March 2013 Archives

Spring Weekly Lesson Plan: 4.1.13-4.5.13
Jamie, Megan, Catherine, and Taylor Lead Teaching

Overview:


As the children return to school from Spring Break it is our intention to support them as they reestablish their relationships with peers and teachers. We will be mindful of relationships and new friendships that strengthened and began over the break based on the children's experiences interacting with classmates in different contexts such as a play date. We will also support the children in forming a new relationship with a new teacher. We will continue to build on previous interests in the classroom such as construction, packing their lunches for work or school, and cooking and baking. Our ideas will continue to be based upon our overarching theme of changes. We will also work as a team to spark new interests in new curriculum areas and themes such as Spring, weather, life cycles, flowers, and birds.

Expressive Arts 


**Materials: Easel, pastel colored paper, various textured paint brushes, pastel colored paint

Rationale: To promote exploration of lighter colored shades and increase color awareness and recognition. To promote exploration of softer shades of color and give the children an opportunity to represent some of the colors they see in nature and the natural world during Spring.

Skills: Fine motor, exploration, color mixing, creativity, artistic expression, turn taking, observation



**Materials: White lined paper, cutting sheets, scissors, spring themed stickers

Rationale: To increase fine motor skills and encourage the children to use the scissors in intentional ways. To provide sheets and lined paper for the children to cut along and cut in a variety of ways (snips and across the paper). To encourage the children to place the stickers in individual squares and support their 1-1 correspondence skills.

Skills: Fine motor, cutting, creativity, artistic expression, color exploration, observation, comparison, discussion

Sensory:

**Materials: natural colored play dough, kitchen tools and dishes, rolling pins, impression tools, shape cut outs.



Rationale: To continue manipulating and creating things out of play dough. To continue to support themes of cooking and baking by providing relevant tools. To try out materials for cause and effect relationship. To encourage shape identification skills. To encourage creative expression, imagination, invention, and persistence.

Skills: Sensory input, fine motor, turn taking, creative expression, manual dexterity, observation, cause and effect, exploration, creativity.

**Materials: Sand table, scoops, shovels, molds, bucket, and rakes.

Rationale: To introduce a different sensory table and provide materials for the children to become familiar with sand and it properties. To use tools in meaningful ways through prompting and modeling. To discuss the physical properties of sand and find ways to change and manipulate it. To ask questions and seek answers through active exploration.

Skills: Communication, collaboration, problem-solving, fine motor, sensory input, manual dexterity, trying out new idea, observation.

Science

**Materials: A variety of seeds, plant and food visuals, garden visuals.

Rationale: To increase awareness of seeds, gardening, and planting. To encourage children to discuss their ideas and make predictions about objects and natural events. To encourage children to use tools and their senses for investigation of the new materials.

Skills: Prediction, observation, discussion, ideas

Dramatic Play 


**Materials: Loft, home areas design including couch, rocking chair, telephones, babies, and books

Rationale: To integrate the kitchen area and loft to encourage the children to act out their ideas about cooking, care taking, and relationships. To provide babies for the children to prepare meals for, feed, and dress.

Skills practiced: communication, collaboration, try out new ideas, creative expression, role play, symbolic play, discussion

**Materials: Community helper vehicles- fire trucks, ambulances, and helicopters. 


Rationale: To introduce new vehicles and materials in the block area. To spark interest in building structures and creating imaginative scenarios to use the vehicles in. To increase awareness of community roles and support the ability to recognize and describe the roles of workers in the community.

Skills: Role play, symbolic representation, communication, collaboration, creative expression, cooperation, social skills, building, and fine motor.

**Materials: Construction vests, tool boxes, plastic tools, tool belts, wooden 'nails' and boards to hammer, construction visuals.

Rationale: To continue exploring construction dramatic play materials based on the children's interest in building and using tools. To investigate what construction workers wear, tools they use, and structures they build. To merge the content areas of blocks and dramatic play to develop rich and intentional play. To encourage and provide opportunities
for collaborative play and building.

Skills: Role play, symbolic play, communication, turn-taking, collaboration, fine motor, self-help skills, creative expression, try out new ideas

**Materials: Household kitchen furniture, plates, bowls, cups, food, sandwich making set, lunchboxes.

Rationale: To continue to provide opportunities for children to symbolically represent their experiences and promote curiosity about making and serving food for themselves and others. To continue to encourage collaborative cooking projects and give the children opportunities to express their ideas and share materials. 
To encourage children to explore making lunches and taking 'lunch breaks' from work, based upon their interest in doing so.
Skills: Role play, symbolic representation, communication, collaboration, creative expression, cooperation, social skills, spatial reasoning.


Math and Manipulatives 



**Materials: Shape sorters, matching games, sorting and ordering tasks, spring animal and weather puzzles.

Rationale: To provide materials that support problem-solving skills, hand-eye coordination, and fine motor control. To have puzzles that promote awareness and interest in Spring. To continue to support the concept of seriation, ordering, and exploring objects in relation to their size.

Skills: comparison, persistence, fine motor control, cause and effect, hand-eye coordination, seriation, problem-solving.

Language and Literacy 



**Materials: A variety of books about Spring, vehicles, and community helper themes will be displayed in different curriculum areas as well as the reading nook. Books and book shelf in the 'cave'.

Rationale: To continue to promote finding new information in books and applying it in play, while continuing to facilitate the development of the basic components of language and pre-literacy skills. To help the children gain knowledge and understanding by using resources. To provide a comfortable space to explore and read books with teachers.

Skills: Listening, speaking, reading, phonological awareness, alphabetical awareness, heuristic language, give and ask for information, turn taking. 


**Materials: Light table in the room, literacy "cave" with names of children taped to walls, large letter cut outs, alphabet visuals

Rationale: To increase children's pre-literacy skills and letter identification skills.

Skills: Observing, fine motor, color mixing, cause and effect, trying out new ideas, taking turns, creative expression, predicting.

Blocks 



**Materials: Hollow blocks and unit blocks.


Rationale: To continue to encourage collaborative block building and making airports, houses, garages, and any three dimensional structure based upon the new materials provided. To support spatial and weight concepts when building a structure. To encourage collaborative play and cooperative learning.

Skills: Cooperation, collaboration, creativity, symbolic representation, large and fine motor,
spatial concepts, construction skills (building), try out new ideas

Large Motor 



**Materials: Rope-swing, "Balance Bridge," donut slide, triangle slide, scooter boards, mini-trampoline


Rationale: The theme for this new set-up is "big body movements." We added the smaller triangle slide of the edge of the climber, as well as the large donut slide to the side of the climber - challenging children to slide off the side of the jumping donut and land on their feet! We also added an inclined balance-beam bridge - adding a new level of challenge for those that enjoyed the bridge from the previous set-up. We put the scooter boards in the back of the gym, and we anticipate many new and fun games to be created over the next two weeks! Last, but certainly not least, we added the rope swing! A favorite of many, the large rope-swing challenges children to use many skills simultaneously in order to successfully swing back and forth! 


Skills: upper-body strength/endurance, grasping, pushing/pumping with feet (propulsion skills), spatial-/directional-/body-awareness (proprioceptive skills), jumping and landing, eye-to-foot coordination, static and dynamic balance, flexibility, agility, cardio-vascular 
endurance, cooperation/negotiation, "big-body" play

**Materials: Outdoors: Buckets, shovels, snow, yellow scooter cars, dump trucks, wheelbarrows

Rationale: To provide children opportunities to engage in activities that challenge their physical skills including pushing, running, climbing, and jumping. To facilitate activities that promote usage of snow and ice. To encourage social interactions, collaboration, and turn taking.

Skills: Fine and large motor, body manipulation, physical fitness, hand-eye coordination, cause and effect, turn-taking, observation, collaboration.

Large group 



**Materials: Songs and rhymes led by teacher (gather, name, and topic songs and rhymes), rhyming stories and songs, modeling of activities


Rationale: To continue discussing the changes that are affecting us including spring, new siblings, and a new teacher in the classroom. To encourage rhyming skills and word play. To incorporate and model curriculum area concepts.
Skills: Attention span, attending and orienting, respect for one another, following directions.

Music 





**Materials: Piano, drums, sheet music, and shakers.

Rationale: To continue exploration of sound, volume, rhythm and social interaction. To promote social interaction by encouraging the children to play instruments both in large group and during free play.

Skills: Creative expression and movement, mathematical concepts (beats and patterns), imitation, call and answer, communication.

Snacks:


Tuesday: Rice cakes and raisins
Friday: Bananas and milk

Spring Weekly Lesson Plan: 4.1.13-4.5.13
Jamie, Megan, Catherine, and Taylor Lead Teaching

Overview:


As the children return to school from Spring Break it is our intention to support them as they reestablish their relationships with peers and teachers. We will be mindful of relationships and new friendships that strengthened and began over the break based on the children's experiences interacting with classmates in different contexts such as a play date. We will also support the children in forming a new relationship with a new teacher. We will continue to build on previous interests in the classroom such as construction, packing their lunches for work or school, and cooking and baking. Our ideas will continue to be based upon our overarching theme of changes. We will also work as a team to spark new interests in new curriculum areas and themes such as Spring, weather, life cycles, flowers, and birds.

Expressive Arts 


**Materials: Easel, pastel colored paper, various textured paint brushes, pastel colored paint

Rationale: To promote exploration of lighter colored shades and increase color awareness and recognition. To promote exploration of softer shades of color and give the children an opportunity to represent some of the colors they see in nature and the natural world during Spring.

Skills: Fine motor, exploration, color mixing, creativity, artistic expression, turn taking, observation



**Materials: White lined paper, cutting sheets, scissors, spring themed stickers

Rationale: To increase fine motor skills and encourage the children to use the scissors in intentional ways. To provide sheets and lined paper for the children to cut along and cut in a variety of ways (snips and across the paper). To encourage the children to place the stickers in individual squares and support their 1-1 correspondence skills.

Skills: Fine motor, cutting, creativity, artistic expression, color exploration, observation, comparison, discussion

Sensory:

**Materials: natural colored play dough, kitchen tools and dishes, rolling pins, impression tools, shape cut outs.



Rationale: To continue manipulating and creating things out of play dough. To continue to support themes of cooking and baking by providing relevant tools. To try out materials for cause and effect relationship. To encourage shape identification skills. To encourage creative expression, imagination, invention, and persistence.

Skills: Sensory input, fine motor, turn taking, creative expression, manual dexterity, observation, cause and effect, exploration, creativity.

**Materials: Sand table, scoops, shovels, molds, bucket, and rakes.

Rationale: To introduce a different sensory table and provide materials for the children to become familiar with sand and it properties. To use tools in meaningful ways through prompting and modeling. To discuss the physical properties of sand and find ways to change and manipulate it. To ask questions and seek answers through active exploration.

Skills: Communication, collaboration, problem-solving, fine motor, sensory input, manual dexterity, trying out new idea, observation.

Science

**Materials: A variety of seeds, plant and food visuals, garden visuals.

Rationale: To increase awareness of seeds, gardening, and planting. To encourage children to discuss their ideas and make predictions about objects and natural events. To encourage children to use tools and their senses for investigation of the new materials.

Skills: Prediction, observation, discussion, ideas

Dramatic Play 


**Materials: Loft, home areas design including couch, rocking chair, telephones, babies, and books

Rationale: To integrate the kitchen area and loft to encourage the children to act out their ideas about cooking, care taking, and relationships. To provide babies for the children to prepare meals for, feed, and dress.

Skills practiced: communication, collaboration, try out new ideas, creative expression, role play, symbolic play, discussion

**Materials: Community helper vehicles- fire trucks, ambulances, and helicopters. 


Rationale: To introduce new vehicles and materials in the block area. To spark interest in building structures and creating imaginative scenarios to use the vehicles in. To increase awareness of community roles and support the ability to recognize and describe the roles of workers in the community.

Skills: Role play, symbolic representation, communication, collaboration, creative expression, cooperation, social skills, building, and fine motor.

**Materials: Construction vests, tool boxes, plastic tools, tool belts, wooden 'nails' and boards to hammer, construction visuals.

Rationale: To continue exploring construction dramatic play materials based on the children's interest in building and using tools. To investigate what construction workers wear, tools they use, and structures they build. To merge the content areas of blocks and dramatic play to develop rich and intentional play. To encourage and provide opportunities
for collaborative play and building.

Skills: Role play, symbolic play, communication, turn-taking, collaboration, fine motor, self-help skills, creative expression, try out new ideas

**Materials: Household kitchen furniture, plates, bowls, cups, food, sandwich making set, lunchboxes.

Rationale: To continue to provide opportunities for children to symbolically represent their experiences and promote curiosity about making and serving food for themselves and others. To continue to encourage collaborative cooking projects and give the children opportunities to express their ideas and share materials. 
To encourage children to explore making lunches and taking 'lunch breaks' from work, based upon their interest in doing so.
Skills: Role play, symbolic representation, communication, collaboration, creative expression, cooperation, social skills, spatial reasoning.


Math and Manipulatives 



**Materials: Shape sorters, matching games, sorting and ordering tasks, spring animal and weather puzzles.

Rationale: To provide materials that support problem-solving skills, hand-eye coordination, and fine motor control. To have puzzles that promote awareness and interest in Spring. To continue to support the concept of seriation, ordering, and exploring objects in relation to their size.

Skills: comparison, persistence, fine motor control, cause and effect, hand-eye coordination, seriation, problem-solving.

Language and Literacy 



**Materials: A variety of books about Spring, vehicles, and community helper themes will be displayed in different curriculum areas as well as the reading nook. Books and book shelf in the 'cave'.

Rationale: To continue to promote finding new information in books and applying it in play, while continuing to facilitate the development of the basic components of language and pre-literacy skills. To help the children gain knowledge and understanding by using resources. To provide a comfortable space to explore and read books with teachers.

Skills: Listening, speaking, reading, phonological awareness, alphabetical awareness, heuristic language, give and ask for information, turn taking. 


**Materials: Light table in the room, literacy "cave" with names of children taped to walls, large letter cut outs, alphabet visuals

Rationale: To increase children's pre-literacy skills and letter identification skills.

Skills: Observing, fine motor, color mixing, cause and effect, trying out new ideas, taking turns, creative expression, predicting.

Blocks 



**Materials: Hollow blocks and unit blocks.


Rationale: To continue to encourage collaborative block building and making airports, houses, garages, and any three dimensional structure based upon the new materials provided. To support spatial and weight concepts when building a structure. To encourage collaborative play and cooperative learning.

Skills: Cooperation, collaboration, creativity, symbolic representation, large and fine motor,
spatial concepts, construction skills (building), try out new ideas

Large Motor 



**Materials: Rope-swing, "Balance Bridge," donut slide, triangle slide, scooter boards, mini-trampoline


Rationale: The theme for this new set-up is "big body movements." We added the smaller triangle slide of the edge of the climber, as well as the large donut slide to the side of the climber - challenging children to slide off the side of the jumping donut and land on their feet! We also added an inclined balance-beam bridge - adding a new level of challenge for those that enjoyed the bridge from the previous set-up. We put the scooter boards in the back of the gym, and we anticipate many new and fun games to be created over the next two weeks! Last, but certainly not least, we added the rope swing! A favorite of many, the large rope-swing challenges children to use many skills simultaneously in order to successfully swing back and forth! 


Skills: upper-body strength/endurance, grasping, pushing/pumping with feet (propulsion skills), spatial-/directional-/body-awareness (proprioceptive skills), jumping and landing, eye-to-foot coordination, static and dynamic balance, flexibility, agility, cardio-vascular 
endurance, cooperation/negotiation, "big-body" play

**Materials: Outdoors: Buckets, shovels, snow, yellow scooter cars, dump trucks, wheelbarrows

Rationale: To provide children opportunities to engage in activities that challenge their physical skills including pushing, running, climbing, and jumping. To facilitate activities that promote usage of snow and ice. To encourage social interactions, collaboration, and turn taking.

Skills: Fine and large motor, body manipulation, physical fitness, hand-eye coordination, cause and effect, turn-taking, observation, collaboration.

