Oral language, Letter knowledge
Children will understand basic information, including the meaning of several novel words, presented in a book read aloud. Children will also identify the name and sound of the letter L.
New:
Be Prepared: This is the first of three repeated readings of a book with children. Today’s reading focuses on children’s understanding of basic information presented in the book. In advance of the session, identify all novel words in the book you intend to define for children across three days of reading the book. Select one or two important words to define for children today, especially words that are essential to understanding the book. See the Language/Literacy section of the ELM User Guide: 3–5 Years for additional information. Write the following at the top of the chart paper: Words We Understand.
[Display letter L card.]
The word “letters” begins with this letter. What is the name of this letter?
Letter L says /l/, just like in the word “letters.” /l/, /l/, letters. Let’s together say /l/, /l/, letters.
Who would like to tell us another word that begins with the letter L?
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:
Number knowledge
Children will understand how to learn new information by sorting and counting.
New:
Review:
Be Prepared: Organize a simple, two-column chart as shown on the next page. Include a picture of elephants and a picture of a lion. You will also need a second set of the same two pictures to hang on the wall.
I see ___ different colors of hair among children in our classroom today. I see brown hair, and black hair, and blonde hair. Do you see any other colors of hair in our room?
How can we determine how many of us have black hair, brown hair, blonde hair, or _____ hair? (count)
A good way for us to count the number of different colors of hair in our classroom is to first sort ourselves by hair color. Remember, when we sort something, we put things into different groups.
Let’s sort ourselves by hair color. If you have brown hair, please stand over here. If you have blonde hair, please stand over here. If you have black hair, please stand over here.
Is there another color of hair in our group?
Now let’s count how many children are in each group. We will find out which group has the most, and which group has the fewest. When a group has the most of something, it has more than any other group. When a group has the fewest of something, it has the smallest amount.
[Move to each group and count the number of children in each group as you gently tap each child on the shoulder. Invite children to count with you. Restate the number of children in a group after counting each group.]
[Gather children into a large group again.]
Now we are going to sort ourselves another way. I have some pictures of animals.
[Display and name the picture of elephants and the picture of a lion.]
I am going to hang these pictures in different places in our classroom.
[Hang each picture in a location that is highly visible. Place each picture high enough so all children can see it. Avoid hanging a picture near the door. As you hang the pictures, tell children which picture is being hung.
Examples: “I am going to hang the picture of the elephants on the cabinet.” “I am going to hang the picture of the lion on this bulletin board.”]
We are going to decide which is our favorite of the two animals. We will pick an animal that is in one of our two pictures.
[Ask each child to name his/her favorite of the two animals and then stand next to the picture of that animal.]
Now each of us is standing near one of our two animal pictures.
How can we find out which animal picture has the most people standing by it? (count the people in each group)
Please stay by the picture of your favorite animal as we count the number of children in each group.
[Move to each group and count the number of children in each group. Invite children to count aloud with you. Restate the number of children in a group after counting each group. Below the picture of each animal on the chart paper, make a tally mark for each child in the group. Point out that you are making a tally mark for each person who was counted in the group. Write below the tally marks the numeral that represents the number of tally marks in each section. See example.
When you have finished, invite children to join you to look at the chart paper.]
Which animal group had the most children?
Today we practiced sorting and counting. We sorted ourselves by hair color and by favorite animal. Then we counted to find out which group had the most and fewest. A group with the most of something has more than another group. A group with the fewest of something has the smallest amount.
Extra support
Enrichment
Provide a basket of items to sort. Encourage children to sort the items in different ways. For example, first sort by color, then sort by size, then sort by type.
Encourage school-age children to draw pictures of favorite animals. Try the main activity again with the new animal pictures. You may also wish to try sorting children by favorite food, color, or toy.
Concentrate
Children will strengthen their understanding of how to use yoga to concentrate on their breathing and bodies.
Review:
Be Prepared: Today’s activity will involve children trying two yoga poses. If possible, provide yoga mats.
Let’s have some quiet time together so we can concentrate on our breathing and body. This will help our mind to calm down and help us with our self-control.
[Spread out children so each child has personal space. When all children are arranged, turn out the lights in the classroom.]
Let’s begin by concentrating on our breathing. As we breathe in and out, let’s put our hand on our stomach to feel how it moves as we breathe. Let’s practice breathing while feeling our stomach move in and out.
Let’s take a deep breath.
In, 1, 2, 3, out, 1, 2, 3.
If you want, you can close your eyes to help you relax.
Breathe in through your nose, and breathe out through your mouth.
In, 1, 2, 3, out, 1, 2, 3.
