[Display letter C card.]

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

Letter C says /k/, just like in the word “creative.” /k/, /k/, creative. Let’s together say /k/, /k/, creative.

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.]

• Where is a group of two things in our classroom?
• How about a group of three things?
• Where is a group of four things in our classroom?

This week we are making equal groups. What are equal groups? (groups with the same amount of items)

We pretended to put people in a car to go on a trip. I made a group of people in my pretend car and you made a group to match mine. We made equal groups.

I am going to set up some chairs in a row. Let’s pretend the chairs are seats in a car. Let’s practice making equal groups by filling each chair. We need the same number of people as chairs.

[Set out two rows of two chairs.]

• This is our pretend car. How many chairs do we have? (four)
• We want one person to sit in each of the chairs. How many people do we need to fill the seats in our pretend car? (four)

Let’s make a group of four people to sit in our pretend car!

[Count out four children and invite them to sit in the chairs. Explain that we now have equal groups; four seats and four people.]

Yesterday we counted pennies. We used dot cards to know how many pennies to put in a group. When we chose a card, we counted the dots and made an equal group of pennies.

Let’s practice counting with the dot cards again. This time instead of using pennies, we will use our fingers. When I hold up a dot card, let’s together count the dots and then we will hold up the same number of fingers.

This week we practiced counting and making equal groups. We know how to count out items that are the same amount as another group. When we do this, our groups are equal. Counting is fun!

We are learning about our grandparents or older family members. Remember, a grandparent is the parent of your mom or dad. We’ve talked about what makes them special and what we like to do with them.

In some ways grandparents and older people in our families are the same as us, and in other ways they are different. Today we are going to look at some pictures of grandparents and children and think about how they are the same and different.

[Display pictures of a grandparent and child, one at a time. Discuss with children how they are the same and different. Examples: “The grandpa has hair just like the boy. This is the same. The grandpa has a beard and the boy does not have a beard. This is different.”]

• How are you the same as your grandparent or an older person in your family?
• How are you different?

We can be the same and different as our grandparents in many ways. Let’s learn a fun fingerplay about grandparents. Please watch and listen closely as I show you.

[Say the adjacent fingerplay slowly as you do the hand motions.]

Now let’s try it together!

[Encourage children to say all or part of the fingerplay together as they do the hand motions.]

Grandparents and older people in our families are unique just like us. Today we talked about how they can be the same and different from us. We also learned a fun fingerplay about a grandma and grandpa. Let’s say and do the fingerplay one more time!

Yesterday we practiced balancing our bodies by using different parts of our body. Who remembers what it means to balance something? (to keep something steady)

Today we will look at some drawings of how a child is balancing his/her body. We will practice balancing our body the way the child in each drawing is balancing his/her body. The child in the drawing is showing a pose. A pose is a way of holding our body.

[Point to cards on the floor.]

There is one drawing on each of the cards on the floor. We will move from drawing to drawing.

We may not be able to do some of the balance poses. Some poses are harder to do than other poses. But we can try. It is okay if some of the balance poses are too difficult for us to do.

Let’s look at each of the drawings before we begin moving from card to card. We did each of these balance poses yesterday.

[Display each card and invite a volunteer child to demonstrate the balance pose shown on the card. Provide supportive guidance to the volunteer and describe how the child is trying to balance his/her body.]

Now we all get to try each balance pose.

[Guide children through the six cards. Explain that it is okay to make changes to a pose that will help them keep balanced. We are learning about balance by practicing. A brief amount of time is needed for each pose. Repeat the cycle if there is time and child interest.]

[At the conclusion of the balancing efforts:]

• Which balance pose was the easiest?
• What made it easy?

Today we learned more about balancing our bodies by practicing different balance poses. Each pose used different parts of our body. We tried six different balance poses.