Large group 



**Materials: Songs and rhymes led by teacher (gather, name, and topic songs and rhymes), rhyming stories and songs, modeling of activities


Rationale: To continue discussing the changes that are affecting us including spring, new siblings, and a new teacher in the classroom. To encourage rhyming skills and word play. To incorporate and model curriculum area concepts.
Skills: Attention span, attending and orienting, respect for one another, following directions.

Music 





**Materials: Piano, drums, sheet music, and shakers.

Rationale: To continue exploration of sound, volume, rhythm and social interaction. To promote social interaction by encouraging the children to play instruments both in large group and during free play.

Skills: Creative expression and movement, mathematical concepts (beats and patterns), imitation, call and answer, communication.

Snacks:


Monday: Rice cakes and raisins
Wednesday: Fruit smoothie and rice chex
Thursday: Applesauce and milk

Weekly Lesson Plan for Ross' Class
Week of: April 1-5, 2013
Lead teaching this week: Ross

Overview: HAPPY SPRING AND WELCOME BACK!! Although there is still snow on the ground, the temperature is rising and the days are growing longer...I think it's safe to say- spring is here! As for the action in the room, we will be picking up right where we left off at the end of the winter session. Subtle changes and extensions have been made to the areas around the room, allowing the children to revisit existing stories while exploring new materials to initiate new ideas and thinking. During the final 10 weeks, one major focus we have is to foster the intrinsic motivation to learn and discover that we find in all children. Spring is a magic time of year that lends itself to seemingly non-stop investigation of the natural world: with countless opportunities to observe the growth and changes taking place both outside as well as within the classroom. I'm looking forward to jumping into all the learning that awaits us in these final few months!

Expressive Arts (paint, collage, clay)
• Materials: At the art table: an assortment of shape-collage materials (squares, circles, triangles, rectangles, etc.), carpet square platforms, pencils, markers, paper, scissors, tape dispensers, staplers
At the clay table: clay, plastic insects, wood knives
• Rationale: To support our focus on shapes and geometry, as well as introducing a new medium for promoting symbolic representation, we will have materials that will allow children to create new pictures using many loose pieces. Initially, the children will be invited to freely explore the materials. However after continued exposure, we hope to help them see that when using many familiar shapes and materials, one can create a new, larger collage pictures! At the clay table, we want to support our investigation of insects, so we have added many toy insects to the table to accompany the clay. I anticipate many interesting creations for our creepy-crawly friends!
• Skills: recognition of shape, patterning, artistic expression, symbolic representation, persistence, imagination/creativity, connections/expressions of observed world, fine motor strength/endurance

Sensory (water table)
• Materials: plastic sieves, golf balls, ping-pong balls, corks, rocks, rubber duckies
• Rationale: Now that the ice and snow have (almost) melted away, we will revisit the exploration of water and introduce the concept of "sink and float." To start, we have an assortment of items to build the children's awareness related the concept; allowing the children to explore items that sink, items that float, and compare the two.
• Skills: sensory input, familiarity with materials, dexterity, hypothesis creating/testing skills, cause-and-effect, opportunities for cooperation/collaboration/negotiation

Science
• Materials: our classroom pets (highlighting the mealworms and hissing cockroaches), wasp nest, "insect home" matching game, insect books/pictures/diagrams, magnifying glasses, children's notebooks
• Rationale: To extend our focus on homes and habitats as well as re-spark interest in the science table, we will take a closer look at our 6-legged pets! We will look at the homes we have created for the mealworms and cockroaches, as well as have an array of other insect-related materials to invite children to explore these interesting creatures!
• Skills: learning about our insects: their anatomy and how to care for them, scientific/higher-level thinking skills, observing and interpreting information about the natural world, generalization skills (connections between insect homes and other animal/human homes).

Math and Manipulatives (including the "Nook")
• Materials: shape-picture making game, seriated/nesting "bug" boxes, new insect and shape puzzles, parquetry blocks (on the light box in the "Nook"), Tana Hoban book Cubes, Cones, Cylinder, & Spheres
• Rationale: We will be shifting our focus to the world of geometry and shape at the math table. Various shape-related puzzles and games will be available to start building awareness of many familiar (and some not so familiar) shapes. We will also have some new insect puzzles to tie in our exploration at the science table.
• Skills: concepts related to geometry/shape, part-to-whole relationships, one-to-one correspondence, counting, opportunities for collaborative problem solving.

Language and Literacy
• Materials: Our Name Book, Our Alphabet Book, paper, envelopes, pencils, markers
• Rationale: The excitement of writing letters/notes to classmates as well as writing our own stories remained high through the winter session, and we want to continue that interest with growing intention as well as pre-/early-literacy support by encouraging children to use the letters of the alphabet and the names of their classmates when creating letters/drawings for one another.
• Skills: pre-/early -literacy skills, letter recognition, phonemic awareness, fine-motor coordination/endurance

Dramatic Play
• Materials: "Coffee Shop" props (to-go coffee cups and lids, mugs, pitchers, cash register), dress-up materials (i.e. dresses, shoes, boots, fabric, play phones), baby-dolls, cribs, baby clothes
• Rationale: We had tons of fun in the play house during the fall and winter session, but thought we were ready for something new. We now have a coffee shop set up in the classroom, and anticipate many visitors each day! The "Bodies" small group made a trip to the Purple Onion at the end of last session, and watching the group gave the teachers the idea to bring in a new theme for the dramatic play. To help build the awareness for all the students, we will take a fieldtrip during the second week to see what other items our coffee shop needs to be the "real thing."
• Skills: imaginative/creative play, connections to previous experiences/memory skills, promoting social interactions while foster new and old relationships, practicing various social skills, symbolic representation

Blocks
• Materials: large hollow blocks, small multi-shaped unit blocks, peg people, wood houses made by children, ramps, balls, various sized wheels, bowling pins
• Rationale: Building ramps became quite popular at the end of the winter session. Many children worked together to create large ramps to roll various wheels and balls down in hopes to knock down as many mini-bowling pins as possible. We will continue support the creation of these ramps, and invite the children to start writing down the "rules" for the games they create. We also will have the children's wood houses available with the peg people in hopes to continue to "neighborhood" building that we started just before break.
• Skills: large-/fine-motor skills, symbolic representation, concepts related to building/balance/engineering, supporting social relationships/interactions, opportunities for endless dramatic play

Large-motor
• In the gym: We will keep the same gym set-up that we had at the end of the winter session: with the large rope swing, donut slide, balance bridge, triangle slide, and scooter boards. The children really enjoyed that set-up and did not get much time with it before we finished our session. New/minor changes may happen over the next week to keep it exciting and fun. We will also start each day with a teacher-facilitated activity.
• On the playground: We have had some thawing and melting take place, however patches of ice and snow still cover the playground. This means, it's going to be messy out there! We will break out the shovels, buckets, and scoops to help facilitate some digging and "exploring" play, however it's quite possible that puddle jumping may become a quick favorite!
• Skills: upper-/lower-boy strength, static and dynamic balance, hopping (lower leg strength/coordination), jumping/landing skills, proprioceptive (body-in-motion) skills, spatial-/directional-awareness, propulsion skills

Announcements/Special Interest
• Be sure to stop down and introduce yourselves to Hilary, Laura E, and Laura P! They're very excited get started and work with our wonderful class!
• SNOWSUITS...we're going to need them! It's going to be messy on the playground. Please send along appropriate clothing will help keep everyone happy while playing outside. Also, please be sure your child has their extra change of clothes in the cubby, as it's possible we will need to do a wardrobe change during the "thaw" on the playground.
• Just a reminder to line up the babysitters for April 13th so we can see you all at the Spring Soiree - invitations should have been delivered over break.
• Speaking of the soiree, if you gathered any donations or ideas for our classroom basket (the "Outside Summer Fun" basket), feel free to drop them off with Ross any time this week. We would like to have all donations gathered by Tuesday, April 9 so we can have the basket finalized before the event! Thanks for you help and generosity with this!

Snack
Monday - Pretzels & craisins
Tuesday - Rice cakes & milk
Wednesday - Sunbutter on celery
Thursday - Pineapple chunks & rice crackers
Friday - Cheerios & raisins
* All snacks served with milk and water, unless otherwise noted *

Overview
This first week back our main priorities will be on re-establishing classroom routines and getting to know the new student teachers Natalie, Allie, and Almas. Each of them has spent some time with the children before break and they are looking forward to getting to know everyone better. The materials in the classroom have been chosen intentionally to provide a combination of familiar items as well as new and novel activities. Now that the weather is finally warming up we will be paying close attention to changes in the outdoor environment. We will make comparisons between observations of the frozen dormant state of our habitat versus the first subtle signs of spring.

Expressive Arts
-Materials: construction paper, paint, paint trays, squeeze bottles of paint, paintbrushes, wooden beads, plastic beads, wire, markers, crayons, glue
-Rationale: Many of the children in the class have enjoyed mixing paint to create new colors at the easel. To support this interest, and to allow the children to practice intentionality when mixing color, we will provide colorful objects that the children can reference as they mix paint to match the color they see. Bead lacing in the manipulative cave was popular before break so we will add beading with wire to the art area. This will support creative expression with beading and also allow the children to take home the creations they have made.
-Skills: fine motor strength and coordination, color recognition, creative exploration, problem solving, emerging math skills (patterning), self-expression, creative risk-taking

Sensory
-Materials: flax seed, scoops, funnels, tubes, cups for scooping and pouring
-Rationale: Before the break the children used many of the same tools to explore the properties of the water and ice that we had in our sensory table. By switching the raw material to flax seed, teachers hope to renew the children's interest in the area and foster comparisons between the properties of the two materials. Additionally, the open-ended tubes, scoops and funnels present an opportunity for the children to practice their problem solving skills as they try to connect the materials to create a flow system for the flax seed.
-Skills: sensory exploration, scientific thinking and reasoning, measuring, problem solving, cooperative play

Light Table
-Materials: transparencies depicting various familiar fairy tales (Goldilocks and the Three Bears, The Three Billy Goats Gruff, etc.)
-Rationale: To provide yet another way for the children to retell familiar stories as well as invent new ones, we have added characters and sets in transparency form. We will continue to dictate the children's stories to support literacy and give them a sense of ownership and to take pride in their storytelling.
-Skills: fine motor skills, pre-literacy skills, symbolic representation, creative expression, self-confidence, peer negotiation and social interactions

Science
-Materials: magnets, prompting questions, a variety of objects that react to magnets and a variety of those that do not, flash light, broken drum, puzzle with missing pieces
-Rationale: We have added a new focus to one area of our science center this week; we have created a "Problem Solving Station" to provide children with the chance to dig deeply into the problem solving process and hone their inquiry and reasoning skills. Throughout the week different materials will be placed at the table along with the prompting questions "Can you fix it?" "What tools do you need?" and "What are you going to do first?" The teachers will use these questions to guide the children through the process of identifying and solving problems with hands-on materials. Our first order of business will be to fix the torn drum in our classroom. Can we fix it? What tools will we need? What do we need to do first? We will encourage the children to work together and share ideas throughout the process.
-Skills: Scientific inquiry, observation, drawing conclusions, reasoning, grouping, descriptive language, informative language, comparing and contrasting, knowledge of physical properties, knowledge of the natural world, problem solving, team work

Math and Manipulatives
-Materials: magnet blocks, beads, string, legos
-Rationale: In order to expand on the children's exploration of magnets, we are introducing a new builder, "magnet blocks" this week. The teachers hope that introducing this new type of magnet will spark the children 's interest regarding the various uses of magnets.
-Skills: fine motor strength, early math concepts, peer negotiation, symbolic representation, hand-eye coordination

Language and Literacy
-Materials: name cards, paper, various writing utensils (markers, colored pencils), scissors, tape, a variety of books, envelopes, pre-made booklets, vocabulary words, story writing prompts
-Rationale: Before break the writing area was a popular choice for many of the children in our classroom. As the children explore the new "post office" in the dramatic play area, teachers anticipate that the popularity of the center will continue to grow! While we have writing materials spread throughout the room, having a central location dedicated to writing and other pre-literacy skills serves as a familiar and secure spot for the children to practice their burgeoning skills independently or with a group of peers.
-Skills: letter recognition, fine motor control, pre-/early literacy skills, alphabetic principle, phonemic awareness, artistic expression

Dramatic Play
-Materials: Loft Area- stove, refrigerator, sink and other assorted wooden kitchen furniture, dishes, different types of food, open-ended fabrics, paper, markers, clipboards, calculator, mailbox, stamps, envelopes, paper, pencils, postal worker bags, hats and shirts. Dramatic play cave- sticks, open-ended fabrics, stuffed woodland animals

-Rationale: As a result of our focus on literacy and a small-group field trip to the post office, many of the children have been interested in writing letters and delivering them to classmates. In order to facilitate this interest and allow it to grow we have moved the "post office" dramatic play materials to the back of the classroom. There children will have the opportunity to explore ideas about community helpers, literacy, communication, and the use and purpose of print as they "play post office."
-Skills: symbolic representation, role-playing, problem solving, writing, alphabetic principal, pre-/early literacy skills, decision making.

Blocks
-Materials: hollow blocks, unit blocks, ramps, wood boards, big fabric pieces, steering wheels, pvc pipe, maps

-Rationale: The children consistently use every block in the hollow block area to build structures that support their dramatic play themes. Houses that hold several children were the structure of choice before break. To encourage cooperation and to maximize the number of children able to live in each home, we will support problem solving and teamwork to create homes that accommodate many.
-Skills: construction skills, dramatic play, symbolic representation, problem- solving, mathematical concepts such as symmetry, dimensions and fractions

Large Motor



-Materials: rope-swing, "Balance Bridge," donut slide, triangle slide, scooter boards, mini-trampoline
-Rationale: The theme for this gym set-up is big-body movements and is supported by equipment that engages the children's whole bodies in dynamic movement. We added the smaller triangle slide of the edge of the climber, as well as the large donut slide to the side of the climber - challenging children to slide off the side of the jumping donut and land on their feet! We also added an inclined balance-beam bridge - adding a new level of challenge for those that enjoyed the bridge from the previous set-up. We put the scooter boards in the back of the gym, and we anticipate many new and fun games to be created over the next two weeks! Last, but certainly not least, we added the rope swing! A favorite of many, the large rope-swing challenges children to use many skills simultaneously in order to successfully swing back and forth!
-Skills: upper-body strength/endurance, grasping, pushing/pumping with feet (propulsion skills), spatial-/directional-/body-awareness (proprioceptive skills), jumping and landing, eye-to-foot coordination, static and dynamic balance, flexibility, agility, cardio-vascular endurance, cooperation/negotiation, "big-body" play

Snack
Monday - Crackers & milk
Tuesday - Pretzels & raisins
Wednesday - Pineapple chunks & rice crackers
Thursday - Bananas & rice cakes
Friday - Rice chex & milk

Weekly Lesson Plan
April 1 - April 5
Marie's Class
Marie Lead Teaching

Overview
Welcome back to school! I hope you all enjoyed your time off. It's hard to believe that spring is already here, but the muddy playground proves that it's true! The changing weather will provide us with plenty to explore as we move into the month of April- the teachers can't wait to start discussing all of the signs of spring with the children! This week we will be focused on getting back into our "school routine." The materials that we have out in the classroom represent extensions of activities that were taking place two weeks ago- flax seed instead of water to explore in the sensory table, the post office props moved to the back of the classroom to allow for more extensive dramatic play scenarios, beading materials moved to the art table to foster creative expression. We're looking forward to a busy and enjoyable spring session and we can't wait to see everyone on Monday!

Expressive Arts
~Materials: construction paper, paint, paint trays, jars for paint, paintbrushes, wooden beads, plastic beads, twine, rope, string, markers, crayons, glue

~Rationale: Before the break, many of the children enjoyed exploring the beads and string that were available in the manipulatives cave. We want to support this interest and provide a unique and engaging way for the children to continue to work on their fine motor skills, so we have brought beads to the art area! Reestablishing the concept in the art area will also honor the children's desire to take their bead creations home with them; the beads that we had available in the manipulatives cave were a stay-at-school activity that we share with the rest of the school ☺ In addition to the beads, we will be reintroducing paint to the art tables this week. This week we will be working with the color "red" as we continue our exploration of shading and color matching.

