[Display letter P card.]

The word “pattern” begins with this letter. What is the name of this letter?

Letter P says /p/, just like in the word “pattern.” /p/, /p/, pattern. Let’s together say /p/, /p/, pattern.

Who would like to tell us another word that begins with the letter P?

Now let’s read a book!

[See Week 3, Day 1 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 encourage children to discuss what the book might be about.
• Explain that reading a book is a good way to learn new words. We will talk about some words each time we read the book this week. Remind children of the Words We Understand chart.
• Read title of book as you point to each word. Point to and say the names of the author and illustrator.
• Introduce and provide child-friendly descriptions of two novel words included in today’s book. Write words on the chart as you point to and say each again.
• Point to the first text word and explain this is where we begin reading the book. Read the book verbatim. Pause to discuss words, events, or characters that seem confusing to children. Point to and describe illustrations directly related to book text.
• After reading the book, engage children in recalling main parts of the book and novel words emphasized today:
  • What is our book about?
  • Who were the main characters?
  • What happened first? What happened next?
• Engage children in a brief discussion of novel words emphasized today. Display and discuss book pictures that pertain to each word.
  • What does each word mean?
  • How was each word used in today’s book?]

We are learning what some numbers look like.

[Display large numeral cards 1–8.]

There is a number on each of these cards. When I hold up a card, please hold up the number of fingers that is the same amount as the number on the card. If I hold up the number two, how many fingers should we hold up?

[Display each card, one at a time. Observe children to see if they have mastered each numeral displayed. Hold up fingers with them, if necessary. Display cards in random order if all children in your group have mastered each numeral.]

Today we will learn what another number looks like. It is the number that comes after eight.

• What number might it be?
  [Hold up nine fingers.]
• How many fingers am I holding up? I am holding up nine fingers! Let’s count them.

Number nine looks like this.

[Display a large numeral nine.]

The number nine means there are nine of something. Let’s count together the dots on the number card.

[Point to each dot on the numeral card as you count. Encourage children to count with you.]

Please hold up nine fingers. Let’s count them together.

Now let’s take a closer look at the number nine. It looks very similar to another number we know.

[Display a large numeral six next to the numeral nine.]

What number is similar to number nine? (six)

[Point to numerals six and nine as you discuss curved or straight lines.]

Number nine has a curved line on the top, and number six has a curved line on the bottom.

[Trace numeral nine and numeral six as you describe each numeral.]

Now we are going to play a game that will help us practice our numbers. The game we will play today is like the game Musical Chairs.

First we need to put our chairs in a circle.

[Invite children to bring a chair to a designated area and help them to form a circle with their chairs facing inward. On the seat of each chair, place a small numeral card with a numeral 1–9 on it.]

When the music plays, we will walk around the circle. When the music stops, please sit in a chair close to you. Each person will have a chair to sit in.

We will pick up the number card in our chair before we sit down. I will say a number after we are all sitting in our chairs. If I say the number that is on your card, hold up the card.

Then we’ll stand up again, put the number card back on the chair we sat in, and play again!

[Play as long as time permits. Attempt to say each of the nine numerals so each child has an opportunity to identify and hold up a numeral.]

Today we learned what the number nine looks like. We also played a game of Musical Chairs that helped us practice our numbers. We are becoming number experts!

Today we will do an activity where we concentrate on our breathing. We know that when we concentrate, we pay close attention to something. This will help our mind to calm down and our body to be more relaxed.

We will concentrate on our breathing by pretending we are a starfish.

What is a starfish?

A starfish is an animal with five legs that lives in the ocean. Let’s look at a picture of a starfish.

[Display picture of a starfish.]

Let’s together count the starfish legs.

[Lead children in counting the starfish legs as you point to each leg in the picture.]

The legs of a starfish come together in the center of its body.

[Point to the center of the starfish body.]

Let’s point to the center of our own body.

Let’s find a place on the floor to spread out like a starfish. When we find a place to lie down on our backs, we will spread out our arms, legs, and neck like a starfish. We need to make sure our body is not touching someone else.

[Dim the lights or turn them off, if possible, as children concentrate on their breathing.]

Let’s close our eyes and concentrate on our breathing. Let’s take a deep breath while stretching out our arms, legs, and neck on the floor like a starfish. Let’s relax our arms, legs, and necks while we breathe out.

