[Display letter X card.]

What is the name of this letter?

[Point to the uppercase letter X on the letter card.]

Am I pointing to the uppercase or to the lowercase letter X?

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.”]

Let’s pretend we are shopping at a grocery store. We will use our dot cards to determine how many items each of us can buy.

[Place dot cards face down on the table so the dots cannot be seen.]

First we will choose a dot card. Then we will turn over our card and count the number of dots.

[Choose one dot card. Turn over the card and count the dots as you point to each.]

Now we will choose the same number of food items from the basket.

[Count out the same number of play food items from the basket and place them next to the dot card.]

We have ___ food items. This is the same as ___ dots on our card. The number of food items and the number of dots on our card are equal. Remember, when groups have the same amount, they are equal.

Now another person will choose a dot card, count the dots, and then count the same number of play food items from the basket.

[Invite a volunteer child to choose a card, count the number of dots, and then select and count the same number of play food items.]

Let’s decide which group has more food items. We know that if a group has more, it has a larger or bigger amount of something.

[Place both groups of food items separately on a table so children can see each group. Ask children to tell which group has more items. How do we know? Return the play food items to the basket. As time permits, continue the activity with pairs of children (with each child picking a card, counting the dots, and forming a group of food items). Encourage children who are unable to take a turn to do this activity in today’s math center.]

Yesterday we learned what number two looks like.

[Display a large numeral two card.]

Number two means that there are two of something.

• How many fingers do we hold up to show two? Let’s hold up two fingers!
  [Hold up three fingers.]
• How many fingers am I holding up?

I am holding up three fingers. Let’s count them together.

[Point to each finger as you encourage children to count with you.]

Number three looks like this.

[Hold up a large numeral three card.]

The number three means there are three of something. Let’s count the dots on the number card.

[Point to each dot on the numeral card as you count. Encourage children to count with you.]

The number three means there are three things! Please hold up three fingers. Let’s count them together.

[Display a large numeral two card next to a large numeral three card.]

Let’s compare the number two to the number three.

• How is the number two similar to the number three? (both have curved lines)
• How is the number two different from the number three? (only number two has a straight line)

Today we pretended to go grocery shopping. We each chose a card that told us how many grocery items we could pretend to buy. Then we compared our group of food items to another child’s group of food items to see which group had more items. We also learned what the number three looks like.

Have you ever felt bored? Tell us about it.

I am going to read the page in our book The Way I Feel that tells us about being bored.

The boy in the book is bored because it’s raining outside and he can’t go out and play. We may feel bored when we do not have anything we want to do or when we are tired of what we are doing.

[Display book pages on feeling bored.]

What do you notice about the boy’s face and body? (not smiling, frowning, looking out the window at the rain, curled up on the chair)

Let’s take a look at our poster and see if we can find a child who looks bored.

[Invite children to point out on the poster which child looks bored. Discuss facial features and body postures that children associate with being bored.]

It is not fun to feel bored. One thing we can do when we feel bored is use our imagination to think of something fun to do.

What do you think it means to use our imagination?

We can think of new or pretend things when we use our imagination. We can pretend to be whatever we want! I could pretend I am a princess/prince. We can also use things in our classroom or in our home and pretend they are different things. We could make a blanket fort and pretend it is our castle.

How could we use our imagination if we were bored and wanted something to do?

[Display paper, craft roll, toy car, cup, and block.]

I have one piece of paper, a toy car, a block, a cup, and a craft roll

Do these items look very fun?

We could get bored if this was all we had to play with. But we will not get bored if we use our imagination! Let’s use our imagination to think of things we could do with all five of these things. We can pretend each of these things is something different and fun!

We could fold the piece of paper and pretend it is a road. Then we could pretend to drive the car on the road. The block could be a big rock in the road, and the cup could be a mountain next to the road. We could use the craft roll as a tree!

[Demonstrate as you fold the paper into a narrow strip and place the block on the paper and the cup next to the paper. Pretend to drive the car down the road while jumping over the rock and driving by the tree.]

What are some other ways we could pretend these things are something else?

[Encourage children to think of things they could do with the five items. Invite volunteer children to demonstrate their ideas. Example: A child imagines the items as items to purchase at a store. He/she demonstrates the idea by pretending to drive the car to the store and then names what each item is as he/she pretends to purchase it.]

Today we learned what it means to be bored. Let’s all of us show what bored can look like. What can we use if we are bored? (our imagination)

We are learning how animals are similar and different. Today we will talk about how animals move. When we move we go from one place to another place.

What are some of the ways we can move our body? (walk, run, swim, climb, skip, crawl, jump)

Some animals can move their bodies the same ways people can move their bodies.

[Display pictures of each animal. State the animal’s name as you show its picture.]

We have pictures of four different animals. Let’s think about the different ways each of these animals can move.

• Which of the four animals can move by walking? (parrot, turtle, tiger)
  [Discuss each animal and how it can move by walking.]
• Which of the four animals can move by running? (tiger)
  [Discuss the tiger and how it can move by running.]
• Which of the four animals can move by swimming? (turtle, shark, tiger)
  [Discuss each animal and how it can move by swimming.]
• Do these animals move in more than one way? (a turtle can walk and swim; a tiger can run, swim, and walk; a parrot can walk and fly)
• Which animal can move in only one way? (shark)

Let’s move around like the animals we discussed.

[Invite children to stand in a large open area or outside. Hold up one of the four pictured animals and encourage children to move like the pictured animal. If time permits, encourage children to move in each of the ways the animal can move.]

Animals move in different ways. Today we compared the ways some animals move. We even moved like animals. What was your favorite way to move like an animal?