May 2012 Archives

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Large Group

Cooking

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Weekly Lesson Plan for Ross' Class
Week of: May 21 - June 1, 2012
Lead teaching this week: Ross

Overview: It's hard to believe, but we've completed 28 weeks of school! It seems like we just came back from spring break and it's already time to start wrapping things up for year. That's what the next two weeks will involve - bringing closure to our activities and investigations. Small groups will be finishing up this week: culminating with the production of storybooks, a raised garden box, and plants to go in the box. Activities and investigations within the classroom will also be wrapping up with utilization activities that will challenge the children's newly acquired knowledge about shapes, plants, and life-cycles. Finally, we hope to "sell" some really sweet-treats at the Best Candy Ever store! If you get a chance, do try to stop in and join us in the room/on the playground, as we would love to have you visit one last time before the year comes to a close!

Expressive Arts (paint, collage, clay)
• Materials: At the art table: "sugar sand," glass gems, oyster shells, seed pods
At the clay table: small animal toys, glass gems, seeds, rocks, various lengths of wire,
• Rationale: The sugar sand has revitalized the interest in the creating interesting and beautiful patterns in with the gems, rocks, and shells. Not only does it feel great and offer a therapeutic sensory experience, it allows for a strong contrast between the materials being used and the sand - bringing the focus to the gems rather than sand itself. We have also reintroduced the clipboards and colored pencils to invite the children to represent their creations on paper.
• Skills: artistic expression, symbolic representation, persistence, creativity, connections/expressions of the observed world, fine motor strength/endurance, conversations about "abstract art" vs. "representational art"

Sensory (water table)
• Materials: bubbles, water, scooping nets, various toy animals that live in/near water, glass gems, rocks,
• Rationale: We will reintroduce a favorite classroom material/activity at the water table this week: BUBBLES! The other water animals and nets will continue to be available, however we anticipate the games will revolving "finding" various items in the water. Next week, we hope to capitalize on the bubbles and use them to wash the toys in the room - as it is another one of the children's favorite activities.
• Skills: symbolic representation, storytelling/dramatic play, familiarity with materials, upper-body/hand strength, opportunities for cooperation/collaboration/negotiation, support of new peer friendships/connections

Science
• Materials: wheatgrass seeds, pots, spray bottles, science journals
• Rationale: We will begin wrapping up our conversations/investigations of the caterpillars, as they are started to form the cocoons outside. We will think about what they will turn into, and use some helpful resources (books and science websites) to help us see what the final leg of their life-cycle looks like. We will also continue to care for the recently planted soybeans, hopefully bringing home some decent sized sprouts next week!
• Skills: exploring/revisiting life cycles, scientific/higher-level thinking skills, observing and interpreting information about the natural world, data collection/recording, hypothesizing

Math and Manipulatives
• Materials: Perfection shape-matching game, parquetry blocks (another multi-shape puzzle set) and pattern cards, large "home-made" geo-boards, fractional shape puzzles
• Rationale: We will wrap about our investigation of shapes with some new puzzles...however these puzzles will hopefully be made by the children! Using their new knowledge of different shapes and how they can come together to create an image, we will ask the children to create their own puzzles and add them to the table.
• Skills: concepts related to geometry/shape/symmetry, part-to-whole relationships, one-to-one correspondence, counting, opportunities for collaborative problem solving.

Language and Literacy
• Materials: alphabet stamps, ink pads, paper, envelopes, pencils, blank books, magnetic alphabet letters and boards, books on CD/easy-reader books (in the nook)
• Rationale: To utilize the pre-/early-literacy skills we have focused on this year, the children will be asked to write in all areas of the room - hopefully working towards creating a little memory book of their year. With help from the teachers, the children will work writing/illustrating the pages for a "My Year At Preschool" book.
• Skills: pre-/early-literacy skills, letter recognition, phonemic awareness, fine-motor strength/endurance, social interactions

Dramatic Play
• Materials: Dress-up materials (i.e. dresses, shoes, boots, fabric, costumes), play phones, jewelry, sunglasses, dramatic playhouse props, various loose parts
• Rationale: There is no slowing down the activity in the candy store! Everyday there are cooks working hard to come up with the tasty delicacy for their classmates. One goal the teachers have for the end of the year is to "sell" some real candy from the store during the day. If any parents would like to come and be a part of that (making and/or selling of healthier candy options), please talk to Ross!
• Skills: ownership/responsibility of play area, community building with the afternoon class, imaginative/creative play, supporting opportunities for relationships and using various social skills, symbolic representation, memory skills

Blocks
• Materials: large hollow blocks, small multi-shaped unit blocks, peg people, tray of "loose parts"
• Rationale: The building is non-stop! Building new rockets, castles, and cat-houses continues to fuel the building themes in the back. The level of discussion and planning taking place is really exciting to listen to - with many thoughtful inclusions of other's ideas (as well as additional classmates). I have a feeling these themes will carry us out to the end of the year!
• Skills: large-/fine-motor skills, symbolic representation, concepts related to balance, supporting social relationships/interactions, opportunities for endless dramatic play

Large-motor
• In the gym: The bridge and monkey bars continue to offer plenty of challenges for the children, as they are figuring out how to cross them backwards and "upside-down." This week we will add the scooter boards for more cooperative games as well as a chance to play "Blast Off!" (going next to the wall and "blasting off" by pushing your feet!).
• On the playground: The playground is in full bloom and we will be spending plenty of time out there enjoying all that it has to offer. With the added time, please be sure to put sunscreen on before coming to school. We want to make sure everyone stays healthy out there!
• Skills: Upper-body strength, propulsion skills, grip strength/endurance, large-motor/locomotor skills, static and dynamic balance, lower leg strength/coordination, jumping/landing skills, opportunities for big-body/rough-and-tumble play

Announcements/Special Interest
• With our increased time outside, it would be very helpful to send a water bottle with your child each day. We will have cups and water always available, however having your own child's bottle reduces the day-to-day waste, as well as helps them get their water anytime on the playground. If you don't already have a bottle, that's perfectly fine, just let the teachers know and we will be sure to bring a cup outside for them.
• Pizza Party - Tuesday - 6-to-7.30p! If you haven't RSVP'd yet, please let Ross or Sheila know as soon as you can. Take a look at the website for details.
• End of the Year Party - Thursday, May 31 - starting at 10.30a in the classroom - followed by a picnic lunch and playground time starting at 11.30a. We hope you can come!

Snack
Monday - Apples & Graham crackers
Tuesday - Applesauce and granola
Wednesday - Fruit & yogurt smoothies
Thursday - Pretzels & pickles
Friday- Kettlecorn & raisins
* All snacks served with milk and water, unless otherwise noted *

Overview: It is hard to believe that the school year is almost over! However, when I think of all of the amazing learning and growing that have happened in our classroom, it is also hard to imagine that it all could happen over just a few months. This week, we will continue to offer new learning experiences to support and encourage the children's exploration. Bubbles as well as bubble-making tools (egg beaters, whisks) are added to the sensory table to provide a novel sensory experience as well as create a challenging extension of the children's "fish catching" play from last week. Additionally, the eagle's nest is removed from the nook area to provide extra room for the children's recent interest in castle building. Both collage materials as well as block-building sets are added to extend the imaginitve constructive play.

Sensory (water table)

• Materials: water, aquatic animal figurines, glass gems, aquarium nets, bubble solution, egg beaters, whisks

• Rationale: To extend symbolic play with plastic fish by creating a "hunt" in bubbles.

• Skills: symbolic representation, storytelling/dramatic play,
upper-body/hand strength, opportunities for
cooperation/collaboration/negotiation



Math and Manipulatives

•Materials: puzzles, alphabet puzzles, Extra large Geo-Boards (rubber band boards), Problem-Solving Triangle Brain Teaser, "Perfection" shape matching game.

•Rationale: To encourage children to begin exploring with different shapes, and allow them to create their own shapes using rubber bands on the geo-boards. To facilitate discussion of the properties of different shapes (including angles and sides). Extra large geo-boards are added this week to expand children's shape-making.

•Skills: letter recognition, shape identification, part-whole relationships, one-to-one correspondence, counting, fine motor development, problem solving, geometry vocabulary (sides, angles).

Blocks


•Materials: Large hollow blocks, small multi-shaped unit blocks, peg people, Castle-related picture books, crowns, capes, dresses, tunics. Nook Area: Cardboard boxes, collage materials, "No-Ends" building set.
•Rationale: In addition to children's ongoing interest in creating vehicles and homes, items and books support the building of "Castle" structures. To support children's interest in fantasy castle play and encorporate dramatic play and construction activities.

•Skills: Large motor development, creative expression, symbolic representation, cooperative play, creative problem-solving, reflecting on and interpreting previous experiences, social problem-solving, and fine motor development

Dramatic Play

•Materials: Loose parts (to represent candy), paper, pencils, tickets (pretend money), aprons, chef hats, oven mits, various cooking utensils, chalkboard sign, chalk.

•Rationale: To encourage exploration with a variety of roles, to explore familiar experiences (i.e. going to the store), To explore jobs in the community and what it takes to perform them. To use creativity and imagination to transform loose parts into different objects.

•Skills: Gross- and fine-motor skills, creative role-play, peer interaction, imagination, social problem solving, and symbolic representation, creative story-telling, knowledge of jobs in the community, literacy and numeracy experience.

Expressive Art

•Materials: Sand, trays, collage materials.

•Rationale: to explore with hands and tools to promote sensory awareness, increase fine motor skills, foster social relationships as children observe and work together with their peers, to create artistic images using new materials, to bring together the children's interests in both 2-D art and collage using sand trays.

•Skills: fine motor development (strength, coordination), creativity, symbolic representation, sensory input, creative storytelling, hand-eye coordination, creative problem solving.

Science

•Materials: cockroaches, beetles, mealworms, salamander, Rat, paper for recording.

•Rationale: to support children's curiosity of the natural world around us and to encourage the investigation of nature. To encourage deeper thought about living things and care-taking by interacting with our classroom rat through feeding, handling, and observing

•Skills: observation, scientific investigation and inquiry, outdoor/indoor connection, making comparisons, recording change over time, making predictions.



Language and Literacy

•Materials: the writing center has a variety of writing utensils, paper, envelopes, staplers, tape, pictures of children in our classroom, alphabet chart, dictionary, samples of written words, a book of the children's names and pictures. Magnetic upper- and lower-case letters and magnet boards, Blank paper books, Rubber alphabet stamps and ink pads, computer and keyboard 

•Rationale: To continue to support children as they engage in letter and note writing. To provide opportunities to become familiar with combining letters in different and novel ways. To encourage peer collaboration and communication through creating words together and writing the names of peers. To emphasize a variety of purposes for writing, including storytelling (fiction and nonfiction). To encorporate use of technology into the writing experience by offering word processing software.

•Skills: fine motor, pre-writing, and letter recognition, phonological awareness, using texts in a variety of ways, use of technology in a variety of ways

•Materials: The library continues to offer fiction and nonfiction texts, including those that support our continued discussion of feelings and emotions, plants, and creative storytelling.
•Rationale: to encourage reading time with friends and teachers, encourage exploration of fiction and nonfiction texts. To encourage the use of books as a source of information. To become familiar with a variety of stories and genres.
•Skills: receptive language, early literacy, predicting, listening, phonological awareness, and community building.

Large Motor
Materials: stepping pyramid, climb and jump, balance beam, monkey bars, slide, rope climb up the bumpy ramp, wall ladder, scooters
Rationale: To support and develop upper body strength and core muscles. To provide challenging activities that foster their muscular and cardiovascular endurance. 
Skills: upper body strength, motor coordination, hand eye coordination, propulsion skills, balance, depth perception, visual perception, lower body strength, turn taking, dynamic balance

Weekly Plan for 5.21-5.25
Kelsey Lead Teaching
Overview:
With the school year nearing its end, this week we will focus on supporting the children in making this transition. We will support the children's quantifying and number skills by counting down the number of school days left using the calendar and a number chart. We will encourage the children to begin thinking about what they will be doing this summer. We will discuss their plans, special occasions, and potential trips. We will also support the children's recent interest in storytelling and wind from the science area by introducing The Three Little Pigs and integrating role-play of this story into the curriculum. As the children finished building the garden bed on the playground, we will begin planting and putting a variety of seeds in the dirt and water them.

Expressive Arts:
Materials: Art easel, three colors of tempera paint, paint brushes, paper
Rationale: To continue to allow the children to explore the cause and effect of shading. To provide opportunities for the children the children to investigate what happens when primary and secondary colors are mixed with white.
Skills: cause and effect, creative expression, fine motor skills, investigation, observation

Materials: clear art easel, wooden art easel, tempera paint, watercolor pain, paint brushes, and paper
Rationale: To expand on the children's interest in painting on easels. To continue to encourage collaboration and socialization using the clear easel. To encourage the children to compare and contrast between the different types of easels and how they are used.
Skills: cause and effect, creative expression, fine motor skills, investigation, observation, compare and contrast.

Sensory:
Materials: Sand table, wet sand, scoops and shovels, rakes, plastic bugs, bug catchers, and magnifying glasses
Rationale: To expand on the children's interest in finding bugs outside. To encourage the children to apply their knowledge of looking for bugs in a new context. To continue to foster symbolic representation.
Skills: symbolic representation, observation, fine motor skills, cause and effect, collaboration, cooperation, sensory input and exploration, pre-math skills - counting, grouping, ordering.

