[Display letter G card.]

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

Letter G says /g/, just like in “graph.” /g/, /g/, graph. Let’s together say /g/, /g/, graph.

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 practiced adding items to a group and taking away items from a group. We know that a group gets larger when we add items to a group. What happens to a group when some of its items are taken away? (the group gets smaller)

Let’s use a die and blocks to practice counting on. Remember, when we count on, we start with the number of items in the largest group and then count the items in the other group. Let’s try counting on again.

[Place five blocks on a tray. Count together the group of five blocks as you point to each block counted. Roll a die and add the corresponding number of blocks to the tray in a separate group. Count on by starting with the largest group. Example: “We have five blocks. Let’s begin with five and count on to add our other group of blocks. 5, 6, 7, 8. We have eight blocks all together!” Try this 2–3 times. Begin each time with a different number of blocks. Invite volunteer children to lead the counting. Explain that ___ blocks have been added to the tray. Explain that we can use counting on to find out how many blocks we have on our tray.]

What happened to the group of blocks when we added more blocks? (it got larger)

Now let’s practice taking away some blocks.

What happens to a group if we take away some items? (it gets smaller)

Let’s start with 10 blocks on our tray. Our die will tell us how many blocks to take away from our group.

[Invite a volunteer to roll a die and point to the dots rolled as they are counted aloud.]

• What number did you roll?
• How many blocks do we need to take away from our group of 10 blocks?
  [Encourage the volunteer to remove one block each time a number is said aloud.]
• How many blocks are left on the tray?
• How do you know?
• Is our group of blocks smaller than it was before we took away ___ blocks?

[Practice adding and taking away with different numbers of blocks as time and child interest permit.]

This week we practiced adding items to a group by counting on and taking away items from a group. We know that when we add items to a group, the group gets larger. When we take away items from a group, the group gets smaller.

Yesterday we talked about yesterday, today, and tomorrow. These are three different days. Yesterday was the day before today. What do we call the day that happens after today? (tomorrow)

[Display two-section chart of Morning and Afternoon and point to each section as you describe it.]

Today we will talk about morning and afternoon. Morning and afternoon are two parts of the same day. Please look at our chart. This part of our chart says Morning. The other part of our chart says Afternoon.

When is morning?

[Point to each section of the chart as you discuss it.]

Morning is the first part of the day. The sun rises in the morning. Morning comes before lunch. Afternoon is the second part of the day. Many people think that afternoon is the time that happens after we eat lunch. Let’s pretend the line in the middle of our chart means lunchtime. Morning comes before lunch, and afternoon comes after lunch.

I have some pictures of activities that happen in the morning and some pictures of activities that happen in the afternoon. Let’s put the pictures on our chart. If the picture shows something that usually happens in the morning, we will put the picture in the section called Morning. We will put the picture in the section called Afternoon if it shows something that usually happens in the afternoon.

[Display picture of boy waking up in the morning.]

Let’s look at a picture of a boy waking up in his bed at home.

Would this happen in the morning or in the afternoon?

[Invite a volunteer child to place the picture in the morning section of the chart after it has been discussed. Continue this procedure with a different volunteer placing each picture as you discuss morning and afternoon.]

Morning is the first part of the day. Morning happens before lunch. Afternoon is the second part of the day. When does afternoon happen? (after lunch) We put on our chart some pictures of activities that happen in the morning and activities that happen in the afternoon.

[Display a ball in front of you.]

Yesterday we practiced kicking the ball with a foot. We kicked the ball while standing.

[Use questions, such as the following, to encourage children to tell you the actions for each step. Demonstrate each action. If children offer partial or incorrect information, ask a follow-up question intended to lead to the correct response. Example: If children say “kick” in response to your second question (What do I do next?), ask: What foot would I use?]

Please help me remember how we kick a ball.

• What do I do first? (look at the ball)
• What do I do next? (decide which foot to use for kicking)
• What do I do with my other foot? (put non-kicking foot next to the ball)
• I think I’m ready to kick the ball. What part of my foot do I use to kick the ball? (inside)

[Display rope.]

Today we will use the rope as our kicking line. The kicking line is where we place our ball to kick it.

I will hand you a ball when it is your turn. Place your ball on the kicking line and kick it the way we learned yesterday. We are practicing how to use the inside of our foot to touch and move the ball away from us. We are not trying to kick the ball as far as we can.

[Encourage children to kick the ball from a stationary position. Describe your plan for children to retrieve the ball they kick. Practice kicking from the kick line several times. Offer guidance as needed. At the conclusion of this practice, ask children to place their ball on the line.]

Now we are going to practice kicking the ball while we are moving. Sometimes we need to move our body toward a ball so we can kick it. Today we will take one step forward before we kick our ball. We will step with our foot that we do not use for kicking the ball.

Let me show you.

[Point to and say which foot you will use for kicking. Remind children we call this our kicking foot. Then point to and say which foot you will use for taking one step. Remind children we do not kick with this foot. Then demonstrate taking one step with your non-kicking foot and then kicking the ball gently with your kicking foot. Describe your actions, including kicking with the inside of your kicking foot.]

[Pause after each of the following action requests and provide verbal guidance if needed.]

Now it is your turn to take one step and then kick the ball.

• Please take one step back from our kicking line.
• Let’s all point to our kicking foot.
• Let’s all point to the foot we will use for taking one step.
• Now it is time to take one step forward and then kick the ball with our other foot. Remember, we call this our kicking foot.

[Provide verbal guidance as necessary. Describe your plan for children to retrieve their ball. Practice taking one step and then kicking, as time permits. Be sure children move back one step from the kicking line prior to practicing.]

Today we practiced taking one step toward a ball and then kicking it. What do we call the foot we use for kicking? (kicking foot)