[Invite children take a deep breath while stretching out their arms, legs, and neck like a starfish. Encourage children to relax their arms, legs, and neck as they exhale. Continue this exercise five more times as children practice stretching and relaxing and concentrating on their breathing.]

Now let’s bring our arms in to our sides and our legs together and then lie still on the floor. Let’s keep our eyes closed and concentrate on our breathing; in and out, in and out.

I am going to gently place a stuffed animal on the center of your body. Keep concentrating on breathing in and out. The animal on your stomach will slowly move up and down.

[Gently place a stuffed animal or other small toy on each child’s stomach. Walk slowly and talk quietly and calmly as you explain how the animal or toy on our stomach helps us concentrate on our breathing.]

Notice how the animal (toy) goes up on your stomach when you breathe in and down on your stomach when you breathe out. Let’s pretend our stomach is rocking the stuffed animal or toy to sleep by breathing in and out. Let’s concentrate on our breathing as we quietly rock our animal (toy) to sleep.

We may breathe slower when we concentrate on our breathing. Let’s relax as we think about our animal rocking to sleep on our stomach.

[Continue this activity as long as children are appropriately engaged. Encourage them to think about rocking the animal to sleep as they breathe in and out.]

Today we pretended to be a starfish while we concentrated on our breathing. We also pretended to rock our animals (toys) to sleep while we breathed slowly in and out, in and out. Concentrating on our breathing and body can help our mind to calm down and our body to relax.

We know that different kinds of musical instruments make different sounds. We also know that a person who plays a musical instrument is called a musician.

[Display pictures of a flute and a trombone from Week 16. Point to each instrument as you name it.]

Last week we listened to the sound of each of these two instruments.

The sound of these instruments is made by air. Remember, air is all around us. We need air to breathe. Air goes into and out of our body when we breathe.

Let’s feel the air that comes out of our body when we breathe. Let’s hold our hand in front of our mouth and blow air onto our hand.

Musicians blow air from their bodies to make music with some instruments.

[Display pictures of a musician playing a flute and a musician playing a trombone. Name each instrument as you describe the picture. Children are not expected to remember the names of instruments.]

The musicians in these pictures are blowing air into their instruments to make a sound.

These pictures also show us where the air goes into the musical instrument.

What part of their body are the musicians using to blow air into their musical instrument? (mouth)

Here are pictures of musicians playing two other instruments. These instruments also make a sound when a musician blows air into them.

[Display pictures of a musician playing a clarinet and a musician playing a tuba.]

• What differences do you see in these two instruments? (size, straight vs. curved, color)
• Do you think the instruments make the same kind of sound? Why/why not?

Let’s listen to the sound of the smaller instrument. This instrument is called a clarinet. We can pretend we are playing the clarinet when we listen to the music made by a clarinet.

[Display the photo of a musician playing a clarinet as you play Track 20 on the CD included in My First Orchestra Book. Be sure to identify the clarinet sound.]

Now let’s listen to the sound of the bigger instrument. It is called a tuba. We can pretend we are playing the tuba when we listen to the music made by a tuba.

[Display the photo of a musician playing a tuba as you play part of Track 30 on the CD included in My First Orchestra Book. Be sure to identify the tuba sound.]

What did you notice about the sounds of these two instruments? (one sounds high, one sounds low)

Small instruments make higher sounds. Bigger instruments make lower sounds.

Instruments make different sounds because they are made out of different materials and have different shapes.

[Use the pictures to remind children of differences in the shapes of the clarinet and the tuba.]

A musician can change the volume of these instruments by changing the amount of air that is blown into it. Remember, volume is how loud or quiet a sound is.

Let’s hold up our hand in front of our mouth again. When I say “blow hard,” we will blow very hard on our hands. “Blow hard.”

[Demonstrate and encourage children to blow very hard on their hand.]

Did you feel a lot of air blowing on your hand when you blew hard?

Now let’s do it again. This time when I say “blow softly,” blow very softly on your hand. “Blow softly.”

[Demonstrate and encourage children to blow very softly on their hand.]

• Did you feel just a little bit of air on your hand when you blew softly?
• Do you think a musician should blow hard or blow softly to make the instrument sound quiet? (blow softly)

Today we learned that the air inside our body can be used to make sounds on a musical instrument. The air makes music when it moves through the instrument. A musician can change the volume of the instrument by changing how much air is blown into the instrument. A lot of air goes into the instrument when the musician blows hard. The sound will be louder.