[Invite children to sit in a circle.]

We can hear many things all around us. What part of our body do we use to hear things?

Let’s point to our ears. Today we are going to listen for sounds. We pay close attention to what we are hearing when we listen.

Let’s sit quietly and listen for sounds. We may hear a sound in our classroom. We may hear a sound in the hallway or someplace outside of our classroom. We do not want to talk while we are listening for sounds.

Okay, let’s start using our listening ears.

[Point to your ears.

After a brief period, especially after you hear a noticeable sound:]

What sound did you hear?

[Engage children in a discussion of sounds they heard.]

We can pay better attention to what we hear when our eyes are closed.

Let’s close our eyes and listen for sounds. We need to be very quiet so we can hear sounds. Remember, we do not talk while we are listening for sounds.

[Encourage children to sit quietly with eyes closed for several seconds.]

Now let’s open our eyes and talk about the sounds we heard. I will write a name for each sound we heard on our chart paper.

I am going to write the words Sounds We Heard at the top of our chart.
I will start writing here and move across the paper with the words.

[Point to left side of chart. Say each word as you write it.]

What did we hear when our eyes were closed?

[Encourage children to discuss sounds heard. Write each sound on the chart paper.]

Let’s look at our chart to remind us of the sounds we heard.

[Read the sounds listed on the chart as you point to each word.]

Now we are going to listen to some different sounds. Let’s again sit quietly and listen with our eyes closed.

[Invite children to close their eyes before you play the General Sound Effects CD. Play the CD, stopping after each sound to ask children to open their eyes and to name the sound they heard. Write each sound children name on the chart.]

Let’s look at our chart to remind us of all the sounds we heard.

[Read each sound listed on the chart as you point to each word.]

Today we listened to sounds in our classroom and to sounds on a CD. Who can remind us what it means to listen? (to pay close attention to what we hear) We closed our eyes when we listened to sounds so we could pay better attention to what we heard.

Today we begin learning about numbers and counting. We will learn that numbers are all around us every day.

Let’s all hold up one of our hands.

How many fingers do you see?

To find out how many fingers we have, we need to count them. Let’s point to the fingers on one of our hands and count each finger. Please count with me, 1,2,3,4,5. I have five fingers!

How many fingers do you have on one hand?

When we count, we say our numbers to find out how many. Let’s learn a song about the fingers on our hand.

[Teach the song at the end of the activity plan.]

Five is a number. A number tells us how many.

Let’s look at our feet now. Let’s count them. Let’s point to our feet and count each one together. Please count with me, 1, 2.

How many feet do you see?

I have two feet. Two is a number.

Let’s see if we can find more things we can count in our classroom.

How about the chairs at the table? Let’s count them together.

[Point to each chair as you say 1, 2, etc.]

Let’s count them again. This time, let’s clap our hands when we count the chairs (one clap per number).

[Ask five children to come to the front of the room.]

Now, let’s together count the number of children in this group.

[Gently tap each child with your finger or hand as you say the number.
When you finish, say the final number again.]

We counted to find out how many children were in the group. There are five children in the group.

Do you see something else we can count?

[Limit counting to groups of five or fewer items.]

We counted our fingers in the song we learned earlier. Let’s count our fingers one more time together. Please hold up one of your hands and count each of your fingers with me. 1,2,3,4,5. I have five fingers!

How many fingers do you have on your hand?

Numbers are all around us every day. We found numbers by counting our fingers and feet. What else did we count in our classroom? Whenever we want to know how many of something there are, we count to find out. We say numbers when we count.

Let’s sing our song one more time.

• Did you wash your hands before eating breakfast today?
• Do you usually wash your hands before you eat a meal?

Many (or all) of us wash our hands before we eat. It’s part of our routine. A routine is the order in which we do things. Every day we do many things in a certain order.

[Describe one of your routines. Example: “One of my routines is to wash my hands before I eat breakfast. After I eat breakfast, I clean up my place at the table, and then I wash my hands again because they may have food on them.”]

We even have routines when we play at a playground. Some of us may like to go down a slide. We do things in the same order when we play on a slide.

[Display and arrange pictures in the following sequence:]

• First, we climb up the slide.
• Then, we slide down.
• Then, we put our feet on the ground when we land at the bottom of the slide.