In, 1, 2, 3, out, 1, 2, 3.
When you breathe in, bring the air all the way down to your stomach.
In, 1, 2, 3, out, 1, 2, 3.
Your hand on your stomach should move up and down as you breathe.
In, 1, 2, 3, out, 1, 2, 3.
Please keep breathing in slowly and breathing out slowly.
Feel your body starting to relax. Your eyes are feeling heavier and heavier as you keep breathing all the way to your stomach.
In, 1, 2, 3, out, 1, 2, 3.
Now we are going to focus on our hands and arms. Pretend that you have two small oranges, one in each hand. Pretend you are squeezing the oranges to make orange juice. Tighten your fists as much as possible. Pretend you are squeezing the oranges as hard as you can. Okay, there’s no more juice left in the oranges. Now please relax your hands.
Now I will use a feather to pretend there is a butterfly landing on our nose. We will need to wait patiently for the butterfly to land on our nose. Remember, when we are patient, we wait our turn without talking or moving around or getting upset.
[As you talk about the butterfly, gently move around the room and touch each child’s nose with a feather.]
Oh! Wow! Here comes a beautiful butterfly. The imaginary butterfly will visit each of us. We need to be patient. Our imaginary butterfly will fly around your head and land on your nose. Don’t touch our imaginary butterfly with your hands, because we might hurt him. Instead, try to get the butterfly to move off of your nose by scrunching up your nose and face.
Wrinkle up your face really hard when our imaginary butterfly lands on your face. Then relax your face when the butterfly moves away. You will feel the muscles in your face relax.
[At the conclusion of the breathing activity, ask children to stay in their own personal space.]
Let’s use some of our quiet time to practice some yoga. Remember, when people do yoga, they concentrate on their breathing while stretching their bodies into different poses.
Let’s do the yoga poses we learned several weeks ago. We know that a pose is a way of holding our body. Here are the two yoga poses we have done.
[From the book, display illustrations of yoga poses done in Week 23, Day 1. Invite children to try each pose. Demonstrate each. Encourage children to take three deep breaths as they hold each pose.]
Now let’s look at the pictures of other poses in our book about yoga. We will try some different yoga poses in the book and concentrate on our breathing while we do them.
[Choose two poses from the book to demonstrate to children. Read sections of the book that focus on the two poses. Discuss how the child’s body is posed in each picture. Example: “This is called the cat pose. How does the girl’s body look like a cat?”
Show children the picture of the first chosen pose from the book. Demonstrate the pose and then invite children to try it. Remind children to take three deep breaths as they hold the pose. Repeat the pose with three deep breaths. Then show children the picture from the book of the second chosen pose and use the same approach for children. Repeat the pose with three deep breaths.]
We are learning to calm our minds and use good self-control by concentrating on our breathing and our bodies. We did some yoga poses. Yoga helps us concentrate on our breathing while stretching our bodies. Which yoga pose helped you the most in calming your mind?
Extra support
Enrichment
Place one or two yoga mats in an area of the room, along with pictures (from the book) of the two yoga poses practiced in today’s activity. Also encourage children to practice poses done previously (Week 11, Day 1; Week 14, Day 1; Week 23, Day 1). If you do not have access to yoga mats, use a blanket. Play quiet, peaceful music and invite children to practice the poses.
Invite children in your setting to do partner yoga. Encourage one child to do a yoga pose and the other child to mimic the pose of the first child. Encourage children to take turns being the first to do a yoga pose. Provide The ABCs of Yoga for Kids by Teresa Power for children to use as a reference.
Knowledge of creative processes, Skills that support creative expression
Children will understand how to imitate the voices of characters in a story.
New:
Review:
Language / Literacy
Be Prepared: Prepare the provided Goldilocks and the Three Bears cutouts. If possible, laminate for durability. Affix a hook and loop fastener to the back of each cutout for use on a flannel board.
Become familiar with the provided Goldilocks story in advance of the activity, so you do not need to use a script. The story is at the end of this activity plan.
[Introduce the activity with the following conversation between two puppets, one on each hand. Be sure to use two different voices, one for each puppet:]
Hi, everyone! Today we are going to learn more about drama.
Do you remember the word “drama”?
Remember, drama is when one person or a group of people tell a story through their words and actions. People pretend they are someone else when they do drama.
I like to tell stories! Can I learn about drama?
Sure! We can all learn about drama together!
Yay! Let’s all learn about drama!
[Change to your regular voice.]
Playing with puppets is one way we can do drama. We can pretend our voice is a puppet’s voice.
I used my voice in different ways when I made the puppets talk.
