We are going to practice finding letters we know by looking for them in a sentence. When we find the letters, we will also say the sound the letters make.

[Write the following sentence on a chart or whiteboard. Read each word as you write the sentence:

The train took us quickly to the zoo.]

We want to find the lowercase letter q in our sentence.

[Display letter Q card. Point to the lowercase q on the card.

Encourage a volunteer child to look for and point to the lowercase letter q in the sentence as you display the letter Q card.]

What sound does the letter Q make?

Yes! Letter Q says /q/. Let’s together say the sound of the letter Q: /q/.

[Repeat the above procedure with the letter z.]

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:

• Display book cover and say book title. Engage children in describing what they remember about the book:
  • What is our book about?
  • Who were the main characters in our book?
  • What happened first? What happened next?
• Remind children that reading a book is a good way to learn new words. Point to and say words introduced on Day 1 that are listed on the Words We Understand chart. Invite children to talk about what they recall about each of the words. Remind children of the meaning of each novel word.
• Point to where to begin to read on the first text page of the book. Pause during reading to briefly define words identified for today’s session. Use the following approach:
  • Read the sentence with the novel word. Repeat the novel word.
  • Repeat the sentence in which the word is used.
  • Define the novel word and connect the definition to the book.

• After the book reading, engage children in a discussion of each novel word targeted for today with one or more of the following strategies (plus writing the word on the chart):
  • Ask children to describe a picture related to the word.
  • Define a word without naming it and ask children to identify the word.
  • Encourage children to think about a novel word in another context.
• Encourage children to connect the book information to their own experiences. Below are some examples:
  • “Our book today was about worms. Have you ever seen or touched a worm? What was it like?”
  • “Our book today talked about roots. Roots are part of a plant that grow into the dirt. Have you ever seen the root of a plant? What was it like?”
  • “Today we talked about the word squeeze. We squeeze something by pressing things very close together. What kinds of things have you squeezed? How about a tube of toothpaste? How about a package or bottle of ketchup? Show us how you squeeze something.”]

Offer the Week 3, Day 4 “monster head” activity to review the concept of more. The activity will also review how to connect number words to the quantities they represent.

Engage pairs of children in a ladybug activity that involves making and comparing two groups of items.

Invite children to play a game with a ladybug. Display ladybug picture. Point to and describe how the line down the middle of the ladybug provides two sides. We will work with a partner to roll a die and put counters (circles) on each side of the ladybug. Then we will decide which side has more. Remind children that when something has more, it has a larger or bigger number of something. Also remind children that equal means things are the same.

Encourage children to watch you and a volunteer child demonstrate how to play the game. Place 12 counters in front of you and the volunteer child. Invite the volunteer child to roll the die and count aloud the dots on top of the die. Encourage the child to place a group of counters on one side of the ladybug that is equal to the dots on the die. Then you roll the die and count aloud the dots on top of the die. Place a group of counters on the other side of the ladybug that is equal to the dots on the die. Invite the volunteer child to point to the group that has more. Ask all children how the volunteer child knew which group had more.

Arrange children in pairs. Give each pair of children a ladybug picture, a die, and counters. Encourage children to play the game described above. After each child in the pair has placed his/her group of counters on the ladybug, encourage the pair to point to the group of counters that has more. If both groups of counters are equal, encourage children to point to both sides of the ladybug. Invite each pair of children to remove their counters and play the game again.

We are learning about different kinds of transportation. We know about transportation that moves on land. We also know about transportation that moves in the sky. What did we talk about yesterday that moves in the sky? (helicopter)

Today we will talk about boats.

[Display toy boat.]

• Have you ever seen or been in a boat? Or maybe played with a toy boat in the water?
• What did you do?

[Encourage a brief discussion of children’s experiences with boats.]

A boat is a kind of transportation that moves on water. Boats can carry people and take items from place to place.

Let’s look at some pictures of different types of boats.

[Display picture of a rowboat. Point to oars when you describe them.]

This is a rowboat. People use two oars to move a rowboat across the water. An oar is a long pole with a flat part on the end. The flat part goes in the water.

The rowboat moves forward when a person pulls the oars. Pulling on the oars is called rowing.

A rowboat can be used for fun on a river or lake. Some people use a rowboat to go fishing. Oceans are too big for a rowboat.

Let’s pretend we are rowing a boat.

[Demonstrate and lead children in pretending to row. Remember to sit with your back to children so they can see your rowing action.

While children are engaged in rowing actions, sing the song “Row, Row, Row Your Boat.” Invite children to sing with you.]

[Display picture of sailboat. Point to sail when you describe it.]

This picture shows a sailboat. Wind moves a sailboat through the water. The boat’s sail is a strong piece of cloth or vinyl that catches the wind. A sailboat needs wind to move.

[Display picture of motorboat. Point to motor when you describe it.]

This is a picture of a motorboat. A motorboat has a motor (or engine) that moves the boat through the water. The motor is attached to the back of the boat in this picture. Sometimes the motor can be found inside a motorboat.

A boat is a kind of transportation that moves on water. Boats can carry people and take items from place to place. There are different kinds of boats. Boats can be moved forward by oars, sails, and motors.

We are having fun telling stories with different kinds of puppets. We have used different kinds of puppets to tell the same story. We have used finger puppets and stick puppets.

• What is a finger puppet? (a puppet that we put on our finger)
• What is a stick puppet? (a puppet that is on a small stick)

Today we will use puppets to make up our own story.

[Display puppets.]

I have gathered all (some) of the puppets in our classroom. Let’s identify some of our puppets.

[Encourage children to identify available puppets. Example: “Is this a cow puppet or a pig puppet?”]

Which puppets do we want to use to tell a story today? We will make up our own story.

[Help children decide which puppets to use to tell a story. Each child should choose one puppet.]

Now let’s make up a story that involves the puppets we have selected. The puppets will be the characters in our story. We know a character is a person or an animal (or creature) in a story or book.

[Use questions, such as the following, to help children create a short story. Use the chart paper to write children’s ideas. Remind children that a story has a plot. A plot is the order of events that happen in a story. Ensure the story includes each puppet character.]

• What will our story be about?
• What will happen first in our story?
• What will happen next?
• How does our story end?

I am going to tell our story. We can use our puppets to act out the story as I tell it. We can move our puppets as I tell the story and make them talk.

[Tell the story based on the ideas children provided. Add details to the story as necessary. Example: If children provided the idea of a duck walking to the barn and then taking a nap, include details about what the duck saw on the way there. Encourage children to use the puppets to act out the story and to make their puppets talk. Example: “The little duck decided to take a walk by the pigpen. When the duck got there, it said ___ (encourage child with the duck puppet to use his/her voice to say what he/she thinks the duck may have said to the pigs).”]

Today we selected some puppets and made up a story. The puppets were the characters in our story. Our story had a plot. Events happened in a specific order in our story. We moved our puppets and made them talk during our story. What do you think was the best part of our story?