We are going to practice finding a letter we know by looking for it in a sentence. When we find the letter, we will also say the sound the letter makes.

[Write the following sentence on a chart or whiteboard. Read each word as you write the sentence:

I was sad when my blocks fell.]

We want to find the lowercase letter o in our sentence.

[Display letter card O. Point to the lowercase o on the card.

Encourage a volunteer child to look for and point to the lowercase letter o in the sentence as you display the O letter card.]

What sound does the letter O make?

Yes! Letter O says /o/. Let’s together say the sound of the letter O: /o/.

Now let’s spend some time with our book.

[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.”]

Today we are going to practice counting and making groups of items. We are going to do this by making caterpillars! Have you ever seen a caterpillar?

Each of you will get a group of 14 pom-poms. We will use these to make our caterpillars.

[Give each child 14 pom-poms in various colors, one piece of white construction paper, and a bottle of glue.]

Let’s count our pom-poms to make sure each of us has 14. Please lay your pom-poms in front of you. When we count them, we will pick up one and place it to the side each time we say a number. Remember, the last number we count tells us how many we have. Watch me count first.

[Demonstrate how to count the pom-poms by moving each one to the side as you count it.]

How many pom-poms do I have? Let’s count them together now.

[Lead children in counting slowly as you watch children move their pom-poms.]

Does everyone have 14 pom-poms?

I am going to tell you a story while we make our caterpillars. The story will tell you how many pom-poms each caterpillar has. When we make our caterpillars we will glue the pom-poms to the paper in a row like this.

[Demonstrate how to put a small dot of glue for each pom-pom on the paper. Example: A caterpillar with three pom-poms would have three dots of glue in a row. Show children how to begin their first caterpillar on the left side of the page. This will ensure sufficient room for up to four caterpillars.

Help as children make their caterpillars on the paper as you tell the story. Observe as they count out the correct number of pom-poms. Help children count out the pom-poms as needed.]

Once upon a time there was a caterpillar with three pom-poms.

[Pause so children can make three dots of glue and then assemble three pom-poms.]

The caterpillar with three pom-poms had a friend who had five pom-poms.

[Pause so children can make five dots of glue and then assemble five pom-poms.]

One day the two caterpillars crawled to a tree in the park. There, they met a caterpillar with four pom-poms.

[Pause so children can make four dots of glue and then assemble four pom-poms.]

The caterpillar with four pom-poms wanted to play with the other caterpillars and asked if it could bring its little sister. The little sister had two pom-poms. She was a very small caterpillar.

[Pause so children can make two dots of glue and then assemble two pom-poms.]

All of the caterpillars played together near the tree and had so much fun!

How many caterpillars did we make? (four) Please point to the caterpillar that has two pom-poms. Please point to the caterpillar that has four pom-poms. How about the caterpillar with five pom-poms? Now let’s all point to the caterpillar with three pom-poms.

Today we made caterpillars while we listened to a story. We counted out the correct number of pom-poms for each caterpillar. We will let our caterpillars dry and you can add eyes to your caterpillars and draw more on your picture at center time if you’d like. We will share our pictures with each other later in the week.

[Display Tucker the Turtle.]

Yesterday we talked about feeling angry. Tucker the Turtle taught us to think like a turtle when we feel angry. We usually feel bad inside when we are angry. Who can remember the three things Tucker taught us? (stop, tuck, think) Let’s try it again together.

[Invite children to practice the three steps with you. Use the cues, “STOP,” “TUCK,” and “THINK” for each step. Be sure that children are practicing three deep breaths when they “tuck.”]

Today Tucker the Turtle is going to tell us more about what he does when he thinks in his shell. This is when we think about some solutions to the problem that is making us feel angry.

[Use the puppet and your own words to describe the THINK step. Remember that an animated puppet and voice will help to engage children!]

Boys and girls, what do we call the third thing I showed you yesterday? (think)

When I get into my shell, I take a few deep breaths to calm down and then think about ways I can deal with feeling angry. Being inside my shell helps me concentrate on my thinking. Being inside my shell helps me pay attention to myself. I am not doing other things. I am thinking.