Materials: Red, green, and orange play dough, rolling pins, garlic presses, slicers, cutting boards, baking pans, and cupcake pans
Rationale: To continue to expand the children's interest in baking and cooking by using the play dough to symbolically represent food and tools in the kitchen. 
To encourage the children to create their own recipes using the play dough.

Skills: sensory input and exploration, storytelling, creative symbolic representation, fine motor skills, creative expression and imagination, and turn taking

Science:
Materials: small wind mills, ribbons, various small materials such as feathers, cotton balls, beads, and rollers, air pumps, paper fans, small electric fan, wind chime, and video on computer of wind and wind sounds
Rationale: To continue to expand on the children's interest in storms and weather. To explore the different aspects of wind. To provide opportunities for the children to create wind using different materials and notice the effect it has on different objects. To allow the children to compare and contrast between various materials to see what is easier and harder to blow. To provide opportunities for the children to observe wind by placing ribbons near an open window.
Skills: observation, investigation, compare and contrast, cause and effect, collaboration, prediction, conversation, explanation

Materials: light table, various x-rays of different animals
Rationale: To expand on the children's interest in veterinarians. To provide opportunities for the children to begin to explore x-rays, and the different parts of the animals bodies such as bones.

Skills: observation, investigation, collaboration, symbolic representation, explanation, creative expression

Dramatic Play:
Materials: Stuffed animal dogs, cats, and rabbits, pet carriers, pet dishes and leashes, veterinarian uniforms, syringes, medicine bottles, table, bandage wraps, stethoscopes, and x-rays
Rationale: To continue to expand the children's interest in veterinarians and different animals that veterinarians care for. To continue to encourage children to engage in symbolic play. To continue to take care of sick/injured animals using doctor materials. To provide opportunities for the children to collaborate and help the animals.
Skills: collaboration, social skills, cooperation, turn taking, communication, symbolic representation, creative expression, symbolic play, fine-motor skills, role-play, observation

Materials: kitchen furniture, food, utensils, mixing bowls, play dough, picnic table, picnic baskets, flowers, several picnic blankets

Rationale: To expand on the children's interest in picnics and baking. To continue to make and bake food using play dough as a representational tool. To continue to promote beginning literacy by making recipes and posting children's favorite foods. To further support symbolic play and collaboration. To allow the children to act out what they experience during snack when we have picnics.
Skills: social skills, collaboration, symbolic representation, cooperation, communication, creative expression, role-play, early literacy skills, fine motor skills

Materials: grocery baskets, various food items, grocery lists, calculators, credit cards, and credit card swipe
Rationale: To expand on children's interest in grocery shopping. To provide opportunities for children to go grocery shopping and buy various food items to cook with in the kitchen. To encourage the children to make grocery lists of what they need to buy. To promote symbolic representation.
Skills: symbolic representation, collaboration, cooperation, turn-taking, creative expression, early literacy skills, role play, decision making, communication

Materials: Three Little Pigs storyboard, Three little pigs book, vests, coats, and other dress up fabrics
Rationale: To support the children's interest in storytelling. To make connections and comparisons between blowing the house down in The Three Little Pigs and the wind curriculum. To encourage the children to role-play and symbolically represent a story.
Skills: collaboration, cooperation, role-play, symbolic representation, creative expression, communication, beginning literacy

Math and Manipulatives:
Materials: sorting by 2 categories (color and shape), zippers and buttons, nesting cups, and matching materials (photos to line drawings)
Rationale: To support cognitive development through the use of math and manipulatives. To provide new ways for the children to practice seriation, matching, and grouping. To continue to develop the children's self-help skills by practicing buttoning and zipping. To strengthen the children's fine motor skills.
Skills: fine-motor, turn taking, counting, matching, problem solving, risk-taking, seriation, sorting, trial and error, and persistence

Language and Literacy:

Materials: recipes in the kitchen area, grocery lists, paper and pencils available (in kitchen and grocery store), name cards and letters available in art area, new books about topics related to classroom activities

Rationale: To continue to use symbolic representation and imagination by creating their own recipes and grocery lists. To continue to encourage the children to learn the different letters in their name. To encourage the children to use books to expand their understanding of the different classroom topics.
Skills: listening, speaking, observing, spelling, letter identification, conversation, turn taking, symbolic representation, creative expression, fine-motor development, early literacy skills such as comprehension and left-right reading

Music:
Materials: accordions, harp, triangles, tone-bells, piano, and cds of classical music

Rationale: To continue to explore and learn about different musical instruments related to classical music. To further encourage the children's use of rhythm and temporal awareness. To allow the children to creatively express themselves through sound. To encourage the children to incorporate music into their symbolic play.
Skills: sensory input and exploration, hand eye coordination, creative expression, listening, turn taking, auditory discrimination, fine and large motor skills

Blocks: 

Materials: Hollow blocks, wooden blocks, foam blocks, and The Three Little Pigs visuals
Rationale: To continue to support the children in assuming different roles in fantasy play. To encourage the children to build different structures that represent the houses in The Three Little Pigs storybook.
Skills: Storytelling, beginning literacy, collaboration, communication, role-playing, symbolic representation, turn-taking, cooperation, creative expression, and large motor

Large Motor:
Outdoor Materials: scoops, shovels, buckets, bug catchers, tricycles, basketball hoop, target throw, balls, seeds for the garden, and watering cans 

Rationale: To continue looking for worms, caterpillars, and various insects. To continue role-playing through the use of various kitchen materials available. To encourage the children to begin throwing balls to a target. To continue to build our new garden and care for the seeds that we plant.


Skills: turn taking, large motor skills, motor coordination, searching, scanning, muscular endurance, hand eye coordination, balance, cardiovascular endurance, role-taking, fine-motor skills, target practice, throwing and catching

Indoor Materials: monkey bars, rope climb up the bumpy ramp, aim and jump, aim and throw, wall ladder, and bridge

Rationale: To support and develop upper body strength and core muscles. To provide challenging activities that foster the children's muscular and cardiovascular endurance.
Skills: upper body strength, motor coordination, hand eye coordination, propulsion skills, balance, depth perception, visual perception, lower body strength, turn taking, dynamic balance

Large Group:
Materials: Songs and welcome activities led by the teacher, calendar, and end of the year count down, children's pictures on floor, The Three Little Pigs book and story board
Rationale: To support the children in making the transition from the end of the school year into summer. To support their understanding of moving to the multiage classrooms next year. To continue to encourage the children to sit on the circle tape, similar to what they will experience in the multiage classrooms. To encourage the children's interest in storytelling and support storytelling as a play theme in the classroom.
Skills: Attention span, listening, receptive skills, speaking, taking turns, communication, social skills, literacy, trying new things, impulse control, group membership, collaboration

Weekly Plan for 5.21-5.25
Kelsey Lead Teaching
Overview:

With the school year nearing its end, this week we will focus on supporting the children in making this transition. We will support the children's quantifying and number skills by counting down the number of school days left using the calendar and a number chart. We will encourage the children to begin thinking about what they will be doing this summer. We will discuss their plans, special occasions, and potential trips. As the children finished building the garden bed on the playground, we will begin planting and putting a variety of seeds in the dirt and water them.

Expressive Arts:
Materials: Art easel, three colors of tempera paint, paint brushes, paper
Rationale: To continue to allow the children to explore the cause and effect of shading. To provide opportunities for the children the children to investigate what happens when primary and secondary colors are mixed with white.
Skills: cause and effect, creative expression, fine motor skills, investigation, observation
Materials: clear art easel, wooden art easel, tempera paint, watercolor pain, paint brushes, and paper
Rationale: To expand on the children's interest in painting on easels. To continue to encourage collaboration and socialization using the clear easel. To encourage the children to compare and contrast between the different types of easels and how they are used.
Skills: cause and effect, creative expression, fine motor skills, investigation, observation, compare and contrast.

Sensory:
Materials: Sand table, wet sand, scoops and shovels, rakes, plastic bugs, bug catchers, and magnifying glasses
Rationale: To expand on the children's interest in finding bugs outside. To encourage the children to apply their knowledge of looking for bugs in a new context. To continue to foster symbolic representation.
Skills: symbolic representation, observation, fine motor skills, cause and effect, collaboration, cooperation, sensory input and exploration, pre-math skills - counting, grouping, ordering.
Materials: Red, green, and orange play dough, rolling pins, garlic presses, slicers, cutting boards, baking pans, and cupcake pans
Rationale: To continue to expand the children's interest in baking and cooking by using the play dough to symbolically represent food and tools in the kitchen. 
To encourage the children to create their own recipes using the play dough.

Skills: sensory input and exploration, storytelling, creative symbolic representation, fine motor skills, creative expression and imagination, and turn taking

Science:
Materials: small wind mills, ribbons, various small materials such as feathers, cotton balls, beads, and rollers, air pumps, paper fans, small electric fan, wind chime, and video on computer of wind and wind sounds
Rationale: To continue to expand on the children's interest in storms and weather. To explore the different aspects of wind. To provide opportunities for the children to create wind using different materials and notice the effect it has on different objects. To allow the children to compare and contrast between various materials to see what is easier and harder to blow. To provide opportunities for the children to observe wind by placing ribbons near an open window.
Skills: observation, investigation, compare and contrast, cause and effect, collaboration, prediction, conversation, explanation
Materials: light table, various x-rays of different animals
Rationale: To expand on the children's interest in veterinarians. To provide opportunities for the children to begin to explore x-rays, and the different parts of the animals bodies such as bones.

Skills: observation, investigation, collaboration, symbolic representation, explanation, creative expression

Dramatic Play:
Materials: Stuffed animal dogs, cats, and rabbits, pet carriers, pet dishes and leashes, veterinarian uniforms, syringes, medicine bottles, table, bandage wraps, stethoscopes, and x-rays
Rationale: To continue to expand the children's interest in veterinarians and different animals that veterinarians care for. To continue to encourage children to engage in symbolic play. To continue to take care of sick/injured animals using doctor materials. To provide opportunities for the children to collaborate and help the animals.
Skills: collaboration, social skills, cooperation, turn taking, communication, symbolic representation, creative expression, symbolic play, fine-motor skills, role-play, observation

Materials: kitchen furniture, food, utensils, mixing bowls, play dough, picnic table, picnic baskets, flowers, several picnic blankets

Rationale: To expand on the children's interest in picnics and baking. To continue to make and bake food using play dough as a representational tool. To continue to promote beginning literacy by making recipes and posting children's favorite foods. To further support symbolic play and collaboration. To allow the children to act out what they experience during snack when we have picnics.
Skills: social skills, collaboration, symbolic representation, cooperation, communication, creative expression, role-play, early literacy skills, fine motor skills

Materials: grocery baskets, various food items, grocery lists, calculators, credit cards, and credit card swipe
Rationale: To expand on children's interest in grocery shopping. To provide opportunities for children to go grocery shopping and buy various food items to cook with in the kitchen. To encourage the children to make grocery lists of what they need to buy. To promote symbolic representation.
Skills: symbolic representation, collaboration, cooperation, turn-taking, creative expression, early literacy skills, role play, decision making, communication

Materials: tutus and skirts, capes, paper strips and various colorful art materials

Rationale: To continue to expand on the children's interest in castle play. To allow the children to create their own crown using the art materials available. To promote symbolic representation of what it means to live in a castle.
Skills: collaboration, cooperation, role-play, symbolic representation, creative expression, fine motor skills, communication

Math and Manipulatives:
Materials: sorting by 2 categories (color and shape), zippers and buttons, nesting cups, and matching materials (photos to line drawings)
Rationale: To support cognitive development through the use of math and manipulatives. To provide new ways for the children to practice seriation, matching, and grouping. To continue to develop the children's self-help skills by practicing buttoning and zipping. To strengthen the children's fine motor skills.
Skills: fine-motor, turn taking, counting, matching, problem solving, risk-taking, seriation, sorting, trial and error, and persistence

Language and Literacy:

Materials: recipes in the kitchen area, grocery lists, paper and pencils available (in kitchen and grocery store), name cards and letters available in art area, new books about topics related to classroom activities

Rationale: To continue to use symbolic representation and imagination by creating their own recipes and grocery lists. To continue to encourage the children to learn the different letters in their name. To encourage the children to use books to expand their understanding of the different classroom topics.
Skills: listening, speaking, observing, spelling, letter identification, conversation, turn taking, symbolic representation, creative expression, fine-motor development, early literacy skills such as comprehension and left-right reading

Music:
Materials: accordions, harp, triangles, tone-bells, piano, and cds of classical music

Rationale: To continue to explore and learn about different musical instruments related to classical music. To further encourage the children's use of rhythm and temporal awareness. To allow the children to creatively express themselves through sound. To encourage the children to incorporate music into their symbolic play.
Skills: sensory input and exploration, hand eye coordination, creative expression, listening, turn taking, auditory discrimination, fine and large motor skills

Blocks: 

Materials: Hollow blocks, wooden blocks, foam blocks, planks, castle visuals, triangle cones

Rationale: To continue to support the children assuming different roles in fantasy play. To encourage the children to build various castles and structures by using visuals as models. To continue to encourage meaningful building and problem solving.
Skills: Communication, collaboration, problem solving, role-taking, symbolic representation, turn-taking, spatial concepts, fine and large motor skills, cooperation, creative expression

Large Motor:
Outdoor Materials: scoops, shovels, buckets, bug catchers, tricycles, basketball hoop, target throw, balls, seeds for the garden, and watering cans 

Rationale: To continue looking for worms, caterpillars, and various insects. To continue role-playing through the use of various kitchen materials available. To encourage the children to begin throwing balls to a target. To continue to build our new garden and care for the seeds that we plant.


