April 8th - April 12th

Troy Preschool: Schroeder 3’s, 4’s, & 5’s – Weekly Happenings: April 8th – April 12th Description Greeting Time

Monday: 1. Toy Area and Book Area card with photograph of books, Block Area card with photograph of puzzles, Sand and Water Table Area card with photograph of water, discussed what would be out for the week, drawing of Ms. Radha and Isaac’s letter link with no symbol, explained that they’d be absent 2. How was your break written, drawing of Schroeder Elementary, picture of students thinking, picture of a family, students shared what they did over break 3. Happy birthday written, drawing of Keerthika, her letter link, and a drawing of a cake, stated how she turned 5, wished her a happy birthday Tuesday: 1. It is a new month written, drawing of spring, explained hot it is now April and with it being spring we will start seeing more animals and insects, we will start noticing the warmer weather, and we will start seeing plants/trees grow 2. Photograph of a zipper, a zoo, a ladder, and a leaf, students sorted them by beginning sounds 3. March is reading month written, photograph of our bulletin board, congratulated students on reading 300 books, explained how we would be passing out pencils and bookmarks at the end of the day Wednesday: 1. Problem solving written, Art Area card, piece of paper, picture of paper all over, explained how we have been using a lot of paper and have been running out, stated how we have been leaving the art area extremely messy, came up with ideas to solve these problems 2. Photograph of a yo-yo, of yarn, of the color yellow, of a yolk, students stated that they all begin with the letter y, practiced making the y sound, wrote an uppercase and lowercase y 3. Problem solving written, photographs of people planting flowers, Outside Time schedule sign, drawing of a student picking a flower, stated how we have seen students picking flowers that people have planted, explained how that causes the plant to die and makes the planters upset, explained how we can pick weeds that are growing in the grass Thursday: 1. Life cycle of butterfly written, discussed how we have been talking about caterpillars and reading the book The Very Hungry Caterpillar, reviewed that the life cycle is egg, caterpillar, chrysalis, and butterfly 2. Shapes in environment written, drawing of a cube and photograph of a gift, reviewed what a cube is and some examples of a cube, drawing of a sphere, photographs of balls, oranges, and globes, discussed what a sphere is and some examples of spheres 3. Isaac’s letter link with map of world, Isaac shared with us what he did on his vacation Friday: 1. 2. 3.

Small Group Time

KDI’s Approaches to Learning – initiative, engagement, reflection Social/Emotional – sense of competence, community, building relationships, moral development Physical/Health – fine-motor skills, body awareness Language/Literacy/Communication – comprehension, speaking, vocabulary, phonological awareness, alphabetic knowledge, reading, concepts about print, book knowledge, writing Mathematics – number words and symbols, counting, shapes, measuring, unit Creative Arts – N/A Science/Technology – observing, classifying, drawing conclusions, communicating ideas, natural and physical world Social Studies – community roles, decision making, geography, history

Measuring written, a block, measured how long the block was using counting bears, learned that it was 9 bears long Photograph of a gorilla, a guitar, yarn, and the color yellow, sorted the words by beginning sound Book Area card, Keerthika’s name, stated how our names are now in the book area for us to use, Mystery sentence written, explained how we will be having a mystery sentence in the mornings on the Velcro board starting next week

*What did each morning: wrote their names, read/looked at books or did puzzles, sang Time to Put Books Away song, stated day of week, stated the weather, wrote numbers 22 – 24 on board stating number poems, stated who had jobs each day (identifying those by their letter links, the first letter in their name, and the beginning sound of their name, and their last name)*  Students reviewed lesson 6 of Writer’s Workshop. With this program students are told how they are going to be authors. Teachers demonstrated how they can draw/write something that they know about. Students reviewed the saying “When you say you’re done, you’ve just begun.” Students reviewed how they can add more to their pictures, how they can label their drawing, how they can visualize their stories in their head, and never giving up when drawing something difficult. Students were shown books. Students were asked to point out where the illustrations were and where the words were. We emphasized how authors use not only pictures but words to tell a story. Afterwards, students were given a piece of paper and writing utensils, thought of their stories, and began drawing/writing their stories. As they worked, teachers walked around learning what students were drawing/writing about and helping them to further their thinking. 

Students made caterpillars for the bulletin board. We had a conversation about caterpillars. We discussed what they look like, where they live, what they eat, etc. Also, we discussed a caterpillar’s life cycle (egg, caterpillar, cocoon/chrysalis, and butterfly). Students made the body of the caterpillar using circles that they glued onto a piece of paper. They used coloring utensils to add features to their caterpillar and to add scenery.

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Students played an I Spy game with beginning sounds. Each student was provided with a bucket. Inside each bucket were a piece of yarn, a question mark, a zero, and a valentine. Students were given time to look at their items in the bucket and to state what they had inside. Afterwards, the teacher would say, “I spy with my little eye something that begins with this sound /z/.” Students had to find the item in their bucket that starts with that sound and put it in the center of the table. Then students thought of other words that begin with that sound. This game continued until all

Approaches to Learning – initiative, engagement, use of resources, reflection Social/Emotional – community, building relationships, cooperative play Physical/Health – fine-motor skills, body awareness Language/Literacy/Communication – comprehension, speaking, vocabulary, phonological awareness, alphabetic knowledge, reading, concepts of print, book knowledge, writing Mathematics – N/A

the items were gone through.

Large Group Time

Creative Arts – art

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We did a reading activity. Each student received a bucket with each other’s names inside. The names did not include each student’s letter link. Students read the names in the bucket and found the corresponding letter links. They matched the names to the letter links until all of them were gone through. (Only half of the classes’ names were used.)

