[Display letter M card.]

What is the name of this letter?

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

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

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 say the rhyme “One, Two, Buckle My Shoe” together!

[Lead children in saying the rhyme.]

[Pass out shape cutouts to children. Each child gets one shape cutout. Encourage children to name the shape you give them. Help if necessary.]

Today we will think of a simple pattern to make with our shapes. Then we will make the pattern. We know that a simple pattern uses two things that repeat themselves.

First let’s make a simple pattern with circles and squares. What type of simple pattern can we make with circles and squares? (circle, square, circle, square)

• [After children describe a pattern with circles and squares, ask them to say which shape they’d like to begin with, and which shape would come next in the pattern.
• After the first two shapes have been put down, ask “Who has a _____ to add to our pattern?”
• Invite a child with a _____ to come to place his/her shape in the pattern.
• Continue until all children with circles and squares have placed their shape in the pattern.
• Leave the completed pattern on the floor or table.]

Now let’s think of a pattern we can make with triangles and rectangles. What type of pattern can we make with triangles and rectangles? (triangle, rectangle, triangle, rectangle)

• [Repeat the steps described above, leaving the completed pattern on the floor or table.]

Today we made patterns with shapes. We worked together to make our patterns. Let’s together say each of our two shape patterns!

[Lead children in saying each shape pattern as you point to each shape.]

Today we are going to talk about how we feel when we can’t do something that we’ve tried really hard to do. We might get upset or want to cry or give up trying something when we feel frustrated.

Have you ever felt frustrated? What happened?

We can feel frustrated when we try to make a basket with a basketball and can’t seem to do it. We can feel frustrated when we try to draw a picture of something but it doesn’t look the way we want it to look.

Being frustrated can make us feel bad inside.

Let’s read the page in our book The Way I Feel that tells us about feeling frustrated.

The girl in the book feels frustrated because she can’t tie her shoe. How does her face tell us she is frustrated? (eyes are squinted, lips are tight, eyebrows are slanted down)

Now let’s take a look at our poster and see if we can find a child who is feeling frustrated.

[Invite children to point out on the poster which child looks frustrated. Discuss facial expressions that children associate with being frustrated.]

Sometimes when we feel frustrated about something, it helps to stop what we are doing and take a break. We may become angry if we feel more frustrated. Feeling angry about something we have trouble doing is not going to help us do what we want to do. Taking a break can help us calm down and keep trying.

[Display a puppet and 6–8 blocks.]

We are going to use our puppet to practice some things to do when we feel frustrated.

[Use the puppet to show frustration about being unable to build a tall tower of blocks. Try building the tower 3–4 times with it falling each time. Use a different voice for the “puppet talk.”]

I am so frustrated! Each time I try to build a block tower, it falls over. I don’t know what to do. I just want to cry!

Maybe the puppet needs to take a break from building a tower. Sometimes we can feel more frustrated about something if we don’t take a break from what is frustrating us. During a break, we can concentrate on our breathing and bodies to help us calm down.

I am going to take a break and do something else for a little bit. Then when I feel better, I will try again. I think I will concentrate on my breathing to help me calm down. Then I will look at a book. These things will help me calm down and not feel so frustrated.

What did the puppet do when it was frustrated? (took a break, concentrated on its breathing, looked at a book)

Let’s practice one more time. This time the puppet will try to do something else when it gets frustrated.

[Use the puppet to show frustration about not being able to write a letter in its name. Make the puppet try writing the letter 3–4 times as it continues to get frustrated.]

I am so frustrated! I can’t write a letter in my name. I’ve tried and tried. I just don’t know what to do!

This time, let’s have the puppet do something that might be a little easier to do. This might help it to not feel so frustrated.

Maybe I should practice writing just one part of the letter in my name. If I practice writing one part of the letter and get good at it, then I can try writing the rest of the letter. This won’t be as hard, and it will help me to not feel so frustrated.

What did the puppet do when it was frustrated this time? (tried something that was easier for the puppet to do)

Today we learned what it means to feel frustrated. Feeling frustrated makes us feel bad inside. What two things did we learn that can help us when we are frustrated? (take a break, try something easier)

We are learning about animal life cycles. We learned that a chicken begins its life in an egg and takes several weeks to become an adult.

Today we will learn about the life cycle of another animal that begins its life in an egg. It is a bird just like a chicken. The animal we will talk about today is a penguin.

A penguin is a black and white bird that cannot fly. A penguin’s life cycle is very similar to a chicken’s life cycle. Let’s look at some pictures of the life cycle of a penguin.

[Display four penguin life cycle pictures and describe each stage as part of children’s responses to the following questions. Point to the picture of the stage as you describe it.]

• Penguins begin their life cycle just like a chicken. What would be the first stage in a penguin’s life cycle? (egg)
• What would a penguin chick do when it is ready to hatch? (crack open the egg) Let’s pretend we are hatching from an egg. This is just like a chicken!
• A penguin is called a chick in the next stage of its life cycle. What other animal is called a chick in one of its stages? (chicken)
• What do you think is the last stage in a penguin’s life cycle? (adult) It takes over a year for a penguin chick to become an adult penguin. It takes a lot longer for a penguin chick to become an adult than it takes for a chicken to become an adult. A year is a long time.

Today we learned that penguins begin their life cycle in an egg, just like a chicken. The chick hatches from the egg and grows to become an adult.