[Display letter D card.]

What is the name of this letter?

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

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

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.”]

Yesterday we learned that a whole group of items can be split into parts. When we count the items in the parts together we have the same amount as the original whole group.

Today we will use a special mat to split groups of items.

[Give each child a part-part-whole mat.]

We can use these mats to split a whole group of items into two parts.

[Point to each section of the mat as you describe it.]

The mat has a place for the whole group and sections for the two parts.

Each of us will get six circles (counters). Please place all of your circles in the “whole” section of your mat. The “whole” section is at the bottom of our mat. The “whole” section is the whole group. The whole group includes all of the circles.

[Give each child six counters. Observe as children place the six counters in the “whole” section of their mat. Help if appropriate.]

Now let’s split our whole group of circles into two equal parts. The parts of our mat are at the top of our mat. Remember, equal means the groups are the same.

[Encourage children to split the group of six counters into two equal parts. Observe and help, if appropriate.]

How many circles are in each of our two parts? (three)

Let’s count our two parts to be sure we still have six circles all together.

[Invite children to count the two parts all together.]

How many circles do we have all together? (six)

Let’s move our circles back to the whole section. Then each of us will get one more circle.

[Distribute one counter to each child.]

Each of us will have seven circles in our whole group. Let’s count to be sure we have seven.

[Encourage children to count their seven counters.]

Let’s split our seven circles into two parts. Let’s put three circles in one section of our mat and four circles in the other section. Remember, the parts of our mat are at the top part of the mat.

[Observe children as they split their group of seven counters. Help if appropriate.]

How many circles do we have in our two parts when we count them all together?

We still have seven!

Let’s move all of the circles to the whole section of our mat again. We will have seven circles in the whole section.

Is there another way to split your seven circles into two parts? Try it on your mat.

[Observe children as they split their group of seven counters into two parts. Help as needed. Encourage children to describe how they split their seven counters.]

Today we used special mats to split up groups of circles. Sometimes we had equal parts. Sometimes we did not have equal parts. We always had the same number of circles all together.

Last week we read a book about things that happened to a boy. He was not able to play outside because it rained, he burped when he drank his chocolate milk real fast, and he went to a favorite playground. Each of the things that happened made the boy feel a different emotion.

We have feelings about things that happen and things we think might happen. Today we will look at pictures of faces that show different emotions. We will take turns telling what the person in the picture might be feeling. We also will talk about why the person in the picture might be feeling a certain way.

[Invite a child to pick a card from the basket and say what the person in the picture is feeling. Ask the child to show the card to others in the circle.

• Encourage the child to share an idea about why the person in the picture may be feeling (emotion). Example: “Why might someone feel (emotion)?”
• Invite all children to pretend to feel (with their facial expression) the way the person in the picture feels. Example: “Please show us a (emotion) face.
• Ask the child to return the picture card to you. Do not return cards to the basket.
• Provide each child a turn, going in the order in which children are seated.]

We took turns looking at pictures of children showing different types of feelings. We talked about why someone might feel each emotion. We also pretended our face was showing an emotion.

Yesterday we learned about how some desert animals survive without food and water for long periods of time. Remember, survive means something can live.

What is one way a desert animal can survive in the hot sun? (stay underground or in the shade during the day, look for food at night when it is cooler)

Let’s look at some pictures of desert animals.

[Display each picture, one at a time, as you explain how an animal eats and gets water.]

•  Snake: What is the first animal? Snakes eat lizards and other small animals in the desert. They drink only a little water and sometimes they don’t drink any water.
• Camel: What is the name of this animal? Camels’ mouths are tough. Camels are able to eat some desert plants and twigs in the desert. Camels can go for a very long time (months) without drinking water. A camel’s humps are filled with fat.
• Fennec fox: Do you remember the name of the next animal? The fennec fox eats insects and small animals in the desert. Fennec foxes can live for years without water!

All of these animals get water from the foods they eat.

• Let’s pretend we are a snake in the desert. Let’s move like a snake!
• Camels can run very fast. Let’s run in place like a camel.
• The fennec fox is fast. Let’s run very fast in place like a fennec fox.

Animals that live in the desert are able to live for a long time without drinking water. Some desert animals never drink water. Animals that live in the desert have amazing characteristics that help them survive!