Skills: turn taking, large motor skills, motor coordination, searching, scanning, muscular endurance, hand eye coordination, balance, cardiovascular endurance, role-taking, fine-motor skills, target practice, throwing and catching

Indoor Materials: monkey bars, rope climb up the bumpy ramp, aim and jump, aim and throw, wall ladder, and bridge

Rationale: To support and develop upper body strength and core muscles. To provide challenging activities that foster the children's muscular and cardiovascular endurance.
Skills: upper body strength, motor coordination, hand eye coordination, propulsion skills, balance, depth perception, visual perception, lower body strength, turn taking, dynamic balance

Large Group:
Materials: Songs and welcome activities led by the teacher, calendar, and end of the year count down, children's pictures on floor,
Rationale: To support the children in making the transition from the end of the school year into summer. To support their understanding of moving to the multiage classrooms next year. To continue to encourage the children to sit on the circle tape, similar to what they will experience in the multiage classrooms.
Skills: Attention span, listening, receptive skills, speaking, taking turns, communication, social skills, literacy, trying new things, impulse control, group membership, collaboration

Overview and goals
We will spend the next two weeks wrapping up the year! Small groups will meet for the last time on Monday and we will dedicate time to discuss the learning that took place and share this with the whole class. Our field trip was the perfect way to bring together all the topics we visited and revisited this session and we will use this last experience to support the children in tying everything together and seeing the big picture; "Healthy Living" is connected to everything we do! We await the hatching this week!
Expressive Arts
~Materials: Clay, paints, large paint brushes, paper, colored pencils, markers, oil pastels, staplers, tape. The top of the loft holds paper, scissors, markers, staplers, and tape.
~Rationale: Clay has been very popular the past couple of weeks and we want to offer the children the opportunity to create and express themselves through this media one more week. Children are especially excited to have the opportunity to work on their pieces over time, and paint them. Clay offers opportunities to include detail and strengthen fingers, wrists, and hands.
~Skills: Creative expression, creative risk taking, hand-eye coordination, fine motor strength and development.
Science
~Materials: Chicken eggs, incubator, insects found in the playground, mealworms and beetles, glass-coated insects, plants, rulers, pencils, paper, and magnifying glasses.
~Rationale: Life continues to manifest itself in the science area. This week, our long-anticipated baby chicks will hatch and we will be able to watch the miracle of life!
~Skills: Observation, scientific inquiry, comparison, reasoning, descriptive and scientific language, self-expression, and communication.
Math Manipulative and Games
~Materials: Legos, Lego bases, puzzles.
~Rationale: The children continue to pursue creative building and Legos continue to be their favorite material. ~Skills: Creative building, hand-eye coordination, fine motor development and finger strength.
Dramatic and Symbolic Play
~Materials: A few materials from the flower shop remain on top of the loft: baskets, flowers. The dramatic play area is focusing its attention on a kindergarten like set up with a chalkboard, desk, and school supplies. In the animal cave: small plastic turtles and frogs, wooden disks, stuffed squirrels, beavers and hedgehogs, and fabric pieces.
~Rationale: The kindergarten set up offers those who are going to kindergarten next year a little snapshot of what they might find in their classroom. For the children who have one more year at the Lab School it gives a little taste of what is to come ☺.
~Skills: Perspective taking, communication, sharing, social interactions, imaginary play, collaboration, and symbolic play.
Blocks
~Materials: Hollow blocks, unit blocks, and ramps.
~Rationale: Blocks will be available for children to extend and expand their dramatic play scenarios and symbolic play.
~Skills: Large motor development, fine motor development, creating, number concepts, spatial relationships, measurement, communication, and cooperation.
Language and Literacy
~Materials: Bound dictionary, blank papers, alphabetical dividers, books; pencils, thin markers, paper, envelopes, folded paper, stamp-sized paper, glue sticks, staplers, tape, cards with children's photos and names. Books related to: insects/bugs, spring, plants, flowers, and baby chicks.
~Rationale: Each area in the classroom holds special books connected to the topics explored and the teachers encourage the children to use these as sources of information. Writing materials encourage children to write letters to family and friends; teachers are always available to help with spelling and letter recognition.
~Skills: Pre-/ early-literacy skills, community, symbolic representation, vocabulary expansion, speaking, and self-expression.
Large Motor
Playground
~Materials: Balance beam, bikes, playground equipment, swings, shovels, rakes, buckets, scoops, hill, path, basketball hoop, basketballs, monkey bars, climbing structure, and swinging rope.
~Rationale: To encourage children to use their bodies in a variety to ways and strengthen skills already available to them and develop new ones.
~Skills: Cardiovascular endurance, balance, coordination, grasping, climbing, jumping, upper body and lower body strength, core strength, flexibility, coordination, communication, large motor development, and cooperation.
Gym
~Materials: Steps platform, tetherball, climber, metal bridge, raised monkey bars, bumpy rolling slide with climbing rope, trampoline, beanbag toss.
~Rationale: The gym offers opportunities to strengthen very specific skills and for the teachers to notice change and development of previous skills.
~Skills: Upper body and lower body strength, core strength, coordination, balance, risk taking, grasping, climbing, flexibility, cardiovascular endurance, eye-arm coordination, propulsion skills, dynamic balance, and turn taking.

End of the Year Celebration of Learning will take place on Thursday, May 31 at 2:15!

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Large Group

Gym

Art- Week 8

Amy.bird.flap.story.pptx

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Weekly Lesson Plan for Ross' Class
Week of: May 14-18, 2012
Lead teaching this week: Ross

Overview: To say there has been an explosion of excitement revolving around the arrival of the tent caterpillars would be an understatement. They are seemingly endless in quantity, yet the children are as excited with catching the 1,000th caterpillar (which we've got to be close to now) as they were with catching the first! Not only are they "fun" to catch (as it depends on who you're asking: child or teacher/parent), they offer great opportunities for learning in all academic areas. We will incorporate the addition of the "catties" (as they have been referred to by some) all throughout the classroom during our three remain weeks of the school year (can you believe it!). One last quick note about the caterpillars, they do need to stay at school for two reasons: 1) it is a rule that the living creatures found at school stay here, "as it is there home;" and 2) (maybe most importantly) these little critters can be quite invasive/destructive, so to protect your neighborhood trees and keep them here! Outside of "caterpillar-mania," the small groups are picking up with their investigations: discovering/playing lots of new word games, building large-scale geo-boards for the class, and thinking about creating a garden for the end of the school year/summer school students. Be sure to check the website for further details.

Expressive Arts (paint, collage, clay)
• Materials: At the art table: "cut-out" geometric shapes (pre-cut as well as uncut), scissors, tape, shape-collage books,
At the clay table: various lengths of wire, rocks, natural materials (nuts, shells, twigs)
• Rationale: Last week we added a new medium for making art: using trays filled with sand and having gems, rocks, sticks, and seeds available to arrange on top. After some demonstrations/modeling from the teachers, the children are becoming more and more intrigued. The supplies will remain with the addition of more "beautiful things," and we will let the creativity take over.
• Skills: artistic expression, symbolic representation, persistence, creativity, connections/expressions of the observed world, fine motor strength/endurance, conversations about "abstract art" vs. "representational art"

Sensory (water table)
• Materials: water, various toy animals that live in/near water, glass gems, rocks, small containers with lids
• Rationale: The water is changing color (thanks to daily additions of food coloring from the teachers...not dirty water!), boats have been added, and stories about sea animal families (and "sunken treasure") continue to thrive. These self-directed stories and play themes have offered support to the strong social climate that is thriving in the room currently - children are negotiating what the animals will do, whom they will live with, what they will eat, etc. However, it has also allowed the inclusion/creation of new playgroups. Even after nearly 30 weeks, new friendships are forming!
• Skills: symbolic representation, storytelling/dramatic play, familiarity with materials, upper-body/hand strength, opportunities for cooperation/collaboration/negotiation, support of new peer friendships/connections

Science
• Materials: wheatgrass seeds, pots, spray bottles, science journals
• Rationale: It is quite clear that the caterpillars are "hippest thing in town" right now, but soon we will get to observe the natural phenomena of metamorphosis, as the "catties" will start to form their cocoons. We've got hundreds safely contained in our room, however we will start to spot them outside, as well. Needless to say, observing and talking about life cycles will become our next main focus in the science area.
• Skills: exploring/revisiting life cycles, scientific/higher-level thinking skills, observing and interpreting information about the natural world, data collection/recording, hypothesizing

Math and Manipulatives
• Materials: Perfection shape-matching game, parquetry blocks (another multi-shape puzzle set) and pattern cards, large "home-made" geo-boards, fractional shape puzzles
• Rationale: Conversations about shape continue to thrive in room, as children point out shapes the in books and in the art the create. The pair of shapes and drawing has been really fun to observe, as it has opened up many new perspectives on how to create by combing simple shapes! To "build" off of that, Ross' small group made some larger geo-boards that will allow the children to create pictures/stories on the boards using rubber bands. We are interested to see where the stories will go!
• Skills: concepts related to geometry/shape/symmetry, part-to-whole relationships, one-to-one correspondence, counting, opportunities for collaborative problem solving.

Language and Literacy
• Materials: alphabet stamps, ink pads, paper, envelopes, pencils, blank books, magnetic alphabet letters and boards, books on CD/easy-reader books (in the nook)
• Rationale: We have seen many more visitors to the writing table with the addition of the alphabet stamps! Children are making/writing letters for one another, for loved ones, as well as for their dramatic play structures. We have also seen some "how to write letters of the alphabet" lessons taking place - which has been really fun to watch: children helping/coaching one another on how to write the various letters of the alphabet!
• Skills: pre-/early-literacy skills, letter recognition, phonemic awareness, fine-motor strength/endurance, social interactions

Dramatic Play
• Materials: Dress-up materials (i.e. dresses, shoes, boots, fabric, costumes), play phones, jewelry, sunglasses, dramatic playhouse props, various loose parts
• Rationale: There is always daily a hustle-and-bustle in the "Best Candy Ever" store, with children making all kinds of sweet treats! We want to support that excitement by making real candy (as healthy as possible, of course) at school and "selling" it out of the store. We are investigating recipes, however if you have any culinary/candy knowledge to share and/or interest in joining us in the "kitchen," c'mon in! However, "Best Candy Ever" is not the only hot spot, we have also seen a resurgence of castle play in the back of the room. Children are writing plays and telling very elaborate stories. The teachers will continue to transcribe their tales - possibly leading to a storybook, however there are rumors of another performance. We'll see!
• Skills: ownership/responsibility of play area, community building with the afternoon class, imaginative/creative play, supporting opportunities for relationships and using various social skills, symbolic representation, memory skills

Blocks
• Materials: large hollow blocks, small multi-shaped unit blocks, peg people, tray of "loose parts"
• Rationale: Going along with the castle play, castles and fortresses are been popping up in the back of the room. However, on Friday several children did some very "big building," as they built a giant rocket ship to take some children to the moon! The walls got so high, a ladder was needed to reach the top of the rocket! It was left up for Monday, so we'll see where the story picks up!
• Skills: large-/fine-motor skills, symbolic representation, concepts related to balance, supporting social relationships/interactions, opportunities for endless dramatic play

Large-motor
• In the gym: The gym has been tweaked just a little bit, with the addition of the A-frame bridge connecting the high-rise monkey bars to the jumping station. The children have really enjoyed climbing up the bumpy slide over the past week, however have also been very excited about the recent successes with crossing with monkey "all by [themselves]!" As much for as the gym is, however, we are spending more and more time outside; both on our playground as well as on Ayuko's playground during free play. That pattern will continue, but we will still make a few trips to the gym throughout the week!
• On the playground: Caterpillars. I could probably leave it at just that, but there are a few other things taking place - currently children from both classes are helping build another raised garden bed for the copious amount of garden groups we currently have amongst all the classrooms. With this nicer weather, we are spending more and more time outside, and children always find creative and fun ways to play while surrounded by nature! If you need to take a "personal/natural-health-restoration" day and join us on the playground, you are more than welcome to! (I figure one of those phrasings has to work for P.T.O., right?)
• Skills: Upper-body strength, propulsion skills, grip strength/endurance, large-motor/locomotor skills, static and dynamic balance, lower leg strength/coordination, jumping/landing skills, opportunities for big-body/rough-and-tumble play

Announcements/Special Interest
• The Lab School camping trip is this upcoming weekend and we are very excited! Even if you're not one for sleeping outdoors, you can still join us for the daytime festivities on Saturday. Talk to Sheila for more details.
• Just another reminder: the End of the Year Picnic Celebration will be on Thursday, May 31. We will start in the classroom at 10.30a with a small snack and sing-a-long, as well as our formal good-byes. Then, for those that can stay, we will move to the playground at 11.15a for a picnic lunch (remember to bring your own!) and extra playground time with our class! For those that can't stay, regular pick-up procedures will be in place.