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We did a reading activity. Each student received a bucket with each other’s names inside. The names did not include each student’s letter link. Students read the names in the bucket and found the corresponding letter links. They matched the names to the letter links until all of them were gone through. (The rest of the classes’ names were used.)

Social Studies – decision making

Monday:  Easy to Join Activity – sang Come on Over and Sit Right Down song  Song book taken out, sang Happy Birthday to Keerthika, sang Here We Go Around the Birthday Girl as we walked in a circle around Keerthika, and sang Make a Wish and Blow Us Out as we pretended to be candles and as Keerthika pretended to blow us out, students pretended to bake a cake, Keerthika pretended to eat the cake, we read a book that Keerthika brought in from home

Approaches to Learning – initiative, engagement

Tuesday:  Easy to Join Activity – sang Come on Over and Sit Right Down song  Song Book taken out, Lerui got to choose the song, sang I Wonder What Song He’ll Pick Today, chose the song The Ants Go Marching , students acted the song out

Physical/Health – gross-motor skills, body awareness

Wednesday:  Easy to Join Activity – sang Come on Over and Sit Right Down song  Song book taken out, students learned the song Down in the Meadow, students kept a steady beat to the song by using rhythm sticks in three ways (hitting in air, rubbing together, tapping on ground) Thursday:  Easy to Join Activity – sang Come on Over and Sit Right Down song  Song book taken out, students reviewed the song Down in the Meadow, students kept a steady beat to the song by using rhythm sticks in three ways (hitting in air, rubbing together, tapping on ground) Friday:  

Planning Time

Science/Technology – observing, classifying, communicating ideas

Mornings:     

Social/Emotional – community, building relationships, cooperative play

Language/Literacy/Communication – comprehension, speaking, vocabulary, phonological awareness Mathematics – counting Creative Arts – music, movement, pretend play Science/Technology – observing, drawing conclusions, communicating ideas Social Studies – decision making

Easy to Join Activity – sang Come on Over and Sit Right Down song Song book taken out, students reviewed the song Down in the Meadow, students kept a steady beat to the song by tapping their knees, students acted the song out Laid out area card chart, took turns using pointer stick to point to and state the areas where wanted to go play Used binoculars for pretend, looked for areas where wanted to go play Used paper towel tube, pretended it was a telescope, looked for areas where wanted to go play Laid out area card chart, placed paper towel tube over areas, placed letter die down tube on areas where wanted to go play Each received a shape puzzle piece and hid it in hands, when shape named, placed onto puzzle and stated where wanted to go play

Afternoons:  Planning chart on back of door everyday, place area cards where want to go play behind own letter link

Approaches to Learning – initiative, planning, engagement Social/Emotional – building relationships Physical/Health – N/A Language/Literacy/Communication – comprehension, speaking, vocabulary, phonological awareness, alphabetic knowledge concepts about print Mathematics – shapes, spatial awareness Creative Arts – pretend play Science/Technology – communicating ideas

Recall Time

Mornings:     

Social Studies – decision making, geography Approaches to Learning –engagement, reflection Area card chart laid out, took turns using pointer stick to point to and state the areas where went and played Laid out area card chart, used tweezers to pick up animal counters and placed onto areas where went and played Used phones, dialed number and stated areas where went and played Laid out area card chart, drove/flew vehicles to areas where went and played Each received a number puzzle piece and hid it in hands, when number stated, placed onto puzzle and stated areas where went and played

Social/Emotional – building relationships Physical/Health – gross-motor skills, fine-motor skills

Afternoons:  Rolled die, stated number rolled on, did that number of movements, stated areas where went and played  Used puppets for pretend, changed voice to state areas where went and played  Held onto bucket, took turns tossing ball into bucket and stated where went and played  Laid out area chard chart, used clothespins to pick up cotton balls and placed onto areas where went and played  Each received a transportation puzzle piece and hid it in hands, when number stated, placed onto puzzle and stated areas where went and played

Language/Literacy/Communication – comprehension, speaking, vocabulary Mathematics – number words and symbols, counting, spatial awareness Creative Arts – pretend play Science/Technology – drawing conclusions, communicating ideas Social Studies – geography, history

Other

Literature:  Students spent time looking at books. They did this at greeting time, snack time, work time, rest time, outside time, afternoon snack time, and afternoon work time. Sensory Table:  Inside the sensory table was water. Outside: 

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While outside, students observed and explored the world. Students played on the swings, on the jungle gyms, on the slides, on the merry-go-round, and in the sandbox. Some students played chase and catch. Some played hide and seek. Students are pretending to be villains and superheroes and are catching one another. Teachers are helping students to learn to swing by themselves by pumping their legs. Teachers are modeling how to do this. Also, teachers are helping students go across the monkey bars. Students had to go to the gym due to the weather. While in the gym students played with hockey sticks, balls, jump ropes, and hula hoops. Also, a mat was set out for students to do tricks across.

Work Time:  Students are deciding who they want to play with and what they want to play with, with more detail.  Students are beginning to problem solve on their own and come to teachers if they need some help.  Students are independent during their play and ask teachers to participate in their play with them.  Students are engaging in a lot of pretend play scenarios. Many are playing house and pretending to be restaurant owners, pets, firefighters, etc.  Students are respecting one another by listening to each others thoughts and ideas.

Approaches to Learning – initiative, engagement, use of resources Social/Emotional – sense of competence, community, building relationships, cooperative play, moral development, conflict resolution Physical/Health – gross-motor skills, finemotor skills, body awareness Language/Literacy/Communication – comprehension, speaking, vocabulary, phonological awareness, alphabetic knowledge, reading, concepts about print, book knowledge Mathematics – N/A Creative Arts – art, pretend play Science/Technology – observing, drawing conclusions, communicating ideas, natural and physical world Social Studies – community roles, decision making, geography