as the numerals that show the number of blossoms on and off the spring tree.

Centers

Art Table-Seasonal Tree collages

Block Area- Building with blocks to build trees

Sensory Table- soil and tools for the soil
Book Area- Exploring Books about sky and earth
Easel-Markers and paper
Writing Table-Paper and words to trace
Dramatic Play-Flower Shop
Math, Puzzles, and Manipulatives-Spring Trees
Rug- Legos
Science/Social Studies/Math Circle Concepts
- Signs of the Seasons
-- Jobs All Year
-Trees and Soil
-Clothing that Protects us in different seasons

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

-Windy was the weather
-Letter and sound connections
-Growing 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. 

High School Art Show

Yesterday, we visited the BHS art show.  We loved looking at all of the interesting artwork!