Letter knowledge
Children will recognize spoken letters in their first name.
Review:
Be Prepared: Secure letter cards for the first names of children in your group. Arrange the letters in the order in which you intend to introduce them in a song. Include at least one letter from each child’s first name. It is not necessary to use all letters of each child’s name. The letter cards are to be used in the activity for extra support only.
Give each child his/her name card. Encourage children to put the card in front of them. Explain that you will sing a song about letters. The song will tell us to raise our hand if we hear a letter that is in our name. Use your name card as an example. Sing the first part of the song (see insert) with a letter in your first name. Raise your hand. Describe why you raised your hand. Point to the sung letter in your name card. Explain that we need to listen carefully for the letter.
Sing the song. Sing slowly at first so children have time to understand the process. Emphasize each letter when you sing it. If children seem unclear about the letter you sing, sing again the letter name and display the appropriate letter card.
Include two letters each time you sing the song. Example: “If you have a letter A in your name, raise your hand. If you have letter B in your name, raise your hand. If you have a letter A, if you have a letter B, if you a letter A or B in your name, raise your hand.” Use one letter per verse if you anticipate two letters per verse will be too challenging.
Add challenge by inviting children to point the sung letter in their name card with a finger on the hand they are not raising.
Repeat the song until each child has an opportunity to raise his/her hand at least once.
Letter Song
(Tune: If you’re happy at you know it)
If you have a ____ in your name, raise your hand.
If you have a ____ in your name, raise your hand.
If you have a letter ___, if you have a letter ___,
if you have a letter ____ or ____ in your name, raise your hand.
Pattern knowledge
Children will use different ways to make simple patterns.
Review:
Offer the Week 14, Day 4 activity to review making a simple (ABAB) pattern with movements.
Support children in playing Sleeping, Sleeping, All the Children Are Sleeping (Self-Regulation Week 12, Day 1) with a simple (ABAB) pattern that involves two types of animals.
Explain that we will make a simple pattern with our game Sleeping, Sleeping, All the Children Are Sleeping. Remind children how to play Sleeping, Sleeping, All the Children Are Sleeping.
Remind children that a pattern is something that repeats itself. Explain that we will pretend to be one of two animals when we play our game. Example: “We might pretend to be a bear and then pretend to be a cat. Our pattern would be bear, cat, bear, cat. What would come after cat in our pattern?” (bear)
Invite children to choose the two animals to use in the game. After each round, invite children to select different animals, if appropriate. Increase challenge by inviting children to select and use a third animal. This would support an ABCABC pattern.
Executive function
Children will remember and carry out actions in response to aural and oral prompts.
Review:
Be Prepared: If time permits, offer Mirror, Mirror from Week 46, Day 2 as a second game. If the game described below is too challenging for a majority of children, stop at an appropriate place and offer Mirror, Mirror from Week 46, Day 2. The game for today may be less challenging when offered again at a later point.
Today we will play a game we’ve played before that will help us to be good listeners and remember what to do. We will need to listen carefully. What part of our body do we use to listen? (ears) The game will help us practice how to remember things. We know that when we practice something, we do it many times so we can get better at it!
The game is called Drum Beats. Remember, beats on the drum will tell us how to move our body.
What do we remember about what we did when we played this game several weeks ago?
Remember, I will use the drum to tell you how to move your body. Let’s begin by dancing when I beat the drum. Please dance slowly when I beat the drum slowly. Keep dancing slowly until you hear me beat the drum quickly. Please dance quickly when I beat the drum quickly. Watch as I show you.
[Ask another adult to help. Beat the drum slowly, then pause as the other adult dances slowly. Then beat the drum quickly and have the other adult dance quickly.]
Now let’s try it together.
[Beat the drum slowly as children dance slowly. Then beat the drum quickly as children dance quickly. Then stop and wait for children to stop dancing. Continue with several rounds of beating the drum slowly and quickly, while waiting for children to dance slowly and quickly on cue. Shorten or lengthen the amount of time you beat the drum, based on how quickly children respond to the prompts. Say “stop” to indicate that children should stop dancing.]
Now we will change our game a little bit. This time when I beat the drum slowly, we will jog in place slowly. Keep jogging in place slowly until you hear me beat the drum quickly. When we hear quick drumbeats, we will begin to jog in place quickly. When I say “stop,” we stop. Watch as I show you.