~ Skills: fine motor strength and coordination, color recognition, creative exploration, problem solving, emerging math skills (patterning), self-expression, creative risk-taking

Sensory
~Materials: flax seed, scoops, funnels, tubes, cups for scooping and pouring

~Rationale: Before the break the children used many of the same tools to explore the properties of the water and ice that we had in our sensory table. By switching the raw material to flax seed, teachers hope to renew the children's interest in the area and foster comparisons between the properties of the two materials. Additionally, the open-ended tubes, scoops and funnels present an opportunity for the children to practice their problem solving skills as they try to connect the materials to create a flow system for the flax seed.

~Skills: sensory exploration, scientific thinking and reasoning, measuring, problem solving, cooperative play

Light Table
~Materials: transparencies depicting various familiar fairy tales (Goldilocks and the Three Bears, The Three Billy Goats Gruff, etc.)

~Rationale: The children have begun to explore literacy and storytelling in a variety of ways throughout the classroom. Allowing the children to tell and re-tell familiar stories in a variety of contexts is one way we engage them in the story telling process and foster pre-literacy skills. Including story-telling materials at the light table provides an opportunity for the children to explore these familiar stories in a unique and engaging way.

~Skills: fine motor skills, pre-literacy skills, symbolic representation, creative expression, self-confidence, peer negotiation and social interactions

Science
~Materials: magnets, prompting questions, a variety of objects that react to magnets and a variety of those that do not, flash light, broken drum, puzzle with missing pieces

~Rationale: We have added a new focus to one area of our science center this week; we have created a "Problem Solving Station" to provide children with the chance to dig deeply into the problem solving process and hone their inquiry and reasoning skills. Throughout the week different materials will be placed at the table along with the prompting questions "Can you fix it?" "What tools do you need?" and "What are you going to do first?" The teachers will use these questions to guide the children through the process of identifying and solving problems with hands-on materials. Our first order of business will be to fix the torn drum in our classroom. Can we fix it? What tools will we need? What do we need to do first? Only time will tell!

~Skills: Scientific inquiry, observation, drawing conclusions, reasoning, grouping, descriptive language, informative language, comparing and contrasting, knowledge of physical properties, knowledge of the natural world, problem solving

Math and Manipulatives
~Materials: magnet blocks, beads, string, legos

~Rationale: In order to expand on the children's exploration of magnets, we are introducing a new builder, "magnet blocks" this week. The teachers hope that introducing this new type of magnet will spark the children 's interest regarding the various uses of magnets.

~Skills: fine motor strength, early math concepts, peer negotiation, symbolic representation, hand-eye coordination

Language and Literacy
~Materials: name cards, paper, various writing utensils (markers, colored pencils), scissors, tape, a variety of books, envelopes, pre-made booklets, vocabulary words, story writing prompts

~Rationale: Before break the writing area was a popular choice for many of the children in our classroom. As the children explore the new "post office" in the dramatic play area, teachers anticipate that the popularity of the center will continue to grow! While we have writing materials spread throughout the room, having a central location dedicated to writing and other pre-literacy skills serves as a familiar and secure spot for the children to practice their burgeoning skills independently or with a group of peers.

~Skills: letter recognition, fine motor control, pre-/early literacy skills, alphabetic principle, phonemic awareness, artistic expression

Dramatic Play
~Materials:
Loft Area: stove, refrigerator, sink and other assorted wooden kitchen furniture, dishes, different types of food, open-ended fabrics, paper, markers, clipboards, calculator, mailbox, stamps, envelopes, paper, pencils, postal worker bags, hats and shirts

Dramatic play cave: sticks, open-ended fabrics, small woodland animals


~Rationale: As a result of our focus on literacy and a small-group field trip to the post office, many of the children have been interested in writing letters and delivering them to classmates. In order to facilitate this interest and allow it to grow we have moved the "post office" dramatic play materials to the back of the classroom. There children will have the opportunity to explore ideas about community helpers, literacy, communication, and the use and purpose of print as they "play post office."

~Skills: symbolic representation, role-playing, problem solving, writing, alphabetic principal, pre-/early literacy skills, decision making.

Blocks
~Materials: hollow blocks, unit blocks, ramps, wood boards, big fabric pieces, steering wheels, pvc pipe, maps


~Rationale: The block area continues to be a popular choice for many of the children. Before break many of the children spent several days using the hollow blocks to build an airplane large enough to hold the whole class! As they worked together to build the plane, the children discussed various potential destinations and took turns flying the plane (and delivering the snacks!). In order to support this emerging interest, we have placed additional props in the block area such as maps, steering wheels, and open-ended materials that the children can use as "uniforms."

~Skills: construction skills, dramatic play, symbolic representation, problem solving, mathematical concepts such as symmetry, dimensions and fractions

Large Motor



~Materials: crawling tube, bumpy slide, A-Frame with balance beam, hopscotch, scaling block wall, basketball hoop, basketballs and climbing wall


~Rationale: The children continue to explore the provided equipment set up in the large motor room. Hopscotch, the crawling tunnel, basketball hoop with balls, climbing wall, scaling wall with rope, and bump slide continue to help build children's upper body and core strength, encourage socialization and cooperation, and support exploration of what they can do with their bodies. Basketball and hopscotch also simulate outdoor activities that we are unable to do right now because of the snow. 


~Skills: climbing (bumpy slide, scaling wall, A-frame, climbing wall), turn taking (crawling tunnel, hopscotch, bumpy slide, scaling wall, A-frame with balance beam, climbing wall), motor planning (bumpy slide, wall climber), static balance (balance beam, hopscotch), muscular strength and endurance (scaling wall), propulsion skills (basketball and basketball hoop), hand-eye coordination (basketball and basketball hoop), directional awareness (all)

Snack
Monday: Applesauce and rice cakes
Wednesday: Banana smoothies and pretzels
Thursday: Crackers and milk

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Overview:
Welcome back to the spring session! This week, the classroom provides materials that both support play begun in the winter session and introduce new experiences. The children's interest in bridges and ramps is facilitated in the block area by the addition of marbles, different tubing, and bowling pins. Meanwhile, the art area shifts from a focus on wood sculpture to the stringing of beads, buttons, and other materials. Our ongoing exploration of homes and habitats continues this session, and the science center contains hand's-on experiences related to insect homes. Additionally, the children have an opportunity to reflect on an aspect of their own habitats or communities, as the dramatic play area is set up as a neighborhood coffee shop.

Science
*Materials: Books about insects, wasp nest, cockroaches, mealworms, examples of different insects and their homes.
*Rationale: To emphasize a new type of animal home/habitat, to encourage children to draw connections between different living things.
•Skills: observation, scientific investigation and inquiry, connection to natural world, applying previous experiences and knowledge, hypothesizing and extrapolating, symbolic representation, using tools to gather information, using books as sources of knowledge, curiosity.

Dramatic Play
•Materials: "Coffee Shop" materials: cups, cup carrier, aprons, hats, pitchers, etc.
•Rationale: to emphasize the different establishments present in our own community, to focus on jobs in the community and how to perform them, to allow children to act out familiar experiences and exchanges from their lives.
•Skills: creative role-play, peer interaction, social problem solving, symbolic representation, reflection on previous experiences, collaboration and community building, turn-taking.

Language and Literacy
•Materials: the writing center has a variety of writing utensils, paper, envelopes, staplers, tape, scissors, and computer/word processing program. Name cards, books with alphabetic themes, various computer games.
•Rationale: to foster the children's ongoing interest in the written word, alphabetic principle, and symbolic representation. In addition to a continued interest in writing and reading familiar words, many children show an interest in using the computer for a variety of purposes. Most recently, they have worked together to complete different computer games. This continues to be available as the children continue to practice computer skills as well as turn-taking and collaboration.
•Skills: fine motor, letter recognition, eye-hand coordination, emergent writing and reading, curiosity, symbolic reasoning, peer interaction, technological awareness, keyboarding and mouse skills, planning and sequencing actions, cooperation, verbal communication.

•Materials: the library has a variety of non-fiction and fiction books, many of which emphasize the children's strong interest in fairytales and familiar stories. Books on CD are also available.
•Rationale: to encourage the children's continued interest in sharing stories communally and individually. To emphasize the telling and retelling of familiar tales.
•Skills: receptive language, phonological awareness, early literacy, listening, community building, expressive language, vocabulary introduction, scientific investigation, prediction, comparing and contrasting.

Blocks
•Materials: large hollow blocks, small multi-shaped unit blocks, books about creating ramps, rain gutters, balls, marbles, bowling pins.
•Rationale: to offer continued building experiences, especially those that focus on motion, stability, creating inclines, etc.
•Skills: large motor development, expressive creation, symbolic representation, cooperative play, using a variety of media for self expression, problem solving, mathematical reasoning, understanding of cause and effect, awareness of physical properties (momentum, gravity), connection to the natural world, analyzing and synthesizing, showing interest and respect for the creative work of self and others.

Expressive Arts (paint, drawing, clay)
•Materials: An assortment of beads, metal washers, buttons, wire, string, clay, clay tools, plastic insects.
•Rationale: to explore with hands and tools to promote sensory awareness, increase fine motor skills, hand-eye coordination, and provide a focus on patterns and pattern-making. To foster social relationships as children observe and work together with their peers.
•Skills: fine motor development (strength, coordination), creativity, symbolic representation, sensory input, color recognition, awareness of patterns, cause and effect, hypothesizing and predicting, showing interest and respect for the creative work of self and others, self expression using a variety of media and tools.

Sensory (water table)
• Materials: Water, items that sink and float.
• Rationale: As we switch from frozen water to liquid water, the children are given more chances to reflect on the properties of water and how other materials react with water.
• Skills: large-/fine-motor strength/ hand strength, cause-and-effect, fostering social relationships, using varied science and sensory language, sensory exploration, observational skills, making predictions.

Math and Manipulatives (including the 'Nook')
•Materials:Puzzles, triangle "brain teaser" puzzle, My First Book of Shapes, Sight word boards, insect seriation stacker, light table with multi-shaped blocks.
•Rationale: To introduce a variety of shapes and shape-related vocabulary into our classroom exploration, to emphasize letter shape and matching, to continue to support fine motor development, hand control, and coordination.
•Skills: one-to-one correspondence, synthesis and analysis, fine motor development, hand-eye coordination, part-whole relationships, awareness of shapes and shape names, comparing, matching, sorting and divergent thinking.

Large Motor (gym)
• Materials: A-Frame balance beam, hopscotch, basketball hoop with balls, climbing wall, tumbling blocks with rope, stairs and slide.
• Rationale: Many of the children continue to be interested in balancing.To support the children's interest in balancing as well as offer an large motor experience the A-Frame balance beam is added to the gym. The hopscotch,tunnel, basketball hoop with balls, climbing wall, tumbling blocks with rope, and slide help build children's upper body and core strength, encourage socialization and cooperation, support exploration of what the can do with their bodies and simulate outdoor activities (playing hopscotch and dribbling basketballs).
• Skills: Dynamic balance and static balance/standing on one foot (A-Frame Balance Beam), propulsion skills/throwing (basketball hoop with balls), receptive skills/catching and trapping (basketball hoop with balls), climbing (bumpy slide, tumbling blocks, climbing wall),
turn-taking (all), motor planning (bumpy slide, tumbling blocks, wall climber), directional awareness (all),core muscle strength (bumpy slide, tumbling blocks, climbing wall), upper body strength (tumbling blocks with rope, basketball hoop with balls)body awareness (balance beam, tumbling blocks, tunnel), reaching (wall climber, tumbling blocks with rope), jumping (wall climber, hopscotch), turning (wall climber, balance beam), spatial awareness (climbing wall, balance beam,basketball hoop with balls, tunnel), landing (climbing wall, hopscotch)

Snacks:
Monday: Applesauce and granola
Wednesday: Bananas and rice Cakes
Thursday: Frozen peas and pretzels

Winter Weekly Lesson Plan 

3.11.13-3.15.13

Jamie, Catherine, and Taylor Lead Teaching

Overview:


For the end of the term it is our intention to go full circle and revisit some of the concepts, themes, and ideas from the beginning of the year. We are looking to see how the children's thinking has changed, grown, and evolved based on their experiences. We will ask open-ended questions and see if the children can problem-solve and conceptualize their own ideas about the curriculum based on their new knowledge. We will continue to support their friendships and independent negotiation skills through intentional focus groups and verbally prompting and modeling. We will encourage the collaborative use of tools, materials, and objects to work together to accomplish a goal.

Expressive Arts

**Materials: Light table in the room, clear plastic film, red, yellow, and blue paint with glitter under saran wrap

Rationale: To promote a sensory experience and encourage fine motor manipulation and skills. To promote color mixing and allow the children to formulate their own ideas about color and its properties. To encourage children to problem solve and explore cause and effect relationships when manipulating the paint without actually touching it.

Skills: Observing, fine motor, color mixing, cause and effect, trying out new ideas, taking turns, creative expression, predicting, discussing,

**Materials: Easel, white paper, primary colors, various textured paint brushes and rollers

Rationale: To represent the color wheel and explore coloring mixing through another medium. To encourage prediction, questioning, and problem solving skills when mixing colors. To encourage creative expression, and provide the opportunity for the children to represent their ideas on paper.

Skills: Fine motor, collaboration, creative expression, sensory input, try out new ideas, representation.


**Materials: Primary colored paper, scissors, markers, colored tape, and letter cut outs

Rationale: To encourage the children to experiment with their creativity and ideas while drawing. To increase their manipulation of scissors and ability to cut snips or across a piece of paper. To continue identifying primary colors and apply their knowledge about color mixing and matching. To increase their letter identification skills and encourage pre-literacy skills.

Skills: Fine motor, cutting, creativity, artistic expression, color exploration, color recognition and labeling, observation, comparison, discussion.



Sensory

**Materials: Brown playdough, kitchen tools, rolling pins, muffin tins, cookie sheets, pretend oven, and shape cut outs

Rationale: To represent some of the natural colors of baking and cooking in preparation for our final cooking project for the class parties. To provide baking ingredients to encourage measuring and pouring. To encourage shape awareness and identification skills. To provide natural opportunities for cooperation and sharing materials and ideas. To provide a pretend oven and additional kitchen tools and items for the children to "cook" their food or other playdough creations.

Skills: Sensory input, fine motor, turn taking, creative expression, manual dexterity, observation, cause and effect, cooperation, collaboration, exploration, creativity.

**Materials: Sensory table, snow, trucks, wooden hammers, shovels, and tool visuals.

Rationale: To continue manipulating snow indoors. To continue inquiring about the properties and transformations of snow in a warm temperature classroom. To encourage the children to apply their knowledge about what melts snow and ice and allow them to freely explore and experiment with the snow.

Skills: Communication, collaboration, problem-solving, fine motor, sensory input, manual dexterity, trying out new idea, observation, comparing, cause-and-effect

Science

Materials: Ice and snow time lapse and demonstration videos

Rationale: To observe snow and ice transformations that wouldn't be feasible in our classroom setting. To integrate technology into the curriculum.


Skills practiced: discussion, observation, prediction



**Materials: Horseshoe magnets, magnet sticks, magnetic board, magnet props and visuals, magnetic and non-magnetic items in a magnetic sort, charts to test magnetic and nonmagnetic items.

Rationale: To continue to prompt problem solving and the exploration of cause and effect relationships. To provide ways for the children to test their predictions about what is magnetic and what is not by sorting them items. To provide both magnetic and non-magnetic materials for the children to increase awareness of the properties of magnets and explore why some items are magnetic while others are not.

Skills: Prediction, observation, discussion, ideas, recording ideas and experiments.

Dramatic Play 


**Materials: Construction vests, tool boxes, plastic tools, tool belts, wooden 'nails' and boards to hammer, construction visuals.

Rationale: To continue exploring construction dramatic play materials based on the children's interest in building and using tools. To investigate what construction workers wear, tools they use, and structures they build. To merge the content areas of blocks and dramatic play to develop rich and intentional play. To encourage and provide opportunities for collaborative play and building.

