Unit 6

Books:
I Heard Said the Bird
Bigger
Informational Books;
Growing Things
From Caterpillar to Butterfly
Animals Born Alive and Well

Small Group Activities:
Sequencing pictures from infant through adulthood
Syllable Counting Activity
Matching upper and lowercase letters
Graphing Activity
Life Cycle of Butterflies

Choice  Time:
Rug Area: IPADS, floor puzzles and board games
Block Area: building Manipulatives
Red Table: Making Collages with a variety of mediums
Yellow Table: Making and playing with playdough
Writing Center: Stickers, scissors, pencils, markers and stamps
Dramatic Play: Garden

Unit 6: Things That Grow

In unit 6, children explore how living grow, using observations, experiments and books. Through story readings, children hear about ducks who find a special home, a new baby on a farm, a boy who grows from  babyhood to school aged, and a girl who discovers the joy of growing vegetables. Children continue to learn about letters, sounds, and rhyming words, and participate in many other mathematics, science, music, poetry, and art activities.

Theme Concepts:

Living things grow and have life cycles.
Living things reproduce, and the offspring are the same kind of plant or animals as the parent.
Living things need food, water, and proper living conditions to survive.
Immature living things need special care.
Living things interact, and among animals there are predators and prey.

Story Time Books:
The Ugly Vegetable
Make Way For Ducklings
I Heard Said the Bird
Bigger

Small Group Activities:
Preparing vegetables for soup
Planting Grass
Mother's Day Activity
Paper Plate Ducks
Sequencing Ducks from smallest to largest
Sequencing the life cycle of a bean sprout
1:1 math sheet
Measuring with unifix cubes

This week we finished Unit 5:Shadows and Reflections. After vacation we will start Unit 6: Things That Grow.

Books: 
What Makes A Shadow
Dreams
Moon Bear's Shadow
There's a Wocket in my Pocket

Small Groups:
Decorating a butterfly with reflective and non-reflective materials
Creating an AAB pattern
Matching shadows with their corresponding shape
Making a kaleidoscope

Choice Time:
Dramatic Play-dress up clothes and photo shop
Rug Area: IPADS and Floor Puzzle
Yellow Table: Fruit Loop Necklaces
Red Table: Playdough
Block Area: Blocks, Animals and a variety of building manipulatives
Writing Center: Paper, Stickers, Writing Utensils and Scissors
Books: Theme Related and Spring Books


Have a wonderful and relaxing vacation and we'll see you on the 22nd.

Books:
Night Shift Daddy
Play With Me
Dreams

Small Groups:
Coloring, cutting and gluing pieces to make a turtle
Making collections with animals
Practicing writing numbers
Beginning sounds activity
Creating a scene from one of our stories

Choice Time:
Arts-n-crafts - necklaces, creating collages with reflecting and non reflecting materials
Rug Area - floor puzzles and IPADS
Block Area - legos, knex and zoobs
Writing Center- practicing drawing pictures of people, making maps and writing notes
Book Area - Spring related books
Yellow Table- making new playdough
Dramatic Play- house corner

SLWP:
Green Grass Grows All Around
Five Green and Speckled Frogs
Freeze Song
Going to Kentucky
Old McDonald had a Farm

Week 1: Shadows and Reflections

Books: 
Play With Me
Raccoon on His Own
Clap Your Hands
Caps for Sale

Small Group:
Matching upper and lowercase letters

Choice Time:
Art Table: Bears and Mirrors and watercolors with animals from the books
Rug: IPADS
Block Area: Knex and Zoobs
Dramatic Play: Airport
Writing Center: stickers, markers, scissors
Books: Theme related and classroom favorites
Puzzles and Manipulatives, Playdough

With the snow storm predicted for tomorrow, we have rescheduled our school picture day to Thursday, March 21. There will be no school pictures on Tuesday, March 19.

Unit 5 Shadows and Reflections

Theme: Shadows and Reflections

In Unit 5, children explore shadows and reflections, using observations, experiments, and books to learn what makes a shadow and reflection. Through Story Time books, children hear about a girl playing by a still pond, a puppy who thinks he's a kitten, a crocodile collecting reflections in a pail, a sleepy boy who sees a shadow save a cat, and a raccoon who has an adventure with only his reflection for company. Children continue to learn about letters and sounds, and counting concrete objects. They participate in many other mathematics, science, music,poetry and art activities.


Theme Concepts: 
Reflections are images thrown back from a shiny surface.
There must be light or there is no reflection
Mirrors and still water reflect light well;dull surfaces do not
If water is moving,its reflections are blurry or crooked
Objects are opaque,translucent,or transparent
Shadows are dark areas made when an object blocks light.
The size of shadows vary,depending on how close an object is to it.

Story Time Books:
Play With Me
The Puddle Pail
Kitten for a Day
Dreams
Raccoon on His Own

Predictable and Informational Books:
Clap Your Hands
Night Shift Daddy
Fun With Shadows


SLWP: 

If You're Happy and You Know It
Down By the Bay
Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes
Eensty, Weentsy Spider
Old McDonald Had a Farm
The Wheels on the Bus
I'm a Little Teapot
Open Them, Shut Them
Five Green and Speckled Frogs
Clap Your Hands
Looby Loo
What are You Wearing

Week 4 of Color

Next week we will be finishing Unit 4.

