We are going to again practice finding a letter we know by looking for it in a sentence. When we find the letter, we will also say the sound the letter makes.

[Write the following sentence on a chart or whiteboard. Read each word as you write the sentence:

We do lots of different things in our class.]

We want to find the lowercase letter a in our sentence.

[Display letter card A. Point to the lowercase a on the card.

Encourage a volunteer child to look for and point to the lowercase letter a in the sentence as you display the A letter card.]

What sound does the letter A make?

Yes! Letter A says /a/. Let’s together say the sound of the letter A: /a/.

Now let’s spend some time with our book.

[See Week 3, Day 5 of Language/Literacy for a description and examples of how to approach today’s book reading. Key aspects are summarized below:

• Display book cover. Explain that we have read our book two times this week. Each time we read the book we learn something new. Point to and say title of book. 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? 
• Point to and say the names of author and illustrator. Point to where to begin reading.
• During the reading, pause on pages that include a word defined in the prior two readings of the book. Ask or remind children what the word means. Also pause during the reading to define the 2–3 words identified for today’s session, using the following approach:
  • Read the sentence with the novel word. Identify 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, write the 2–3 words targeted for today on the chart and engage children in a discussion of each word, using one or more of the following strategies:
  • 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 or phrase in another context.
• Explain that different types of things happened in our book. Facilitate a discussion of children’s interpretations of events and/or characters in the book, especially events or characters related to one or more words defined this week. See Week 3, Day 5 for examples.]

Let’s together say the counting rhyme we learned on Day 1.

[Say the rhyme and then lead children in the rhyme, “One, Two, Buckle My Shoe.” Emphasize each number and hold up a finger for each number.]

On Day 1 we each had a group of circles (counters). Each of our groups had a different number of circles. We each counted the number of circles in our group.

Let’s practice counting a group of sticks. Our rhyme today talks about sticks. We can count groups of sticks, too.

[Hold up a group of six craft sticks.]

I have a group of craft sticks.

• Do I have two in my group?
• Do I have five in my group?
• Do I have six in my group?
• Let’s count the craft sticks together.

[Place sticky tack on the back of each of the six craft sticks and display them on a board. Ensure the board is visible to all children. Encourage children to count out loud as you point to each stick. Do not count out loud unless children need your assistance.]

This week we also played a game called “High Five.” A “High Five” is called “High Five” because we have five fingers on one hand that we put up high when we do a “High Five.” This week we used the number of dots on a card to tell us whether we had a “High One,” “High Two,” “High Three,” “High Four,” “High Five,” or maybe a “High Ten.”

Let’s look at some cards and count the number of dots on a card together. Then we can give each other a “high” sign with the number of fingers our card says.

[Display dot cards, one at a time, that offer appropriate challenge for children.

• Encourage children to count out loud as you point to each dot on the card you display. Do not count out loud unless children need your assistance.
• Ask children to say the last number counted. Remind children that the last number we count is the number of items in a group.
• Invite children to give a “High ___.”]

We listened to a story and made caterpillars with different numbers of pom-poms.

Who would like to show the caterpillars you made?

[Invite 2–3 children to share their pictures. Encourage each child to count the number of pom-poms in each caterpillar.]

This week we’ve had fun counting and making groups. We know how to count a group of items.

[There are two options for today’s activity involving shoebox homes made by children in Week 11.

Option One: Discuss shapes (square, circle, triangle, rectangle) found in shoebox homes made by children. Encourage children to describe the shapes they find in their shoebox home. Invite children to draw shapes they find in their shoebox home on a piece of paper.

Option Two: Encourage children to draw a picture of their own shoebox home. Invite children to point to and describe the shapes in their drawings.]

Yesterday we learned there are muscles in our bodies that make things move. We used our muscles to move parts of our body from our head to our toes. We moved our arms and legs and other things. Is our tongue a muscle? (yes) Is our heart a muscle? (yes)

Muscles are an important part of our body. We can help keep our muscles strong and healthy by exercising. Exercise means we move our body, or part of our body, for a certain number of times or certain amount of time. We can exercise our arm by moving it up and down 5, 10, or 15 times. We can exercise our legs by running for 1, 5, or 10 minutes.

[Remind children of exercise activities that may be done regularly in your classroom.]

Usually we breathe faster when we exercise. Our heart also works faster when we exercise. Remember, our heart is a muscle that pumps blood to different parts of our body.

Let’s pay attention to how we breathe faster when we exercise. We know how to concentrate on our breathing. Let’s all lie on the floor and put our hand on our stomach. We can feel our stomach move as we breathe.

[Provide a brief time for children to concentrate on their breathing.]

Now let’s run in place to some music. Running in place means we stay in our personal space. We do not run around the classroom. Let’s try to run as fast as we can without moving around the classroom. Running is a good way to exercise.

[Encourage children to run in place to music for several minutes.]

Please stop running and lie on the floor. Put your hand on your stomach so you can feel your stomach move as you breathe.

• Are you breathing faster now? (faster than before you ran)
• Do you think your heart is pumping faster now? Can you feel your heart pumping?
• Why do you think the muscles that move our legs can stay strong or get stronger when we run?

Exercise can help keep our muscles strong and healthy. Running is one way to exercise. What happened today to our bodies when we did a little running? (we breathed faster, our hearts pumped faster)