September 28-October 1

Theme Concepts:
*Family members have role names: mother, father, sister, and so on.
*Some family members live together; some live in other places but are still family members.
*Grown-ups in a family take care of the children. Younger children need more care. Older children can help take care of younger brothers and sisters.
*Children sometimes get angry at parents and may feel that their parents don't love them as much as their siblings.
*Sometimes grown-ups in a family don't like things that children do and tell them to stop or be quiet.
*Families do things together that are fun.

Books This Week:

Noisy Nora by Rosemary Wells
Oonga Boonga by Frieda Wishinsky
Peter's Chair by Ezra Jack Keats
Small Groups:
-Name Matching - Students will look for their names among a group of others. They will then match letter tiles to the letters on their name cards.
-Color games - Students will match and label colors as they play color games. They will think of colored objects and find the corressponding colors.
-Ordinal sequencing - Students will talk about numbers and positions as they play a game. Students will play with clowns who wait in line at the circus tent and discuss the positions 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th.
Art Projects
- students will create colorful prints using sponges, brushes and other mediums

Choice Time
-Dramatic Play- Taking Care of Babies and "painting" furniture
-Sensory Table- Water movement and bubbles

-Writing- Writing my name

-Dolls and blocks on the rug
-Mixing paint on the easel
-Math-Sorting and matching buttons
-Library- Books about families
Songs, Word Play, and Letters
-Five Green and Speckled Frogs
-Head Shoulders knees and toes
-If you're happy and you know it

-Old McDonald
-BINGO
-Down by the Bay

-Hands poem
-If your name starts with ____ raise your hand

-Open Shut Them

Families Unit - Week 1 September 20-24

Families Theme
Children will be exploring and talking about families and the many different ways families relate to and help one another. Through the Story Time books, children will hear about a boy who helps his family take care of his baby sister, a boy who realizes how much he has grown when a new baby arrives, a girl who behaves badly when she want attention, and a lonely stuffed bear who finds a new friend. Besides listening to stories, children will begin to recognize initial sounds in words and identify rhyming words as they build vocabulary and comprehension skills. They will also be participating in a variety of music, poetry, mathematics, science, and art activities during Center Time and in Small Groups.
Theme Concepts:
*Family members have role names: mother, father, sister, and so on.
*Some family members live together; some live in other places but are still family members.
*Grown-ups in a family take care of the children. Younger children need more care. Older children can help take care of younger brothers and sisters.
*Children sometimes get angry at parents and may feel that their parents don't love them as much as their siblings.
*Sometimes grown-ups in a family don't like things that children do and tell them to stop or be quiet.
*Families do things together that are fun.
Books This Week:
Oonga Boonga by Frieda Wishinsky
Peter's Chair by Ezra Jack Keats
Small Groups:

-Letter Matching- Children will match uppercase letters in small groups. Teachers will discuss the sounds for the matching letters. Students will create a name puzzle as they string together the letters of their names.
-Book Browsing- Children will look through theme related books. They will also discuss vocabulary/picture cards for the unit.
-Family Portraits- We will look in the books Oonga Boonga and Peter's Chair and discuss their families. Then children will be encouraged to share about their families and use their photos
to create a collage
-Watch Me Count- Children will count objects from our unit and label each set with a number. We will be working with sets of 3, 7, and 15.
Art Projects

- Students will create paper collages using different colorful materials

- students will create colorful prints using sponges, brushes and other mediums

Centers
-Dramatic Play- Taking Care of Babies
-Sensory Table- Water Movement using squeeze bottles and funnels
-Writing- Writing my name with letter stampers
-Doll houses on the rug

-Painting with primary colors on the easel
-Math-Sorting buttons by color, shape, and number of hole
-Library- Books about families
Songs, Word Play, and Letters
-Five Green and Speckled Frogs

-Head Shoulders knees and toes

-If you're happy and you know it
-Dr. Jean Alphabet
-Stand Up
-Down by the Bay
-If your name starts with ____ raise your hand

September 13-17

Theme – This week we will continue with our Safari and Jungle Animal Theme! Students will continue to learn the names of different animals and the actions and sounds they make.

Story – From head to Toe, By Eric Carle
Rumble in the Jungle, by Giles Andreae

Greeting/Free Play: This week the choices include:
- safari animals and vehicles on the rug
- play dough on the blue table
- Water color painting on the easel
- theme related books

Small Groups -
Gross Motor Group – Students will play charades and do animal actions. They will take pictures of each other for our class book!
Language Group – Students will develop language and vocabulary skills as they play a safari lotto game.
Fine motor group – Students will create a self portrait and a name sample for the first entry in their portfolios.

Art Projects – 1) Students will use sponges to create spotted giraffes for the class scene
2) Students will use scissors to cut black stripes and glue them to make zebras
3) Students will work together to do marble painted tigers

Choice:
- Kitchen - Play dough
- Sensory table with sand and safari animals - Books
- Water painting on the easel - Animals on the rug
- “I like to…” page in the writing corner - animal counting game

Music:
1)Head. shoulders, knees and toes 5) Walk like a Rhino
2)Hop and stop 6) World is a Rainbow
3)The Freeze Song 7) 5 Little monkeys
4)Leo the Lion

Special Note: We had a great first week together! I hope your children shared with you about some the fun activities we did! Please feel free to email me with any questions or concerns! Thank you for your help in making our first week a success!

Safari Scout Newsletter - September 7th-10th

This is the first of many weekly newsletters for the school year. Within each newsletter you will find an outline of the planned activities for the current week. In addition to the outline, you could find reminders, announcements or class room requests. Such requested items may include tissues, hand soap, cooking ingredients or recycled materials for art projects


Theme – The theme for the next two weeks is “On a Safari!” We will help establish some class identity as we explore books and complete activities centered on our class name.
Story – The Kissing Hand, By Andrea Penn
Animal Boogie, By Debbie Harter
Greeting: As children arrive in the morning three to four activities will be available from which they can choose. This week the choices include:
- safari animals and vehicles on the rug
- play dough on the blue table
- Safari puzzles on the yellow table
- theme related books
Small Groups - During small groups the children will work on developing concepts, language building skills and cooperative play with their peers. Three activities will be planned for each week and the children will participate in a different activity each day.
Math Group – Students will match and count different safari animal counters
Language Group – Students will talk about their favorite safari animal and color a
picture for the class scene
Fine motor group – Students will glue and stick colored tissue paper to create a lion or a
tiger for the class scene.
Art Projects – 1) Students will use rollers to paint green grass and trees for the class scene
2) Students will use sponges to paint clouds and a blue sky for the class scene
3) Students will finger paint to create brown sand for the class scene
Choice: During choice time children can choose from a large variety of activities around the room. The room is broken into carefully labeled play areas. Before students play, they sit and discuss where they want to play and what they will do in that play area. This planning time allows them to engage in more meaningful and purposeful play. Some activities within each play area may change depending upon the theme. This week we have the following activities:
- Kitchen area - Play dough
- Sensory table with grass and safari animals - Books
- Safari animal painting on the easel - Safari animals on the rug
- Safari animal puzzles
Music:
1) The Freeze dance song 4) Walk like a rhino
2) Hop and stop 5) Leo the lion
3) The hat song 6) Willaby Wallaby Woo