Skills: Role play, symbolic play, communication, turn-taking, collaboration, fine motor, self-help skills, creative expression, try out new ideas

**Materials: Loft, animal furs, stuffed bears and other woodland animals, blankets, sticks, magnetic fishing sticks, river and bush visuals, fish, berry, and nut visuals.

Rationale: To continue to explore the dramatic play theme of winter animals and activities. To explore what kinds of foods bears eat with a river visual where the children can fish for salmon or trout. To include a bush visual where they can pick berries and nuts to store for winter. To continue exploration of hibernation and how bears cope in the winter weather. To express ideas about winter animals and hibernation through role play and symbolic play. To provide materials for the children to act out familiar hibernation story lines like building a fire, making hot cocoa and other foods, and sleeping in a cave. To create a more realistic setting and aid in dramatic play by covering the sides and top of the loft with dark paper and fabric.

Skills: communication, collaboration, try out new ideas, creative expression, role play, symbolic play, discussion

**Materials: Wooden trains, chairs, animal carriers, conductor hats, destination visuals, personal travel visuals,

Rationale: To create ownership and continued excitement about the travel and work themes through personal photos and experiences on a travel board in the room. To include narrations from the parents that describe where they traveled to and what they did. To continue symbolically representing vehicles using chairs and encourage the children to incorporate personal traveling experiences about trains, planes, and other vehicles. To provide additional materials for the children to extend their play by making a larger train track, acting out riding on a train or airplane, and using collaborative building skills to create
large structures, such as an airport, airplane, train, and train station.

Skills: Role-play, symbolic representation, communication, collaboration, creative expression, cooperation, social skills, building, and fine motor.

**Materials: Household kitchen furniture, plates, bowls, cups, food, sandwich making set, lunchboxes.

Rationale: To continue to provide opportunities for children to symbolically represent their experiences and promote curiosity about making and serving food for themselves and others. To continue to encourage collaborative cooking projects and give the children opportunities to express their ideas and share materials. 
To incorporate food into the other dramatic play themes including the hibernation cave and traveling and going to work. To encourage children to explore making lunches and taking 'lunch breaks' from work, based upon their interest in doing so.

Skills: Role play, symbolic representation, communication, collaboration, creative expression, cooperation, social skills, spatial reasoning.


Math and Manipulatives 



**Materials: Matching card games, stringing beads, vehicle, winter animals, and tool puzzles, magnetic puzzles, Montessori seriation puzzles

Rationale: To include matching and time lapse cards that promote memory and problem solving skills. To provide materials that support problem-solving skills, hand-eye coordination, and fine motor control. To introduce magnetic manipulatives that allow children to experiment with cause and effect relationships. To have puzzles that promote awareness and interest in the curriculum themes of bears, winter, and colors. To continue to explore the concepts of seriation, ordering, matching, size, and whole-part relationships.

Skills: comparison, persistence, fine motor control, cause and effect, hand-eye coordination, seriation, problem-solving, matching, short-term memory, and ordering.

Language and Literacy 



**Materials: To introduce books about emotions and encourage identifying one's own emotion and emotions of others. A variety of number and letter awareness books will be used to encourage pre-literacy skills. A variety of books including color, winter, and bear themes will be displayed in different curriculum areas as well as the reading nook. Books and book shelf in the 'cave', name cards with corresponding letters to stick, felt letters and felt boards.

Rationale: To promote investigation and utilization of information in books and applying it in play, to continuing to facilitate the development of the basic components of language and pre-literacy skills. To incorporate our curriculum themes of winter and color into the literacy area to help the children gain knowledge and understanding by using resources. To provide a comfortable space to explore and read books with teachers, to promote letter and whole word (name) awareness.

Skills: Listening, speaking, reading, phonological awareness, alphabetical awareness, heuristic language, provide and inquire information, turn taking. 


Blocks 



**Materials: Hollow blocks and unit blocks.




Rationale: To continue to encourage collaborative block building and making airports, houses, garage, train tracks, train parts (i.e. engines), and work environments. To support the story lines of traveling by providing visuals of personal experiences. To use blocks to extend dramatic play themes including construction and the building of collaborative structures. To support spatial and weight concepts when building a structure.

Skills: Cooperation, collaboration, creativity, symbolic representation, large and fine motor, spatial concepts, construction skills (building), try out new ideas

Large Motor 



**Materials: Rope-swing, "Balance Bridge," donut slide, triangle slide, scooter boards, mini-trampoline


Rationale: The theme for this new set-up is "big body movements." We added the smaller triangle slide of the edge of the climber, as well as the large donut slide to the side of the climber - challenging children to slide off the side of the jumping donut and land on their feet! We also added an inclined balance-beam bridge - adding a new level of challenge for those that enjoyed the bridge from the previous set-up. We put the scooter boards in the back of the gym, and we anticipate many new and fun games to be created over the next two weeks! Last, but certainly not least, we added the rope swing! A favorite of many, the large rope-swing challenges children to use many skills simultaneously in order to successfully swing back and forth! 


Skills: upper-body strength/endurance, grasping, pushing/pumping with feet (propulsion skills), spatial-/directional-/body-awareness (proprioceptive skills), jumping and landing, eye-to-foot coordination, static and dynamic balance, flexibility, agility, cardio-vascular
endurance, cooperation/negotiation, "big-body" play

**Materials: Outdoors: Buckets, shovels, snow, yellow scooter cars, dump trucks, wheelbarrows, hidden colored ice cubes, sleds, "bricks" of snow.

Rationale: To expand the children's knowledge of snow and ice and apply their learning in a new situation. To provide children with "bricks" of snow to encourage collaborative building outside and build on their interest in bear caves and igloos. To provide children opportunities to engage in activities that challenge their physical skills including pushing, running, climbing, and jumping. To facilitate activities that promote usage of snow and ice. To encourage social interactions, collaboration, and turn taking. To incorporate color outside by adding hidden colored ice cubes to encourage problem solving when searching, finding, and obtaining the objects. To continue exploring the concept of "treasure hunting".

Skills: Fine and large motor, body manipulation, physical fitness, hand-eye coordination, cause and effect, turn-taking, observation, collaboration.

Large group 



**Materials: Songs and rhymes led by teacher (gather, name, and topic songs and rhymes), days of the week, emotions, ABC's, winter, bear, friendship, and color themed discussion, rhyming story and songs, dance and instrument activities, and modeling of activities. 




Rationale: To continue to draw awareness to people's emotions through gestures and body language. To introduce the days of the week in a song and book during large group. To allow children opportunities to share their ideas about curriculum areas with the group. To facilitate self-regulation when participating in a group. To continue discussing the changes that are affecting us including weather, colors, and the approaching end of the term. To encourage rhyming skills, story concepts, and word play. To incorporate and model curriculum area concepts including color mixing, hibernation stories and play ideas.

Skills: Attention span, attending and orienting, respect for one another, following directions, self-regulation, sharing ideas.

Music

**Materials: Piano, maracas, drums, and nose makers, visuals of a band, visuals of parades, sheet music, blocks, and teacher-led songs.

Rationale: To provide materials for the children to make a stage and play music together. To investigate different sounds, volume, and rhythm. To promote social interaction by encouraging the children to play instruments both in large group and during free play. To incorporate music with other dramatic play themes such as train travel. To begin exploring parades and bands as ways to present, share, and collectively play music. To extend children's interest in sheet music, and playing instruments.

Skills: Creative expression and movement, mathematical concepts (beats and patterns), imitation, call and answer, communication, fine motor.

Snacks

Monday: Rice chex and raisins
Wednesday: Pizza
Thursday: Applesauce and birthday snack

Winter Weekly Lesson Plan 

3.11.13-3.15.13

Jamie, Catherine, and Taylor Lead Teaching

Overview:


For the end of the term it is our intention to go full circle and revisit some of the concepts, themes, and ideas from the beginning of the year. We are looking to see how the children's thinking has changed, grown, and evolved based on their experiences. We will ask open-ended questions and see if the children can problem-solve and conceptualize their own ideas about the curriculum based on their new knowledge. We will continue to support their friendships and independent negotiation skills through intentional focus groups and verbally prompting and modeling. We will encourage the collaborative use of tools, materials, and objects to work together to accomplish a goal.

Expressive Arts

**Materials: Light table in the room, clear plastic film, red, yellow, and blue paint with glitter under saran wrap

Rationale: To promote a sensory experience and encourage fine motor manipulation and skills. To promote color mixing and allow the children to formulate their own ideas about color and its properties. To encourage children to problem solve and explore cause and effect relationships when manipulating the paint without actually touching it.

Skills: Observing, fine motor, color mixing, cause and effect, trying out new ideas, taking turns, creative expression, predicting, discussing,

**Materials: Easel, white paper, primary colors, various textured paint brushes and rollers

Rationale: To represent the color wheel and explore coloring mixing through another medium. To encourage prediction, questioning, and problem solving skills when mixing colors. To encourage creative expression, and provide the opportunity for the children to represent their ideas on paper.

Skills: Fine motor, collaboration, creative expression, sensory input, try out new ideas, representation.


**Materials: Primary colored paper, scissors, markers, colored tape, and letter cut outs

Rationale: To encourage the children to experiment with their creativity and ideas while drawing. To increase their manipulation of scissors and ability to cut snips or across a piece of paper. To continue identifying primary colors and apply their knowledge about color mixing and matching. To increase their letter identification skills and encourage pre-literacy skills.

Skills: Fine motor, cutting, creativity, artistic expression, color exploration, color recognition and labeling, observation, comparison, discussion.



Sensory

**Materials: Brown playdough, kitchen tools, rolling pins, muffin tins, cookie sheets, pretend oven, and shape cut outs

Rationale: To represent some of the natural colors of baking and cooking in preparation for our final cooking project for the class parties. To provide baking ingredients to encourage measuring and pouring. To encourage shape awareness and identification skills. To provide natural opportunities for cooperation and sharing materials and ideas. To provide a pretend oven and additional kitchen tools and items for the children to "cook" their food or other playdough creations.

Skills: Sensory input, fine motor, turn taking, creative expression, manual dexterity, observation, cause and effect, cooperation, collaboration, exploration, creativity.

**Materials: Sensory table, snow, trucks, wooden hammers, shovels, and tool visuals.

Rationale: To continue manipulating snow indoors. To continue inquiring about the properties and transformations of snow in a warm temperature classroom. To encourage the children to apply their knowledge about what melts snow and ice and allow them to freely explore and experiment with the snow.

Skills: Communication, collaboration, problem-solving, fine motor, sensory input, manual dexterity, trying out new idea, observation, comparing, cause-and-effect

Science

Materials: Ice and snow time lapse and demonstration videos

Rationale: To observe snow and ice transformations that wouldn't be feasible in our classroom setting. To integrate technology into the curriculum.


Skills practiced: discussion, observation, prediction



**Materials: Horseshoe magnets, magnet sticks, magnetic board, magnet props and visuals, magnetic and non-magnetic items in a magnetic sort, charts to test magnetic and nonmagnetic items.

Rationale: To continue to prompt problem solving and the exploration of cause and effect relationships. To provide ways for the children to test their predictions about what is magnetic and what is not by sorting them items. To provide both magnetic and non-magnetic materials for the children to increase awareness of the properties of magnets and explore why some items are magnetic while others are not.

Skills: Prediction, observation, discussion, ideas, recording ideas and experiments.

Dramatic Play 


**Materials: Construction vests, tool boxes, plastic tools, tool belts, wooden 'nails' and boards to hammer, construction visuals.

Rationale: To continue exploring construction dramatic play materials based on the children's interest in building and using tools. To investigate what construction workers wear, tools they use, and structures they build. To merge the content areas of blocks and dramatic play to develop rich and intentional play. To encourage and provide opportunities for collaborative play and building.

Skills: Role play, symbolic play, communication, turn-taking, collaboration, fine motor, self-help skills, creative expression, try out new ideas

**Materials: Loft, animal furs, stuffed bears and other woodland animals, blankets, sticks, magnetic fishing sticks, river and bush visuals, fish, berry, and nut visuals.

Rationale: To continue to explore the dramatic play theme of winter animals and activities. To explore what kinds of foods bears eat with a river visual where the children can fish for salmon or trout. To include a bush visual where they can pick berries and nuts to store for winter. To continue exploration of hibernation and how bears cope in the winter weather. To express ideas about winter animals and hibernation through role play and symbolic play. To provide materials for the children to act out familiar hibernation story lines like building a fire, making hot cocoa and other foods, and sleeping in a cave. To create a more realistic setting and aid in dramatic play by covering the sides and top of the loft with dark paper and fabric.

Skills: communication, collaboration, try out new ideas, creative expression, role play, symbolic play, discussion

**Materials: Wooden trains, chairs, animal carriers, conductor hats, destination visuals, personal travel visuals,

Rationale: To create ownership and continued excitement about the travel and work themes through personal photos and experiences on a travel board in the room. To include narrations from the parents that describe where they traveled to and what they did. To continue symbolically representing vehicles using chairs and encourage the children to incorporate personal traveling experiences about trains, planes, and other vehicles. To provide additional materials for the children to extend their play by making a larger train track, acting out riding on a train or airplane, and using collaborative building skills to create
large structures, such as an airport, airplane, train, and train station.

Skills: Role-play, symbolic representation, communication, collaboration, creative expression, cooperation, social skills, building, and fine motor.

**Materials: Household kitchen furniture, plates, bowls, cups, food, sandwich making set, lunchboxes.

Rationale: To continue to provide opportunities for children to symbolically represent their experiences and promote curiosity about making and serving food for themselves and others. To continue to encourage collaborative cooking projects and give the children opportunities to express their ideas and share materials. 
To incorporate food into the other dramatic play themes including the hibernation cave and traveling and going to work. To encourage children to explore making lunches and taking 'lunch breaks' from work, based upon their interest in doing so.

Skills: Role play, symbolic representation, communication, collaboration, creative expression, cooperation, social skills, spatial reasoning.


Math and Manipulatives 



**Materials: Matching card games, stringing beads, vehicle, winter animals, and tool puzzles, magnetic puzzles, Montessori seriation puzzles

Rationale: To include matching and time lapse cards that promote memory and problem solving skills. To provide materials that support problem-solving skills, hand-eye coordination, and fine motor control. To introduce magnetic manipulatives that allow children to experiment with cause and effect relationships. To have puzzles that promote awareness and interest in the curriculum themes of bears, winter, and colors. To continue to explore the concepts of seriation, ordering, matching, size, and whole-part relationships.

Skills: comparison, persistence, fine motor control, cause and effect, hand-eye coordination, seriation, problem-solving, matching, short-term memory, and ordering.

Language and Literacy 



**Materials: To introduce books about emotions and encourage identifying one's own emotion and emotions of others. A variety of number and letter awareness books will be used to encourage pre-literacy skills. A variety of books including color, winter, and bear themes will be displayed in different curriculum areas as well as the reading nook. Books and book shelf in the 'cave', name cards with corresponding letters to stick, felt letters and felt boards.

Rationale: To promote investigation and utilization of information in books and applying it in play, to continuing to facilitate the development of the basic components of language and pre-literacy skills. To incorporate our curriculum themes of winter and color into the literacy area to help the children gain knowledge and understanding by using resources. To provide a comfortable space to explore and read books with teachers, to promote letter and whole word (name) awareness.

Skills: Listening, speaking, reading, phonological awareness, alphabetical awareness, heuristic language, provide and inquire information, turn taking. 


Blocks 



**Materials: Hollow blocks and unit blocks.




Rationale: To continue to encourage collaborative block building and making airports, houses, garage, train tracks, train parts (i.e. engines), and work environments. To support the story lines of traveling by providing visuals of personal experiences. To use blocks to extend dramatic play themes including construction and the building of collaborative structures. To support spatial and weight concepts when building a structure.

