Oral language
Children will understand basic information, including the meaning of several novel words, presented in a book read aloud.
New:
Be Prepared: This is the first of two 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 you intend to define for children during the two readings of the book. Select 3–4 important words to define for children today, especially words that are essential to understanding the book. See the Language/Literacy section of the ELM Curriculum User Guide: 3–5 Years for additional information. Write the following at the top of the chart paper: Words We Understand. See Language/Literacy Week 2, Day 1 for guidance on the first-time reading of a book with children.
Open the session by reminding children that books help us learn new words. Point to the chart, read its title, and write several words from your list of novel words for children to learn (see Be Prepared). Say each new word and talk with children about what the word means.
Display the front cover of the book and read the book title and names of the author(s) and illustrator. Invite children into the book by asking questions, such as, “What do we see on the cover of the book?” “What might this book be about?”
Read the book without inviting talk until you have finished reading. Point to and describe illustrations directly related to the text. During and/or after the book reading, explain characters, words, or events that might be challenging for children to understand. Examples:
Support children’s understanding of novel words used in the book. For each word on your Words We Understand chart, ask children what the word means and help children recall how the word was used in the book. Examples:
Close the book-reading session by asking questions that will help children remember the main characters and the major events of the book. Examples:
Incorporate children’s responses into a short summary of the book. Example: “Our book was about Miss Tizzy and children in her neighborhood. Miss Tizzy helped the children do many fun activities. Miss Tizzy got sick. At the end of the book, the children are doing things for Miss Tizzy that she did with them before she got sick.”
Extra support
Enrichment
Number knowledge
Children will make groups of counters using one-to-one counting.
Review:
Offer the Week 7, Day 1 activity to review one-to-one counting.
Engage children in making groups of counters that are equal to various amounts of bears in plastic cups.
Be Prepared: Place one counting bear in one cup, three counting bears in another cup, five counting bears in a third cup, six counting bears in a fourth cup, and seven counting bears in a fifth cup.
Shake a plastic cup and wonder aloud what is in the cup. Peer inside the cup and identify how many counting bears you see. Dump the bears onto the table or floor and point to each bear as you lead children in together counting the bears. Return the bears to the plastic cup.
Shake the four other plastic cups and wonder aloud how many bears are in each. Explain that we are going to count the bears in each cup. Then we will make a group of counters that is equal to the group of bears in the cup. Give each child seven non-matching counters.
Choose one of the five cups of bears. Empty the cup. Lead children in counting aloud the bears, making sure to touch each bear as it is counted. Invite children to make a group of counters equal to the group of bears. Encourage children to count one counter at a time as they make a group equal to the number of bears. Return the bears to the cup.
Continue the process described above until all cups have been counted. The plastic cups of bears can be reused if children remain interested in making groups equal to the bears in the cup.
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 children with 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.
What does it mean to concentrate? (to pay close attention to something)
Today each of us will use a squeeze ball again to concentrate on our breathing and body. We will pretend the ball is an orange in our hand.
[Give each child a squeeze ball.
Spread out children so each child has personal space. Ask children to sit and place their squeeze ball between their legs. 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 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 into 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.
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 into your stomach.
In, 1, 2, 3, out, 1, 2, 3.
Now we are going to focus on our hands and arms. Pick up your squeeze ball and hold it in your hand. Let’s pretend the squeeze ball is an orange. Pretend you are going to squeeze the orange to make orange juice. Tighten your fist as much as possible. Pretend you are squeezing the orange as hard as you can. Okay, there’s no more juice left in the orange. Relax your hands and place your squeeze ball between your legs.
Wow! Here comes a beautiful butterfly. He’s coming over to you. He’s flying around your head. Oh! He landed 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.
Squeeze your face up and move your nose around. Wrinkle your face up really hard. Now, relax. Our imaginary butterfly flew away. Feel the muscles in your face relax.
Now just relax and focus on how your body feels. Your face was tight but now it’s relaxed. Your fists were tight but now your hands feel open and free. Your stomach is now relaxed. Your whole body feels relaxed.
Now we will let go of our thoughts about how our body feels. Let’s pretend we are putting our thoughts on a big cloud in the sky. Let’s imagine we are watching our thoughts float away on a big cloud—so our mind is quiet. Now we can think about our breathing again. Let’s breathe together again while we feel our stomachs go in and out.
[Gather children’s squeeze balls and place them to the side.]
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.
