Offer the Week 29, Day 2 activity to review how to organize information on a chart.

Engage children in organizing and interpreting a chart that shows how many crayons we have of three different colors.

Be Prepared: Gather crayons of three different colors equal to the number of children in your group. Each color group should have a different number of crayons. Example: In a room of 20 children, secure group of 10 blue crayons, a group of seven green crayons, and a group of three orange crayons. Color three different index cards with crayons matching the colors in your three groups of crayons. Create a chart with three columns and place the index cards at the bottom of the chart. See example.

Open the session by reminding children that yesterday we put X marks above our favorite dinosaur shown on a chart. We then counted the X marks above each picture to find out which dinosaur had the most X marks and which dinosaur had the fewest X marks above it.

Explain that today we will work with a chart to record information about three different colors. Display and describe the chart prepared for today. Invite children to name the colors on the chart as you point to each. Give each child one crayon to place in front of him/her.

Invite children, one or two at a time, to use their crayon to color a small circle above the color card that matches their crayon. After all children have made a small circle on the chart, lead children in counting together the circles above each color card. Point to each circle as you count. Remind children that the last number counted tells us how many. Write the numeral that represents the number of crayons at the top of each column.

Engage children in a discussion of what our chart can tell us:

• Which color has the most crayons? (a group with the most of something has more than any other group)
• Which color has the fewest crayons? (a group that has the fewest of something has the smallest amount)

To provide additional challenge, encourage children to determine how many crayons of each color would be needed for the three groups of crayons to be equal.

Offer the Week 7, Day 3 activity to review what it means to be helpful.

Engage children in a book-focused discussion of being helpful.

Open the session by reminding children of what it means to be helpful to others. You may wish to describe several times you have seen children in your room be helpful, or remind children that a classroom helper chart describes ways we help in our room.

Explain that we will read a book about animals being helpful to other animals. Show the book cover and introduce its title and author. Ask: Do you think the duck on the cover of our book is going to help someone?

Read the book and draw attention to details of the illustrations, especially how an animal is being helpful. Invite children to tell what they see happening in a picture. At the conclusion of the book, engage children in a discussion of some themes offered in the book. Use book illustrations to provide examples.

• Each of the animals that needed help asked for help (usually by telling about their situation). Examples: “I’m lost” (duck). “I can’t reach” (giraffe). “I’m hot and thirsty” (elephant). What might happen if we need help but don’t tell anyone?
• The animal that got help from another animal always said “thank you.” Why is it important to thank someone who helps us?
• Many of the animals that helped another animal also needed help themselves. Example: The sunbird took a splinter out of the gorilla’s thumb. Later, the sunbird got tired while flying (and the elephant took the sunbird to its nest). Each of us can help someone else and also get help.

Yesterday we talked about art that can be found in a community. Some communities have a museum that keeps and shows different types of art.

We know that a museum is a building where art and other important items are kept and displayed for people to see. There are different kinds of museums. A few weeks ago we learned that some museums have dinosaur bones.

[Display two pictures of a museum.]

Today we will talk about museums that keep and show art. Some art museums are big with many pieces of art in them. Some museums are smaller with fewer pieces of art.

When we visit a museum, we can stop to look at each piece of art. We may see sculptures, paintings, murals, or many other kinds of art. In some museums we can even touch the art!

[Display book cover.]

We are going to read a book about a girl who takes a trip to a museum. Our book is called The Museum. It was written by Susan Verde.

[Read the book and use your own words to describe illustrations.]

The art in the museum made the girl feel different emotions. Let’s stand and pretend we are looking at the same kinds of art the girl saw at the museum.

[Select as many of the five pages listed below as you wish. Display the page, remind children of the girl’s reaction to the art, and invite children to pretend they have a similar reaction.]

• Painting of a ballerina: This painting made the girl want to stand like a ballerina. Let’s pretend the painting makes us want to stand like a ballerina.
• Blue painting with swirls: This painting made the girl feel twirly-whirly. Let’s pretend we feel twirly-whirly too!
• Painting of sad woman: This painting made the girl feel sad. Let’s pretend we feel sad.
• Painting of apples: This painting made the girl feel hungry. Let’s pretend the painting is making us feel hungry too.
• Paintings of lines and squiggles: These paintings made the girl giggle. Let’s pretend the paintings make us giggle too!

Today we learned that art can be stored and displayed for us to enjoy at a museum. We took a trip to a museum in the book we read. We also learned that we may have different types of feelings when we look at different kinds of art.