[Display the letter O card.]

• What is the name of this letter?
• Pop up if you have the letter O in your name!

[See Week 3, Day 3 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 say book title. Engage children in describing what they remember about the book: 
  • What is our book about? 
  • Who were the main characters in our book? 
  • What happened first? What happened next? 
• Remind children that reading a book is a good way to learn new words. Point to and say words introduced on Day 1 that are listed on the Words We Understand chart. Invite children to talk about what they recall about each of the words. Remind children of the meaning of each novel word. 
• Point to where to begin to read on the first text page of the book. Pause during reading to briefly define words identified for today’s session. Use the following approach: 
  • Read the sentence with the novel word. Repeat the novel word. 
  • Repeat the sentence in which the word is used. 
  • Define the novel word and connect the definition to the book. 
• After the book reading, engage children in a discussion of each novel word targeted for today with one or more of the following strategies (plus writing the word on the chart):
  • Ask children to describe a picture related to the word. 
  • Define a word without naming it and ask children to identify the word. 
  • Encourage children to think about a novel word in another context. 
• Encourage children to connect the book information to their own experiences. Below are some examples: 
  • “Our book today was about worms. Have you ever seen or touched a worm? What was it like?”
  • “Our book today talked about roots. Roots are part of a plant that grow into the dirt. Have you ever seen the root of a plant? What was it like?” 
  • “Today we talked about the word squeeze. We squeeze something by pressing things very close together. What kinds of things have you squeezed? How about a tube of toothpaste? How about a package or bottle of ketchup? Show us how you squeeze something.”]

We are learning that when we count, the last number we count tells how many we have. Let’s count our fingers.

[Lead children as you count your fingers, moving each finger as you count.]

How many fingers do we have? How do we know?

Today we are going to sort some things. Remember, when we sort things, we put them into different groups. Let’s look at some items in our basket. There are crayons, pencils, scissors, and glue.

Let’s put each item into a group.

[Demonstrate how to sort one or two items. Pass the basket from child to child. Invite each child to take one item out of the basket and say where (which group) the item should be placed. Encourage the child to put the item in its appropriate group. Occasionally offer a reminder of the sorting process. Example: “Treshawn picked a pencil. He put the pencil in the group with all of the other pencils.”]

Now let’s count how many are in each of the four groups we have made. We know the last number we count tells us how many items are in a group.

[Invite children to join you in counting the number of items in each group. Touch or hold up each item as you count. After you’ve counted each group, ask “How many?”]

Remember, the last number we say is the number of items that are in the group.

I am going to hold up some fingers on my hand. Please say how many fingers I am holding up.

[Count each finger as you hold up 1–10 fingers. Ask children to tell “how many.” Repeat several times with different amounts. Be sure to count out loud as you hold up each finger.]

How do we know how many fingers I held up? (last number counted tells how many)

Today we practiced sorting items and counting to find out how many items were in each group. We know that the last number we say when we count tells us how many are in the group.

[Display sad Feeling Face.]

Yesterday we made Feeling Faces and talked about what it means to feel sad. Can you make a sad face?

Remember, when we are sad we sometimes have a frown on our face, or we may cry.

Our body might hurt inside when we are sad. Sometimes we get a stomachache when we are sad. Sometimes we have a hard time calming our mind or relaxing our body when we are sad.

We can feel sad for many different reasons. One of the times we may feel really sad is when a parent or family member goes away for a while. It’s hard to wait for our family member to come home. But there are things we can do to help us feel better.

Today we are going to talk about some ways we can feel better when a parent or family member is away for a while. I have a poster that shows us some things that might help us when we are feeling sad. Notice there is a friendly fox on our poster.

[Display Things That Make Us Feel Better poster.]

Let’s look at the things the fox is doing on this poster and talk about how they can make us feel better when we are sad.

Our friendly fox is doing things with its body to feel better.

[Point to each “move our body” picture and ask the following questions.]

• What is the fox doing in this picture?
• Have you ever done what the fox is doing in the picture to help you feel better when you were sad? Tell us about it.

Our friendly fox is doing quiet things to feel better.

[Point to “do quiet things” pictures and ask the following questions.]

• What kinds of quiet things is the fox doing?
• Have you ever done what the fox is doing in the picture to help you feel better when you were sad? Tell us about it.

[Point to “be with others” pictures.]

• What is the fox doing in these pictures?
• Have you ever done what the fox is doing in the picture to help you feel better when you were sad? Tell us about it.

There are different reasons we may feel sad. We can be very sad when a parent or family member is away for a while. The friendly fox on our poster showed us many things we can do to help us feel better when we are sad. I will hang this poster in the room to help us remember the kinds of things we can do to help us feel better when we are sad.

We are learning many different movements that can be used in dance. What is a movement? (something we do with our body to make it move)

Today we will play a game with an activity cube to learn some new movements.

[Display activity cube.]

This is called an activity cube. The cube has pictures of different movements. There also is a word next to the picture that tells the name of the movement. I can help you figure out what the word says, if you want.

Let’s look at each of the pictures on our activity cube. We already know some of the movements.

[Display the cube’s illustration of bend.]

We know this movement. What is this movement? (bend) Everyone show us how to bend.

[Display the cube’s illustration of stretch.]

This shows another movement we know. What is the movement? (stretch) Let’s all stretch.

Let’s look at some other pictures on our cube.

[Display the cube’s illustration of jump.]

This picture shows a jump movement. Watch me as I jump.

[Demonstrate jump.]

When we jump, we use both feet to go up and then down in the air. We land on both feet. Now let’s all jump!

[Encourage children to join you as you jump several times.

Display the cube’s illustration of hop.]

This is a picture of a hop movement. Watch me as I hop.

[Demonstrate hop.]

We know that when we hop, we use one foot at a time and go up and down in the air. We can also change feet while we hop. Now let’s all hop!

[Encourage children to join you as you hop.

Display the cube’s illustration of glide.]

This is a picture of a glide movement. Watch me as I glide.

[Demonstrate glide.]

When we glide, we move our bodies to the side slowly and smoothly. Now let’s all glide!

[Encourage children to join you as you glide.

Display the cube’s illustration of spin.]

This is a picture of a spin movement. Watch me as I spin.

[Demonstrate spin.]

When we spin, we turn our bodies around and around, but not too fast! Now let’s all spin!

[Encourage children to join you as you spin.]

We will take turns rolling the cube when we play our game. When the cube stops, a picture of one of the movements will be on top of the cube. Whoever rolled the cube will tell us the name of the movement and then remind us of how to do the movement. Then we will do the movement together! I’ll roll first and show you how we play.

[Demonstrate how to roll the cube and wait for it to stop. Look at the picture that is on top of the cube. Say the name of the movement and show the picture to children. Then demonstrate the movement as you encourage children to join you.

Invite children to take turns rolling the cube and demonstrating the movement that is on the top of the cube. Encourage all children to do the movement.]

Today we learned more movements. Artists use movements to move their bodies when they dance. Let’s all take a bow to celebrate all of the movements we have learned and practiced this week!