[Display photos in the book of yoga poses done in Week 35, 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 tree pose. How does the child’s body look like a tree?”
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, plus 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; Week 29, Day 1; and Week 35, 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 living things
Children will understand basic characteristics of dinosaurs, including what they might have looked like and how they might have moved.
New:
Review:
[Display several toy figures of dinosaurs.]
Today we will begin to learn about dinosaurs. Jump three times if you like dinosaurs.
[Invite children to sit down after jumping.]
What do we know about dinosaurs?
[Follow-up prompts, if needed: “What do dinosaurs look like?” “What are the names of some dinosaurs?”]
We know that dinosaurs were animals that lived on land a very long time ago. Dinosaurs lived way before your grandma and grandpa’s grandma and grandpa were born.
Dinosaurs are not alive today. We cannot look out a window or go somewhere to see a living dinosaur. Dinosaurs are extinct. The word extinct means a group of animals or plants are now no longer living. No other animals like dinosaurs are now alive. This is why we say that they are extinct.
There were hundreds of different kinds of dinosaurs. Some dinosaurs were small. Some dinosaurs were very large and long.
Dinosaurs hatched from eggs and looked like their parents when they were born. Chickens and penguins are some other types of animals that hatch from eggs and look like their parents when they are born.
Let’s talk about some more things that were special about dinosaurs.
[Invite children to look at each other and say, “AHHH.”]
What did you notice about your friend’s mouth when your friend said, “AHHH”? (a tongue, teeth)
We have teeth. Dinosaurs had teeth in their mouths, too. Dinosaurs used their teeth to chew food in their mouths, just like we do.
Some dinosaurs ate meat and some dinosaurs ate plants. Some dinosaurs ate both meat and plants.
[Invite children or several volunteer children to walk around the room with you. Then encourage children to sit again.]
How did we just move? (walked)
Dinosaurs walked, too! Sometimes they ran. Many dinosaurs walked on two legs. Some dinosaurs used their four legs to walk or run. Some dinosaurs had wings and could glide through the air.
Skin covers the bodies of all animals. Skin helps protect the inside of a body from germs and dirt.
[Display picture of a duck-billed hadrosaur.]
This is a picture of a duck-billed hadrosaur. Let’s look at the skin that covers the body of this dinosaur.
Let’s think about living things that fly. What covers their body? (feathers)
[Display picture of a Microraptor dinosaur.]
This is a picture of a different kind of dinosaur. The name of this dinosaur is Microraptor. This dinosaur has wings.
What do we see on this dinosaur’s body? (feathers)
The bodies of some dinosaurs were covered with feathers. The feathers helped a dinosaur to keep warm.
Scientists think the Microraptor dinosaur could glide through the air. Remember, when we glide, we move slowly and smoothly. Animals that fly can use their wings to glide through the air.
[Hold out your arms and hands to pretend you are gliding through air. Do not flap your “wings.”]
Scientists believe that some smaller dinosaurs could glide or fly. Most dinosaurs got around by walking or running.
Some dinosaurs had feathers but did not fly. Remember, the feathers helped a dinosaur to keep warm.
Today we learned that dinosaurs were animals that lived on land a very long time ago. We learned that dinosaurs are extinct. This means that dinosaurs aren’t alive anymore. We learned that dinosaurs had a mouth and teeth that they used to eat meat or plants. Dinosaurs moved by walking and running. Some dinosaurs walked or ran on two legs and other dinosaurs walked or ran on four legs. Some dinosaurs had wings and could glide through the air. Dinosaurs were covered with skin, and some dinosaurs also had feathers.
Extra support
Enrichment
Provide dinosaur toys and play materials that would represent meat and plants. Possible materials include pretend trees from the block area and vegetables and meat from the housekeeping area. Encourage children to pretend the dinosaurs are eating food items you provide and are moving around on two or four legs.
Younger children in your setting may wish to hold or play with toy dinosaur figures. Younger children may want to move their toy dinosaurs fast or slow. Describe their play in ways that reinforce information about dinosaurs introduced to preschool-age children. Examples: “Your dinosaur is moving fast. Some dinosaurs ran fast on two legs.” “I see your dinosaur is moving slowly. Some dinosaurs walked slowly on four legs.” Infants may want to sit near children playing with toy dinosaurs and hold a plastic dinosaur or a stuffed animal. School-age children may wish to share more facts about their favorite dinosaurs.
© 2024 The Trustees of Purdue University | All Rights Reserved