Snack
Monday - Apples & Graham crackers
Tuesday - Cucumbers & crackers
Wednesday - Yogurt & strawberries
Thursday - Pretzels & oranges
Friday- Popcorn & refrigerator pickles (made earlier in the week)
* All snacks served with milk and water, unless otherwise noted *

Weekly Plan for May 14th-18th
Hannah Lead Teaching
Overview:

Because many of our curriculum areas culminated last week, this week we will focus on exploring many new topics that the children have been interested in. We will be introducing new areas such as grocery shopping and wind exploration. We will also be continuing to support the children as the transition to the multiage room gets closer. Through visiting the classrooms and playground, we hope to help the children ease their way into the transition so that it is as smooth as possible. Many of the children have also been very interested in picnics. To incorporate their interest, we will begin participating in picnic snacks outside on our playground on a weekly basis depending on the weather.

Expressive Art:
Materials: Art easel, three colors of tempera paint, paintbrushes, paper

Rationale: To continue to allow the children to explore the cause and effect of shading. To provide opportunities for the children the children to investigate what happens when primary and secondary colors are mixed with white.
Skills: cause and effect, creative expression, fine motor skills, investigation, observation

Materials: clear art easel, wooden art easel, tempera paint, paintbrushes, paper
Rationale: To expand on the children's interest in painting on easels. To allow the children to explore the difference between the clear easel and the opaque easel. To encourage the children to compare and contrast between the different types of easels and how they are used.
Skills: cause and effect, creative expression, fine motor skills, investigation, observation, compare and contrast.

Sensory:
Materials: sand table, wet sand, scoops and shovels, various construction trucks (dump trucks, diggers, motor graders)
Rationale: To expand on the children's interest in construction using the sand. To allow the children to build and create various structures using the wet sand and trucks. To continue to foster symbolic representation.
Skills: symbolic representation, creative expression, observation, fine motor skills, cause and effect, collaboration, cooperation, sensory input and exploration

Materials: white play dough, rolling pins, slicers, garlic presses, cutting boards, baking pans, and cupcake pans 

Rationale: To continue to expand the children's interest in baking and cooking by using the play dough to symbolically represent food and tools in the kitchen. 
To encourage the children to create their own recipes using the play dough.
Skills: sensory input and exploration, storytelling, creative symbolic representation, fine motor skills, creative expression and imagination, and turn taking

Science:
Materials: small wind mills, ribbons, various small materials such as feathers, cotton balls, beads, and rollers, air pump, video on computer of wind during a storm
Rationale: To expand on the children's interest in storms and weather. To begin to explore the different aspects of wind. To provide opportunities for the children to create wind and notice the effect it has on different objects. To allow the children to compare and contrast between various materials to see what is easier to blow and what is harder. To provide opportunities for the children to observe wind through placing ribbons near and open window.
Skills: observation, investigation, compare and contrast, cause and effect, collaboration, prediction, conversation, explanation

Materials: light table, various x-rays of different animals
Rationale: To expand on the children's interest in veterinarians. To provide opportunities for the children to begin to explore x-rays, and the different parts of the animals bodies such as bones.
Skills: observation, investigation, collaboration, symbolic representation, explanation, creative expression

Dramatic Play:
Materials: Stuffed animal birds, blankets, fabric, veterinarian uniforms, syringes, medicine bottles, table, bandage wraps, stethoscopes, hair nets, x-rays
Rationale: To continue to expand the children's interests in veterinarians and birds. To continue to encourage children to engage in symbolic play. To continue to explore the idea of taking care of a sick bird through the available materials. To provide opportunities for the children to work together to help the sick birds feel better.
Skills: collaboration, social skills, cooperation, turn taking, communication, symbolic representation, creative expression, symbolic play, fine-motor skills, role-play, observation

Materials: kitchen furniture, food, utensils, mixing bowls, play dough, picnic table, picnic baskets, flowers, picnic blanket
Rationale: To expand on the children's interest in picnics and baking. To continue to make and bake food using play dough as a representational tool. To continue to promote beginning literacy by making recipes and posting children's favorite foods. To further support symbolic play and collaboration. To allow the children to act out what they experience during snack when we have picnics.
Skills: social skills, collaboration, symbolic representation, cooperation, communication, creative expression, role play, early literacy skills, fine motor skills

Materials: grocery baskets, various food items, grocery lists, paper bags
Rationale: To expand on children's interest in grocery shopping. To provide opportunities for children to go grocery shopping and buy various food items to cook with in the kitchen. To encourage the children to make grocery lists of what they need to buy. To promote symbolic representation.
Skills: symbolic representation, collaboration, cooperation, turn-taking, creative expression, early literacy skills, role play, decision making, communication

Materials: tutus and skirts, jackets, hats, and vest
Rationale: To encourage the children to dress up and explore different roles using the provided materials. To provide opportunities for the children to interact through collaborative play.
Skills: collaboration, cooperation, role play, symbolic representation, creative expression, communication

Math and Manipulatives:
Materials: pegs and peg boards, matching file folder games, beading materials, seriation puzzles
Rationale: To encourage cognitive development through the use of the math manipulatives. To continue to allow the children to practice patterning and grouping, To encourage the children to practice counting. To strengthen the children's fine-motor skills. To provide opportunities for children to match and group objects.
Skills: fine-motor skills, turn taking, patterning, counting, matching, grouping, one-to-one correspondence, problem solving, risk-taking, seriation, persistence, trial and error

Language and Literacy:
Materials: recipes in the kitchen area, grocery lists, paper and pencils available (in kitchen and grocery store), name cards and letters available in art area, new books about topics related to classroom activities
Rationale: To continue to use symbolic representation and imagination by creating their own recipes and grocery lists. To continue to encourage the children to learn the different letters in their name. To encourage the children to use books to expand their understanding of the different classroom topics.
Skills: listening, speaking, observing, spelling, letter identification, conversation, turn taking, symbolic representation, creative expression, fine-motor development, early literacy skills such as comprehension and left-right reading

Music:
Materials: accordions, harp, triangles, tone-bells, cds of classical music
Rationale: To continue to explore and learn about different musical instruments related to classical music. To further encourage the children's use of rhythm and temporal awareness. To allow the children to creatively express themselves through sound.
Skills: sensory input and exploration, hand eye coordination, creative expression, listening, turn taking, auditory discrimination, fine and large motor skills

Blocks:
Materials: hollow blocks, wooden blocks, foam blocks, planks, triangle cones.
Rationale: To continue to support the children in assuming different roles during play. To encourage the children to build different structures using a variety of different blocks and materials. To continue to encourage meaningful building and problem solving.
Skills: communication, collaboration, problem solving, role-taking, symbolic representation, cooperation, creative expression

Large Motor:
Outdoor Materials: scoops, shovels, buckets, bug catchers, teeter-totters, tricycles, dishes, bowls, cups, strainers, basket ball hoop, balls
Rationale: To facilitate social interactions through play and problem solving when using the teeter totters. To continue looking for worms, caterpillars, and various insects. To continue role-playing through the use of various kitchen materials available. To encourage the children to begin throwing balls into a target

Skills: turn taking, large motor skills, motor coordination, searching, scanning, muscular endurance, hand eye coordination, balance, cardiovascular endurance, role-taking, fine-motor skills, target practice, throwing and catching

Indoor Materials: monkey bars, rope climb up the bumpy ramp, aim and jump, aim and throw, wall ladder, bridge
Rationale: To support and develop upper body strength and core muscles. To provide challenging activities that foster the children's muscular and cardiovascular endurance. Skills: upper body strength, motor coordination, hand eye coordination, propulsion skills, balance, depth perception, visual perception, lower body strength, turn taking, dynamic balance

Large Group:
Materials: songs and welcome activities led by teacher, discussion of storms and the sounds they make, demonstration of crown making, discussion of plant growth, discussion of recipe book, dismissal into small groups, and circle tape on floor, demonstration of making a grocery list and shopping, rhythm sticks activity
Rationale: To continue to support the children in applying their learning to new and functional situations. To continue to develop and support children's representational artwork. To introduce and support play themes throughout the classroom. To continue to encourage the children to sit on the circle tape, similar to what they will experience in the multiage classrooms.
Skills: Attention span, listening, receptive skills, speaking, taking turns, communication, social skills, literacy, trying new things, impulse control, group membership, collaboration

Weekly Plan for May 14th-18th
Hannah Lead Teaching
Overview:
Because many of our curriculum areas culminated last week, this week we will focus on exploring many new topics that the children have been interested in. We will be introducing new areas such as grocery shopping, wind exploration, and castle play. These areas emerged through the children's conversations and ideas. We will also be continuing to support the children as the transition to the multiage room gets closer. Through visiting the classrooms and playground, we hope to help the children ease their way into the transition so that it is as smooth as possible. Many of the children have also been very interested in picnics. To incorporate their interest, we will begin participating in picnic snacks outside on our playground on a weekly basis depending on the weather.

Expressive Art:
Materials: Art easel, three colors of tempera paint, paintbrushes, paper

Rationale: To continue to allow the children to explore the cause and effect of shading. To provide opportunities for the children the children to investigate what happens when primary and secondary colors are mixed with white.
Skills: cause and effect, creative expression, fine motor skills, investigation, observation

Materials: clear art easel, wooden art easel, tempera paint, paintbrushes, paper
Rationale: To expand on the children's interest in painting on easels. To allow the children to explore the difference between the clear easel and the opaque easel. To encourage the children to compare and contrast between the different types of easels and how they are used.
Skills: cause and effect, creative expression, fine motor skills, investigation, observation, compare and contrast.

Sensory:
Materials: sand table, wet sand, scoops and shovels, various construction trucks (dump trucks, diggers, motor graders)
Rationale: To expand on the children's interest in construction using the sand. To allow the children to build and create various structures using the wet sand and trucks. To continue to foster symbolic representation.
Skills: symbolic representation, creative expression, observation, fine motor skills, cause and effect, collaboration, cooperation, sensory input and exploration

Materials: white play dough, rolling pins, slicers, garlic presses, cutting boards, baking pans, and cupcake pans 

Rationale: To continue to expand the children's interest in baking and cooking by using the play dough to symbolically represent food and tools in the kitchen. 
To encourage the children to create their own recipes using the play dough.
Skills: sensory input and exploration, storytelling, creative symbolic representation, fine motor skills, creative expression and imagination, and turn taking

Science:
Materials: small wind mills, ribbons, various small materials such as feathers, cotton balls, beads, and rollers, air pump, video on computer of wind during a storm
Rationale: To expand on the children's interest in storms and weather. To begin to explore the different aspects of wind. To provide opportunities for the children to create wind and notice the effect it has on different objects. To allow the children to compare and contrast between various materials to see what is easier to blow and what is harder. To provide opportunities for the children to observe wind through placing ribbons near and open window.
Skills: observation, investigation, compare and contrast, cause and effect, collaboration, prediction, conversation, explanation

Materials: light table, various x-rays of different animals
Rationale: To expand on the children's interest in veterinarians. To provide opportunities for the children to begin to explore x-rays, and the different parts of the animals bodies such as bones.
Skills: observation, investigation, collaboration, symbolic representation, explanation, creative expression

Dramatic Play:
Materials: Stuffed animal birds, blankets, fabric, veterinarian uniforms, syringes, medicine bottles, table, bandage wraps, stethoscopes, hair nets, x-rays
Rationale: To continue to expand the children's interests in veterinarians and birds. To continue to encourage children to engage in symbolic play. To continue to explore the idea of taking care of a sick bird through the available materials. To provide opportunities for the children to work together to help the sick birds feel better.
Skills: collaboration, social skills, cooperation, turn taking, communication, symbolic representation, creative expression, symbolic play, fine-motor skills, role-play, observation

Materials: kitchen furniture, food, utensils, mixing bowls, play dough, picnic table, picnic baskets, flowers, picnic blanket
Rationale: To expand on the children's interest in picnics and baking. To continue to make and bake food using play dough as a representational tool. To continue to promote beginning literacy by making recipes and posting children's favorite foods. To further support symbolic play and collaboration. To allow the children to act out what they experience during snack when we have picnics.
Skills: social skills, collaboration, symbolic representation, cooperation, communication, creative expression, role play, early literacy skills, fine motor skills

Materials: grocery baskets, various food items, grocery lists, paper bags
Rationale: To expand on children's interest in grocery shopping. To provide opportunities for children to go grocery shopping and buy various food items to cook with in the kitchen. To encourage the children to make grocery lists of what they need to buy. To promote symbolic representation.
Skills: symbolic representation, collaboration, cooperation, turn-taking, creative expression, early literacy skills, role play, decision making, communication

Materials: tutus and skirts, capes, paper strips and various colorful art materials
Rationale: To expand on the children's interest in castle play. To allow the children to create their own crown using the art materials available. To promote symbolic representation of what it means to live in a castle.
Skills: collaboration, cooperation, role-play, symbolic representation, creative expression, fine motor skills, communication

Math and Manipulatives:
Materials: pegs and peg boards, matching file folder games, beading materials, seriation puzzles
Rationale: To encourage cognitive development through the use of the math manipulatives. To continue to allow the children to practice patterning and grouping, To encourage the children to practice counting. To strengthen the children's fine-motor skills. To provide opportunities for children to match and group objects.
Skills: fine-motor skills, turn taking, patterning, counting, matching, grouping, one-to-one correspondence, problem solving, risk-taking, seriation, persistence, trial and error