What kinds of routines do you have at home? (brushing teeth, preparing for bed, etc.)

In a routine we do some things before we do other things. The word before means something happens ahead of (or earlier than) something else. Climbing up the slide comes ahead of (before) coming down the slide.

In a routine we also do some things after we do other things. The word after means something happens (or comes) later than something else. It follows something else. Landing at the bottom of a slide happens later than (after) climbing up the slide.

We have routines in our classroom. Each day we usually do things in the same order in our classroom. Our daily schedule shows our routine for each day. A schedule shows the order in which things happen. Let’s take a look at our schedule for today.

[Point to and review your posted classroom schedule.]

• What do we always do after we eat lunch?
• What did we do before we got into our group?

[Follow-up prompts, if needed: “Did we play outside?” “Did we read a book?”]

The schedule for our room helps us remember what comes next. The word next means something happens or comes right (immediately) after something else.

We are in our large group time right now. What will we do next?

[Invite children to point to the next activity on the schedule. Point to several other activities on the schedule and ask what occurred before and after each activity.]

Routines help us. Routines help us to know what we are to do and what will happen next. Our schedule helps us follow our routine in the classroom. We might worry about when these things would happen if we did not have a schedule to remind us when we eat lunch or go outside to play.

What would it feel like if we didn’t know what we are expected to do after breakfast at our center?

Today we learned that the order in which we do things is called a routine. Each of us follows routines.

• What is the first thing you do in the morning?
• What do you do just before you go to bed at night?

We have routines at home and we have routines in our classroom. We know what we are going to do each day in our classroom by looking at our schedule. Let’s look at our schedule again to remind us what we are going to do next!

Let’s talk about some pictures of children doing creative things.

[Display picture of child drawing.]

• What is the boy in this picture doing? (drawing)
  [Display picture of boy painting.]
• What is the boy in this picture doing with a brush? (painting)
  [Display picture of girls working with play dough.]
• What are the girls in this picture doing? (making pretend food with play dough)

The children in our pictures are making art. Art is something someone creates like a painting or a drawing or a sculpture. A sculpture is made from clay or stone or some other material that we can carve or mold. We can make a sculpture from play dough in our classroom. We can make all types of art.

Are the children in our pictures copying something that someone else has made? (no!)

The children are using their own ideas to make something new. They are not copying something that someone else has made. They are being creative. When we are creative, we use an idea to make or do something new. An idea is a thought we have.

Let’s think about two children. Their names are Alishia and Samuel. Each of them has an idea about a tree. Their ideas about a tree are different. Each of them uses crayons to draw a picture of a tree on paper. Alishia and Samuel are being creative by drawing their idea of a tree.

When things are the same, they are exactly alike. Do you think the pictures of a tree drawn by Alishia and Samuel look the same?

Both Alishia and Samuel drew pictures of trees. But their drawings did not look the same. They had different ideas about a tree. When things are different, they are not the same. Their drawings were creative.

Now, let’s talk about the kinds of art we’ve done. We can pretend we are popcorn when I ask you whether you’ve done certain kinds of art. Popcorn pops when it is being made. We can pretend we are popcorn by popping up (standing up) when I ask about art you’ve done.

Please pop up if you have ever painted or drawn a picture or made something from play dough.

[Ask children to sit down after you have commented on the number of children who’ve done certain kinds of art.]

• What kinds of things did you make when you drew or painted your picture or made something with play dough?
• How did you decide what to put in your picture or your play dough creation?

Many times we can get ideas for a painting or drawing or play dough creation by looking at things around us.

We might see an elephant at the zoo or a dog at a park. We can use our ideas about the elephant or the dog to be creative in drawing or painting a picture or making something from play dough. Remember, our ideas are thoughts we have.

Let’s imagine that two or more of us saw an elephant at the zoo and decided to create some art about the elephant.

Would our art look the same? (probably not)

One of us might make art about the elephant’s big ear. Another one of us might make art about the elephant’s big trunk or tail. We would have different ideas about what to do and what we want our art to look like.

We also might decide to do different kinds of art. One of us might paint a picture. Another one of us might decide to use play dough.

Our ideas help us to be creative. When we are creative, we use our ideas to make or do something new.