Skills: Cooperation, collaboration, creativity, symbolic representation, large and fine motor, spatial concepts, construction skills (building), try out new ideas

Large Motor 



**Materials: Rope-swing, "Balance Bridge," donut slide, triangle slide, scooter boards, mini-trampoline


Rationale: The theme for this new set-up is "big body movements." We added the smaller triangle slide of the edge of the climber, as well as the large donut slide to the side of the climber - challenging children to slide off the side of the jumping donut and land on their feet! We also added an inclined balance-beam bridge - adding a new level of challenge for those that enjoyed the bridge from the previous set-up. We put the scooter boards in the back of the gym, and we anticipate many new and fun games to be created over the next two weeks! Last, but certainly not least, we added the rope swing! A favorite of many, the large rope-swing challenges children to use many skills simultaneously in order to successfully swing back and forth! 


Skills: upper-body strength/endurance, grasping, pushing/pumping with feet (propulsion skills), spatial-/directional-/body-awareness (proprioceptive skills), jumping and landing, eye-to-foot coordination, static and dynamic balance, flexibility, agility, cardio-vascular
endurance, cooperation/negotiation, "big-body" play

**Materials: Outdoors: Buckets, shovels, snow, yellow scooter cars, dump trucks, wheelbarrows, hidden colored ice cubes, sleds, "bricks" of snow.

Rationale: To expand the children's knowledge of snow and ice and apply their learning in a new situation. To provide children with "bricks" of snow to encourage collaborative building outside and build on their interest in bear caves and igloos. To provide children opportunities to engage in activities that challenge their physical skills including pushing, running, climbing, and jumping. To facilitate activities that promote usage of snow and ice. To encourage social interactions, collaboration, and turn taking. To incorporate color outside by adding hidden colored ice cubes to encourage problem solving when searching, finding, and obtaining the objects. To continue exploring the concept of "treasure hunting".

Skills: Fine and large motor, body manipulation, physical fitness, hand-eye coordination, cause and effect, turn-taking, observation, collaboration.

Large group 



**Materials: Songs and rhymes led by teacher (gather, name, and topic songs and rhymes), days of the week, emotions, ABC's, winter, bear, friendship, and color themed discussion, rhyming story and songs, dance and instrument activities, and modeling of activities. 




Rationale: To continue to draw awareness to people's emotions through gestures and body language. To introduce the days of the week in a song and book during large group. To allow children opportunities to share their ideas about curriculum areas with the group. To facilitate self-regulation when participating in a group. To continue discussing the changes that are affecting us including weather, colors, and the approaching end of the term. To encourage rhyming skills, story concepts, and word play. To incorporate and model curriculum area concepts including color mixing, hibernation stories and play ideas.

Skills: Attention span, attending and orienting, respect for one another, following directions, self-regulation, sharing ideas.

Music

**Materials: Piano, maracas, drums, and nose makers, visuals of a band, visuals of parades, sheet music, blocks, and teacher-led songs.

Rationale: To provide materials for the children to make a stage and play music together. To investigate different sounds, volume, and rhythm. To promote social interaction by encouraging the children to play instruments both in large group and during free play. To incorporate music with other dramatic play themes such as train travel. To begin exploring parades and bands as ways to present, share, and collectively play music. To extend children's interest in sheet music, and playing instruments.

Skills: Creative expression and movement, mathematical concepts (beats and patterns), imitation, call and answer, communication, fine motor.

Snacks

Tuesday: Pizza
Friday: Applesauce and crackers

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Weekly Lesson Plan for Ross' Class
Week of: March 11-15, 2013
Lead-teaching this week: Avery

Overview: We had a week filled with snow and exciting small group wrap-ups. Those who braved the snow on Tuesday were able to enjoy over an hour of snowy fun out on the playground, and the snow fun continued throughout the week. Our small groups ended on Thursday and each group did a culminating project to bring together everything the children learned. Avery's group made their own baking soda and vinegar rockets and created a "how-to" video so classmates create and launch their own rocket. Megan's group explored DInkytown using their five senses, and ended with a hot and cold chocolate tasting at the Purple Onion. Veronica's small group created a game for the whole class to play in the gym and taught the other children how to play on Friday. This week is already our last week of the session, so we will be wrapping up various projects throughout the room and allowing the children to utilize the skills and knowledge they have acquired throughout the session.

Expressive Arts (easel, play-dough, wooden pieces)
• Materials: Easel: paint, paintbrushes, plastic egg carton halves, paper. Clay table: colored play-dough, wire, plastic pizza cutters, rolling pins, arctic animals, letter cookie cutters. Art table: Cake box, paper, paint, paintbrushes.
• Rationale: At the easel, the children will continue to make their own colors using the bottles and egg cartons. This will allow the children utilize their color mixing knowledge learned throughout this session. We will also incorporate color mixing at the clay table this week, using two different colors of play-dough so the children can see color mixing using a new medium. At the art table, we will focus on finishing the wooden sculptures and creating a neighborhood by combining all the children's pieces onto a cake box.
• Skills: symbolic representation, self-expression, fine motor skills, utilization of color mixing knowledge, 3D art skills, peer socialization.

Sensory (water, ice, and snow)
• Materials: Ice, water, snow, buckets, arctic animals, spray bottles, snowball maker (plastic apple container)
• Rationale: The children continue to enjoy using the "snowball maker" and color the snow blue. This week, we will make sheets of ice to encourage more dramatic play with the arctic animals. The sheets of ice will contribute to the dramatic play that has been happening here with the arctic animals. The children made penguin slides last week, and the ice sheets will make the slide experience more successful.
• Skills: Cause/effect, peer negotiation/collaboration, scientific thinking and reasoning by exploring with color in the snow.

Science
• Materials: arctic animals, blue trays, ice, paper, pencils, white LEGOS, globe, pictures of arctic animals and homes, packing peanuts, salt
• Rationale: To renew interest in the arctic science table, the teachers will build the base of a large igloo out of packing peanuts. We will introduce this igloo at large group and facilitate more building of arctic homes with the packing peanuts. We will also tape pictures of arctic animals on the globe to show the children where the animals live.
• Skills: Concept knowledge (knowledge of the natural world), symbolic representation, comparing and contrasting, reasoning, 3D art skills, classification, fine motor skills.

Language and Literacy
• Materials: Paper, pencils, markers, class name book, class ABC book, staplers, tape, envelopes, mailbox
• Rationale: This week we will re-introduce our class ABC book, as its first introduction was brief and the children do not seem to know what to do with it. We are hoping that each child will write the letters they know in the book, so each child notice that everyone's written letters look a little bit different, as well as provide an example for children who are still learning how to write the letters. One exciting thing that happened last week was writing all-class letters back and forth with Amy's class to communicate about playing together last Friday.
• Skills: Letter recognition, fine motor skills, pre/early literacy skills, sequencing for writing letters to Amy's class.

Math and Manipulatives (including the Nook)
• Materials: Unifix cubes, number book, matching game, puzzle, games to practice seriation and ordering, number bingo, K'Nex.
• Rationale: A select group of children continue to enjoy making magic wands with the K'Nex, while others enjoy building cars and other structures. The children enjoy playing number bingo, which is reinforcing number recognition and giving the children more opportunities to practice with the "tricky teens." They have also been challenging themselves with new, more difficult puzzles we have available.
• Skills: Number recognition, one-to-one correspondence, rational counting, ordering and seriating skills, peer negotiation/collaboration, problem solving.

Dramatic Play (including the caves)
• Materials: Dress up clothes and shows, dramatic playhouse props, play phones, keys, fabric, arctic animals, musical instruments.
• Rationale: The children engaged in a variety of dramatic play this past week, including: TIVs, dogs, and royal families. There was a lot of play with queens, princesses, and minstrels, who enjoy playing music with "found instruments" (plastic container, paper towel tube). To extend this play, we will add real instruments to our dramatic play area, and hope to inspire more music-centered dramatic play. The instruments also have the possibility of bringing the whole class plays back into action.
• Skills: Peer relationships, socio-dramatic play, symbolic representation, problem solving.

Blocks
• Materials: Large hollow blocks, unit blocks, steering wheels, key boards, fabric, cell phones, keys.
• Rationale: The children continue to work together building TIVs. They have recently started making them bigger which allow more children to build them and play in them once they are completed. There was even some underwater tornado tracking happening this week in the TIVs! The blocks also continue to be a large part of other dramatic play, including a forest in the "royal family" play.
• Skills: Peer relationships, large motor skills, peer negotiation/collaboration, symbolic representation, socio-dramatic play, imaginative play.

Large Motor
• Materials: Rope-swing, "Balance Bridge," donut slide, triangle slide, scooter boards, mini-trampoline
• Rationale: The new gym set-up is ready for action! Although the children get outside regularly and move their bodies quite a bit, mobility is still somewhat limited in snowsuits. Ergo, the theme for this new set-up is "big body movements." We added the smaller triangle slide of the edge of the climber, as well as the large donut slide to the side of the climber - challenging children to slide off the side of the jumping donut and land on their feet! We also added an inclined balance-beam bridge - adding a new level of challenge for those that enjoyed the bridge from the previous set-up. We put the scooter boards in the back of the gym, and we anticipate many new and fun games to be created over the next two weeks! Last, but certainly not least, we added the rope swing! A favorite of many, the large rope-swing challenges children to use many skills simultaneously in order to successfully swing back and forth!
• Skills: upper-body strength/endurance, grasping, pushing/pumping with feet (propulsion skills), spatial-/directional-/body-awareness (proprioceptive skills), jumping and landing, eye-to-foot coordination, static and dynamic balance, flexibility, agility, cardio-vascular endurance, cooperation/negotiation, "big-body" play

Special Interest and Announcements
• The new student teachers will come to visit next week. Hilary, Laura E., and Laura P. will be stopping by next week to meet the children. Laura E. will actually join us for two full days next week (Monday and Wednesday), as she will be missing two days in April for a national tennis tournament, as she is a member of the U of M tennis team.
• Class resumes on Monday, April 1st - have a wonderfully enjoyable spring break!
• There are still a few spots remaining for both summer school programs. Send your sign-up forms to Amy Pieren to get the last remaining spots!

Snack
Monday - Crackers & craisins
Tuesday - Birthday snack (provided by Zoe's family)
Wednesday - Pretzels & milk
Thursday - Pumpkin chocolate chip muffins
Friday - Trail mix

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Overview:
With two weeks left of the winter session, small groups have started to wrap up. Ally's and Emily's small groups presented their culminating events during Morning Meeting last week. Taya's small group will present their culminating event this week. The open-ended materials in the classroom have encouraged children to explore their interests. Children's interests guided teachers in choosing this week's materials. Play dough has been a very popular activity for the past few weeks. Children continue to shape and mold the play dough into food and animals. This week children will have the opportunity to save their sculptures and paint them once the play dough has dried. Children continue to enjoy the water at the sensory table. This week funnels and tubes will be added so that children can transfer water between three different bins. The Post Office has been a very popular area in the classroom. Children have been busy writing letters to one another and using the mailboxes. This week children will be encouraged to use the dramatic play clothing (hats, shirts, and mail carrier bags) and deliver mail to children's cubbies.

Expressive Arts:
- Materials: Play dough, rolling pins, popsicle sticks, dull knives, garlic press, potato masher, pizza cutters, tempura paint. Easel, brushes, tempera paint, paper. Overhead projector, popsicle sticks, tape, construction paper.
- Rationale: Play dough continues to be a popular activity in the classroom. Children have taken pride in the animals and food that they have sculpted. Plain colored play dough will be available so that children can save their sculptures. Once the play dough sculptures have dried, children will be able to paint them and use them for future experiences with play dough. Children will explore shadows using the overhead projector. Materials will be available for children to create shadow puppets. The children will be able to use their puppets to act out stories.
- Skills: self-expression, fine motor skills, symbolic representation, creative expression, cause-and-effect relationships, experimentation, heuristic language, descriptive language, sensory stimulation, social interactions.

Sensory:
- Materials: Sensory table, blue water, measuring cups, transparent tubes, funnels, small penguins.
- Rationale: The children have been busy using cups and animals to transfer water from one bin to the other bin. Following the children's interests, funnels and tubes will be introduced this week. Children will be able to use the funnels and tubes to move water between the different bins. Blue water will be used so that children can better see the water being transferred through the tubes. Children will be able to use the measuring cups to pour water into the funnels. The measuring cups also allow for the measurement of volume.
- Skills: problem-solving, negotiating, self-regulation, sensory stimulation, fine motor skills, cause-and-effect relationships, generalizing, awareness of numerals, social interactions, receptive language, heuristic language, descriptive language.

Science:
- Materials: Bird beak pictures, bird seed, rubber insects, strainer, tweezers, pliers. Scale, objects that float, objects that sink, two buckets of water.
- Rationale: Last week the children identified different tools that mimic the shape and function of various bird beaks. This week the tools will be available so that children can explore and inquire about how birds catch their food. Each day a new tool will be featured at the science table. The other science table will feature new concepts about sinking and floating. Various objects will be available for children to place into bins of water. Children can predict which objects will sink or float, observe what happens when the items are placed in the water, and inquire about why they sink or float. Children can use the scale to weigh different objects and generate predictions relating to the weight of the objects, such as lightweight objects will float but heavyweight objects will sink.
- Skills: scientific inquiry, observation, prediction, hypothesizing, concept knowledge, descriptive language, heuristic language, informative language, symbolic representation, comparing and contrasting, drawing conclusions, generalizing, reasoning, knowledge of physical properties, cause-and-effect relationships, fine motor skills.

Math and Manipulatives:
- Materials: Legos, string, large beads, magnet board, magnetic shapes. Translucent colored tangrams.
- Rationale: The children have been busy using the legos to construct and design buildings and roadways. This week we will remind children of their creations and encourage continued construction. String and large beads will be added to the math cave so that children can revisit patterning. The magnet board will have a line down the middle in order for children to create symmetry with the magnetic shapes. Translucent colored tangrams will be added to the light table. Children can piece together the different shapes to form a variety of creations.
Skills: problem solving, geometry, concept knowledge, one-to-one correspondence, whole/part relationships, pre-academic concepts of shapes and colors, symmetry, fine motor skills, patterning.

Language and Literacy:
- Materials: Paper, envelopes, square stickers ("stamps"). A variety of writing implements, scissors, stencils, name cards. A posting of the upper and lower case alphabet. A well stocked library with books about the alphabet, animals, habitats, and winter. Puzzles with upper and lower case alphabet letters.
- Rationale: The Post Office has been very busy! Children have been excited to see letters in their mailboxes. This week we will encourage children to write more letters so that everyone has an opportunity to receive mail. Dramatic play clothes (hats, shirts, and letter carrier bags) were added to the post office last week. Children pretended to be mail carriers and delivered mail to children's cubbies. Last week children used the upper loft to draw fairies. Since children have expressed a great interest in fairies, a step-by-step drawing of a fairy will be added to upper loft.
- Skills: letter recognition, letter sound recognition, awareness of the alphabetic principle, phonemic awareness, familiarity with symbol systems, symbolic representation, fine motor control, descriptive and creative writing, listening and receptive abilities, hand-eye coordination, concept knowledge (sending mail), social interaction, dramatic play.

Dramatic Play:
- Materials: Kitchen, dishes, plastic food (ice cream and ice cream cones), aprons, chef hats, calculator, phone, menus, paper, pencils.
- Rationale: Children have continued to enjoy the Ice Cream Shop. The children have taken pride in running and operating the business. The children have developed a system for ordering and delivering the food. Paper and pencils have been used to write down orders and phone numbers, and the children work together to deliver food to their customers.
- Skills: conceptual knowledge (homes, restaurants), descriptive language, heuristic language, informative language, concept knowledge (writing orders), familiarity with symbol systems, symbolic representation, role-play, social interactions, problem-solving, sharing, home-school connection, community connection.

Blocks:
- Materials: Hollow blocks, unit blocks, ramps, wood boards. Markers, paper, tape.
- Rationale: Alligators continue to be a popular interest among some of the children. Hollow blocks have been used to create large homes for the alligators. With the new interest of fairies, children have started using the hollow blocks to build fairy homes. This week we will remind children of their structures and encourage them to delve deeper into building their habitats.
- Skills: Dramatic play, symbolic representation, problem solving, negotiation, compromise, collaboration. Mathematical concepts such as symmetry, dimensions and geometry. Fine and gross motor skills.

