[Display letter Z card.]

What is the name of this letter?

[Point to the uppercase letter Z on the letter card.]

Am I pointing to the uppercase or to the lowercase 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 22, Day 1 activity to review the concept of one more.

Offer an activity in which children individually identify a numeral card that represents one more than a displayed numeral card.

We know that when we move, we go from one place to another place.

Today we will learn that some things are different and some things are similar or the same when people move to a new home. Remember, when things are similar they are like each other but not the same. Things that are different are not the same.

• If a child moves to another classroom, what things might be different? (children, teachers, toys, routines, etc.)
• What things in a new classroom might be similar to the classroom the child moved from? (cubbie, art center, block center, bathrooms, outdoor area, etc.)

Let’s learn about some children who recently moved to another home.

[Display picture of Jason. Read or use your own words to tell about Jason’s move.]

This is a picture of Jason. He is four years old and lives with his mom. Jason’s mom wanted to live closer to where she works. Jason and his mom moved from their apartment to another apartment that was closer to his mom’s job. Jason carefully packed up his dinosaur book collection, dinosaur posters, and all of his dinosaur figures to move to his new bedroom.

Jason and his mom still live in the same community, but in a different apartment. Their new apartment is near Jason’s preschool program. Jason did not move to a different preschool program when he moved with his mom to a different apartment.

Jason and his mom still go to their favorite pizza restaurant. Jason goes to the same library for Saturday morning story time with his favorite librarian.

When Jason moved into the new apartment, he met a family with twin girls who love dinosaurs as much as he does. The girls invited Jason to play at their home with their dinosaurs.

[Display picture of an apartment building and an apartment complex, one at a time as indicated below.]

This is a picture of the apartment building Jason and his mom moved to. Here is a picture of the apartment Jason and his mom used to live in.

• How are Jason’s old apartment and new apartment similar? (many windows, more than one floor)
• How are they different? (one is taller, one has garages and balconies)
• What kinds of things did Jason do at his new home that were the same as what he did at his old home? (go to the same preschool, go to the library, eat pizza at the same restaurant, play with dinosaurs)
• Jason still got to be with his friends at the preschool program and at the Saturday library time when he moved. Did he make any new friends? (yes, twin girls who also liked to play with dinosaurs)

[Display picture of Nakita. Read or use your own words to tell about Nakita’s move.]

This is a picture of Nakita. She is three years old. Nakita lives with her mom, dad, and a brother who is one year old. The family moved to another home because her dad received a new military assignment. The family moved far away to a community that is near a desert. Remember, a desert is a very dry place where many plants cannot grow.

Nakita helped pack her favorite stuffed animals, rock collection, and her bicycle to take to her new home. The family could not bring Nakita’s swing set to their new home because it was too big to pack up.

[Display picture of duplex.]

Nakita’s family used to live in a duplex on a military installation. Another family lived next door.

[Display picture of single-family home next to picture of duplex.]

This is a picture of the home Nakita and her family moved to. There are some desert plants in the front yard.

How are the two homes different? (duplex has another home next door, one has grass in front, one has rocks and a cactus in front, one has a garage)

There is a park near Nakita’s new home. The park has a big swing set that Nakita can play on. The swing set is much bigger than the swing set Nakita had at her old home. The park also has a path where Nakita can ride her bicycle.

Nakita now goes to a different child care center.

Why does Nakita go to a different child care center? (because her new home is far away from where her family used to live)

Nakita’s mom took her to visit the new child care center before she started her first day. Nakita met her teacher, Ms. Sandra. Ms. Sandra showed Nakita the classroom. The classroom has a block center, art center, and housekeeping area, just like the classroom she used to be in. Nakita found her cubbie with her name on it, just like she had at her last child care center.

Nakita’s new classroom has an aquarium with fish. Her old classroom did not have an aquarium. Ms. Sandra asked Nakita to help another child feed the fish on her first day.

Ms. Sandra introduced Nakita to Luis. Luis was Nakita’s helper during her first week in the new classroom. All children who are new to the classroom get a helper who shows a new child how the classroom works.

• Nakita and her family moved to a different home in a new community. What things did Nakita get to do at her new home that were the same or similar to what she did at her old home? (play with stuffed animals, ride her bicycle, have her favorite jelly and crackers)
• What things did Nakita get to do at her new home that were different than what she did at her old home? (play on a bigger swing set, feed fish at her new child care center)

The home a family moves to is different than the home a family moves from. But not everything is different. Some things in the new place are the same or similar to things where a family used to live.

More things were different for Nakita at her new home than were different for Jason at his new home. Why? (because Nakita moved to a different community, Jason stayed in the same community)

We are learning about creative ways to use illustrations and words to help readers of a book learn about something. Today we are going to read and talk about a book that shows the size of animals or a part of an animal. We know that size means how big or small something is. Our book was written and illustrated by Steve Jenkins. He was one of the authors and illustrators of the two books we read earlier this week about creative ways to help readers learn about animals.

• What are some big animals?
• What are some small animals?

[Display book cover. Point to each illustration as you describe it.]

The cover of our book shows a small animal and the hand of a very big animal. The small animal is a monkey. The hand is a gorilla’s hand.

The illustrations of a monkey and a gorilla’s hand show their actual sizes. Actual means real or true. The cover of the book shows that the gorilla’s hand is much bigger than the entire monkey. The monkey is sitting on the gorilla’s thumb.

The book cover also tells us that the gorilla is so big that only its hand can fit on the cover of our book. Remember, our book today shows the actual size of animals or parts of animals.

• How much larger is the gorilla’s hand than our hand?
• Is the monkey bigger or smaller than our hand?

Let’s find out by putting our hand on top of the illustration of a gorilla’s hand and then on top of the illustration of the monkey on the cover of our book.

[Demonstrate by placing your hand on the book cover twice: first on the gorilla’s pictured hand, and then on the monkey illustration. Pass around the book so children, one at a time, can place a hand on top of the illustration of a gorilla’s hand, if they wish.

Encourage children to tell about the size of their hand in relation to the two illustrations on the book cover, using terms such as bigger, smaller, or the same.]

Many of the animals illustrated in our book are too big to be shown on one page. The book shows parts of animals that cannot fit on the page of the book. One part of an animal shown in our book is so long that Mr. Jenkins used three pages to show its actual size. Another animal illustrated in our book is so small we might miss it if we turn the page too fast.

Let’s find out how Mr. Jenkins used illustrations to show the actual sizes of some animals or parts of animals.

[Share the book by emphasizing the size of illustrations and what they show. You may wish to use your own words to describe some of the animals or animal parts. Point to and describe characteristics of animals or animal parts. Give children time to look closely at and talk about the rich illustrations.

Draw attention to features previewed in the introduction to the book: some illustrations show parts of an animal too big to be shown in actual size in the book; one illustration requires three pages; the smallest animal illustrated in the book is so small we might miss it.]

Today we talked about another creative way to help readers of a book learn about animals. Our book today shows the actual size of animals or parts of animals. Could the actual sizes of our own bodies be shown in a book like this? (no!) Why not?