[Ask another adult to help. Beat the drum slowly, as the adult jogs in place slowly. Then beat the drum quickly, as the adult jogs in place quickly. Alternate between slow beats and quick beats as the other adult jogs in place slowly and then quickly. Say “stop” when you are finished with the demonstration.]
Now, let’s try it together!
[Beat the drum slowly, then pause and wait for children to jog in place slowly. Then beat the drum quickly, and pause and wait for children to jog in place quickly. Then say “stop,” and pause and wait for children to stop. Continue alternating between slow and quick beats as the children jog in place slowly and then quickly. Say “stop” to indicate that children should stop jogging in place. Shorten or lengthen the frequency of prompts (slow beats and quick beats), depending on how quickly children change their actions.]
Let’s change the game one more time.
When I beat the drum slowly, we will jog in place quickly. Then when I beat the drum quickly, we will jog in place slowly.
[Beat the drum slowly, then pause and wait as children jog in place quickly. Then beat the drum quickly, and pause and wait as children jog in place slowly. Alternate between beating the drum quickly and slowly for several minutes. Say “stop” to indicate that children should stop jogging in place.]
Today we practiced listening carefully so we would know what to do. We also practiced remembering what to do. In our game, we listened for drum beats.
Extra support
Enrichment
Provide the drum used during today’s activity. Invite children to play Drum Beats while taking turns beating the drum. As children play Drum Beats, guide the drummer and others, if necessary.
Encourage all children in your setting to continue practicing self-regulation skills while playing an outdoor game using a drum. Invite children to play as you beat the drum. When the drum stops, encourage children to stop what they are doing and freeze. Continue beating the drum for shorter periods of time and stopping as children freeze. Younger children will enjoy beating on boxes and bowls as older children listen for your drum cues.
Knowledge of living things
Children will understand characteristics of plant-eating dinosaurs.
New:
Be Prepared: Today’s activity includes reading the first 25 pages of a book.
We know that some dinosaurs ate plants. Today we are going to talk about how characteristics of some dinosaurs helped them eat plants.
Let’s talk first about the mouths of dinosaurs.
The mouths of some dinosaurs were made to pull leaves off of tree branches. Their teeth worked like rakes. Their mouths and teeth pulled lots of leaves off at one time. The dinosaur would need a big mouth to hold so many leaves!
Other dinosaurs had teeth in the front of their mouth that snipped off leaves. The word snip means to cut something.
The long necks of some dinosaurs helped them reach leaves at the tops of trees.
[Display picture of dinosaur with a long neck.]
Some dinosaurs ate plants from the ground. They bent their heads low to the ground to eat the plants. Many dinosaurs that ate plants on the ground had short necks.
[Display and describe the picture of a dinosaur with a short neck.]
What do we do with our teeth after we put some food in our mouth? (chew the food)
Dinosaurs chewed leaves and other parts of plants before they swallowed them. Dinosaurs that ate plants had short and thick teeth that smashed the food into smaller pieces. Food needs to be in small pieces before it moves through an animal’s body.
Today we will read a book that will help us learn more about dinosaurs that ate plants only. Our book is about the Diplodocus dinosaur.
[Display book cover and point to the word “Diplodocus” when you say it.]
Our book is called Smithsonian Little Explorer Diplodocus. The author and illustrator of the book is Sally Lee.
[Read to p. 25 of the book without inviting talk until you have finished reading. Do not elaborate on information unless children seem confused about what you are reading. Point to and describe illustrations directly related to the text.]
[Use questions such as the following to encourage children to discuss some key facts in the book:]
The mouths and teeth of some dinosaurs were made to pull a lot of leaves from a tree. Other dinosaurs snipped leaves from a tree or plant. Some dinosaurs like the Diplodocus had long necks for reaching out to grab leaves.
Extra support
In the discussion of how some dinosaur mouths worked like a rake, some children may benefit from a description of a rake and how it works. Show and talk about a rake. (Use the provided picture of a rake, if necessary.)Enrichment
Measure outside how long 100 feet is. Place a pylon marker at each end of the 100 feet. Remind children this is the length of the Diplodocus dinosaur. Invite children to try throwing a ball 100 feet. Find out how many throws it will take if a child throws a ball, moves to where the ball stopped, and throws the ball again.
Younger children may enjoy participating in today’s activity with preschool-age children, including the brief exercise in pretending an arm is a dinosaur neck. You may wish to invite preschool-age children to lead younger children in moving on their hands and legs to pretend they are dinosaurs with shorter necks. Encourage children to think about what this type of dinosaur may eat.
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