[Display letter J card.]

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

Letter J says /j/, just like in “jungle.” /j/, /j/, jungle. Let’s together say /j/, /j/, jungle.

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.]

We are learning more about how to add and subtract. What happens to our group when we add more items? (it gets larger) What happens to our group when we subtract items? (it gets smaller)

We practiced adding by playing a game called Animal Spots. We rolled dice and added both dice together. Then we placed the same number of spots on our animals.

Let’s practice adding as we use our fingers. Please hold up four fingers on one hand and five fingers on the other hand. Now let’s add the fingers on both hands to see how many fingers we have all together.

Let’s start with our larger group of five fingers and then count on as we add our group of four fingers: 5, 6, 7, 8, 9.

How many fingers do we have all together? (nine)

This week we used ourselves to practice adding and subtracting. Let’s try it again.

[Invite two boys and three girls to the front of the group.]

Let’s first add our group of boys and our group of girls together. We will count on as we begin with our larger group of three girls: 3, 4, 5.

How many children are in our group all together? (five)

Let’s subtract two girls from our group.

[Invite two girls to sit down.]

We had five children in our group and we subtracted two children.

How many children are left in our group? (three)

We also practiced subtracting by playing a game with 10 circles and a die. Let’s practice subtracting again.

[Roll a large die and count the number of dots on the face of the die. Then subtract the same number of counters from a group of 10 counters.]

How can we find out how many circles are left in our group? (count the number of circles left)

Let’s count the number of circles we have left.

[Lead children in counting the number of counters left as you point to each one.]

How many circles do we have left in our group? We have __ circles left after we subtracted __ circles.

This week we practiced adding and subtracting while playing games and counting groups of children.

We are learning many things about how people lived long ago. Today we will think about how we can learn more about things from long ago.

What kinds of things have we done to learn about how people lived long ago? (read a book, played games)

There are some other things we can do to learn about how people lived long ago. We could talk with an older person about what it was like to grow up long ago. We could look at pictures of things from long ago. We also could visit a museum that has things that were used long ago. A museum is a building where art and other important items are kept and displayed for people to see.

We first need to ask a question when we want to learn about something. Today let’s ask this question: How did animals help people live long ago?

The book we read last week can help us answer our question about how animals helped people live long ago.

[Display book illustration of two horses (mustangs) pulling the wagon.]

Here is a picture of the two horses we read about last week. How did the horses help Laura’s family move to the prairie? (they pulled the wagon)

The book told us that the horses pulled the family’s wagon through the prairie grasses. There were no roads or paths for the horses to follow.

We know that pictures can tell us about how people lived long ago. Let’s look at some pictures of animals from long ago to find some answers to our question. Remember, our question is: How did animals help people live long ago?

[Display one at a time, the two pictures of animalshelping people long ago.]

How are the animals shown in these pictures helping people? (helping to plant a field, helping to pull a wagon)

Now let’s look at a picture of an item from long ago that is displayed in a museum. Remember, we can learn about things from long ago by visiting a museum.

[Display picture of a covered wagon.]

The wagon shown in this picture is now in a museum for people to see. We know that animals helped people long ago by pulling wagons.

• What can you tell us about this wagon from long ago? (large wheels, cover on top, etc.)
• Does this wagon look like the wagon the mustangs pulled in our book?

Today we talked about some ways to learn about things from long ago. We asked a question: How did animals help people live long ago? We answered our question by using a book and some pictures of animals long ago. We also looked at a picture of a wagon from a museum.

Let’s all give each other a big smile!

[Encourage children to smile broadly so teeth are shown.]

• What do we see in our big smiles? (our teeth)
• How do we use our teeth? (to chew, talk)
• What do we call a doctor who helps us take good care of our teeth? (a dentist)

We use our teeth many times a day. We can take good care of our teeth by going to a dentist and by brushing our teeth. A dentist helps us have healthy teeth. A dentist does a checkup of our teeth to make sure they are growing the way they should. We learned about checkups yesterday when we talked about going to a doctor. A dentist can also fix problems we may have with our teeth. Most dentists have helpers who can clean our teeth.

What happened the last time you went to a dentist?

[Encourage children to describe experiences, especially procedures or tools that are discussed below.]

A dentist checks our teeth to make sure there are no cavities. We know that a cavity is a little hole in a tooth. A cavity makes a tooth weaker. We might get a cavity if we do not carefully brush dirt off of our teeth. We get dirt on our teeth when we chew things.

If we have a cavity, a dentist will clean out the hole and fill the hole so it does not get more dirt in it or get bigger.

[Display picture of dentist taking an X-ray of child’s teeth.]

We learned yesterday that sometimes a doctor takes a picture of part of the inside of our body. This is called an X-ray. A dentist can take pictures of our teeth. The pictures tell the dentist whether our teeth are growing the way they should.

Our picture shows a dentist taking an X-ray of a child’s teeth. The X-ray machine is used on the outside of our mouth. An X-ray does not hurt.

Have you ever had an X-ray done of your teeth? Tell us about it.

An X-ray machine is one of the tools used by people in a dentist’s office. A small mirror is another tool used at a dentist’s office. A dentist and a dentist’s helper use a small mirror to look carefully at our teeth. A mirror helps people at the dentist’s office look closely at the back side of our teeth.

[Display picture of child having teeth cleaned.]

Usually we get our teeth cleaned when we go to a dentist’s office. A special toothbrush is used to clean our teeth. The brush spins fast but it does not hurt. This special brush gets our teeth clean and shiny.

• Who else cleans our teeth? (we do!)
• When do we brush our teeth in our classroom?

We go to a dentist to make sure our teeth are healthy. A dentist may take an X-ray of our teeth. We can get our teeth cleaned at a dentist’s office. We also clean our teeth.