Large Motor:
- Materials: Crawling tube, bumpy slide, A-Frame with balance beam, hopscotch, scaling block wall, basketball hoop, balls.
- Rationale: The children have seemed to enjoy the new gym set up! The gym helps children to enhance their core strength, encourages socialization and cooperation, and supports the children's exploration of what they can do with their bodies.
- Skills: Climbing (bumpy slide, scaling wall, A-frame, climbing wall), turn taking (Crawling tube, hopscotch, bumpy slide, scaling block wall, A-frame with balance beam, climbing wall), motor planning (bumpy slide, wall climber), static balance (balance beam, hopscotch), muscular strength and endurance (scaling wall) propulsion skills (basketball & basketball hoop), hand-eye coordination (basket balls and basketball hoop), and directional awareness (all)

Outdoors:
Last week we spent a lot of time outdoors! Children used shovels to build mounds of snow and create tunnels through some of the mounds. Children continued to use shovels to remove snow from certain areas of the playground. Some of the snow removal has revealed patches of ice. The ice has encouraged children to skate and develop their ability to balance. This week we hope for pleasant weather so that we can spend more time outdoors enjoying the snow and ice!

Snack
Monday - Pretzels & raisins
Tuesday - Oven fries
Wednesday - Rice chex & carrots
Thursday - Fruit smoothies & graham crackers
Friday - Popcorn

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Weekly Plan, March 4 - March 15, 2013
Julianne & Amy Team Teaching
Overview and Goals
We cannot believe that March is already here! Many great observations were made in the classroom this week as the children continue to grow in each of the domains of development. Some new concepts were introduced to support the children's interests and encourage them to keep making connections between their activities at school and the world around them. This week, we will incorporate topics such as symmetry and floating/sinking in a variety of ways throughout the classroom. Small groups will begin to come to a close next week. Julianne took her small group to the post office on Thursday which was a lot of fun! The children are eager to share what they have learned about mail and letters with the rest of the class. Amy will be leading the entire class on a field trip to the Bell Museum on Thursday of this week! The children enjoyed solving the mystery word that revealed where they would be going during large group last week. We hope to find closure in some of the current topics within the next couple weeks and are looking forward to sharing our ideas come spring session!
Expressive Arts
~Materials: Easel, brushes, paint, paper. Play-dough, metal tools such as, potato masher, mini muffin pans, garlic press, spatulas, different shape moldings, egg slices, plastic knives, chopping utensils, rolling pins. Projector, overhead sheets, markers, paper.
~Rationale: The children have continued to enjoy using the play-dough! Experimenting with the new tools by creating a variety of food was very popular among the children. The children continue to enjoy creating images on transparencies and creating a larger version using the projector. This activity has started to spark conversations about outlining and shadows. This week we will continue to provide support and build on the children's curiosity by asking prompting questions. The easel will continue to give the children the opportunity to experiment with color shades by mixing white with another color.
~Skills: color recognition, color mixing, self-expression, fine motor skills, eye-hand coordination, symbolic representation, creative expression, experimentation, descriptive language and sensory stimulation

Light Table

~Materials: variety of translucent shapes
~Rationale: The children have enjoyed using various materials in the room to make different structures.To support their interest and foster their creativity, we have added different sized and colored translucent shapes at the light table. The children will be able to experiment with with the shapes to make unique pictures, designs, and patterns with the light shining through. The light table will also provide the children with another sensory experience.
~Skills: fine motor, eye-hand coordination, patterning, self-expression, sensory exploration, descriptive language

Sensory Materials
~Materials: water (two different colors), large pieces of Styrofoam, small balls, items that float, items that sink
~Rationale: The materials in the sensory table reflect the children's interest in objects that float and objects that sink. The materials are open-ended in order for the children to play with them in whichever way they chose while also building their awareness of how some items float and some sink.
~Skills: scientific thinking and reasoning, sensory exploration, cooperative play, creative thinking, fine motor strength, problem solving, negotiating, descriptive language, social interactions, compare and contrast

Science
~Materials: two buckets of water (one labeled float and one labeled sink), basket of various materials, prompting questions. Pictures of different beaks, bird seed, tweezers, pliers, different materials to represent different kinds of beaks
~Rationale: To support the children's new interest in floating and sinking, the science center will provide opportunities to experiment putting various materials in a tub of water to test if they will float or sink. They will then have the opportunity to sort them according to whether they floated or sank. The other science table continues to foster the children's awareness of birds and their habitats and characteristics. The children will be able to explore different types of seeds and beaks and reason why birds' beaks vary in size and shape. Prompting questions are provided to help the children make connections and further inquire about the presented materials.
~Skills: scientific inquiry, making predictions, observation, drawing conclusions, reasoning, descriptive language, informative language, comparing and contrasting, knowledge of physical properties, knowledge of the natural world

Math and Manipulatives

~Materials: Legos, Lego boards with lines taped down the middle, Tangrams, gray trays with a line taped down the middle, magnetic board with a line taped down the middle, magnetic shapes
~Rationale: The math and manipulatives cave is always filled with busy children. In large group last week we introduced the concept of symmetry. The children enjoyed examining Tangram designs and discussing if they were symmetric or not. To continue to foster this new concept we have added a variety of materials, along with boards that have lines down the middle for the children to explore symmetry in different ways.
~Skills: symmetry, concept knowledge, fine motor strength and dexterity, pattern making, problem solving, counting, one-to-one correspondence, comparing and contrasting

Dramatic Play
~Materials:
Loft: fairy tale books, fairy tale story puzzle, fairy tale picture/word sheet, markers, clipboards, paper, envelopes
Underneath the loft: table, four chairs, place mats, different colored open-ended fabrics, purses, hats
Kitchen area: dishes, different types of food, open ended fabrics, ice cream, ice cream cones, ice cream scoops, aprons, chef hats, window with chalkboard, mirror, table cloths, wire shelves, coffee cups, coffee pot, dilly bar bags, sundae cups, paper, markers, clipboard, calculator, menus
Dramatic play cave: mailbox, stamps, envelopes, paper, pencils, postal worker bags, hats and shirts
~Rationale: The children continue to be interested in playing "ice cream shop," and have started to incorporate some new types of food into their shop as well. For example, Tinkerbelle pizza, cakes and cupcakes, just to name a few. The ice cream shop continues to expand past the dramatic play area, to other parts of the classroom on a daily basis. Last week the children explored with moving the ice cream shop to different states and cities. To continue to support the children's interest the lower loft and kitchen area will continue to provide materials and opportunities for children to expand their ice cream shop. We have added more materials for the children to explore and dress up in to expand on their ice cream shop play. The upper loft will continue to provide children with a place in the classroom to explore fairy tales as well as promote important literacy skills. The dramatic play cave is set up as a mailroom in order to offer an area to put all of the children's great writing to use! They will be able to send each other letters, stamp envelopes, and pretend to be mailmen. This week to build on the children's interest in the mailroom we will add clothes and materials for the children to dress up as postman!
~Skills: symbolic representation, social interactions, descriptive language, creative expression, knowledge of the natural world, role-play, problem solving, fine motor, numbers, writing, sharing, letters, writing, alphabet principle

Blocks
~Materials: hollow blocks, unit blocks, ramps, wood boards, big fabric pieces
~Rationale: Children continue to use creativity and problem solving while developing their awareness of geometry through building. Communal building with hollow blocks encouraged cooperation. The hollow blocks have been useful in making extra tables for the ice cream shop play that has been going on in the classroom. The children have also been using the hollow blocks and ramps to make an airplane to move the ice cream shop to other parts of the country.
~Skills: construction skills, dramatic play, symbolic representation, problem solving, mathematical concepts such as symmetry, dimensions and fractions

Language and Literacy
~Materials: name cards, paper, various writing utensils (markers, colored pencils), scissors, tape, a variety of books, envelopes, pre-made booklets, vocabulary words, story writing prompts, symmetry cut-outs
~Rationale: The children continue to show interest in the writing center. We have continued to provide the symmetry cut-outs for the children to practice their cutting as well as play with the concept of symmetry. Many children have been engaging in the mailroom, writing letters to each other and sealing them in envelopes. Story writing prompts were added to encourage the children to create their own fairy tales in the booklets provided. Different vocabulary words will continue to be available for the children to use as models when they create their own stories. The upper loft continues to allow children to experiment with letters in a variety of ways and will also provide them with another place to do some creative writing.
~Skills: letter recognition, fine motor control, pre-/early literacy skills, alphabetic principle, phonemic awareness, artistic expression, cutting skills

Large Motor


~Materials: crawling tube, bumpy slide, A-Frame with balance beam, hopscotch, scaling block wall, basketball hoop, basketballs and climbing wall
~Rationale: The children continue to explore the provided equipment set up in the large motor room. Hopscotch, the crawling tunnel, basketball hoop with balls, climbing wall, scaling wall with rope, and bump slide continue to help build children's upper body and core strength, encourage socialization and cooperation, and support exploration of what they can do with their bodies. Basketball and hopscotch also simulate outdoor activities that we are unable to do right now because of the snow.
~Skills: climbing (bumpy slide, scaling wall, A-frame, climbing wall), turn taking (crawling tunnel, hopscotch, bumpy slide, scaling wall, A-frame with balance beam, climbing wall), motor planning (bumpy slide, wall climber), static balance (balance beam, hopscotch), muscular strength and endurance (scaling wall), propulsion skills (basketball and basketball hoop), hand-eye coordination (basketball and basketball hoop), directional awareness (all)
~Outside: The weather has permitted us to spend time on the playground every day this week. It is starting to be a little bit more mild, which is nice for the children's play! Sledding is still popular amongst the children, but more children have begun going down the slide in different ways. The snow mountains have been transformed into snow tunnels throughout the course of this week! The children have enjoyed digging through to the other side and then crawling through one at a time.

Snack
Monday: Cheerios and raisins
Wednesday: Oven fries
Thursday: Graham crackers and milk

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Weekly Lesson Plan For Ross' Class
Week of: March 4 - 8, 2013
Lead-teaching this week: Megan

Overview: We had a wonderful week with the warm weather! The children were able to get outside to construct slides, caves, and tunnels out of the quiznees. Small groups continued to be a fun time for everyone. Veronica's group continued to play games and enjoyed learning how to safely summersault from their guest gymnast that joined their group last week. Avery's group conducted vinegar and baking soda experiments, and eventually launched some rockets. Megan's group worked with their senses of smell and taste to created fruit pizza for the class. This week we will be wrapping up our small groups and getting ready for the end of the winter session. With the spring coming, we want the children to begin utilizing their newly acquired knowledge through the various areas in the classroom. The teachers will challenge these skills by leading challenging teacher-facilitated activities as well as intentionally selecting materials that will require the children to use their newly knowledge during child-directed play. We are looking forward to a week of learning and fun!

Expressive Arts (easel, play-dough, wooden pieces)
• Materials: Easel: paint, paintbrushes, plastic egg carton halves, paper. Clay table: play-dough, wire, rolling pins, letter shaped cookie cutters, plastic pizza cutters. Art table: small wooden pieces, glue, collage material, cake box, paper, paint, paintbrushes.
• Rationale: At the easel, paint pallets (plastic egg carton halves will be added), allowing children to mix and create their own colors - utilizing their color-mixing knowledge learned during the past 10 weeks. Play-dough has been very popular in the classroom again. Children have created pizzas and cake with the plastic pizza cutters, wrote their names using the letters, and continued to build habitats. To ensure the play-dough stays stimulating, we will add art materials that can be used as toppings or home decorations. The children continued to add "beautiful pieces" to their wooden structures. This week, we will use a large cake box to construct a neighborhood with their wood sculptures. We will encourage children to build the neighborhood by asking children what their neighborhoods look like. We will add paint to this area to promote color recognition and the differences between houses. Neighborhood pictures will be placed around the table to prompt ideas to model what a neighborhood can look like.
- Skills: self-expression, fine motor skills, symbolic representation, creative expression, experimentation, color recognition, 3D art skills, social interactions.

Sensory (water, ice, snow table)
• Materials: ice, water, snow, buckets, arctic animals, spray bottles, snowball maker (plastic apple holder)
• Rationale: A "snowball maker" was added to the sensory table last week (thanks to Kassidy for bring it in!) and has been a hit in the classroom. Children used the "snowball maker" as a way to transport snow from one bucket to another. They also used snowballs to stack on top of each other as homes. The children continued to enjoy coloring the snow and we saw a lot of pretend play happening with the arctic animals. Sheets of ice will be added to support this play.
• Skills: Cause/effect, creative expression through play with the arctic animals, prediction, and scientific thinking and reasoning by exploring with color in the snow and building snow structures.

Science
• Materials: arctic animals, blue trays, ice, paper, pencils, white LEGOS, pictures of arctic animals and arctic shelters/homes, salt, packing peanuts
• Rationale: The shift to arctic animals has been successful in the classroom. The children began to use salt as snow and showed interest in constructing homes as seen in pictures. In order to sustain the children's interest in arctic homes, we will be adding more pictures of these arctic animals and continue to use packing peanuts as a material for habitat construction. The packing peanuts attach easily with a quick dip in water, allowing children to find news ways to stack and create their own, unique animal home.
Skills: concept knowledge (knowledge of the natural world), classification, symbolic representation, comparing and contrasting, drawing conclusions, generalizing, reasoning, knowledge of physical properties, fine motor skills

Language and Literacy
• Materials: Paper, pencils, markers, class name book, staplers, tape, envelopes, mail box, pictures of various maps (including treasure maps)
• Rationale: During large group this past week, letters were used in the mystery bag. Teachers used words with the same letter, in order for children to find the similar sound, and guess the letter. We will continue with the mystery letters this week and be making words with the mystery letters to promote the sound of letters together. Maps continue to be popular and we will use this skill to connect to the neighborhood at the art table.
• Skills: Letter recognition, pre/early literacy skills, analyzing and synthesizing, symbolic representation.

Math and Manipulatives (including the Nook)
• Materials: Unifix cubes, puzzles, number puzzles, letter puzzles, number and matching games, materials to practice seriation and ordering, and K'Nex.
• Rationale: The introduction to K'Nex was a hit! The children used the K'Nex to make all types of structures, including magical wands! We have also observed the children using the stacking blocks to create their own seriated towers: standing shortest to tallest. This week, the focus of large group will be on numbers. We will discuss differences and similarities of amounts, practice counting/finding out the number of objects we have, and listen to musical songs related to numerals. We are hoping to promote the math table and see new skills emerge.
• Skills: One-to-one correspondence, fine motor skills, symbolic representation, rational counting, seriation skills, ordering, number recognition, letter-recognition

Dramatic Play (including the caves)
• Materials: Dress up clothes and shoes, dramatic playhouse props, play phones, various fabrics, and arctic animals.
• Rationale: With the popularity of the sensory and science areas, we will be adding arctic animals to one of our caves. We saw a lot of bear pretend play when the bears were first introduced, and are hoping to encourage arctic animal play with the addition to the caves. Putting on plays also continues to be popular in the classroom and we will support this interest by adding props to the dramatic play/block area, as well as books and music, such as cat stories and fairy stories.
• Skills: Peer relationships, socio-dramatic play/imaginative play, symbolic representation, problem solving.

Blocks
• Materials: Large hollow blocks, unit blocks, steering wheels, key boards, keys, fabric pieces, plastic animals.
• Rationale: Last week, the children continued to facilitate and direct their own plays, reenact "Scamper", and build more elaborate TIV's. We saw cooperation skills and friendships growing stronger in the block area. Children worked together to build and divide the space up, in order for plays and TIV's to happen all at once. We will continue with construction and plays. Papers and markers will be close by to encourage sign making.
• Skills: Large motor skills, problem-solving, peer negotiation/collaboration, symbolic representation, peer relationships, socio-dramatic/imaginative play.