I do my best thinking when my mind is quiet. I take three breaths. This helps me to feel calm. Will you take three deep breaths with me? Let’s take three deep breaths together. In, out. In, out. In, out. I also can relax my muscles when I am in my shell. Remember, a relaxed body and calm mind can help us use good self-control.

Are you ready to do your best thinking?

My best thinking begins with figuring out my problem. Yesterday I told you how I felt angry when a friend grabbed a toy I was playing with. My problem was that a friend took a toy I really like to play with. Remember, I felt angry and hit my friend. This was not a good choice because hitting my friend made him feel bad. He cried. Then I realized I had made a mistake by hitting my friend.

So, I decided that I needed to think of a better way to solve my problems when I get angry. I think about solutions to my problem when I do my best thinking. My calm mind helps me think about things I could do about my problem. I think about solutions and then I decide which solution is a good choice. I bet you and your teacher can do some good thinking about solutions.

[Put down puppet.]

Several weeks ago we talked about some solutions to problems we might have. We used some cards to remind us of solutions. I have some of the solution cards we used. Let’s talk together about some of the solutions.

[Discuss each solution. Begin with the two cards that speak directly to Tucker’s situation. Use a real life situation for each:]

• Say, “Please stop.” (when someone is trying to hurt your feelings or your body, when someone is taking something from you or is bothering something you are playing with)
• Ask an adult for help (when you need help in resolving the problem)

Now let’s look at the rest of our solution cards and talk about how they can help us if we are angry.

• Ignore (when someone is trying to hurt your feelings)
• Play together (when you want to play with the same toy)
• Share (when two people want to play with the same toy)
• Trade (when someone wants to play with the toy you are playing with)
• Wait and take turns (if two people want to play with a toy at the same time)

Now let’s pretend that something is happening that might make us feel angry. I need someone to help me practice.

[Invite a volunteer child to join you in role playing a brief situation that leads to feeling angry. See Be Prepared. If the volunteer child plays the role of the person who feels angry, be sure to coach the child on each of the steps that Tucker the Turtle would take to deal with anger. Invite the other children to help the child think of solutions during the “think” stage.]

We all can help remind each other to go into our shell when we feel angry. If someone seems angry or upset, we could gently say “think like a turtle” to remind someone to stop, tuck, and think!

Today Tucker the Turtle helped us learn how to do our best thinking when we feel angry. How do we calm our mind so we can do some good thinking? (go into our shell to breathe deeply, relax our muscles) What do we think about? (solutions, which solution is a good choice) Let’s once again practice the things Tucker taught us.

[Use cues, STOP, TUCK, and THINK.]

We are learning that all living things need food and air to grow and do things. Today we will talk about what happens when living things grow.

[Display picture of tree seedling.]

Most living things start small. This is a picture of a tree when it was very young. We can call this a baby tree.

[Display picture of adult tree next to the picture of seedling.]

This is a picture of the baby tree when it is older. The tree used to be small and now it is bigger. It is now an adult tree. Living things get bigger or change as they grow.

• Will you be bigger when you are older?
  [Follow-up prompt, if needed: “Will you be bigger when you go to kindergarten?”]
• How much bigger do you think you will be?

Let’s look again at our two pictures of the tree. The older tree is a lot taller than when it was a baby tree.

What are some other ways the older tree looks different than the baby tree? (older tree has more leaves, more branches, is wider)

[Display picture of two seeds next to the pictures of younger and older trees.]

This is a picture of seeds. The older tree grew many seeds on its branches. The seeds fell to the ground. Some of the seeds may grow into baby trees and then into adult trees. When a living thing grows up, it can help make another like itself. The older tree in our picture helped make another tree by first growing seeds.

We know that the seeds will need soil, sunlight, and water in order to live.

[Display classroom chair.]

This week we learned about living things. Let’s think about the chair that is next to me.

• Does our chair need food?
• Does our chair breathe?
• Can our chair grow (get bigger)?
• Can our chair make another chair?

Our chair is not a living thing. What are some living things in our classroom?