[Display letter N card.]

What is the name of this letter?

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

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

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 think about some colors.

[For each of the following requests, ask children to please sit down after you have commented on the number of children who like a given color.]

•  Please pop up if you like the color purple.
• Please pop up if you like the color green.
• Please pop up if you like the color pink.

Today we will think more about the colors purple, green, and pink. We will choose our favorite of these three different colors. Then we will organize information about our favorite color on our chart.

[Display Favorite Color chart. Point to and read the title of the chart. Point to each index card and read the color name written on the card.]

We will use our chart to organize our information. Each of us will choose our favorite of the three colors on the chart by putting a dot above the color we like the best.

We will each put a dot on the chart above our favorite color. I will go first.

My favorite of the three colors on the chart is (color). I will put my dot above the (color) card.

[Invite children, one or two at a time, to use the Bingo dotter to put a dot above their favorite color on the chart.]

Now we have all of our dots on our chart. We have organized our information by putting dots above our favorite color.

What can we learn by counting the number of dots above each color? (how many people chose each color as their favorite)

[Lead children in counting together the dots above each color. Point to each dot as you count. Write the number of dots at the top of each column, similar to the Day 2 chart arrangement. Describe what the number means.]

The color with the most dots above it is the favorite color of the most children in our room. The color with the fewest dots above it is the favorite color of the fewest children in our room.

Now we can present our information. We present our information by telling others what we found. Our information is the number of children who picked each color as their favorite.

• Which color is the favorite of the most children in our room?
• Which color is the favorite of the fewest children in our room?

[Discuss any colors that may have an equal number of dots, and remind children that equal means they are the same, if appropriate. Point out that equal means the same number of children chose these colors as their favorite.]

Today we used a chart to show our favorite color. What information did we learn by using our chart? (which colors were the favorite of the most and fewest children) We organized our chart by putting dots above our favorite color. Then we presented the information by telling what we found.

We are learning about empathy. What does it mean to have empathy? (we understand how someone else is feeling) Sometimes we can understand how someone is feeling because we also have felt the same way.

[Display picture of girl who appears to be happy.]

• We looked at this picture yesterday. Many of us have empathy with the girl shown in this picture. Why? (because she seems happy and we know what it is like to feel happy)
  [Display picture of boy who appears to be sad.]
• Here is another picture we looked at yesterday. Many of us have empathy with the boy shown in this picture. Why? (because he seems sad and we know what it is like to feel sad)

Today we will talk about having empathy with children when different kinds of things happen.

[Display picture of a teddy bear.]

Let me tell you about a boy named Austin. Austin’s dad was going to read a book with him. The book was Austin’s favorite book. Austin’s favorite toy is a teddy bear. Austin wanted to hold his favorite toy while his dad read his favorite book, but he could not find his teddy bear. He looked and looked but could not find it anywhere.

• How do you think Austin felt when he could not find his favorite toy?
  [Encourage children to describe different emotions without saying whether one is correct. Example: “What else might Austin have felt when he could not find his favorite toy?”]
• Have you ever not been able to find one of your favorite toys?
• How did you feel when you couldn’t find your favorite toy?
• Some of us may have empathy with Austin when he could not find his favorite toy. What does it mean to have empathy with Austin? (understand how he feels)

[Display picture of Brianna drinking her milk.]

Now let’s learn about a girl named Brianna. Brianna went to a restaurant with her family. She ordered a glass of milk. It was in a special glass without a lid! She accidentally bumped her glass and the milk spilled all over her plate and on the table.

Brianna felt embarrassed when she spilled her glass of milk. We know that when we feel embarrassed, we feel foolish in front of other people.

• Have you ever spilled milk or had something happen that made you feel embarrassed? Tell us about it.
• Some of us may have empathy with Brianna feeling embarrassed. What does it mean to have empathy with Brianna? (understand how she feels)
• What are some things we might do to help Brianna feel better? (tell her that you spilled your drink at a restaurant once before too; help her clean up the milk; ask her if you can give her a hug)

[Display pieces of a train track.]

There is one more person I want to tell you about today. This person is Ethan.

Ethan wanted to build a train track during center time. He walked to the block center thinking about the special track he would make. When he got to the block center, four other children were already in the center. The classroom rule was that only four children could be in the block center at the same time. Ethan told the children in the block area that he’d like a turn to build. But the children told him they weren’t ready to leave the block area.

• How do you think Ethan felt when he could not build a train track?
  [Encourage children to describe different emotions without saying one is correct. Some children may focus on disappointment or frustration in not being able to build a train track. Other children may focus on emotions related to peers not accommodating Ethan’s interest.]
• Have you ever not been able to do something you really wanted to do?
• How did you feel when you couldn’t do what you really wanted to do?
• Some of us may have empathy with Ethan when he could not build a train track. What does it mean to have empathy with Ethan? (understand how he feels)

Today we talked about how some children felt when different things happened. Austin couldn’t find his favorite toy, Brianna spilled her milk, and Ethan couldn’t build a train track when he wanted to. Did you feel empathy with any of the children in these situations?

[Arrange children so they are sitting in a circle.]

We are learning how to pretend we are a character in a story by imitating the character’s voice and facial expressions. Remember, imitate means to sound like or look like someone or something else. We usually imitate someone else when we do drama.

Today we will practice imitating how someone moves parts of their body! I will show you what I mean.

[Choose a volunteer child to help demonstrate.]

I will count to three and then start moving my body. (Child’s name) will start imitating what I am doing with my body by trying to do the same thing with his/her body.

[Count out loud to three, and do a simple movement, such as marching, or pretending to row a boat or climb a tree. Encourage the volunteer child to imitate your movements. Then invite the child to sit down.]

(Child’s name) was imitating my movements. I was (your action) and he/she imitated me.

Now it is your turn to imitate some movements.

[Invite children to stand up.]

When I count to three one person will start moving his/her body. Then the rest of the group will imitate the movements. We will start with the person sitting next to me and move around the circle.

We will keep imitating the movements until I say “stop.” Then the next person in the circle will move his/her body. Each of us will have a turn to choose a movement for others in the group to imitate.

[Invite children to begin the activity. Move around the circle as each child takes a turn in moving his/her body for others to imitate. If a child does not wish to lead a movement, he/she may pass.]

Today we practiced imitating the movements of someone else. When we do this in drama, we move our bodies like the character we are pretending to be in a story. This week we imitated three different things! We imitated voices, we imitated facial expressions, and we imitated the body movements of someone else.