Large motor
We will be changing the gym on after school on Monday and will have a new set up on Tuesday! Rumor has it there may be a large rope swing and/or a tricycle track!
On the playground, the quiznees were a hit for all of the children! We saw a lot of building action as well as cooperation happening as the children shared the quiznees. The construction of the tunnels, slides, and caves will continue as long as the quinzees stay up! We will add colored ice cubes for decoration. The children have also been sledding on the slick hill, and we will continue to have sleds on the playground until the snow melts.

Special Interest
• It's our dish week once again. Thanks for your continual help with washing the snack dishes! We appreciate it!!
• Reminder about our "Good-bye" party: It's on Thursday, March 14 @ 10.30a. Hope you all can make it!
• There are still a few spots for both summer programs (4wk nature exploration; 1wk science camp). If you're interested, sign up quickly. See the updated summer school emails for details!

Snack
Monday - Birthday snack
Tuesday - Oven fries
Wednesday - Pretzels & raisins
Thursday - Fruit smoothies & Triscuit
Friday - Popcorn
** All snacks served with a choice of milk or water. **

Winter Weekly Lesson Plan
3.4.13-3.8.13
Jamie, Catherine, and Taylor Lead Teaching

Overview:


As we near the end of the term we move towards the utilization stage within our curriculum areas of winter and colors. Our goal is to help the children apply their knowledge and learning in new situations and in the real world. We will continue to support independent self-help skills, empathy, and collaborative play through modeling and verbally coaching the children. We will continue to create meaningful and intentional focus groups to facilitate relationships and interactions among the children and encourage them to deeply explore the classroom areas while promoting and providing inquiry and problem solving situations.

Expressive Arts

**Materials: Easel, white paper, primary and secondary colors, various textured paint brushes and rollers

Rationale: To represent the color wheel and explore coloring mixing through another medium. To encourage prediction, questioning, and problem solving skills when mixing colors. To encourage creative expression, and provide the opportunity for the children to represent their ideas on paper.

Skills: Fine motor, collaboration, creative expression, sensory input, try out new ideas, representation.


**Materials: Large color wheel on art table, various materials that represent each color, glue, paintbrushes

Rationale: To help the children apply their knowledge of the color wheel and the difference between primary and secondary colors. To provide an opportunity to explore the color wheel through a variety of materials. To promote creative expression through collage work. To promote observation and discussion by comparing and identifying differences between materials and colors.

Skills: Fine motor, cutting, gluing, creativity, artistic expression, color exploration, color recognition and labeling, observation, comparison, discussion, representational collage making.



Sensory:

**Materials: brown and white playdough, kitchen tools, rolling pins, muffin tins, cookie sheets, pretend oven, colored sea salt, and shape cut outs

Rationale: To continue experimenting mixing playdough colors. To represent some of the natural colors of baking and cooking. To provide baking ingredients to encourage measuring, pouring. To encourage shape awareness and identification skills. To provide natural opportunities for cooperation and sharing materials and ideas. To provide a pretend oven and additional kitchen tools and items for the children to "cook" their food or other playdough creations.

Skills: Sensory input, fine motor, turn taking, creative expression, manual dexterity, observation, cause and effect, cooperation, collaboration, exploration, creativity.

**Materials: Sensory table, snow, ice, demonstrations, frozen trucks, ice molds, 
salt, wooden hammers, shovels, and tool visuals, teacher demonstrations of pouring hot water and using tools to free the trucks.

Rationale: To continue manipulating snow and ice indoors. To prompt intentional problem solving and cause and effect scenarios by freezing objects like trucks into the ice and adding salt and hot water to see if it melts the ice. To continue inquiring about the properties and transformations of ice and snow. To provide prompts that encourage the children to compare and identify what tools and materials work best to melt the ice and free the objects. To show the transformations of ice through freezing and melting demonstrations.

Skills: Communication, collaboration, problem-solving, fine motor, sensory input, manual dexterity, trying out new idea, observation, comparing, cause-and-effect

Science

Materials: Ice and snow time lapse and demonstration videos

Rationale: To observe snow and ice transformations that wouldn't be feasible in our classroom setting. To integrate technology into the curriculum.


Skills practiced: discussion, observation, prediction



**Materials: Horseshoe magnets, magnet sticks, magnetic board, magnet props and visuals, magnetic and non-magnetic items in a magnetic sort, charts to test magnetic and nonmagnetic items,

Rationale: To continue to prompt problem solving and the exploration of cause and effect relationships. To provide ways for the children to test their predictions about what is magnetic and what is not by sorting them items. To provide both magnetic and non-magnetic materials for the children to increase awareness of the properties of magnets and explore why some items are magnetic while others are not.

Skills: Prediction, observation, discussion, ideas, recording ideas and experiments.

**Materials: Light table in the room, pipettes, large plastic tweezers, test tubes, clear mixing trays, blue colored ice cubes, yellow liquid water colors,

Rationale: To promote experimentation, predicting, and observing cause and effect relationships with the droppers, test tubes of yellow watercolor, and blue colored ice cubes. To promote color mixing and melting qualities from the warmth of the table. To allow children to formulate their own ideas about color and its properties, such as light and dark. To encourage fine motor skills and dexterity when filling up, maneuvering, and squeezing the pipettes.

Skills: Observing, fine motor, color mixing, cause and effect, trying out new ideas, taking turns, creative expression, predicting, discussing,

Dramatic Play 


**Materials: Construction vests, tool boxes, plastic tools, tool belts, wooden 'nails' and boards to hammer, construction visuals.

Rationale: To continue exploring construction dramatic play materials based on the children's interest in building and using tools. To investigate what construction workers wear, tools they use, and structures they build. To merge the content areas of blocks and dramatic play to develop rich and intentional play. To encourage and provide opportunities for collaborative play and building.

Skills: Role play, symbolic play, communication, turn-taking, collaboration, fine motor, self-help skills, creative expression, try out new ideas

**Materials: Loft, animal furs, stuffed bears and other woodland animals, blankets, sticks, magnetic fishing sticks, river and bush visuals, fish, berry, and nut visuals.

Rationale: To continue to explore the dramatic play theme of winter animals and activities. To explore what kinds of foods bears eat with a river visual where the children can fish for salmon or trout. To include a bush visual where they can pick berries and nuts to store for winter. To continue exploration of hibernation and how bears cope in the winter weather. To express ideas about winter animals and hibernation through role play and symbolic play. To provide materials for the children to act out familiar hibernation story lines like building a fire, making hot cocoa and other foods, and sleeping in a cave. To create a more realistic setting and aid in dramatic play by covering the sides and top of the loft with dark paper and fabric.

Skills: communication, collaboration, try out new ideas, creative expression, role play, symbolic play, discussion

**Materials: Wooden trains, chairs, animal carriers, conductor hats, destination visuals, personal travel visuals,

Rationale: To create ownership and continued excitement about the travel and work themes through personal photos and experiences on a travel board in the room. To include narrations from the parents that describe where they traveled to and what they did. To continue symbolically representing vehicles using chairs and encourage the children to incorporate personal traveling experiences about trains, planes, and other vehicles. To provide additional materials for the children to extend their play by making a larger train track, acting out riding on a train or airplane, and using collaborative building skills to create large structures, such as an airport, airplane, train, and train station.

Skills: Role-play, symbolic representation, communication, collaboration, creative expression, cooperation, social skills, building, and fine motor.

**Materials: Household kitchen furniture, plates, bowls, cups, food, sandwich making set, lunchboxes.

Rationale: To continue to provide opportunities for children to symbolically represent their experiences and promote curiosity about making and serving food for themselves and others. To continue to encourage collaborative cooking projects and give the children opportunities to express their ideas and share materials. 
To incorporate food into the other dramatic play themes including the hibernation cave and traveling and going to work. To encourage children to explore making lunches and taking 'lunch breaks' from work, based upon their interest in doing so.

Skills: Role play, symbolic representation, communication, collaboration, creative expression, cooperation, social skills, spatial reasoning.


Math and Manipulatives 



**Materials: Matching card games, stringing beads, vehicle, winter animals, and tool puzzles, magnetic puzzles, Montessori seriation puzzle,

Rationale: To include matching and time lapse cards that promote memory and problem solving skills. To provide materials that support problem-solving skills, hand-eye coordination, and fine motor control. To introduce magnetic manipulatives that allow children to experiment with cause and effect relationships. To have puzzles that promote awareness and interest in the curriculum themes of bears, winter, and colors. To continue to explore the concepts of seriation, ordering, matching, size, and whole-part relationships.

Skills: comparison, persistence, fine motor control, cause and effect, hand-eye coordination, seriation, problem-solving, matching, short-term memory, and ordering.

Language and Literacy 



**Materials: To introduce books about emotions and encourage identifying one's own emotion and emotions of others. A variety of number and letter awareness books will be used to encourage pre-literacy skills. A variety of books including color, winter, and bear themes will be displayed in different curriculum areas as well as the reading nook. Books and book shelf in the 'cave', name cards with corresponding letters to stick, felt letters and felt boards.

Rationale: To promote investigation and utilization of information in books and applying it in play, to continuing to facilitate the development of the basic components of language and pre-literacy skills. To incorporate our curriculum themes of winter and color into the literacy area to help the children gain knowledge and understanding by using resources. To provide a comfortable space to explore and read books with teachers, to promote letter and whole word (name) awareness.

Skills: Listening, speaking, reading, phonological awareness, alphabetical awareness, heuristic language, provide and inquire information, turn taking. 


Blocks 



**Materials: Hollow blocks and unit blocks.


Rationale: To continue to encourage collaborative block building and making airports, houses, garage, train tracks, train parts (i.e. engines), and work environments. To support the story lines of traveling by providing visuals of personal experiences. To use blocks to extend dramatic play themes including construction and the building of collaborative structures. To support spatial and weight concepts when building a structure.

Skills: Cooperation, collaboration, creativity, symbolic representation, large and fine motor, spatial concepts, construction skills (building), try out new ideas

Large Motor 



Gym set up TBD Monday

**Materials: Outdoors: Frozen trucks, buckets, shovels, snow, yellow scooter cars, dump trucks, wheelbarrows, hidden colored ice cubes, sleds, "bricks" of snow.

Rationale: To expand the children's knowledge of snow and ice and apply their learning in a new situation. To provide materials for the children to collaborate and problem solve different ways to free the trucks. To allow the children to transfer their knowledge and ideas from the classroom to a new setting. To provide children with "bricks" of snow to encourage collaborative building outside and build on their interest in bear caves and igloos. To provide children opportunities to engage in activities that challenge their physical skills including pushing, running, climbing, and jumping. To facilitate activities that promote usage of snow and ice. To encourage social interactions, collaboration, and turn taking. To incorporate color outside by adding hidden colored ice cubes to encourage problem solving when searching, finding, and obtaining the objects. To continue exploring the concept of "treasure hunting".

Skills: Fine and large motor, body manipulation, physical fitness, hand-eye coordination, cause and effect, turn-taking, observation, collaboration.

Large group 



**Materials: Daily temperature recording chart, songs and rhymes led by teacher (gather, name, and topic songs and rhymes), emotions, ABC's, winter, bear, friendship, and color themed discussion, rhyming story and songs, dance and instrument activities, and modeling of activities. 




Rationale: To introduce a visual chart to track changes in the temperature over a long period of time in anticipation for Spring. To continue to draw awareness to people's emotions through gestures and body language. To introduce the concept of a parade through books and a video. To model and prepare children for watching and participating in demonstrations. To allow children opportunities to share their ideas about curriculum areas with the group. To facilitate self-regulation when participating in a group. To continue discussing the changes that are affecting us including weather, colors, and the approaching end of the term. To encourage rhyming skills, story concepts, and word play. To incorporate and model curriculum area concepts including color mixing, hibernation stories and play ideas.

Skills: Attention span, attending and orienting, respect for one another, following directions, self-regulation, sharing ideas.

Music 





**Materials: Piano, maracas, drums, and nose makers, visuals of a band, visuals of parades, sheet music, blocks, and teacher-led songs.

Rationale: To provide materials for the children to make a stage and play music together. To investigate different sounds, volume, and rhythm. To promote social interaction by encouraging the children to play instruments both in large group and during free play. To incorporate music with other dramatic play themes such as train travel. To begin exploring parades and bands as ways to present, share, and collectively play music. To extend children's interest in sheet music, and playing instruments.

Skills: Creative expression and movement, mathematical concepts (beats and patterns), imitation, call and answer, communication, fine motor.

Snacks

Tuesday: Oven fries
Friday: Graham crackers and milk

Winter Weekly Lesson Plan
3.4.13-3.8.13
Jamie, Catherine, and Taylor Lead Teaching

Overview:


As we near the end of the term we move towards the utilization stage within our curriculum areas of winter and colors. Our goal is to help the children apply their knowledge and learning in new situations and in the real world. We will continue to support independent self-help skills, empathy, and collaborative play through modeling and verbally coaching the children. We will continue to create meaningful and intentional focus groups to facilitate relationships and interactions among the children and encourage them to deeply explore the classroom areas while promoting and providing inquiry and problem solving situations.

Expressive Arts

**Materials: Easel, white paper, primary and secondary colors, various textured paint brushes and rollers

Rationale: To represent the color wheel and explore coloring mixing through another medium. To encourage prediction, questioning, and problem solving skills when mixing colors. To encourage creative expression, and provide the opportunity for the children to represent their ideas on paper.

Skills: Fine motor, collaboration, creative expression, sensory input, try out new ideas, representation.


**Materials: Large color wheel on art table, various materials that represent each color, glue, paintbrushes

Rationale: To help the children apply their knowledge of the color wheel and the difference between primary and secondary colors. To provide an opportunity to explore the color wheel through a variety of materials. To promote creative expression through collage work. To promote observation and discussion by comparing and identifying differences between materials and colors.

Skills: Fine motor, cutting, gluing, creativity, artistic expression, color exploration, color recognition and labeling, observation, comparison, discussion, representational collage making.



Sensory:

**Materials: brown and white playdough, kitchen tools, rolling pins, muffin tins, cookie sheets, pretend oven, colored sea salt, and shape cut outs

Rationale: To continue experimenting mixing playdough colors. To represent some of the natural colors of baking and cooking. To provide baking ingredients to encourage measuring, pouring. To encourage shape awareness and identification skills. To provide natural opportunities for cooperation and sharing materials and ideas. To provide a pretend oven and additional kitchen tools and items for the children to "cook" their food or other playdough creations.

Skills: Sensory input, fine motor, turn taking, creative expression, manual dexterity, observation, cause and effect, cooperation, collaboration, exploration, creativity.

**Materials: Sensory table, snow, ice, demonstrations, frozen trucks, ice molds, 
salt, wooden hammers, shovels, and tool visuals, teacher demonstrations of pouring hot water and using tools to free the trucks.

Rationale: To continue manipulating snow and ice indoors. To prompt intentional problem solving and cause and effect scenarios by freezing objects like trucks into the ice and adding salt and hot water to see if it melts the ice. To continue inquiring about the properties and transformations of ice and snow. To provide prompts that encourage the children to compare and identify what tools and materials work best to melt the ice and free the objects. To show the transformations of ice through freezing and melting demonstrations.

Skills: Communication, collaboration, problem-solving, fine motor, sensory input, manual dexterity, trying out new idea, observation, comparing, cause-and-effect

Science

Materials: Ice and snow time lapse and demonstration videos

Rationale: To observe snow and ice transformations that wouldn't be feasible in our classroom setting. To integrate technology into the curriculum.


Skills practiced: discussion, observation, prediction



**Materials: Horseshoe magnets, magnet sticks, magnetic board, magnet props and visuals, magnetic and non-magnetic items in a magnetic sort, charts to test magnetic and nonmagnetic items,

Rationale: To continue to prompt problem solving and the exploration of cause and effect relationships. To provide ways for the children to test their predictions about what is magnetic and what is not by sorting them items. To provide both magnetic and non-magnetic materials for the children to increase awareness of the properties of magnets and explore why some items are magnetic while others are not.

Skills: Prediction, observation, discussion, ideas, recording ideas and experiments.