Language and Literacy:
Materials: recipes in the kitchen area, grocery lists, paper and pencils available (in kitchen and grocery store), name cards and letters available in art area, new books about topics related to classroom activities
Rationale: To continue to use symbolic representation and imagination by creating their own recipes and grocery lists. To continue to encourage the children to learn the different letters in their name. To encourage the children to use books to expand their understanding of the different classroom topics.
Skills: listening, speaking, observing, spelling, letter identification, conversation, turn taking, symbolic representation, creative expression, fine-motor development, early literacy skills such as comprehension and left-right reading

Music:
Materials: accordions, harp, triangles, tone-bells, cds of classical music
Rationale: To continue to explore and learn about different musical instruments related to classical music. To further encourage the children's use of rhythm and temporal awareness. To allow the children to creatively express themselves through sound.
Skills: sensory input and exploration, hand eye coordination, creative expression, listening, turn taking, auditory discrimination, fine and large motor skills

Blocks:
Materials: Hollow blocks, wooden blocks, foam blocks, planks, castle visuals, triangle cones
Rationale: To continue to support the children assuming different roles in fantasy play. To encourage the children to build various castles and structures by using visuals as models. To continue to encourage meaningful building and problem solving.
Skills: Communication, collaboration, problem solving, role-taking, symbolic representation, turn-taking, spatial concepts, fine and large motor skills, cooperation, creative expression

Large Motor:
Outdoor Materials: scoops, shovels, buckets, bug catchers, teeter-totters, tricycles, dishes, bowls, cups, strainers, basket ball hoop, balls
Rationale: To facilitate social interactions through play and problem solving when using the teeter totters. To continue looking for worms, caterpillars, and various insects. To continue role-playing through the use of various kitchen materials available. To encourage the children to begin throwing balls into a target

Skills: turn taking, large motor skills, motor coordination, searching, scanning, muscular endurance, hand eye coordination, balance, cardiovascular endurance, role-taking, fine-motor skills, target practice, throwing and catching

Indoor Materials: monkey bars, rope climb up the bumpy ramp, aim and jump, aim and throw, wall ladder, bridge
Rationale: To support and develop upper body strength and core muscles. To provide challenging activities that foster the children's muscular and cardiovascular endurance. Skills: upper body strength, motor coordination, hand eye coordination, propulsion skills, balance, depth perception, visual perception, lower body strength, turn taking, dynamic balance

Large Group:
Materials: songs and welcome activities led by teacher, discussion of storms and the sounds they make, demonstration of crown making, discussion of plant growth, discussion of recipe book, dismissal into small groups, and circle tape on floor, demonstration of making a grocery list and shopping, rhythm sticks activity
Rationale: To continue to support the children in applying their learning to new and functional situations. To continue to develop and support children's representational artwork. To introduce and support play themes throughout the classroom. To continue to encourage the children to sit on the circle tape, similar to what they will experience in the multiage classrooms.
Skills: Attention span, listening, receptive skills, speaking, taking turns, communication, social skills, literacy, trying new things, impulse control, group membership, collaboration

Weekly Plan for May 14th-18th
Hannah Lead Teaching
Overview:
Because many of our curriculum areas culminated last week, this week we will focus on exploring many new topics that the children have been interested in. We will be introducing new areas such as grocery shopping, wind exploration, and castle play. These areas emerged through the children's conversations and ideas. We will also be continuing to support the children as the transition to the multiage room gets closer. Through visiting the classrooms and playground, we hope to help the children ease their way into the transition so that it is as smooth as possible. Many of the children have also been very interested in picnics. To incorporate their interest, we will begin participating in picnic snacks outside on our playground on a weekly basis depending on the weather.

Expressive Art:
Materials: Art easel, three colors of tempera paint, paintbrushes, paper

Rationale: To continue to allow the children to explore the cause and effect of shading. To provide opportunities for the children the children to investigate what happens when primary and secondary colors are mixed with white.
Skills: cause and effect, creative expression, fine motor skills, investigation, observation

Materials: clear art easel, wooden art easel, tempera paint, paintbrushes, paper
Rationale: To expand on the children's interest in painting on easels. To allow the children to explore the difference between the clear easel and the opaque easel. To encourage the children to compare and contrast between the different types of easels and how they are used.
Skills: cause and effect, creative expression, fine motor skills, investigation, observation, compare and contrast.

Sensory:
Materials: sand table, wet sand, scoops and shovels, various construction trucks (dump trucks, diggers, motor graders)
Rationale: To expand on the children's interest in construction using the sand. To allow the children to build and create various structures using the wet sand and trucks. To continue to foster symbolic representation.
Skills: symbolic representation, creative expression, observation, fine motor skills, cause and effect, collaboration, cooperation, sensory input and exploration

Materials: white play dough, rolling pins, slicers, garlic presses, cutting boards, baking pans, and cupcake pans 

Rationale: To continue to expand the children's interest in baking and cooking by using the play dough to symbolically represent food and tools in the kitchen. 
To encourage the children to create their own recipes using the play dough.
Skills: sensory input and exploration, storytelling, creative symbolic representation, fine motor skills, creative expression and imagination, and turn taking

Science:
Materials: small wind mills, ribbons, various small materials such as feathers, cotton balls, beads, and rollers, air pump, video on computer of wind during a storm
Rationale: To expand on the children's interest in storms and weather. To begin to explore the different aspects of wind. To provide opportunities for the children to create wind and notice the effect it has on different objects. To allow the children to compare and contrast between various materials to see what is easier to blow and what is harder. To provide opportunities for the children to observe wind through placing ribbons near and open window.
Skills: observation, investigation, compare and contrast, cause and effect, collaboration, prediction, conversation, explanation

Materials: light table, various x-rays of different animals
Rationale: To expand on the children's interest in veterinarians. To provide opportunities for the children to begin to explore x-rays, and the different parts of the animals bodies such as bones.
Skills: observation, investigation, collaboration, symbolic representation, explanation, creative expression

Dramatic Play:
Materials: Stuffed animal birds, blankets, fabric, veterinarian uniforms, syringes, medicine bottles, table, bandage wraps, stethoscopes, hair nets, x-rays
Rationale: To continue to expand the children's interests in veterinarians and birds. To continue to encourage children to engage in symbolic play. To continue to explore the idea of taking care of a sick bird through the available materials. To provide opportunities for the children to work together to help the sick birds feel better.
Skills: collaboration, social skills, cooperation, turn taking, communication, symbolic representation, creative expression, symbolic play, fine-motor skills, role-play, observation

Materials: kitchen furniture, food, utensils, mixing bowls, play dough, picnic table, picnic baskets, flowers, picnic blanket
Rationale: To expand on the children's interest in picnics and baking. To continue to make and bake food using play dough as a representational tool. To continue to promote beginning literacy by making recipes and posting children's favorite foods. To further support symbolic play and collaboration. To allow the children to act out what they experience during snack when we have picnics.
Skills: social skills, collaboration, symbolic representation, cooperation, communication, creative expression, role play, early literacy skills, fine motor skills

Materials: grocery baskets, various food items, grocery lists, paper bags
Rationale: To expand on children's interest in grocery shopping. To provide opportunities for children to go grocery shopping and buy various food items to cook with in the kitchen. To encourage the children to make grocery lists of what they need to buy. To promote symbolic representation.
Skills: symbolic representation, collaboration, cooperation, turn-taking, creative expression, early literacy skills, role play, decision making, communication

Materials: tutus and skirts, capes, paper strips and various colorful art materials
Rationale: To expand on the children's interest in castle play. To allow the children to create their own crown using the art materials available. To promote symbolic representation of what it means to live in a castle.
Skills: collaboration, cooperation, role-play, symbolic representation, creative expression, fine motor skills, communication

Math and Manipulatives:
Materials: pegs and peg boards, matching file folder games, beading materials, seriation puzzles
Rationale: To encourage cognitive development through the use of the math manipulatives. To continue to allow the children to practice patterning and grouping, To encourage the children to practice counting. To strengthen the children's fine-motor skills. To provide opportunities for children to match and group objects.
Skills: fine-motor skills, turn taking, patterning, counting, matching, grouping, one-to-one correspondence, problem solving, risk-taking, seriation, persistence, trial and error

Language and Literacy:
Materials: recipes in the kitchen area, grocery lists, paper and pencils available (in kitchen and grocery store), name cards and letters available in art area, new books about topics related to classroom activities
Rationale: To continue to use symbolic representation and imagination by creating their own recipes and grocery lists. To continue to encourage the children to learn the different letters in their name. To encourage the children to use books to expand their understanding of the different classroom topics.
Skills: listening, speaking, observing, spelling, letter identification, conversation, turn taking, symbolic representation, creative expression, fine-motor development, early literacy skills such as comprehension and left-right reading

Music:
Materials: accordions, harp, triangles, tone-bells, cds of classical music
Rationale: To continue to explore and learn about different musical instruments related to classical music. To further encourage the children's use of rhythm and temporal awareness. To allow the children to creatively express themselves through sound.
Skills: sensory input and exploration, hand eye coordination, creative expression, listening, turn taking, auditory discrimination, fine and large motor skills

Blocks:
Materials: Hollow blocks, wooden blocks, foam blocks, planks, castle visuals, triangle cones
Rationale: To continue to support the children assuming different roles in fantasy play. To encourage the children to build various castles and structures by using visuals as models. To continue to encourage meaningful building and problem solving.
Skills: Communication, collaboration, problem solving, role-taking, symbolic representation, turn-taking, spatial concepts, fine and large motor skills, cooperation, creative expression

Large Motor:
Outdoor Materials: scoops, shovels, buckets, bug catchers, teeter-totters, tricycles, dishes, bowls, cups, strainers, basket ball hoop, balls
Rationale: To facilitate social interactions through play and problem solving when using the teeter totters. To continue looking for worms, caterpillars, and various insects. To continue role-playing through the use of various kitchen materials available. To encourage the children to begin throwing balls into a target

Skills: turn taking, large motor skills, motor coordination, searching, scanning, muscular endurance, hand eye coordination, balance, cardiovascular endurance, role-taking, fine-motor skills, target practice, throwing and catching

Indoor Materials: monkey bars, rope climb up the bumpy ramp, aim and jump, aim and throw, wall ladder, bridge
Rationale: To support and develop upper body strength and core muscles. To provide challenging activities that foster the children's muscular and cardiovascular endurance. Skills: upper body strength, motor coordination, hand eye coordination, propulsion skills, balance, depth perception, visual perception, lower body strength, turn taking, dynamic balance

Large Group:
Materials: songs and welcome activities led by teacher, discussion of storms and the sounds they make, demonstration of crown making, discussion of plant growth, discussion of recipe book, dismissal into small groups, and circle tape on floor, demonstration of making a grocery list and shopping, rhythm sticks activity
Rationale: To continue to support the children in applying their learning to new and functional situations. To continue to develop and support children's representational artwork. To introduce and support play themes throughout the classroom. To continue to encourage the children to sit on the circle tape, similar to what they will experience in the multiage classrooms.
Skills: Attention span, listening, receptive skills, speaking, taking turns, communication, social skills, literacy, trying new things, impulse control, group membership, collaboration

Overview
The children will use another medium to represent flowers this week, playdough. With each medium they use, we notice them adding new details to the flowers and expressing wonder about the parts they see. We will support this interest by adding diagrams to the art area and going deeper into the functions of each part. As you know, the children have been caring for their seedlings in the classroom and have a good grasp on how to keep their plants healthy. Now it is time to do some experimentation to see what other conditions will allow plants to grow, or not. The children helped design experiments as we test and make hypotheses about what will happen to a plant with light/no light, water/juice, sand/sun-butter/dirt! This week we will also introduce another dramatic play area, a kindergarten. The children who will be going to kindergarten next year helped make a list of things they thought a classroom should have and are looking forward to playing out this theme. Our hope is that this will help them process this transition by talking about it, asking questions and sharing mixed feelings that may accompany this big step in their lives.

Art
-Materials: Natural-colored playdoh, rolling pins, molding utensils, and flower inspirations. Easel and paint.
-Rationale: To provide the children with an opportunity to explore another medium, playdough. Flowers will be set out to connect it to our lessons and inspire the children to show details of flower parts.
-Skills: Sensory input, fine motor, creative expression, manual dexterity, symbolic representation

Math
-Materials: Legos, puzzles, rulers, unifix cubes, yard stick
-Rationale: The Legos encourage creative expression and provide an opportunity for the children to develop small motor skills. The rulers and yard stick will provide an opportunity to compare lengths of various objects around the room and track growth of our planting experiments. The unifix cubes provide a non-standard unit of measurement for comparison.
-Skills: Observation, constructing, measurement, creative expression.

Science
-Materials: Plant experiments, chicken eggs, incubator, egg growth chart, rulers, magnifying glasses, lady bugs, insects.
-Rationale: We are tracking the growth of our chicks in the eggs as we prepare for some (hopeful) eggs to hatch in the coming weeks! As we wait for this to happen, we have planted seeds in a variety of ways to experiment what will happen to plants with light/without light, in dirt/sun-butter/sand, and watered with water/juice. The children will be making hypotheses and tracking the growth of these plants.
-Skills: Experimentation, observation, comparing, measuring, hypothesizing, and conceptual knowledge.

