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. See Week 46, Day 1 for 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. See Week 46, Day 1 for 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. See Week 46, Day 1 for an example.
Extra support
Enrichment
Number knowledge
Children will strengthen their understanding of how to collect and organize information.
Review:
Offer the Week 30, Day 1 activity to review how to collect and organize information for a chart.
Engage children in collecting (sorting, counting) and interpreting information about three groups of beads.
Be Prepared: Place 5–9 beads of three different colors in a small cup for each child. Ensure that each cup has a different number of beads of each color, and that the amounts of two colors of beads in each cup are close in number. Examples: one cup may have five purple beads, seven yellow beads, and eight orange beads. Another cup may have eight purple beads, three yellow beads, and four orange beads. The activity will work best at a table that offers sufficient space in front of each child.
Explain that each child will receive a cup with three different colors of beads. Each of us will sort our beads by color. Then each of us will count our three groups of beads and decide which group has the most beads and which group has the fewest beads. Remind children that the last number counted tells us how many, and that we are collecting information when we sort and count. You may wish to provide a demonstration.
Give each child a cup of beads, and invite children to sort by color and then count the number of beads in each group. Encourage children to work in the space directly in front of them and to be careful to keep their three groups of beads separate.
After a child has sorted and counted his/her beads, ask individual children which of his/her groups (by color) has the most beads (more beads than the child’s other two groups) and which of his/her groups has the fewest beads (the smallest amount among the three groups). If time permits, invite a child to organize the three groups from most (at the bottom) to fewest (at the top).
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 48, 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 triangle pose. How does the child’s body look like a triangle?”
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 in previous weeks. 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 ABC’s 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 strengthen their awareness of art in their child development center and in their homes.
Review:
Be Prepared: Arrange for an adult to help you take children on a tour of your child development center to look at and talk about art.
We create a lot of art in our classroom. Last week we held an exhibition of art done by children in our room.
Our exhibition was a special way to share our art with families and other people. We show our art all the time in our classroom.
There is art in each of the classrooms at our center. There also is art in other parts of our center. Today we are going to walk through our center to look for art. We may see a painting, a collage, a drawing, some photographs, or other types of art. Maybe some of the art we find has a label that tells us more about the artwork.
Sometimes we walk past things that we do not notice. We may be focused on getting somewhere and not take time to look at what is around us. On our walk today, we can take time to pay attention to art that is hanging on the walls and art that may be sitting on tables or shelves.
[With the help of another adult, take children on a walk through your center. Point out all forms of art. Talk with children about the images and type of art on display. Point out artist signatures, if present, and labels that accompany artwork. Save time for a brief discussion after the tour.]
Today we talked about art in our homes and in our center.
Extra support:
Enrichment:
In the art center, invite children to create art to take home with them. Provide cardboard frames ready for art, such as drawings, paintings, etc.
Talk with children about adding additional art pieces to your setting. Ask children what kinds of art could be added and if children would like to make the items.
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