Desert Unit Week 1 (March 13-17)

Unit Book: Two Cool Coyotes

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

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./

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.

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.

Handwriting/Letter Groups
-Magic C Letters: c and o

We will be working on lowercase letters. We will be using magnet boards, colored salt trays, chalk boards, or shaving cream to form these letters within our small group time. We will then expose the children to the Fundation lines. Fundations is the curriculum used in kindergarten. We will be exposing the students to the language (ie. sky line, plane line, grass line, and worm line) when forming our letters. 

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. We will roll out snakes and then form them to the numbers.

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 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.  

Desert memory game: We will play a memory game using vocabulary from our unit.

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-Desert Letters
Dramatic Play-Camping
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
-Pattern songs
-Magic C 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 (March 6-10)

Unit Book: 
Chameleon's Colors
Weekly Question and Vocabulary Related to book:

What are jungle animals like?

(parrot, complain, splash, chase, collect, pattern )

Literacy Small Groups

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.

Lowercase Letters- We will be working on lowercase letters u and c this week. We will be using magnet boards, colored salt trays, chalk boards, or shaving cream to form these letters within our small group time. We will then expose the children to the Fundation lines. Fundations is the curriculum used in kindergarten. We will be exposing the students to the language (ie. sky line, plane line, grass line, and worm line) when forming our letters. 

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

Letters u and c

Math Small Groups

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 chameleons.

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.

Jungle Roll and Write- We will roll one dice or two dice. Then we will count the dots and say how many in all. Then students will write the number to record the number they rolled.

Centers

Art Table-Animal prints to add to our mural

Block Area- Zoo animals with labels for children to create zoo cages (Welcome to the Zoo)

Sensory Table-Jello and snakes, frogs, and fish.  "Swampy Water"
Book Area- Exploring Books about jungle and desert
Easel-Markers and paper
Writing Table-Zookeeper Lists
Dramatic Play-Cub Cadet Zoo- Buying Tickets and visiting animals
Math, Puzzles, and Manipulatives- Playdough Mats to feed the giraffes according to the numbers on the mats.
Science - Crystal the African Parrot from the Science Center is visiting our room
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. 

African Parrot in our classroom

We have been enjoying our visit from Crystal, an African Grey Parrot, from the Burlington Science Center.  In our unit of the jungle, we have been learning about the three parts of a jungle(canopy, understory, and forest floor).  We have been discussing how different animals live in the different parts of the jungle because what each part has for the animals to live.   We learned that Crystal would live in the canopy because there is sunlight which helps plants to grow food for the parrots to eat.  

 Some of our students found books in our library about parrots and then wanted to show Crystal the pictures.  They had the idea that perhaps she would feel happy to see some of her parrot friends.  

 We have also given Crystal fruit and observed how she eats. 

Jungle Unit Week 1 (Feb. 27-Mar. 3)

Picture Day is coming!!! Tuesday March 7 (see paper in folder)
Weekly Question and Vocabulary
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

Lowercase Letters- We will be working on lowercase letters r and p this week. We will be using magnet boards, colored salt trays, chalk boards, or shaving cream to form these letters within our small group time. We will then expose the children to the Fundation lines. Fundations is the curriculum used in kindergarten. We will be exposing the students to the language (ie. sky line, plane line, grass line, and worm line) when forming our letters. 

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.  

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

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- Sloth for jungle 

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-Zookeeper  (Taking care of zoo animals)
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. 

Surveys in our classroom

Today we started to introduce the students to surveys.  Each child creates their own question, "Do you like__________?". Then they ask each child their question and record their answer in the yes or no column.  This is a fun day to introduce them to the concept of data collection. 

We also modeled how to ask and answer the questions.  For example, using eye contact, using a "just right" volume, and answering in a complete sentence (ie"Yes, I like ice cream). 

 After each child completed their survey of the class/small group, they were encouraged to look at their results and discuss what they learned(ie: everyone likes ice cream, most of the class likes yogurt.....). 

Valentine Week- February 13-17

We will be giving our friends Valentines on Tuesday. Please send them in on Monday or Tuesday.

Weekly Books and Vocabulary

Love You Forever / Valentine Cats

How do we take care of people who we love?

(message, card, lullaby, draft, love, rocked)

Literacy Small Groups

Valentine Color Book- We will be using our "reading" pointers to count words on a page, identify spaces between words, and pointing to color words in an emergent reader book. We will be exposing children to the concept of guiding reading in a Valentine Color Book.  

Valentine Exchange- We will use our literacy small group time to exchange valentines with our classmates.

