[Display letter X card.]

What is the name of this letter? What sound does the letter X make?

Letter X says /ks/, just like at the end of the word “fox.” /ks/, /ks/, fox. Let’s together say /ks/, /ks/, fox.

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.]

This week we learned many things about numbers. Let’s talk about some of the things we know.

We know what numbers 1, 2, 3, and 4 look like.

[Display large numeral cards 1, 2, 3, and 4, one at a time, and ask the following questions about each displayed numeral:]

• What number is this? Please show us that number on your fingers.
• Check with the person next to you. Do you both have the same number of fingers up?
• Let’s count together the number of dots on the card.

[Point to each dot as you lead children in counting.]

We know how to compare groups of items. We can determine which group has more or fewer items.

[Hold up a group of three fingers and a group of five fingers.]

• Which group of fingers has more?
• Which group of fingers has fewer? (three) How do we know?
• What is it called when two groups have the same amount? (equal)

We also know that when we move items in a group, the group still has the same number of items. Let’s practice with a group of blocks.

[Arrange four identical blocks in a line, with space between each block.]

• How many blocks are in our group? (four) How do we know?
  [Move the blocks into the shape of a square.]
• How many blocks are in our group now? (four)
• Did the number in our group change when I moved the blocks? (no, it stayed the same)

This week we pretended to go shopping. We counted the same number of food items as the number of dots on a card. Let’s try it again.

[Display a card with five dots.]

How many dots are on this card? (five)

[Display basket of play food items.]

Let’s choose the same number of food items from our basket.

[Invite a volunteer child to count out the same number of food items from the basket. Display a card with more than five dots and invite children to count the number of dots as you point to each. Invite a different volunteer child to count out the same number of food items from the basket.]

Which group has fewer food items? How do we know?

This week we practiced comparing groups and finding which group has more or fewer. We are also learning more about numbers one, two, three, and four.

We are learning about neighborhoods. Yesterday we read a book about some of the places that may be found in a neighborhood. What was one of the places described in our book? (fire station, police station, clinic, library, other houses and apartments, grocery store)

Today we are going to talk about pictures of places we might find in our neighborhood.

[Display each of the provided pictures, one at a time, and use the following procedure with each to encourage children’s participation:

• Some neighborhoods have a _____.
• Have you ever been to (or seen) a _____? What was it like?
• How does a _____ help people who live in the neighborhood?]

Today we talked about places we might find in a neighborhood. Which place was your favorite? Why?

Yesterday we talked about how our bodies need to rest. We rest by taking a break from what we are doing and by relaxing our bodies. We can rest by sitting or lying down. We can rest by taking a nap or sleeping for a long time. We know that when we sleep, our eyes are closed and our mind and muscles are relaxed. It is important for our body to take a break from thinking and doing things.

What kinds of things did you do yesterday to rest your bodies?

Sometimes our bodies tell us when we are tired and need a rest. Our legs may start to feel heavy and hard to move when we are running or moving around a lot. This is how our body can tell us to sit or take a break from moving around.

We may yawn and rub our eyes when we feel tired. We may have a hard time keeping our eyes open.

• Let’s pretend we are tired by yawning and by rubbing our eyes.
• Let’s pretend we are having a hard time keeping our eyes open.

Sometimes it is easy to fall asleep when we are tired. Our eyes close, and our mind and muscles start to relax. We do not pay attention to what is going on around us when we sleep.

Sometimes it is hard to fall asleep. Our body may be really tired but we may want to keep moving or thinking about things.

Do you ever have a hard time falling asleep? What happens?

We have learned some things to do to calm our minds and our bodies. When we calm our mind, our noisy thoughts get quiet. We know that concentrating on our breathing can help our body feel relaxed. Our body feels calm when we are relaxed.

Let’s practice concentrating on our breathing to help our bodies feel relaxed. As we breathe in and out, let’s put our hand on our stomach to feel how it moves as we breathe.

[Engage children in a brief period of concentrating on their breathing to help their bodies feel relaxed (Self-Regulation Week 10, Day 1).]

During the rest time in our classroom or at home, we may not fall asleep. But we can give our bodies a break from doing things by concentrating on our breathing or doing something quietly.

[Expand on the above idea by reminding children of your classroom’s expectations of how children can use rest time.]

Today we learned that concentrating on our breathing can help us rest our bodies by making our bodies feel relaxed. We can keep our bodies healthy and strong by taking a break from what we are doing and by resting our bodies.