Language and Literacy
-Materials: Classroom dictionary, writing station, rhyming books, books on insects, chickens, egg growth, and spring, ABC magnets, notebooks, folders, worksheets, and a chalkboard.
-Rationale: The children have enjoyed using rhyming words in both stories and songs, so we will continue to highlight rhyming books and provide rhyming activities. The books provide an opportunity for the children to learn about a wide variety of plants, bugs, and animal growth. These books will help the children understand how the baby chicks are growing and how the insects live. As the year comes to the end, many children will be advancing to kindergarten. We have provided a classroom set up under the loft that will has the ABC's, writing worksheets, and a chalkboard to encourage these skills.
-Skills: Letter recognition, descriptive writing, alphabetic principle, listening skills, experience with formative and narrative text, phonological awareness.

Blocks
-Materials: Hollow blocks, unit blocks, step-by-step process pictures, fabric
-Rationale: The children have been busy making houses with the hollow blocks. The homes have been used in conjunction with the flower shop and many flower deliveries have been made.
-Skills: Creative expression, social skills, planning, spatial skills, large motor strength, and representational building

Dramatic Play
-Materials: Pretend flowers, gift shop window, order forms, aprons, baskets for delivery, vases, chalkboard, notebooks, worksheets, folders, highlighters, pencils, chalk
-Rationale: The children have enjoyed the flower shop and have continued to use their dramatic play in this area. As the end of the year approaches, many of the children will be continuing onto kindergarten! We have made a school area where the children will be provided with opportunities to use dramatic play to process this transition.
-Skills: Role-play, symbolic play, social skills, problem solving, sharing, planning, sequencing, extending play, and generalizing knowledge.

Large Motor
Playground
Materials: Balance beam, bikes, playground equipment, swings, shovels, rakes, buckets, scoops, hill, path, basketball hoop, basketballs, and swinging rope.
Rationale: To encourage children to move their bodies freely. Have room to run and exercise in the fresh air.
Skills: Cardiovascular endurance, balance, coordination, grasping, climbing, jumping, strength, flexibility, coordination, communication, large motor development, fine motor development, and cooperation.
Gym
Materials: Stepping pyramid, climb and jump, balance beam, monkey bars, slide, rope and bumpy ramp, wall ladder, hanging tetherball, trampoline, bean bag toss.
Rationale: To support and develop upper body strength and core muscles, balance and cardiovascular endurance.
Skills: Upper body strength, motor coordination, hand-eye coordination, propulsion skills, balance, depth perception, visual perception, lower body strength, physical endurance, turn taking, dynamic balance, cooperation, large motor development, and communication.

Snack
Monday - Apples & Graham crackers
Tuesday - Yogurt & strawberries
Wednesday - Pretzels & oranges
Thursday - Cucumbers & crackers
Friday- Popcorn & popsicles

Overview and goals
This week we will continue to explore our vibrant science area. Dalia added ladybugs (thank you to Eli and his family!) to our insect table with the mealworms/beetles near the baby chicks and plants to expand our investigations of growth, change and the life cycle. These have sparked lots of ideas and questions from the children. This week we will also begin to give a feel for "kindergarten" by setting up a special area with a desk, chalkboard, chalk and other "school" materials. This is a timely experience as some children will be moving on to kindergarten next fall. On Thursday we will be visiting Cornercopia, which is the student organic farm on the St. Paul Campus. We will expand our understanding of planting, composting and urban gardening. This will be a nice opportunity to make connections to healthy eating.

Expressive Arts
~Materials: Clay, paints, large paint brushes, paper, colored pencils, markers, oil pastels, staplers, tape. The top of the loft holds paper, scissors, markers, staplers, and tape.
~Rationale: Clay offers a unique method of expression. Insect and flowers serve as inspiration and tools will be introduced as the children's creations progress. Paint paper and paint brushes at the easel are available for expression and specifically for developing the muscles in wrists and fingers needed for writing. ~Skills: Creative expression, creative risk taking, hand-eye coordination, fine motor strength and development.
Science
~Materials: Ladybugs, baby chick eggs, incubator, mealworms, glass-coated insects, plants, rulers, pencils, paper, and magnifying glasses.
~Rationale: The plants, mealworms, baby chicks and ladybugs provide children opportunities to observe life cycle changes. We will support children's awareness and exploration of these changes by providing questions, paper, and drawing materials.
~Skills: Observation, scientific inquiry, comparison, reasoning, descriptive and scientific language, self-expression, and communication.
Math Manipulative and Games
~Materials: Rulers, Legos, Legos bases, puzzles, and Unifix cubes.
~Rationale: The children have shown enthusiasm for using the rulers for measuring their plants, and their creations with Legos and Unifix cubes. We will focus on accurate reading of measuring tools such as starting at zero and identifying inches. ~Skills: Measurement, number concepts, creative building, eye-hand coordination, fine motor development and finger strength.
Dramatic and Symbolic Play
~Materials: Under the loft: chalkboard, desk, and school supplies. Dramatic play area: flowers, petals, vases, baskets, order forms, purses, wallets, markers, pencils, and paper. In the animal cave: stuffed fish, turtles, frogs, chameleons, snakes, rabbits, and squirrels, fishbowls, aquarium, water dish, fish food, and fabric pieces.
~Rationale: Primary school materials added to the area under the loft will offer opportunities to practice school or kindergarten as some children will be attending kindergarten next fall. Purses, wallets and paper to make money will expand on activities at the very popular flower shop.
~Skills: Understanding of self and others, communication, language, vocabulary, emergent writing, number concepts, social interactions, sharing, collaboration and symbolic play.
Blocks
~Materials: Hollow blocks, unit blocks, ramps, boards, paper, and writing materials.
~Rationale: Blocks will be available for children to extend and expand their symbolic play.
~Skills: Large motor development, fine motor development, creating, number concepts, spatial relationships, measurement, communication, and cooperation.
Language and Literacy
~Materials: Bound dictionary, classroom dictionary, blank papers, alphabetical dividers, books; pencils, thin markers, paper, envelopes, folded paper, stamp-sized paper, glue sticks, staplers, tape, cards with children's photos and names. Books related to: insects/bugs, spring, plants, flowers, and baby chicks.
~Rationale: There are several books integrated into the different areas to help support children's understanding of how to use books as sources of information. The children continue to use the literacy area to write notes, words, and illustrate cards.
~Skills: Pre-/ early-literacy skills, community, symbolic representation, vocabulary expansion, speaking, self-expression, creating, and imaginative/creative play.
Large Motor
Playground
~Materials: Balance beam, bikes, playground equipment, swings, shovels, rakes, buckets, scoops, hill, path, basketball hoop, basketballs, and swinging rope.
~Rationale: To encourage children to move their bodies freely. Have room to run and exercise in the fresh air.
~Skills: Cardiovascular endurance, balance, coordination, grasping, climbing, jumping, strength, flexibility, coordination, communication, large motor development, fine motor development, and cooperation.
Gym
~Materials: Stepping pyramid, climb and jump, balance beam, monkey bars, slide, rope and bumpy ramp, wall ladder, hanging tetherball, trampoline, bean bag toss.
Rationale: To support and develop upper body strength and core muscles, balance and cardiovascular endurance.
~Skills: Upper body strength, motor coordination, hand-eye coordination, propulsion skills, balance, depth perception, visual perception, lower body strength, physical endurance, turn taking, dynamic balance, cooperation, large motor development, and communication.

Thank you,
Sharon

Dramatic Play

Art

Math

Science- Week 7

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Weekly Plan 5.7-5.10
Lauren Peick

Overview
This week will mark the culmination of the curriculum areas which include birds, colors, and plants. The children will continue into the utilization level of learning by applying and representing their knowledge in new and functional situations. We will continue to support the children's interest in gardening by creating a raised bed in our playground. In addition to making the raised bed, the children will have the opportunity to begin transferring their bean sprouts into the raised bed. The children will also be planting various types of seeds in order to finalize their understanding about the lifecycle of plants. The teachers will be there to facilitate conversations on how the weather may affect their growth. We will continue to help support the children's transition to the multiage classroom next year by making visits to the classrooms this week. This will help familiarize the children with the environment of the other classrooms.

Expressive Arts:
Materials: Large branch, glue, various materials to make birds nests (chosen by Hannah and children)
Rationale: To continue to explore representational art. To practice rationalizing decisions on the chosen materials. The children will explore using these materials to represent the nests seen on our walks.
Skills: collaboration, cooperation, symbolic representation, cause and effect, creativity, fine motor skills, and rationalizing

Materials: Art easel, tempera paint, paintbrushes, paper
Rationale: To continue to allow the children to explore the cause and effect of shading. The children will continue to have the opportunity to add white to primary and secondary colors and compare the different shades they are able to create.
Skills: cause and effect, creativity, fine motor skills, investigation

Sensory:
Materials: sand table, buckets, measuring cups, shovels
Rationale: To explore sand using a variety of scooping materials.
Skills: observation, cause and effect, fine motor skills, prediction, and investigation

Materials: white play dough, rolling pins, slicers, garlic presses, cutting boards, baking pans, and cupcake pans
Rationale: To continue to foster and support the children's interest in baking and cooking by using the play dough to symbolically represent food and tools in the kitchen.
Skills: sensory input and exploration, storytelling, creative symbolic representation, fine motor skills, creative expression and imagination, and turn taking

Science:
Materials: classroom plants, soybean plants that the children planted, water spray, clipboards, colored pencils, charcoal, and seeds to plant outside
Rationale: To further support the children in applying their previous knowledge of plants to a new, real world situation by planting seeds outside on the play ground. To continue to support their understanding of plant growth through the observation of the soybeans they planted last week. To continue to encourage the children to symbolically represent parts of plants through visual art.
Skills: application, observation, prediction, conversation, cause and effect, explanation, investigation, fine motor skills, symbolic representation, and care taking

Materials: Light table, color gels, window clings
Rationale: To explore and experiment color mixing through layering.
Skills: Experimentation, observation, cause and effect, fine motor skill.

Dramatic Play:
Materials: Stuffed animal birds, blankets, plastic foliage and flowers, eggs, fabric, pipe cleaners, paper towel rolls (binoculars), bandaids, veterinarian uniforms, syringes, medicine bottles, table, bandage wraps
Rationale: To continue to explore and expand the children's interests in birds and their nests. To continue to encourage children to engage in symbolic play as birds. To further participate in building nests for themselves and the birds. To begin to explore the idea of care taking through the use of veterintary materials. Skills: Collaboration, social skills, turn taking, communication, symbolic representation, creative expression, symbolic play, fine-motor skills, role play, and observation

Materials: kitchen furniture, food, utensils, mixing bowls, play dough, picnic table, and picnic basket
Rationale: To continue to make and bake food for each other using play dough as a representational tool to make new types of food. To continue to promote beginning literacy by making recipes and posting children's favorite foods.To further support symbolic play and collaboration.
Skills: social skills, collaboration, symbolic representation, cooperation, communication, creative expression, role play and, literacy

Math and Manipulatives:
Materials: beads, string, pipe cleaners
Rationale: To strengthen the children's use of fine motor skills. To begin to support the children's interest in patterning and counting.
Skills: fine motor skills, matching, observation, risk taking, persistence, seriation, trial and error, counting

Language and Literacy:
Materials: Clip boards, pencils, a variety of books being displayed in different curriculum areas relating to emerging and current play themes, and letters and name cards (available at the art table), recipes in the kitchen area, markers, paper
Rational: To begin to use symbolic representation and imagination by creating their own recipes To continue to support the children's understanding of literacy through the use of their own recipes and favorite foods. To continue to facilitate the development of the basic component of language. To continue to encourage the children to explore the different letters in their name.
Skills: Listening, speaking, observing, spelling, letter identification, conversation, reading, turn taking, symbolic representation, name recognition, and creativity

Music:
Materials: triangles, rain sticks, egg shakers, button accordians, and xylophones Rationale: To begin experimenting with unique instruments, such as an accordian. To further encourage temporal awareness and rhythm. To continue to allow the children to creatively express themselves through sound. Skills: Sensory input, hand eye coordination, exploring, large and fine motor skills, imagination, creative expression, listening, and auditory discrimination

Blocks:
Materials: Hollow blocks, wooden blocks, foam blocks, planks, firefighter gear (hats, foam "hoses", and spray bottles), fire trucks, cars, firefighter figurines. Rationale: To continue to encourage the children to act out scenarios based on previous experiences, knowledge, and incidental information. To continue to support the children assuming different roles in fantasy play.
Skills: Communication, collaboration, problem solving, role-taking, symbolic representation, turn-taking, spatial concepts, fine motor, cooperation, symbolic play

Large Motor:
Outdoor Materials: scoops, shovels, buckets, bug catchers, magnifying glasses, teeter-totters, tricycles, dishes, bowls, cups, and strainers
Rationale: To further facilitate social interactions through play and problem solving when using teeter totters. To continue looking for worms, caterpillars, and various insects. To continue role-playing through the use of various kitchen materials available.
Skills: turn taking, large motor, motor coordination, searching, scanning, muscular endurance, hand eye coordination, balance, cardiovascular endurance, role-taking, and fine-motor skills

Indoor Materials: stepping pyramid, climb and jump, hanging ball, balance beam, monkey bars, slide, rope climb up the bumpy ramp, wall ladder, scooters
Rationale: To further support and develop upper body strength and core muscles. To continue to provide challenging activities that foster the children's muscular and cardiovascular endurance.
Skills: upper body strength, motor coordination, hand eye coordination, propulsion skills, balance, depth perception, visual perception, lower body strength, turn taking, dynamic balance

Large Group:
Materials: songs and welcome activities led by teacher, discussion of nests in trees, demonstration of shading paint colors by adding white, discussion of plant growth, fire stations, recipe books, care-taking for the "injured" birds using materials, and laminated children's faces on floor, dismissal into small groups
Rationale: To further support the children in applying their learning to new and functional situations. To continue to introduce and support play themes throughout the classroom. To continue to encourage the excitment of sitting in a circle by finding their laminated face pictures within the circle and sitting in that spot.
Skills: Attention span, listening, speaking, taking turns, communication, literacy, trying new things, impulse control, group membership, collaboration

3am Weekly Plan 5.7-5.10
Lauren Peick

Overview
This week will mark the culmination of the curriculum areas which include birds, colors, and plants. The children will continue into the utilization level of learning by applying and representing their knowledge in new and functional situations. We will continue to support the children's interest in gardening by creating a raised bed in our playground. In addition to making the raised bed, the children will have the opportunity to begin transferring their bean sprouts into the raised bed. The children will also be planting various types of seeds in order to finalize their understanding about the lifecycle of plants. The teachers will be there to facilitate conversations on how the weather may affect their growth. We will continue to help support the children's transition to the multiage classroom next year by making visits to the classrooms this week. This will help familiarize the children with the environment of the other classrooms.