Lowercase Letter Bingo Review- We will play a bingo game while reviewing formation of the lowercase letters we have learned.  We have focused on the diving letters l, t, h, b, n, and m.  

Rhyming Matches- We will be cutting cards with rhyming matches. Then we will each find the rhyming pairs. This will be a take-home activity so you can reinforce rhyming pairs at home.

Monthly Self Portrait- We will continue to work on our monthly self-portraits and name writing sample.

Math Small Groups

Yes and No Surveys- We will be introducing the children the importance of asking questions and recording our results. Each child will think of a question to ask their peers. For example, Do you like ice cream? Do you like the color blue? Do you like playing with cars? etc. They will ask their peers the question and then record their friends yes or no answer on their survey clip board. At choice time, children will have the opportunity to ask all of the class a question to carry over.

Pattern Frames- We will create heart patterns around the outside of a paper to create a frame. Then we will draw a picture of our family. Children will create AB, AABB, and ABC patterns prior to the activity to reinforce patterning.

Smatch- We will be playing a memory / attribute game. In the game children will spin a spinner then find a match of cards on the table. For example, if a child lands on a color they must find two pictures with the same color, if a child lands on a number they must find two pictures with the same number.

Secret Activity- We will be working on a special activity to give to our family :)

Centers

Art Table-Making cards for our families

Block Area- blocks

Sensory Table- Spa Playdough (a mixture of corn startch and strawberry scented conditioner)
Book Area- Exploring Books

Easel-Markers and paper

Writing Table-Colored pencils to make cards

Dramatic Play- Flower shop (We will make bouquets and cards for our loved ones)

Math, Puzzles, and Manipulatives-Board Game

Rug- Legos

Science/Social Studies/Math Circle Concepts

- How to show your family you care
-Patterns
-Sorting by 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 someone is in your way or has something that you want, say "Excuse Me, May I__________?" to get what you want.

Farm Unit Week 4 Click, Clack, Moo (Feb. 6-10)

Last Week of Farm Unit

Weekly Book and Vocabulary

Click, Clack, Moo

Why do farmers have animals?

(letter, snoop, furious, typewriter, electric, demand)

Literacy Small Groups

Beginning Sounds on the Farm- We will review listening for the same beginning sounds in words. We will say three words and decide which two have the same beginning sound.  We will place the words that begin with the same sound in a barn and the one that doesn’t belong will be thrown in the mud! 

Lowercase Letters- We will be working on lowercase letters m and n this week. We will be using magnet boards, colored salt trays, chalk boards, or shaving cream to form these letters within our small group time. We will then expose the children to the Fundation lines. Fundations is the curriculum used in kindergarten. We will be exposing the students to the language (ie. sky line, plane line, grass line, and worm line) when forming our letters.

Sorting Food from the Farm- We will sort food from the farm based on how we get it. For example, milk comes from an animal and corn comes from a plant. Then we will cut and glue the corresponding word to go with the pictures based on initial letter sounds.

Journals- Writing about our favorite animals from the farm. We will use "ear" spelling by writing the letters we hear in words.

Handwriting/Letter Groups

-Handwriting Without Tears Program-Diving Letters books(m and n)

Math Small Groups

How Many Legs?- We will practice recognizing and comparing quantities without counting.  Using toy farm animals, we will look closely at their legs.  We will sort them based on the number of legs they have using the terms “more, less and equal.”  Then we will draw the animals with the same number of legs.

More or Less Bean Toss-We will play a partner game to practice recognizing quantities to five and determining quantities that are more or less.  Using a dot dice students will take turns rolling and placing the quantity on their mats.  They will record their turns on their sheet and determine who had the most beans for each round.

Click Clack Moo Math-Using cow counters and barn math mats, we will practice more/less/equal concepts by counting and placing our cows on our mats.  We will compare quantities and work to make them equal.    We will also learn about number parts.  Use this activity with your child to extend math learning at home.

Farm Animal Ten Frames- Animal Pictures with a ten frame will be placed around the room with the ten frame filled with numbers up to 10.  We will find the animal and record the number in the ten frame on our clipboards.  

Centers

Art Table-Farm animal books continued

Block Area- farm animals

Sensory Table- Grass (Easter Grass) and animals

Book Area- Exploring Books about community

Easel-Markers and paper

Writing Table-Farm Lists

Dramatic Play- Office / computers/ envelopes/ letter

Math, Puzzles, and Manipulatives-farm puzzles

Rug- Tracks and Vehicles

Science/Social Studies/Math Circle Concepts

-Tracks that vehicles make

-Wheat from the farm

-Good for you food
-Take Away Stories

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 someone is in your way or has something that you want, say "Excuse Me, May I__________?" to get what you want.