Oral language, Letter knowledge
Children will strengthen their comprehension of information presented in a book read aloud and increase the number of novel words they understand. Children will also identify and name the letter B.
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Review:
Be Prepared: This is the second of three repeated readings of a book with children. Today’s session focuses on children’s comprehension of information presented in the book, especially connections to children’s experiences. The session also helps children understand more novel words. From the list of novel words you identified prior to your first reading of the book, select 4–6 words to define for children today. Remember, it is okay to select words that a few children may know if you anticipate most children do not understand the word’s meaning. See the Language/Literacy section of the ELM User Guide: 3–5 Years for additional information on how to select and define novel words.
[Display letter B card.]
What is the name of this letter?
[Point to the uppercase letter B on the letter card.]
Am I pointing to the uppercase or to the lowercase letter B?
We know that uppercase letters are the big letters of the alphabet.
Now let’s spend some time with our book.
[See Week 3, Day 3 of Language/Literacy for a description and examples of how to approach today’s book reading. Key aspects are summarized below:
Number knowledge
Children will count items.
Review:
Let’s count and clap 10 times. We will clap once for each number we count.
Now, let’s stomp 10 times and count each time we stomp! When we count, the number tells us how many times we’ve clapped or stomped.
Today we will read a counting book called Ten Little Fish. We will practice counting while we read the book. Our book will help us learn to count to number 10 and then backwards from number 10 to number one.
[Display book. Point to the title as you read.]
The author of this book is Audrey Wood and the illustrator is Bruce Wood. Let’s start by counting the fish on the cover of the book.
[As you read the book, point to the text so that children can see a connection between your spoken words and the text. Pause on each page to count the fish in each picture. Example: On the page with the nine little fish swimming ‘round a crate, “Let’s see how many fish are swimming.” Encourage children to count along with you. After you count the fish on each page, say aloud the final number.]
Today we read a counting book called Ten Little Fish. We practiced counting the number of fish on each page. We even counted backwards from 10 to one! Let’s hold up 10 fingers and count them!
Extra support
Enrichment
Provide dice, beads of different colors, and string. Invite children to string the beads and make a necklace by rolling a die to see how many of a certain color to put on the string. Encourage children to take turns using a different bead color each time they roll a die until the string is full. Invite children to take their necklaces home and count different colored beads for their families!
Share Ten Little Fish with all children in your setting. Provide each preschool-age child with 10 fish manipulatives or a substitute such as 10 felt fish. Encourage preschool-age children to place 10 fish in front of them. As you read the book, invite them to remove one fish each time a fish leaves in the book. Then, encourage children to count the remaining fish. School-age children will enjoy using manipulatives to act out the story as you read.
Skills that support creative expression
Children will understand how to use clay or dough to create art.
New:
Review:
Be Prepared: Note that dough or clay needs to be made in advance of the activity. Prepare or provide enough clay or dough for each child to make one sculpture. You may wish to use commercial play dough. Commercial play dough is not a good choice for sending home children’s work; it will harden but also crumble. After introducing the words “clay” and “dough,” the activity plan uses the word “clay” to avoid repeated use of the phrase “clay or dough.”
We are learning about the kinds of items an artist can use to create art. We know that different kinds of paint can be used to create a painting. We also know there are different kinds of drawing tools like colored pencils and markers.
Today we will learn about making art from clay or dough.
[Display a handful of clay/dough.]
Clay or dough can be molded with an artist’s hands or other tools used to create art. When we mold something, we press or form it into a particular shape. Clay or dough becomes hard when it dries.
[Mold the clay/dough in your hand into a simple shape. Display and describe your creation. Then distribute some clay to each child.]
Let’s mold a handful of clay in different ways.
Remember, the kind of art made from clay or stone or some other material that we can carve or mold is called sculpture. There are many types of sculptures. We will mold our clay into a sculpture.
[Display and describe picture of children creating sculptures.]
We are learning a lot about how to create art. Today we molded some clay into different things. We are artists!
Extra support
Enrichment
Provide clay or dough from the main activity for continued practice opportunities. Provide small plates or pieces of cardboard for children to place their sculptures on to dry.
Make different types of homemade dough. Several recipes use heat, which may be easier to access in your setting. Or, you can place the sculptures in the oven to dry faster, and then they can be painted. Make enough dough so that each child can have enough to create at least one sculpture.
Uncooked Dough/Clay Recipe
Ingredients/Materials:
Directions:
Ingredients and directions to make homemade dough from http://www.pbs.org/parents/crafts-for-kids/no-bake-play-dough/
Cooked Dough/Clay Recipe
Ingredients/Materials:
Directions:
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Getting Along With Others
Social-Emotional
Skill and Goal
Relationship skills
Children will understand that helping others means we do something useful for someone.
Materials
Needed
Key
Concepts
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Also
Promotes
Today we are going to learn about helping others. There are many different ways we can be helpful. We could open the door for someone, or show someone how a game works, or help a friend put away things during clean-up time, or help a parent prepare a meal.
To help means to do something that makes things easier or better for someone. The person we help feels good when we are helpful and we feel good too!
We are going to read a book that will help us think about helping another person. Our book is called The Mitten Tree. The author is Candace Christiansen and the illustrator is Elaine Greenstein.
[As you read the book, emphasize pictures and text related to the questions below.]
[Display page with two children wearing new mittens.]
Today we read a book about how a woman named Sarah helped some children who needed mittens. We learned that when we help someone, we do something useful for another person or a group of people. We also learned that helping others makes them feel good and makes us feel good. How can we help someone in our classroom? How can we help others at home?
Scaffolding Tips
Extra support
Enrichment
Center Activity
Encourage children to think of ways they can be helpful to others during center time. Examples: help clean up a center, help get someone supplies, help someone with a puzzle. Each time they are helpful, encourage them to say aloud “I am helpful!”
Family Child Care
Encourage children to be helpful to others by organizing a collection of food to take to a local food pantry or clothing to take to a local shelter. If possible, take the children along when donating the items.