Expressive Arts:
Materials: Large branch, glue, various materials to make birds nests (chosen by Hannah and children)
Rationale: To continue to explore representational art. To practice rationalizing decisions on the chosen materials. The children will explore using these materials to represent the nests seen on our walks.
Skills: collaboration, cooperation, symbolic representation, cause and effect, creativity, fine motor skills, and rationalizing

Materials: Art easel, tempera paint, paintbrushes, paper
Rationale: To continue to allow the children to explore the cause and effect of shading. The children will continue to have the opportunity to add white to primary and secondary colors and compare the different shades they are able to create.
Skills: cause and effect, creativity, fine motor skills, investigation

Sensory:
Materials: sand table, buckets, measuring cups, shovels
Rationale: To explore sand using a variety of scooping materials.
Skills: observation, cause and effect, fine motor skills, prediction, and investigation

Materials: white play dough, rolling pins, slicers, garlic presses, cutting boards, baking pans, and cupcake pans
Rationale: To continue to foster and support the children's interest in baking and cooking by using the play dough to symbolically represent food and tools in the kitchen.
Skills: sensory input and exploration, storytelling, creative symbolic representation, fine motor skills, creative expression and imagination, and turn taking

Science:
Materials: classroom plants, soybean plants that the children planted, water spray, clipboards, colored pencils, charcoal, and seeds to plant outside
Rationale: To further support the children in applying their previous knowledge of plants to a new, real world situation by planting seeds outside on the play ground. To continue to support their understanding of plant growth through the observation of the soybeans they planted last week. To continue to encourage the children to symbolically represent parts of plants through visual art.
Skills: application, observation, prediction, conversation, cause and effect, explanation, investigation, fine motor skills, symbolic representation, and care taking

Materials: Light table, color gels, window clings
Rationale: To explore and experiment color mixing through layering.
Skills: Experimentation, observation, cause and effect, fine motor skill.

Dramatic Play:
Materials: Stuffed animal birds, blankets, plastic foliage and flowers, eggs, fabric, pipe cleaners, paper towel rolls (binoculars), bandaids, veterinarian uniforms, syringes, medicine bottles, table, bandage wraps
Rationale: To continue to explore and expand the children's interests in birds and their nests. To continue to encourage children to engage in symbolic play as birds. To further participate in building nests for themselves and the birds. To begin to explore the idea of care taking through the use of veterintary materials. Skills: Collaboration, social skills, turn taking, communication, symbolic representation, creative expression, symbolic play, fine-motor skills, role play, and observation

Materials: kitchen furniture, food, utensils, mixing bowls, play dough, picnic table, and picnic basket
Rationale: To continue to make and bake food for each other using play dough as a representational tool to make new types of food. To continue to promote beginning literacy by making recipes and posting children's favorite foods.To further support symbolic play and collaboration.
Skills: social skills, collaboration, symbolic representation, cooperation, communication, creative expression, role play and, literacy

Math and Manipulatives:
Materials: beads, string, pipe cleaners, ribbon, weaving boards
Rationale: To strengthen the children's use of fine motor skills. To practice patterning and counting. To continue to support the children's interest in weaving with ribbons. To further explore the concept of weaving and support their ability to weave different materials.
Skills: fine motor skills, 1 to 1 correspondence, matching, problem solving, observation, risk taking, persistence, seriation, weaving, trial and error, counting

Language and Literacy:
Materials: Clip boards, pencils, a variety of books being displayed in different curriculum areas relating to emerging and current play themes, and letters and name cards (available at the art table), recipes in the kitchen area, markers, paper
Rational: To begin to use symbolic representation and imagination by creating their own recipes To continue to support the children's understanding of literacy through the use of their own recipes and favorite foods. To continue to facilitate the development of the basic component of language. To continue to encourage the children to explore the different letters in their name.
Skills: Listening, speaking, observing, spelling, letter identification, conversation, reading, turn taking, symbolic representation, name recognition, and creativity

Music:
Materials: triangles, rain sticks, egg shakers, button accordians, and xylophones Rationale: To begin experimenting with unique instruments, such as an accordian. To further encourage temporal awareness and rhythm. To continue to allow the children to creatively express themselves through sound. Skills: Sensory input, hand eye coordination, exploring, large and fine motor skills, imagination, creative expression, listening, and auditory discrimination

Blocks:
Materials: Hollow blocks, wooden blocks, foam blocks, planks, firefighter gear (hats, foam "hoses", and spray bottles), fire trucks, cars, firefighter figurines. Rationale: To continue to encourage the children to act out scenarios based on previous experiences, knowledge, and incidental information. To continue to support the children assuming different roles in fantasy play.
Skills: Communication, collaboration, problem solving, role-taking, symbolic representation, turn-taking, spatial concepts, fine motor, cooperation, symbolic play

Large Motor:
Outdoor Materials: scoops, shovels, buckets, bug catchers, magnifying glasses, teeter-totters, tricycles, weaving board, dishes, bowls, cups, and strainers
Rationale: To further facilitate social interactions through play and problem solving when using the teeter totters. To continue looking for worms, caterpillars, and various insects. To continue role-playing through the use of various kitchen materials available. To continue to support the children's interest in weaving with ribbons.
Skills: turn taking, large motor, motor coordination, searching, scanning, muscular endurance, hand eye coordination, balance, cardiovascular endurance, role-taking, and fine-motor skills

Indoor Materials: stepping pyramid, climb and jump, hanging ball, balance beam, monkey bars, slide, rope climb up the bumpy ramp, wall ladder, scooters
Rationale: To further support and develop upper body strength and core muscles. To continue to provide challenging activities that foster the children's muscular and cardiovascular endurance.
Skills: upper body strength, motor coordination, hand eye coordination, propulsion skills, balance, depth perception, visual perception, lower body strength, turn taking, dynamic balance

Large Group:
Materials: songs and welcome activities led by teacher, discussion of nests in trees, demonstration of shading paint colors by adding white, discussion of plant growth, fire stations, recipe books, care-taking for the "injured" birds using materials, and laminated children's faces on floor, dismissal into small groups
Rationale: To further support the children in applying their learning to new and functional situations. To continue to introduce and support play themes throughout the classroom. To continue to encourage the excitment of sitting in a circle by finding their laminated face pictures within the circle and sitting in that spot.
Skills: Attention span, listening, speaking, taking turns, communication, literacy, trying new things, impulse control, group membership, collaboration.

Overview:
Last week the children were introduced to the mathematical concept of measurement and they were inspired to measure plants, toys, and people using rulers. To help them gain deeper understanding of this concept, we brought in a non-standard unit of measurement, the unifix cubes. The hands on process of connecting, counting and comparing the lengths of cube stacks helps them become more familiar with the measurement process. The children also really enjoyed making flower collages and recording their plant growth. This week we will introduce a flower shop to the dramatic play area so they can add another component to their play surrounding this theme. The life-size body drawings are now hanging in the hallway. This inspired the children to add more details to their portraits. As the weather continues to warm up the children will have many opportunities to explore the outdoors through sports, insect observations, and plant growth. We are going to have a busy, fun week ahead of us!

Art:
-Materials: Beads, wire, string, flower materials, colored construction paper, scissors, markers, tape.
-Rationale: This week we will focus on beading activities as a form of creative expression. In the loft we have provided the children with pictures of flowers, leaves, and insects for them to continue working on our classroom tree.
-Skills: Creative expression, fine motor, symbolic representation, social skills.

Sensory:

-Materials: Sensory table with sand, plants, wood, toy insects, cups, toy lizards, shovels, rakes, and funnels.
-Rationale: The children have really enjoyed using the sand table for dramatic play. We will add some water to the table so they can create habitats for water dwelling animals.
-Skills: Sensory input, knowledge of physical properties, fine motor skills, small group interactions, creative expression, symbolic play

Math:
-Materials: Legos, puzzles, rulers, unifix cubes.
-Rationale: The rulers in the science area will provide children with an opportunity to measure plants. We will track the growth of their plants in their books. The unifix cubes will be another tool to use for measurement. The Legos encourage creative expression and also provide an opportunity to practice small motor skills.
-Skills: Observation, constructing, measurement, creative expression, matching.

Science:
-Materials: Plants, grass, chicken eggs, incubator, rulers, magnifying glasses.
-Rationale: We have been presented with the opportunity to have chicken eggs that will eventually (hopefully!) hatch into chicks! As we prepare for this event, the children will also still be engaging with the plants they planted and measuring their growth with rulers.
-Skills: Experimentation, observation, comparing, measuring, hypothesizing, and conceptual knowledge.

Language and Literacy:
-Materials: Classroom dictionary, writing station, rhyming books, rhyming activities, books on insects, chickens, egg growth.
-Rationale: The children have really enjoyed noticing rhyming words in the stories that are read to them. Since rhyming is an important pre-literacy concept we will provide the classroom with more books with rhyming words as well as encourage the children to record their own lists of rhyming words. As it gets warmer outside, the insects have been more prevalent which has also sparked interest amongst the children. To help their exploration and understanding we will provide them with insect books. The chicks will be a main topic of discussion until they hatch, so these books will help them to understand how they are growing inside of their eggs.
-Skills: Letter recognition, descriptive writing, alphabetic principle, listening skills, experience with informative and narrative text, and phonological awareness.

Blocks:
-Materials: Hollow blocks, unit blocks, step-by-step process pictures, fabric, musical instruments with labels and musical notation.
-Rationale: The children are continuing to build stages with the hollow blocks. There have been many musical shows and plays over the last week. These shows provide an opportunity for the children to increase social skills and are a great way for the children to express themselves.
-Skills: Creative expression, creative dramatics, musical expression, temporal awareness, social skills, planning, spatial skills, large motor strength, representational building.

Dramatic Play:
-Materials: Pretend flowers, gift shop window, order forms, aprons, baskets for delivery, vases.
-Rationale: The children have been planting plants of their own, and with the abundance of flowers in bloom, we thought it was a good idea to create a flower shop for the children to explore and create pretend play!
-Skills: Role-play, symbolic play, social skills, problem solving, sharing, planning, sequencing, extending play, and generalizing knowledge.

Large Motor:
-Materials: Playground-bikes, shovels, bricks, kites, soccer balls, t-ball gear, basketball hoop, basketballs. Gym- stepping pyramid, climb and jump, balance beam, monkey bars, slide, rope climb up the bumpy ramp, wall ladder, scooters
-Rationale: The children have been enjoying playing sports on the playground. This provides an opportunity to practice peer negotiation and social skills. The gym will support and develop upper body strength and core muscles while providing challenging activities that foster their muscular and cardiovascular endurance.
-Skills: Upper body strength, motor coordination, hand eye coordination, propulsion skills, balance, depth perception, visual perception, lower body strength, turn taking, dynamic balance

Snack
Monday - Oranges & Pretzels
Tuesday - Graham crackers & milk
Wednesday - Celery and carrots & triscuit
Thursday - Cheerios & milk
Friday- Pasta with chopsticks

Overview:
Last week the children were introduced to the mathematical concept of measurement and they were inspired to measure plants, toys, and people using rulers. To help them gain deeper understanding of this concept, we brought in a non-standard unit of measurement, the unifix cubes. The hands on process of connecting, counting and comparing the lengths of cube stacks helps them become more familiar with the measurement process. The children also really enjoyed making flower collages and recording their plant growth. This week we will introduce a flower shop to the dramatic play area so they can add another component to their play surrounding this theme. The life-size body drawings are now hanging in the hallway. This inspired the children to add more details to their portraits. As the weather continues to warm up the children will have many opportunities to explore the outdoors through sports, insect observations, and plant growth. We are going to have a busy, fun week ahead of us!

Art:
-Materials: Beads, wire, string, flower materials, colored construction paper, scissors, markers, tape.
-Rationale: This week we will focus on beading activities as a form of creative expression. In the loft we have provided the children with pictures of flowers, leaves, and insects for them to continue working on our classroom tree.
-Skills: Creative expression, fine motor, symbolic representation, social skills.

