[Display letter N card.]

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

Letter N says /n/, just like in the word “numbers.” /n/, /n/, numbers. Let’s together say /n/, /n/, numbers.

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

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?]

Today we will read a book called Jack the Builder. The author of our book is Stuart J. Murphy and the illustrator is Michael Rex.

[Display book cover.]

What do you think our book is about? (building a rocket with blocks, building in space)

This book is about adding blocks while we build something. Something gets larger when we add items to it. We will read the book as we work to build with blocks.

Please listen carefully so we know how many blocks to use when we build.

[As you read the book, pause as you invite volunteer children to build. 

• After reading page five, invite a volunteer child to count out two blocks and then use the two blocks to begin building. Then ask the child what he/she made with the two blocks.
• Continue reading. As Jack adds more blocks, invite a different volunteer child to come to the front of the group and add the number of blocks stated in the book. Then encourage children to count the number of blocks all together. Point to each block as children count. 
• Invite different volunteer children to add blocks through page 23. After building with 12 blocks, encourage children to listen only as you read the remainder of the book.]

What happened each time we added more blocks? (we had more, our tower got taller, etc.)

Today we practiced adding blocks to a group of blocks. Each time we added more blocks, we counted to find the total number of blocks we had all together.

We are learning games that help us focus on what we are expected to do. What does it mean to focus on something? (concentrate on it)

Today we will play a game we’ve played before. We will play Sleeping, Sleeping, All the Children Are Sleeping.

Remember, in the Sleeping, Sleeping game we pretend we are sleeping on the floor. I will sing a song while we pretend to sleep. The song goes like this:

[Sing the song to your own tune.]

“Sleeping, sleeping, all the children are sleeping.” Then I will say, “And when they woke up … they were …!” Each time I say, “And when they woke up … they were …” I will say a different animal.

We will play the game again with colored circles with animal pictures on them. This time we will use three different animals.

[Display each circle as you describe it.]

I have a green circle with a snake on it, a purple circle with a butterfly on it, and a brown circle with a dog on it. When I hold up the green circle, we will act like snakes. When I hold up the purple circle, we will act like butterflies. When I hold up the brown circle, we will act like dogs. Let’s try it!

[Encourage children to lie in a sleeping position. Begin singing the song as children pretend to sleep. Each time the children pretend to wake up, hold up one of the circles and encourage children to act like the pictured animal. Try not to say what the animal is, however. Encourage children to look at the visual cue. Try this 2–3 times.]

This time I am going to remove the pictures from the circles (or use the side without the animal picture). Each time I hold up a circle, we need to act like the animal that was on the circle before I removed the animal picture.

• We need to remember the animal that was on each circle.
• What animal was on the green circle? (snake)
• What animal was on the purple circle? (butterfly)
• What animal was on the brown circle? (dog)
• I will choose a different animal each time.

Let’s try it!

[Encourage children to lie in a sleeping position again. Begin singing the song as children pretend to sleep. Each time the children pretend to wake up, hold up one of the circles and encourage children to act like the animal that was previously on the circle. Try this 2–3 times. Play as long as time permits.]

Today we again played Sleeping, Sleeping, All the Children Are Sleeping. We changed the rules of the game.

• What parts of our body did we use to pay close attention during this game? (eyes, ears)
• During the game we moved like animals. What things changed during the game? (moved like different animals each time, used colored circles)
• What would happen if we didn’t watch or listen carefully during the game? (we wouldn’t know which animal to pretend to be)

We are learning how to use our voice, face, and body to tell a story. When we do drama, we are practicing how to imitate voices, facial expressions, and body movements. We know that imitate means to sound like or look like someone or something else.

Today we are going to imitate characters in nursery rhymes we may know. Remember, a nursery rhyme is a short story or song that can be funny.

I am going to read a nursery rhyme, and then we will imitate a character in the nursery rhyme.

[Display card for “Little Boy Blue.” Read the nursery rhyme. Point to images, such as the haystack, when they are mentioned in the rhyme.]

What did Little Boy Blue do in the rhyme? (slept)

We can use our voice, our facial expressions, and our body movements to imitate someone or something else.

How could we imitate Little Boy Blue? (pretend to sleep)

Let’s listen to the nursery rhyme one more time.

[Encourage children to imitate what Little Boy Blue is doing in the nursery rhyme as you read it.]

We used body movements to imitate Little Boy Blue. We pretended to be sleeping, just like Little Boy Blue.

Now let’s listen to another nursery rhyme. This nursery rhyme is called “Little Miss Muffet.”

[Display card for “Little Miss Muffet.” Read the nursery rhyme. Point to Miss Muffet on her tuffet and to the spider when mentioned in the rhyme. Explain that a “tuffet” is a type of seat (footstool), and “curds and whey” are the lumps and liquid in cottage cheese.]

• What did Miss Muffet do in the rhyme? (sat, ate, ran away)
• What animal frightened Miss Muffet? (spider)
• How could we imitate Little Miss Muffet? (pretend to eat, look frightened, run away)

Let’s listen to the nursery rhyme one more time.

[Encourage children to imitate what Little Miss Muffet is doing in the nursery rhyme as you read it.]

We used our voices, facial expressions, and body movements to imitate Little Miss Muffet.

• How did we use our voice to imitate Little Miss Muffet? (yelled in fright)
• How did we use our face to imitate Little Miss Muffet? (made a scared face)
• How did we use our body to imitate Little Miss Muffet? (sat down, pretended to eat, pretended to run away)
• How could we imitate the spider in the nursery rhyme?

Today we imitated the characters in two nursery rhymes. It is fun to use our voices, facial expressions, and body movements to imitate someone or something!