Wrapping up: What Makes Us Unique

Unit

Last week we listened to the story We're Going on a Bear Hunt by Michael Rosen.  The students discussed how the characters may have used their senses in each setting.  They also painted story maps to illustrate the different settings.

Through the week, the students explored their five senses while participating in activities that required them to reflect on their preferences.  

Each child smelled a variety of scents, chose the ones they preferred, and made a scent sachet to bring home.

Groups worked together to smell scent jars and tried to match them to the correct food.

Each student tasted three white yogurt flavors and tried to guess each flavor.  Then they graphed their preferences using pictures.

Small groups tasted different types of chocolate and shared which they preferred and why.  

During this center, they listened to sounds and marked how it made them feel. Then they saw what made the sound and discussed if their feelings changed.  For example, when the students heard a loud banging sound, they said it scared them.  When the picture was uncovered, they were excited to see that fireworks made the noise.  We discussed how using our senses together can change how we understand what is around us.  

The children looked at optical illusions and discussed what we see is not always what is really there.

They used their sense of touch to guess the objects.

During the summative assessment, the students presented their posters explaining what makes them unique.  They also compared and contrasted themselves with a classmate.

Language 

Over the past two weeks the students have been introduced to the following two sight words: see and the.  They are encouraged to find these words in their environment and use them while writing.  In addition, we focused on the letters f, n, m and i.

  

 

Prep A students have been working hard to strengthen their phomenic awareness skills.  We have been identifying the beginning sounds of words and finding pictures that have the same beginning sound.

We have also worked on segmenting and blending sounds by playing games such as Pushing-Up Sweet Delights and Doggie, Where's my Bone? 

Math

The students explored a variety of patterns (AB, ABB, ABC) focusing not only on colors, but on shapes, sizes, and objects.

Color patterns

Object patterns

Shape patterns and Thickness patterns

The students continue to explore numbers by playing activities such as Grab and Count and the Counting Jar.  They also used ten frames to understand how numbers can be represented.

The Counting Jar: count the items in the jar, make matching sets, and record the answers

Fun at home

Go on a word hunt for I, like, see, and the looking through the children's books at home and place a post-it note on the word when they find it!  

Search for the sight words in a newspaper and then highlight the word with a marker when they find one.

Try to find the numbers1-10 on the way to school.  Look on signs, license plates, and buildings.

Look for patterns in your house and in stores.  Discuss what makes it a pattern.