Story:
Dear Juno
Dog's colorful Day
Cat's Colors
Elmer
Mouse Paint

Small Group:
Draw a person (mid-year assessment)
Rainbow Art Project - crunching tissue paper into small balls and placing them on the corresponding colored line. (two days)
Ice Cream Cones - Making 3 different ice creams so each one is different
Dog's Adventure - Giving dog a new spot and answering questions about the new spot.

SLWP:
Going to Kentucky
The Green Grass Grows All Around
Songs from Greg and Steve
Apples and Bananas
I'm A Little Teapot

Choice Time:
Art Table - curls and twirls and decorating ice cream cones
Rug - IPADS and Floor puzzles
Dramatic Play - housecorner
Writing Center - Writing letters to peers
Blocks - Straws and Connectors and blocks and animals
Manipulative Table- making green playdough and playing with it.

Unit 4 The World of Color

THEME:The World Of Color
In Unit 4, children learn about color. Color names, color mixing, stains, fading, camouflage, and color pattern are just a few topic covered. Through the Story Time books, children will hear about a dog that stains his white coat, a lion who paints pictures, a boy who gets special letters from his grandmother, and a rabbit who wants to buy a special shirt. In addition to listening to stories, children will increase their vocabulary and observe and explore color and patterns directly. They will continue to learn about letters and sounds,including rhyming words, and they will participate in music, poetry, mathematics, science and art activities.

Theme Concepts:

*Color is one thing that makes our world beautiful. both in nature and through art. Different colors and designs appeal to different people.
*Color can carry information.
*Paints and dyes are used to color other things and are mixed to make new colors.
*Different substances can cause stains of different colors.
*Sun and washing often bleach colors-make them fade.
* Color is an identifying feature of many natural things.

Books:
Max's Dragon Shirt
Dog's Colorful Day
Cat's Colors

Small Group Activities:
Math Sheet: Tracing numbers and working on 1:1
 Color Words: Matching color words and adding correct color dot
Patterns: Children will extend an AAB pattern
Dog's Shape Book: Children will place the correct shape on dog.

SLWP:
The Green Grass All Around
Down By the Bay
I'm a Little Snowman
Apples and Bananas
The Snowman
Hands

Choice Time:
Rug: IPADS, Puzzles, Games
Art Table: Making Valentine Hearts, Decorating Max's Shirt, Finger Painting
Blocks: Blocks and Animals
Writing Center: Writing Valentine's
Books: Exploring Books
Dramatic Play: House-corner
Manipulative Table: Playdough

week 4

This week we finished Unit 3.

Small Group Activities:
Decorating Mittens
Syllable Clapping with Unit Words
Snowman Math Book
Positional Book

Choice Time:
Rug: IPADS, Puzzles or building Manipulatives
Red Table: Making playdough, making creations with Model Magic
Dramatic Play: Dunkinn Donuts
Block Area: Board Games, Blocks and Animals
Yellow Table: Arts n Crafts Activities, making necklaces
Sensory Table: Melting Ice

SLWP:
Five Little Monkeys
ABC's
Going to Kentucky
Ryming Words

Books:
Reviwing all the unit books

Wind and Water - Week 3

Books:

• Rabbits and Raindrops 
• The Snowy Day 
• A Hat for Minerva Louise 

Small group activities: 

• Matching upper and lowercase snowflakes 
• Snowman/snowflake positional book 
• Sequencing pictures from The Snowy Day
• What can air move (hairdryer activities)
• Absorbency of Materials 

Songs/SWPL: 

• Itsy bitsy spider 
• Clap your hands 
• Five little ducks 
• The wheels on the bus 
• Apples and Bananas
• Open Shut them 

Choice time: 

• Building with blocks 
• Oobleck/Goop 
• Dunkin Donuts - dramatic play 
• Sculpting clay 
• Popsicle stick snowflakes 
• Painting with colors from Raindrops and Rabbits 

Week of Jan.2-3 and Jan.6-10

During the month of January the focus of our activities will be wind and water. This theme allows children explore wind and water using observations, experiments, and books to learn more about topics such as evaporation, weather, temperature, insulation, rain, and snow.

 

Books this week

·         Giberto and the Wind by Marie Hall

·         One Dark Night by Hazel Hutchins

·         Amy’s Letters

 

Small Groups this week

·         Shape Bingo Game

·         Decorating pinwheels and boxes and cutting them out

·         Picture Card memory game using words from unit 3 storybooks

·         Inflating balloons and observing their movement in wind

·         Predicting Which objects will move

Center Activities this week

·         Art: Painting with straws (moving paint on paper blowing into straws)

·         Easel: Painting with colors from the book Gilberto and the Wind (black, brown and and white paint)

·         Writing: blank books with crayons, colored pencils and markers

·         Sand and Water: water and student and teacher created sailboats

·         Library: Exploring books

·         Puzzles and Manipulatives: Matching uppercase alphabet arch letters

·         Dramatic Play: playing house, clothes line and clothes pins for dramatic play

·         Blocks: building with blocks

Songs, Word Play, Letters

·         Songs: Come On and Join in the Game; Clap Your Hands; Wheels on the Bus

·         Poems: Hands; Stand Up; My Big Balloon; Mix a Pancake; Five Little Owls in an Old Elm Tree

·         Literacy Skills: Naming sound game and rhyming word game

 

Please send in an extra pair of shoes/sneakers for your child to wear during the day.