Sensory:

-Materials: Sensory table with sand, plants, wood, toy insects, cups, toy lizards, shovels, rakes, and funnels.
-Rationale: The children have really enjoyed using the sand table for dramatic play. We will add some water to the table so they can create habitats for water dwelling animals.
-Skills: Sensory input, knowledge of physical properties, fine motor skills, small group interactions, creative expression, symbolic play

Math:
-Materials: Legos, puzzles, rulers, unifix cubes.
-Rationale: The rulers in the science area will provide children with an opportunity to measure plants. We will track the growth of their plants in their books. The unifix cubes will be another tool to use for measurement. The Legos encourage creative expression and also provide an opportunity to practice small motor skills.
-Skills: Observation, constructing, measurement, creative expression, matching.

Science:
-Materials: Plants, grass, chicken eggs, incubator, rulers, magnifying glasses.
-Rationale: We have been presented with the opportunity to have chicken eggs that will eventually (hopefully!) hatch into chicks! As we prepare for this event, the children will also still be engaging with the plants they planted and measuring their growth with rulers.
-Skills: Experimentation, observation, comparing, measuring, hypothesizing, and conceptual knowledge.

Language and Literacy:
-Materials: Classroom dictionary, writing station, rhyming books, rhyming activities, books on insects, chickens, egg growth.
-Rationale: The children have really enjoyed noticing rhyming words in the stories that are read to them. Since rhyming is an important pre-literacy concept we will provide the classroom with more books with rhyming words as well as encourage the children to record their own lists of rhyming words. As it gets warmer outside, the insects have been more prevalent which has also sparked interest amongst the children. To help their exploration and understanding we will provide them with insect books. The chicks will be a main topic of discussion until they hatch, so these books will help them to understand how they are growing inside of their eggs.
-Skills: Letter recognition, descriptive writing, alphabetic principle, listening skills, experience with informative and narrative text, and phonological awareness.

Blocks:
-Materials: Hollow blocks, unit blocks, step-by-step process pictures, fabric, musical instruments with labels and musical notation.
-Rationale: The children are continuing to build stages with the hollow blocks. There have been many musical shows and plays over the last week. These shows provide an opportunity for the children to increase social skills and are a great way for the children to express themselves.
-Skills: Creative expression, creative dramatics, musical expression, temporal awareness, social skills, planning, spatial skills, large motor strength, representational building.

Dramatic Play:
-Materials: Pretend flowers, gift shop window, order forms, aprons, baskets for delivery, vases.
-Rationale: The children have been planting plants of their own, and with the abundance of flowers in bloom, we thought it was a good idea to create a flower shop for the children to explore and create pretend play!
-Skills: Role-play, symbolic play, social skills, problem solving, sharing, planning, sequencing, extending play, and generalizing knowledge.

Large Motor:
-Materials: Playground-bikes, shovels, bricks, kites, soccer balls, t-ball gear, basketball hoop, basketballs. Gym- stepping pyramid, climb and jump, balance beam, monkey bars, slide, rope climb up the bumpy ramp, wall ladder, scooters
-Rationale: The children have been enjoying playing sports on the playground. This provides an opportunity to practice peer negotiation and social skills. The gym will support and develop upper body strength and core muscles while providing challenging activities that foster their muscular and cardiovascular endurance.
-Skills: Upper body strength, motor coordination, hand eye coordination, propulsion skills, balance, depth perception, visual perception, lower body strength, turn taking, dynamic balance

Snack
Monday - Oranges & Pretzels
Tuesday - Graham crackers & milk
Wednesday - Celery and carrots & triscuit
Thursday - Cheerios & milk
Friday- Pasta with chopsticks

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Sensory (water table)

• Materials: water, aquatic animal figurines, glass gems, rocks, small
containers with lids

• Rationale: In order to extend the children's strong interest in
symbolic play and dramatic story creation, especially with animals, we
will bring in the water table and add some new water-related toys.

• Skills: symbolic representation, storytelling/dramatic play,
upper-body/hand strength, opportunities for
cooperation/collaboration/negotiation



Math and Manipulatives

•Materials: puzzles, alphabet puzzles, Geo-Boards (rubber band boards), Problem-Solving Triangle Brain Teaser, "Perfection" shape matching game.

•Rationale: To encourage children to begin exploring with different shapes, and allow them to create their own shapes using rubber bands on the geo-boards. To facilitate discussion of the properties of different shapes (including angles and sides). To introduce non-traditional shapes in the "Perfection" game and practice describing new and unfamilar shape attributes.

•Skills: letter recognition, shape identification, part-whole relationships, one-to-one correspondence, counting, fine motor development, problem solving, geometry vocabulary (sides, angles).

Blocks


•Materials: Large hollow blocks, small multi-shaped unit blocks, peg people, Castle-related picture books, crowns, capes, dresses, tunics
•Rationale: In addition to children's ongoing interest in creating vehicles and homes, items and books are added to support the building of "Castle" structures. To support children's interest in fantasy castle play and encorporate dramatic play and construction activites.

•Skills: Large motor development, expressive creation, symbolic representation, cooperative play, creative problem-solving, reflecting on and interpreting previous experiences, social problem-solving, and fine motor development

Dramatic Play

•Materials: Loose parts (to represent candy), paper, pencils, tickets (pretend money), aprons, chef hats, oven mits, various cooking utensils.

•Rationale: To encourate exploration with a variety of roles, to explore familiar experiences (i.e. going to the store), To explore jobs in the community and what it takes to perform them. To use creativity and imagination to transform loose parts into different objects.

•Skills: Gross- and fine-motor skills, creative role-play, peer interaction, imagination, social problem solving, and symbolic representation, creative story-telling, knowledge of jobs in the community, literacy and numeracy experience.

Expressive Art

•Materials: paint and shape cookie cutters at the easel, natural materials for collage, clay, markers, crayons, colored pencils, scissors, glue, tape, yarn, pipe cleaners, construction paper shapes, shape outlines to support cutting.

•Rationale: to explore with hands and tools to promote sensory awareness, increase fine motor skills, foster social relationships as children observe and work together with their peers, engage in an in-depth investigation of a basic elements of art. To support continued exploration with shapes and the shapes we see in our everyday lives, To emphasize the properties of shapes and how they can be combined, To emphasize artistic principles of line, pattern, and texture.

•Skills: fine motor development (strength, coordination), creativity, symbolic representation, sensory input, color recognition, identification of shapes, part whole relationships, hand-eye coordination, creative problem solving.
Science

•Materials: cockroaches, beetles, mealworms, salamander, Rats, computer, magnifying glasses, planting materials (dirt, egg cartons, seeds), spray bottles, paper for recording.

•Rationale: to support children's curiosity of the natural world around us and to encourage the investigation of nature. To continue to observe familiar natural experiences (classroom pets) while extending ideas about these phenomena. To extend our exploration of living things by planting seedlings that we can care for, observe, and eventually transfer outdoors. To offer opportunities to chart the growth of plants and observe how living things can change over time.

•Skills: observation, scientific investigation and inquiry, outdoor/indoor connection, making comparisons, recording change over time, using technology as a source of information, making predictions.



Language and Literacy

•Materials: the writing center has a variety of writing utensils, paper, envelopes, staplers, tape, pictures of children in our classroom, alphabet chart, dictionary, and samples of written words, and a book of the children's names and pictures. Magnetic upper- and lower-case letters and magnet boards, Blank paper books, Rubber alphabet stamps and ink pads, computer and keyboard

•Rationale: To continue to support children as they engage in letter and note writing. To provide opportunities to become familiar with combining letters in different and novel ways. To encourage peer collaboration and communication through creating words together and writing the names of peers. To emphasize a variety of purposes for writing, including storytelling (fiction and nonfiction). To encorporate use of technology into the writing experience by offering word processing software.

•Skills: fine motor, pre-writing, and letter recognition, phonological awareness, using texts in a variety of ways, use of technology in a variety of ways

•Materials: The library continues to offer fiction and nonfiction texts, including those that support our continued discussion of feelings and emotions, plants, and shapes.

•Rationale: to encourage reading time with friends and teachers, encourage exploration of fiction and nonfiction texts. To encourage the use of books as a source of information. To become familiar with a variety of stories and genres.

•Skills: receptive language, early literacy, predicting, listening, phonological awareness, and community building.

Large Motor

Materials: stepping pyramid, climb and jump, balance beam, monkey bars, slide, rope climb up the bumpy ramp, wall ladder, scooters

Rationale: To support and develop upper body strength and core muscles. To provide challenging activities that foster their muscular and cardiovascular endurance. 
Skills: upper body strength, motor coordination, hand eye coordination, propulsion skills, balance, depth perception, visual perception, lower body strength, turn taking, dynamic balance

Snacks
Monday: Applesauce and Whole Wheat Toast
Wednesday: Cooking Project
Thursday: Noodles (eaten with chopsticks)

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Overview and Goals
This week we will notice what happens with our experiments with seeds and we will continue to encourage the children to make predictions and share their ideas about plant growth. We will keep and eye on our eggs in the incubator. To expand or knowledge about eating healthy we will plan a meal. At large group, we will discover more about the topic of movement as well as musical concepts.
Expressive Arts
~Materials: Paints, large paint brushes, cardboard, paper, colored pencils, markers, oil pastels, staplers, tape, large roll of paper, and clay. The top of the loft will have colored paper, scissors, markers, staplers, and tape.
~Rationale: To provide children with opportunities for self-expression and to use a variety of art materials.
~Skills: Creative expression, symbolic representation, risk taking, hand-eye coordination, creating, communicating, fine motor development, hands and finger strength, and intrinsic motivation.
Science
~Materials: A set of planted seeds (these are part of an experiment), sunflower plants, mealworms, baby chick eggs, incubator, glass-coated insects, rulers, pencils, paper, and magnifying glasses.
~Rationale: To test our ideas regarding the conditions seeds need in order to grow. To explore and observe the life cycles of insects, plants, and animals.
~Skills: Observation, scientific inquiry, comparison, reasoning, descriptive and scientific language, self-expression, and peer interactions.
Math Manipulative and Games
We will continue to focus on measurement this week. We will encourage the children to measure objects around the classroom as well as their own bodies.
~Materials: Plants, rulers, Legos, Legos bases, puzzles, and Unifix cubes.
~Rationale: To expand on the children's prior knowledge about measurement and incorporate it into real-life.
~Skills: Measurement, creative building, eye-hand coordination, fine motor development, number concepts and finger strength.
Dramatic and Symbolic Play
~Materials: In dramatic play: flowers, petals, vases, baskets, order forms, markers, pencils, and paper. In the animal cave: stuffed fish, turtles, frogs, chameleons, snakes, rabbits, and squirrels, fishbowls, aquarium, water dish, fish food, and fabric pieces.
~Rationale: Expand on children's prior knowledge about flowers and plants in a symbolic play environment, practice number concepts.
~Skills: Imagination and invention, self-expression, speaking, emergent writing, number concepts, creating, cooperation, sharing, and symbolic play.
Blocks
~Materials: Hollow blocks, unit blocks, ramps, boards, paper, writing materials, and musical instruments.
~Rationale: Blocks and musical instruments will be available for children to extend and expand their symbolic play.
~Skills: Large motor development, fine motor development, imagination and invention, speaking, creating, number concepts, spatial relationships, and measurement.
Language and Literacy
This week we will focus on rhyming!
~Materials: Bound dictionary, classroom dictionary, blank papers, alphabetical dividers, fun and familiar books; pencils, thin markers, paper, envelopes, folded paper, stamp-sized paper, glue sticks, staplers, tape, rhyming activities, and cards with children's photos and names. Books related to: insects/bugs, spring, plants, flowers, baby chicks, and favorites; musical staff and notes.
~Rationale: Rhyming is one way to encourage children to notice language patterns, pay attention to sound and have fun! The children continue to use the literacy area to write notes, words, and illustrate cards. We will introduce activities to incorporate the use of rhyming words.
~Skills: Pre-/ early-literacy skills, community, symbolic representation, vocabulary expansion, speaking, self-expression, creating, and imaginative/creative play.
Large Motor
Playground
~Materials: Bikes, playground equipment, swings, shovels, rakes, buckets, scoops, hill, path, basketball hoop, basketballs, and swinging rope.
~Rationale: To explore the environment outside of the school and large motor development as well as to build on in- classroom relationships.
~Skills: Cardiovascular endurance, balance, coordination, grasping, climbing, jumping, strength, flexibility, coordination, communication, large motor development, fine motor development, and cooperation.
Gym
~Materials: Stepping pyramid, climb and jump, balance beam, monkey bars, slide, rope and bumpy ramp, wall ladder, scooters, hanging ball on a rope, and tape lines.
Rationale: We will continue to support and develop the children's upper body strength and core muscles and will also provide opportunities for children to build their stamina and endurance.
Skills: Upper body strength, motor coordination, hand-eye coordination, propulsion skills, balance, depth perception, visual perception, lower body strength, turn taking, dynamic balance, cooperation, large motor development, and communication.
Special Interest
Lab School Camping Adventure: Saturday May 19th-Sunday, May 20th
Pizza Party: Tuesday, May 22nd, 6-7:30 (Rain date is Wednesday, May 23rd)
Memorial Day- No School, on Monday, May 28th
Last day of the year will be Thursday, May 31st, please plan on attending our classroom celebration of learning. Details to come!

Science-Week 6

Science

Science-Wormery

Science-Bodies