[Display letter K card.]

What is the name of this letter?

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

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

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 subtracted as we played a game called Musical Chairs. What happened each time a child did not find a chair? (we subtracted one from the number of children playing the game)

[Display book cover.]

Today we will read a book called Pete the Cat and His Four Groovy Buttons. The book was written and illustrated by James Dean and Eric Litwin.

Have you ever read a Pete the Cat book before?

Pete loves his four groovy buttons. But the buttons start to fall off of his shirt! We will subtract Pete’s buttons as we read our book.

[Place four felt circles on the flannel board.]

We will pretend that these circles are Pete’s buttons. We will subtract one of our buttons each time Pete loses a button in the book.

[As you read the book, stop to count Pete’s buttons on each page. Each time Pete loses a button, explain that when one button pops off, we can subtract a circle from our flannel board. Remind children that subtract means to take away something from a group of things. Ask the following questions each time Pete loses a button:

• “How many buttons popped off of Pete’s shirt?” Let’s subtract one circle from our flannel board.
• “How many buttons are left on Pete’s shirt?” 
• “How do we know?” (count them)

Continue removing buttons from the flannel board as Pete loses buttons in the book.

Each time you get to the part where Pete chants, “My buttons, my buttons . . .” invite children to say it along with you.]

Today we read a book called Pete the Cat and His Four Groovy Buttons. In the book, Pete kept losing his buttons. How many buttons did he have at the beginning of the book? (four) How many did he have left at the end? (zero) We subtracted each time Pete lost a button and then found out how many buttons Pete had left.

We are learning about making decisions. We know that a decision is a choice we make about something after we think about it. What decisions have you made today?

[Follow-up prompts, if necessary: “Did you decide what clothes to wear today?” “Did you decide what to eat for breakfast?” “Did you decide what to play with when you arrived in our classroom?”]

Let’s talk today about decisions some children have made. We can think about whether a decision was a good decision. We also can think about whether a better decision could have been made.

[Display picture of child sharing. Point to the older boy in the picture.]

This is Alejandro. Alejandro is sharing a toy with his brother.

Do you think Alejandro made a good decision to share a toy with his brother? Why? (he and his brother can make something together, younger brother likes to play with and learn from Alejandro)

[Display picture of child with a hurt elbow.]

This is a picture of Carlos. Carlos ran in the classroom and fell down. Now Carlos has a hurt elbow.

• Did Carlos make a good decision to run in the classroom?
• Carlos had two choices. One choice was to run in the classroom. What was Carlos’s other choice? (walk in the classroom)
• What would have been a better decision for Carlos to make?
• What are some things Carlos could have done to make a better decision about moving his body in the classroom? (remembered he needed to keep his body safe and the other children safe)

Sometimes it is hard to make a good decision when we are doing something we really like to do.

[Display picture of children engaged in dramatic play.]

The children in this picture are in the housekeeping center. The two older girls are helping the younger girl cook something.

Are the children making good decisions? Why?

[Display picture of a child making a mark on another child’s paper.]

This is a picture of Sofia drawing a line on Andrew’s paper. Sofia did not ask Andrew if she could draw a line on his paper. Andrew got upset and yelled at Sofia. He told Sofia that he would hit her if she marked on his paper again.

• Did Sofia make a good decision about drawing on Andrew’s paper? Why?
• What is a better decision that Sofia could have made?
• Did Andrew make a good decision to yell at Sofia and tell her would hit her next time?
• What is a better decision that Andrew could have made?

Sometimes it is hard to make a good decision when we are angry or frustrated.

What are some things we can do to help us make a good decision when we are angry or frustrated? (calm down by taking deep breaths or sitting quietly for a while)

Do we always make good decisions? (no!) We have to work hard to think about our choices and decide whether one of our choices is a better decision. Sometimes we need to calm down so we can make a good decision.

We are learning about plants and animals that live in a rainforest. We know that animals live on the rainforest floor and above the rainforest floor. Animals in the rainforest need to find food wherever they live.

What types of things do you think animals eat in a rainforest?

Let’s look at some pictures of animals eating things in the rainforest.

[Display three pictures of animals eating in the rainforest.]

• What is the monkey eating? (banana)
• What is the snake eating? (lizard)
• What is the caterpillar eating? (leaf )

Animals in the rainforest find plants, insects, or other animals to eat. These things are food for animals to eat. Some food can be found on the rainforest floor, and some food can be found in the trees and plants above the rainforest floor. Some of the trees and other plants grow fruit, nuts, and flowers that animals can eat.

[Display picture of a toucan.]

This is a picture of a bird that lives in the rainforest. This bird is called a toucan. A toucan is a bird with bright feathers and a large beak.

• Have you ever seen a toucan?
• What do you think a toucan does with its large beak?

The large beak on a toucan is good for grabbing and breaking open fruit the toucan finds in trees and other plants. Toucans also eat berries, insects, snakes, and lizards. The toucan grabs food with its beak and throws the food into the air. Then the toucan catches the food with its beak and eats it.

[In the picture of the toucan, point to the berry being tossed into the air.]

Why do you think a toucan tosses its food into the air? (it needs to toss the food to get it into its mouth)

Let’s pretend we are a toucan tossing a berry into the air with our beak and then catching it with our beak to eat!

[Encourage children to pretend to be a toucan using its beak to toss and then eat a berry.]

Animals in the rainforest eat many types of food they find in the trees and other plants. What is one type of food a rainforest animal eats? (plants, other animals)