Sometimes we want to sound or act like a specific character when we tell a story. Remember, a character is a person or an animal (or creature) in a story or book.
When we pretend we are someone or something else, we are imitating. Imitate means to sound like or look like someone or something else. We just had fun imitating the voice of a grown-up man and the sounds of a baby. We imitate someone or something else when we pretend we are a certain character.
How could we use our voice to imitate the sounds of a dog?
[Encourage children to bark or whine like a dog.]
We change our voice so people know which character we are pretending to be. We need to bark or whine like a dog if we want people to know we are pretending to be a dog.
I am going to tell you a story. Listen carefully as I imitate the voices of different characters in the story.
[Use the flannel board and cutouts (see Be Prepared) to tell the story of Goldilocks and the Three Bears located at the end of this activity plan. Use a different voice for each of the characters. Examples: low tone for Papa Bear, higher tone for Baby Bear.]
How did my voice let you know which character I was pretending to be?
[Encourage children to describe voices used for each character.]
Let’s all pretend to be the different characters in the story by changing our voices.
[Say a short set of memorable words said by each character. Hold up the character you are imitating. Example: “Somebody has been sitting in my chair.” Then invite children to repeat the line with you, using a voice that represents the character.]
We are learning how to use our voice in different ways to pretend we are someone or something else. We imitated the voice of a grown-up man and the sounds of a baby. We also imitated the voices of characters in Goldilocks and the Three Bears. Imitating voices is part of doing drama.
Extra support
Enrichment
Provide puppets and encourage children to tell different stories (or make up stories) while changing their voices.
Read familiar stories that have multiple characters. Change your voice to represent different characters in the story. Encourage children to imitate the voice you use or to use a voice they think would sound like a character. School-age children may wish to join younger children in this activity. Another option is to encourage children to use different voices for the story that they record at home with their family. Invite children to share the recording and book in your setting.
Once upon a time there were three bears who lived in a house in the forest. There was a great big father bear, a middle-sized mother bear, and a tiny baby bear.
One morning, their breakfast porridge was too hot to eat, so they decided to go for a walk in the forest. While they were out, a little girl named Goldilocks came to their house. She knocked on the door but there was no answer. So she pushed the door open and went inside.
On the table were three bowls of porridge; one great big bowl, one middle-sized bowl, and one little bowl.
Goldilocks was hungry, so she tried some of the porridge from the great big bowl. But it was too hot.
Goldilocks then tried some of the porridge from the middle-sized bowl. But it was too cold.
Finally, she tried some of the porridge from the little bowl. It was just right and so delicious that she ate it all up.
Next, Goldilocks went into the parlor where she found three chairs; a great big chair, a middle-sized chair, and a little chair. Goldilocks sat in the great big chair, but it was too hard. She then sat in the middle-sized chair, but it was too soft. Finally, Goldilocks sat in the little chair, and it was just right! As she rocked in the little chair, it broke into pieces!
Goldilocks then went upstairs, where she found three beds. There was a great big bed, a middle-sized bed, and a little bed. She was feeling very tired, so she climbed into the great big bed. The great big bed was too hard. So she tried the middle-sized bed, but it was too soft. Finally she climbed into the little bed. It felt just right, all cozy and warm. In no time, at all Goldilocks fell fast asleep.
In a little while, the three bears came back from their walk. When they opened the door, they saw that someone had been there. Papa Bear looked around and said in his great big Papa Bear voice, “Somebody has been eating my porridge!”
Then Mama Bear said in her quiet gentle voice, “Somebody has been eating my porridge.”
Then Little Bear said in his little voice, “Somebody has been eating my porridge, and they ate it all up!”
Then the three bears went into the parlor. Papa Bear looked at his great big chair and said in his great big Papa Bear voice, “Somebody has been sitting in my chair!”
Mama Bear looked at her chair and said in her quiet gentle voice, “Somebody has been sitting in my chair.”
Little Bear looked at his chair and said in his little voice, “Somebody has been sitting in my chair, and now it is broken to pieces!”
Then the three bears went upstairs, and Papa Bear saw at once that his bed was untidy. Papa Bear said in his great big Papa Bear voice, “Somebody has been sleeping in my bed!”
Mama Bear saw that her bed, too, had the blankets turned back. She said in her quiet gentle voice, “Somebody has been sleeping in my bed!”
Then Little Bear looked at his bed and said in his little voice, “Somebody has been sleeping in my bed, and she’s still there!”
He squeaked so loudly that Goldilocks woke up. She jumped out of bed, and away she ran, down the stairs and out into the forest. And the three bears never saw her again.
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