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.”]

[Hold up a circle cutout.]

What is the name of this shape? Does it have straight lines or a curved line?

Remember, a circle is a round shape.

[Hold up a square cutout.]

What is the name of this shape? Let’s count the sides together.

[Lead children in unison counting as you point to each side and corner of the square.]

A square has four straight and equal sides. What does the word equal mean? (the same) How many corners are on this shape? (four) Let’s count each corner together.

Today we will go on a shape hunt! We will go on a walk outside to try to find things that are in the shape of a circle or a square. Let’s think about some of the things we might find.

• If we see a tricycle and look at its tire, which shape will we find in its tire? (circle)
• If we see a section of the sidewalk that has straight and equal sides, what shape will we find? (square)

We need to remember that shapes come in all sizes when we go on our shape hunt.

Are a small square and a large square both squares? Yes they are!

[Take children outside on a shape hunt. As they find items and identify the shape, ask how they know it is a circle or square. Describe the shape after they’ve identified it. Example: “Julie found a nut that is the shape of a circle. A circle is round with curved edges.” The goal of the walk is to identify items in the shape of a circle or square. If a child shows interest in another type of shape, support the child’s curiosity by naming and describing the shape. Example: “This is in the shape of an oval. An oval has curved edges like a circle, but it is longer and not round.”]

Today we found circles and squares during a shape hunt. We described the shapes and took pictures of them. We found large and small shapes. Circles and squares are two shapes that can be found all around us! We can use the pictures of our discoveries to help us remember the shapes we found.

[Place pictures from the shape hunt in a class book or post them in the classroom. The pictures will be used on Day 5.]

We are learning that cooperation means we work together. On Day 2 we played Musical Chairs. How did we cooperate when we played Musical Chairs? (shared a chair)

Another way we can cooperate with each other is to take turns. Who can tell us about a time you shared by taking turns with someone? (playing with a toy, playing a game)

Today we will cooperate with each other by making a quilt together. A quilt is a bed covering made of many different pieces of fabric. Usually a quilt is used to cover a bed. Let’s look at this picture of a quilt.

[Display picture of quilt.]

What can you tell us about the quilt in this picture? (different colors, many pieces, etc.)

Our quilt will be made of paper, so we won’t be able to use it for a bed. When we have finished making our quilt, we will hang it in our classroom. We will all work together and cooperate as a group to make our quilt.

[Put quilt frame (paper) on the floor for all children to see. Position the item so children can work on the quilt from each side. Put coloring tools in one or several containers. Provide a limited supply to promote sharing of coloring tools.]

Let’s look at what we will use to make our quilt. The large piece of paper on the floor is made up of smaller squares. We can use the crayons, colored pencils, and markers to color the squares. We can work from any side of the paper to color our squares.

There are many ways we will cooperate (work together) in making our quilt.

• Each of us will color one (or two) squares of the quilt (tell children a specific number). We are cooperating when we take turns coloring a square.
• We will each add something special to the quilt. One person may use red and another person may use blue. Someone may want to use several different colors in the same square. We are cooperating when each of us contributes something special to the quilt.
• We will share crayons, markers, and colored pencils to color our squares. We are cooperating when we share the things for coloring our squares.
• We will form four small groups for working on our quilt. Each group will take a turn coloring the squares. We are cooperating when each group takes a turn.
• I have other activities (puzzles, blocks, manipulatives, etc.) we can do while we are waiting for our group’s turn to work on the quilt. We will need to leave our other activity as soon as I call your group to work on the quilt. There may or may not be more time to work on the activities when we finish our turn with the quilt.

• [Organize children into four small groups. Give each group a name so it is easy for you to call a group to the quilt area for work.
• Give each group 3–4 minutes for working on the quilt. Provide a one-minute warning before time is up.
• Ensure only one group works on the quilt at the same time (do not mingle groups) in order to support the experience of each group taking a turn.
• Encourage children to participate in another activity in a separate area of the room with other members of their small group while waiting for the group’s turn in coloring quilt squares.
• Ensure each child colors only one (or two) squares.
• Encourage children to share crayons, markers, or colored pencils.
• Point out examples of cooperation: groups taking their turn, children sharing coloring tools, a child passing a coloring tool to another child, etc.
• After a group has finished coloring, invite children to look at books together or watch other children color the quilt or keep track of “open” squares on the quilt. Keep the “finished” groups within the vicinity of the quilt so it is easy to reassemble when all small groups are done.]

[Invite all children to a large group discussion. Make sure all children can see the finished quilt. Below are some suggested areas to discuss:]

• Let’s talk about our work in making a quilt together.
• Each of us helped make our quilt. What if only one or two of us did all the coloring of squares in the quilt? Would we be cooperating as a group?
• We cooperated by taking turns to color the squares in our quilt. What would it have been like if all of us tried to color the quilt at the same time? What would it have been like if one or two children colored more squares than they were expected to color? (we would run out of squares for everyone to participate)
• Each of us added something special to the quilt by using different colors. What would our quilt look like if we all used the same color for our squares?
• How did we cooperate in sharing our crayons, markers, and colored pencils?
• Are there any squares on our quilt that have not been colored? Should we color in these squares? How could we work together to color the squares that do not have any color? (volunteers take turns, leave them for children who are absent today)

We are learning how to make predictions. We know a prediction is an idea of what might happen. On Day 2 we tried out our prediction that a magnet would attract things made of metal.

• How did we try out our prediction? (put magnet next to some things in our classroom)
• Why did we predict that a magnet would attract things made of metal? (because our magnet attracted things made of metal on Day 1, we looked at two groups of things that the magnet attracted and did not attract)

[Display magnets.]

There are different kinds of magnets. Some magnets are very strong and some magnets are not very strong.

We know that magnets can hold paper or pictures on a refrigerator. Most magnets on a refrigerator can hold up 1–2 pieces of paper or pictures. Some magnets can hold up even more paper or pictures! A strong magnet can hold a lot of paper or pictures.

We have different types of magnets. Some (or one) of our magnets may be stronger than other magnets (or another magnet).

Do we know what type of magnet is the strongest? (no)

We can figure out how strong each of these magnets is by seeing how many pieces of paper each magnet can hold on the magnetic board. The strongest magnet will hold up the most pieces of paper.

[Invite volunteer children to help place each magnet on increasing numbers of paper on the magnetic board.]

• Which magnet was the strongest?
• Does our strongest magnet look different than our other magnets?

We learned something about magnets by exploring how many pieces of paper each magnet can hold on our magnetic board. We can use what we learned to make a prediction about what a strong magnet looks like.

[Use characteristics of the strongest magnet to discuss a specific prediction with children. Example: “Our strongest magnet is larger than our other magnet(s). We could predict that larger magnets are stronger than smaller magnets.”]

Today we learned that some magnets are stronger than others. We found out which magnet was the strongest by seeing how many pieces of paper it would hold up on the magnetic board. Then we made a prediction about what the strongest magnet looks like.