**Materials: Light table in the room, pipettes, large plastic tweezers, test tubes, clear mixing trays, blue colored ice cubes, yellow liquid water colors,

Rationale: To promote experimentation, predicting, and observing cause and effect relationships with the droppers, test tubes of yellow watercolor, and blue colored ice cubes. To promote color mixing and melting qualities from the warmth of the table. To allow children to formulate their own ideas about color and its properties, such as light and dark. To encourage fine motor skills and dexterity when filling up, maneuvering, and squeezing the pipettes.

Skills: Observing, fine motor, color mixing, cause and effect, trying out new ideas, taking turns, creative expression, predicting, discussing,

Dramatic Play 


**Materials: Construction vests, tool boxes, plastic tools, tool belts, wooden 'nails' and boards to hammer, construction visuals.

Rationale: To continue exploring construction dramatic play materials based on the children's interest in building and using tools. To investigate what construction workers wear, tools they use, and structures they build. To merge the content areas of blocks and dramatic play to develop rich and intentional play. To encourage and provide opportunities for collaborative play and building.

Skills: Role play, symbolic play, communication, turn-taking, collaboration, fine motor, self-help skills, creative expression, try out new ideas

**Materials: Loft, animal furs, stuffed bears and other woodland animals, blankets, sticks, magnetic fishing sticks, river and bush visuals, fish, berry, and nut visuals.

Rationale: To continue to explore the dramatic play theme of winter animals and activities. To explore what kinds of foods bears eat with a river visual where the children can fish for salmon or trout. To include a bush visual where they can pick berries and nuts to store for winter. To continue exploration of hibernation and how bears cope in the winter weather. To express ideas about winter animals and hibernation through role play and symbolic play. To provide materials for the children to act out familiar hibernation story lines like building a fire, making hot cocoa and other foods, and sleeping in a cave. To create a more realistic setting and aid in dramatic play by covering the sides and top of the loft with dark paper and fabric.

Skills: communication, collaboration, try out new ideas, creative expression, role play, symbolic play, discussion

**Materials: Wooden trains, chairs, animal carriers, conductor hats, destination visuals, personal travel visuals,

Rationale: To create ownership and continued excitement about the travel and work themes through personal photos and experiences on a travel board in the room. To include narrations from the parents that describe where they traveled to and what they did. To continue symbolically representing vehicles using chairs and encourage the children to incorporate personal traveling experiences about trains, planes, and other vehicles. To provide additional materials for the children to extend their play by making a larger train track, acting out riding on a train or airplane, and using collaborative building skills to create large structures, such as an airport, airplane, train, and train station.

Skills: Role-play, symbolic representation, communication, collaboration, creative expression, cooperation, social skills, building, and fine motor.

**Materials: Household kitchen furniture, plates, bowls, cups, food, sandwich making set, lunchboxes.

Rationale: To continue to provide opportunities for children to symbolically represent their experiences and promote curiosity about making and serving food for themselves and others. To continue to encourage collaborative cooking projects and give the children opportunities to express their ideas and share materials. 
To incorporate food into the other dramatic play themes including the hibernation cave and traveling and going to work. To encourage children to explore making lunches and taking 'lunch breaks' from work, based upon their interest in doing so.

Skills: Role play, symbolic representation, communication, collaboration, creative expression, cooperation, social skills, spatial reasoning.


Math and Manipulatives 



**Materials: Matching card games, stringing beads, vehicle, winter animals, and tool puzzles, magnetic puzzles, Montessori seriation puzzle,

Rationale: To include matching and time lapse cards that promote memory and problem solving skills. To provide materials that support problem-solving skills, hand-eye coordination, and fine motor control. To introduce magnetic manipulatives that allow children to experiment with cause and effect relationships. To have puzzles that promote awareness and interest in the curriculum themes of bears, winter, and colors. To continue to explore the concepts of seriation, ordering, matching, size, and whole-part relationships.

Skills: comparison, persistence, fine motor control, cause and effect, hand-eye coordination, seriation, problem-solving, matching, short-term memory, and ordering.

Language and Literacy 



**Materials: To introduce books about emotions and encourage identifying one's own emotion and emotions of others. A variety of number and letter awareness books will be used to encourage pre-literacy skills. A variety of books including color, winter, and bear themes will be displayed in different curriculum areas as well as the reading nook. Books and book shelf in the 'cave', name cards with corresponding letters to stick, felt letters and felt boards.

Rationale: To promote investigation and utilization of information in books and applying it in play, to continuing to facilitate the development of the basic components of language and pre-literacy skills. To incorporate our curriculum themes of winter and color into the literacy area to help the children gain knowledge and understanding by using resources. To provide a comfortable space to explore and read books with teachers, to promote letter and whole word (name) awareness.

Skills: Listening, speaking, reading, phonological awareness, alphabetical awareness, heuristic language, provide and inquire information, turn taking. 


Blocks 



**Materials: Hollow blocks and unit blocks.


Rationale: To continue to encourage collaborative block building and making airports, houses, garage, train tracks, train parts (i.e. engines), and work environments. To support the story lines of traveling by providing visuals of personal experiences. To use blocks to extend dramatic play themes including construction and the building of collaborative structures. To support spatial and weight concepts when building a structure.

Skills: Cooperation, collaboration, creativity, symbolic representation, large and fine motor, spatial concepts, construction skills (building), try out new ideas

Large Motor 



Gym set up TBD Monday

**Materials: Outdoors: Frozen trucks, buckets, shovels, snow, yellow scooter cars, dump trucks, wheelbarrows, hidden colored ice cubes, sleds, "bricks" of snow.

Rationale: To expand the children's knowledge of snow and ice and apply their learning in a new situation. To provide materials for the children to collaborate and problem solve different ways to free the trucks. To allow the children to transfer their knowledge and ideas from the classroom to a new setting. To provide children with "bricks" of snow to encourage collaborative building outside and build on their interest in bear caves and igloos. To provide children opportunities to engage in activities that challenge their physical skills including pushing, running, climbing, and jumping. To facilitate activities that promote usage of snow and ice. To encourage social interactions, collaboration, and turn taking. To incorporate color outside by adding hidden colored ice cubes to encourage problem solving when searching, finding, and obtaining the objects. To continue exploring the concept of "treasure hunting".

Skills: Fine and large motor, body manipulation, physical fitness, hand-eye coordination, cause and effect, turn-taking, observation, collaboration.

Large group 



**Materials: Daily temperature recording chart, songs and rhymes led by teacher (gather, name, and topic songs and rhymes), emotions, ABC's, winter, bear, friendship, and color themed discussion, rhyming story and songs, dance and instrument activities, and modeling of activities. 




Rationale: To introduce a visual chart to track changes in the temperature over a long period of time in anticipation for Spring. To continue to draw awareness to people's emotions through gestures and body language. To introduce the concept of a parade through books and a video. To model and prepare children for watching and participating in demonstrations. To allow children opportunities to share their ideas about curriculum areas with the group. To facilitate self-regulation when participating in a group. To continue discussing the changes that are affecting us including weather, colors, and the approaching end of the term. To encourage rhyming skills, story concepts, and word play. To incorporate and model curriculum area concepts including color mixing, hibernation stories and play ideas.

Skills: Attention span, attending and orienting, respect for one another, following directions, self-regulation, sharing ideas.

Music 





**Materials: Piano, maracas, drums, and nose makers, visuals of a band, visuals of parades, sheet music, blocks, and teacher-led songs.

Rationale: To provide materials for the children to make a stage and play music together. To investigate different sounds, volume, and rhythm. To promote social interaction by encouraging the children to play instruments both in large group and during free play. To incorporate music with other dramatic play themes such as train travel. To begin exploring parades and bands as ways to present, share, and collectively play music. To extend children's interest in sheet music, and playing instruments.

Skills: Creative expression and movement, mathematical concepts (beats and patterns), imitation, call and answer, communication, fine motor.

Snacks

Monday: Blueberry applesauce and pretzels
Wednesday: Rice chex and raisins
Thursday: Rice cakes and milk

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Overview:
As we move into our final weeks of class before spring break, the classroom continues to be busy with creative play. The children's strong interest in arctic and antarctic animals continues, and has emerged in the creation of polar habitats in our science area. Additionally, an interest in sledding and penguin sliding has led to building ramps in the block area, as the children find the best ways to make different things slide down large block ramps. The art area provides a different opportunity for creative building, as wood sculptures began last week. This week they will continue, and already built sculptures will be painted. Finally, as our classroom explorations of winter and numbers wrap up, there will be plenty of chances to reflect on the things we have learned about numerals, counting, winter, and staying warm, in addition to discussion of our next season-Spring! Although there are only a few days left of our winter session, the teachers are committed to supporting all of the amazing learning that continues to take place each day.

Science
*Materials: White legos and lego boards, pictures and books of Arctic animals (seals, penguins, orca whales etc) as well as Arctic homes.
*Rationale: To continue to apply our knowledge about animal homes, especially those in arctic areas, materials are provided that will allow the children to represent what they have learned about polar habitats and climates.
•Skills: observation, scientific investigation and inquiry, connection to natural world, applying previous experiences and knowledge, hypothesizing and extrapolating, symbolic representation, using tools to gather information, using books as sources of knowledge, curiosity.

Dramatic Play
•Materials: housekeeping materials (furniture, dishes, food) and dress-up fabric and shoes; one cave is set as bedrooms with "beds," baby dolls, and baby-care items while the other cave is set up as a polar habitat (stuffed toys of orcas, polar bears, penguins, seals), home life props that contain numbers.
•Rationale: to allow for the continued exploration of children's interests, both concrete and abstract. To provide opportunities for cooperative dramatic play and social interaction. To provide examples of numbers in everyday life (calendar, phones, etc)
•Skills: creative role-play, peer interaction, social problem solving, symbolic representation, reflection on previous experiences, collaboration and community building, storytelling, connection to the natural world, using books as resources, and early literacy skills.

Language and Literacy
•Materials: the writing center has a variety of writing utensils, paper, envelopes, staplers, tape, scissors, and computer/word processing program. Name cards, books with alphabetic themes and a mailbox are available to the writing center to support letter writing and letter recognition.
•Rationale: to foster the children's ongoing interest in the written word, alphabetic principle, and symbolic representation. The children continue to show interest in writing their own words, copying written words, and engaging in pretend writing. The computer remains available for word processing and computer literacy experiences.
•Skills: fine motor, letter recognition, eye-hand coordination, emergent writing and reading, curiosity, symbolic reasoning, peer interaction, technological awareness, keyboarding and mouse skills, planning and sequencing actions.

•Materials: the library has a variety of non-fiction and fiction books, many of which discuss different aspects of winter (snow, cold, winter clothes, etc), reflect the children's interests (penguins, orcas, etc) and have numeral themes (Five Little Monkeys).
•Rationale: to encourage the children's continued interest in sharing stories communally and individually. To demonstrate how to use books as sources of information. To have the opportunity to reflect on changes to the children's immediate environment (i.e. the winter season). To expand the children's exploration of polar animals and Arctic habitats books about penguins and whales are offered.
•Skills: receptive language, phonological awareness, early literacy, listening, community building, expressive language, vocabulary introduction, scientific investigation.

Blocks
•Materials: large hollow blocks, small multi-shaped unit blocks, pictures of polar animals, animal figurines (polar bears, seals, orcas), felt, wax paper, blue, white and gray pieces of cloth, books about creating ramps, balls.
•Rationale: to offer continued building experiences, to allow the children to reflect on and interpret a number of different experiences involving buildings, transportation, etc. To encourage and expand both dramatic play and exploration with how to best make penguins slide, arctic animal materials continue to be available. To foster ongoing exploration of ramp building, and engagement in experimentation with momentum (balls, ramp books).
•Skills: large motor development, expressive creation, symbolic representation, cooperative play, indoor/outdoor connection, using a variety of media for self expression, problem solving, mathematical reasoning, understanding of cause and effect, awareness of physical properties (momentum, gravity), connection to the natural world, analyzing and synthesizing, showing interest and respect for the creative work of self and others.

Expressive Arts (paint, drawing, clay)
•Materials: An assortment of different wooden pieces of different sizes and shapes, wood glue, clay, clay tools, toothpicks, small beads, fairy house book.
•Rationale: to explore with hands and tools to promote sensory awareness, increase fine motor skills, and foster social relationships as children observe and work together with their peers.
To provide a building experience and support creative expression a selection of wooden pieces are added to the art table. Paint is also offered this week to allow for continued engagement with the same work of art over several days. To support 3-D sculpture and continued imaginative expression, toothpicks, straws, and small beads are added to the clay table. The Fairy House and Castle book continue to be available to support divergent thinking and extend imaginative house building in both clay and wood.
•Skills: fine motor development (strength, coordination), creativity, symbolic representation, sensory input, color recognition, cause and effect, hypothesizing and predicting, showing interest and respect for the creative work of self and others, establishing a connection as a member of a community, peer interactions, self expression using a variety of media and tools.

Sensory (water table)
• Materials: ice, snow, salt, water, animal figurines (penguins, orcas, and seals), buckets, and shovels, spray bottles with colored water.
• Rationale: To encourage further discussion about the properties of ice and snow, both will continue to be offered at the sensory table. To support the exploration of Artic animal life and homes, animal figurines are provided. To continue interest in color mixing, water bottles are added for changing the color of the snow.
• Skills: large-/fine-motor strength/ hand strength, cause-and-effect, fostering social relationships, using varied science and sensory language, sensory exploration, observational skills, symbolic representation, acting out previous experiences, comparing amounts.

Math and Manipulatives (including the 'Nook')
•Materials:Counting and stacking unifix cubes with trays, numeral recognition games, counting games, part-whole fruit puzzles, number bingo, Styrofoam blocks and Lightbright pegs, and K'NEX.
•Rationale: To continue our exploration and discussion of numbers puzzles and unifix cubes are provided at the math table. To support investigation of part whole relationships fruit puzzles are offered. The pincer grasp and hand strength are emphasized as children use small Lightbright pegs to press into Styrofoam blocks. Number Bingo allows children to use their knowledge of numerals to play a familiar game.
To extend our exploration of construction building and support divergent thinking, K'NEX are added to the Nook. Pictures of airports, and airplanes will continue to be displayed as well as the addition of race car pictures to inspire group discussion, building and play.
•Skills: one-to-one correspondence, synthesis and analysis, fine motor development, hand-eye coordination, part-whole relationships, quantification, counting, numeric awareness, comparison, matching, sorting and divergent thinking.

Large Motor (gym)
• Materials: A-Frame balance beam, hopscotch, basketball hoop with balls, climbing wall, tumbling blocks with rope, stairs and slide.
• Rationale: Many of the children continue to be interested in balancing.To support the children's interest in balancing as well as offer an large motor experience the A-Frame balance beam is added to the gym. The hopscotch,tunnel, basketball hoop with balls, climbing wall, tumbling blocks with rope, and slide help build children's upper body and core strength, encourage socialization and cooperation, support exploration of what the can do with their bodies and simulate outdoor activities (playing hopscotch and dribbling basketballs).
• Skills: Dynamic balance and static balance/standing on one foot (A-Frame Balance Beam), propulsion skills/throwing (basketball hoop with balls), receptive skills/catching and trapping (basketball hoop with balls), climbing (bumpy slide, tumbling blocks, climbing wall),
turn-taking (all), motor planning (bumpy slide, tumbling blocks, wall climber), directional awareness (all),core muscle strength (bumpy slide, tumbling blocks, climbing wall), upper body strength (tumbling blocks with rope, basketball hoop with balls)body awareness (balance beam, tumbling blocks, tunnel), reaching (wall climber, tumbling blocks with rope), jumping (wall climber, hopscotch), turning (wall climber, balance beam), spatial awareness (climbing wall, balance beam,basketball hoop with balls, tunnel), landing (climbing wall, hopscotch)

(Outdoors)
Sledding, tunnel building, snowman creation, tag, soccer, ice sliding: All of these activities continue to fascinate and challenge the children physically and creatively on the playground each day. As the weather begins to warm, the teachers draw attention to many different ways in which the frozen playground transforms each day.

Snacks:
Monday: Class-made soft pretzels
Wednesday: Oven fries
Thursday: Graham Crackers