A theme guide for preschool | Unit 3

Family Matters

Cur os tyCo ner

38803
Curiosity
Curiosity Corner
Corner 2nd
2nd Edition
Edition Theme
Theme Guide:
Guide:
Unit X
Unit 3
© 2014, 2020 by the Success for All Foundation. All rights reserved.

Produced by the Curiosity Corner 2nd Edition Team

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provided valuable feedback.
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this Curiosity Corner 2nd Edition theme guide on an as-needed basis for classroom use.
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Table of Contents
Setting the Scene

Standard Graphics Key . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .iv

Why Family Matters? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . v

Thematic Concepts and Objectives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .vi

Vocabulary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . viii

Peek at the Week . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . x

You Will Need . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xiv

Daily Lessons

Day 1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1

Day 2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19

Day 3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33

Day 4 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47

Day 5 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61

Day 6 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73

Day 7 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87

Day 8 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101

Day 9 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115

Day 10 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127

Appendix . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 139
SETTING THE SCENE | Unit 3: Family Matters

Standard Graphics Key

Instructional Components

Greetings, Readings, & Writings – Preparation for the day, exploration of academic and creative activities in
Learning Labs

Gathering Circle – Housekeeping (attendance, calendar, weather, jobs, etc.)

Move It! – Music and movement

Clues & Questions – Thematic content and vocabulary

Getting Along Together – Self-regulation and interpersonal skills

Rhyme Time – Phonological and phonemic awareness

Plan & Play – Imaginative play with theme-based scenarios

STaR (Story Telling and Retelling) – Listening comprehension with literature

Math Moments – Short hands-on experiences that develop math concepts

Question/Reflection – Thematic content extension and vocabulary review

Instructional Strategies

Think-Pair-Share – The teacher asks a question and provides wait time for children to formulate their answers. Children
discuss their answers with a partner, and the teacher invites some children to share with the class.

Whole-Group Response – The teacher prompts the class to respond in unison.

My Turn, Your Turn – The teacher models a response and then prompts students to repeat it in unison.

A great time to use the sharing sticks to randomly select a child

Opportunity to award paw points

Other Lesson Features

Activity to help children transition from one component to the next

TRANSITION

Video provided to support the lesson content

iv © 2014 Success for All Foundation

 SETTING THE SCENE | Unit 3: Family Matters

Why Family Matters?

Children need to know that there are people in their lives who love them and will care
for them. These people are their families. The word “family” creates different images
for different people. Today’s family can look quite different from those of the past. To
children, no matter what form they take, their families consist of the people they rely
on to take care of them.
The activities in this unit are designed to help children:
– recognize themselves as part of a family;
– name the members of their immediate family and the roles that they have;
– name extended family members;
– understand that some of the people who care for them, while not related, may
be like family; and
– understand that families grow and change over time.
Exposure to a variety of books, pictures, and activities will help children recognize
the uniqueness of each family. Children will count the number of people in their
families and compare family sizes. They will come to recognize that some families
include extended family members, nonrelatives, and even pets, while others do not.
Children will begin to understand that no matter how each family looks, it is still the
basic social unit in each child’s life.
As a teacher, you will be aware of the individual families in your classroom and
any changes within families that might make this a sensitive topic. When you
communicate acceptance of each family rather than impose values about what the
ideal family looks like, children will feel valued. Some children will live with a mom
and dad under one roof while others will live in less traditional family groups. Some
will live with extended family, such as a grandparent or cousin; others may be living
in foster care. Families are formed in a variety of ways. Some children will have lost
a family member or will gain a new member through the birth of a sibling or the
marriage of a parent. Some children will know their immediate and extended families,
and others will not. Think about the family situations in your class, and select
additional stories and activities to address children’s individual needs.
You might want to revisit this theme throughout the year as changes occur in family
compositions. You can find wonderful books on almost any type of family to share
with an individual child, a family, or the class.
During the last three days of unit 3, we build upon what children have learned
about themselves and their families in units 2 and 3 by focusing on the topic of
communication. Communication is important within families and in communities.
Children learn that communication can be verbal or nonverbal and assisted by mail,
telephones, computers, and other tools. Addressing this topic sets the stage for unit 4,
Places and Faces in Communities.
Take time to get to know the families, and celebrate their unique differences.

Curiosity Corner 2nd Edition Theme Guide v

SETTING THE SCENE | Unit 3: Family Matters

{
• Each of us is part of a family.
• Family members are joined together by caring
for one another.

Family Matters • Grandparents are part of a family.

• Families come in different sizes.
• Families grow.

thematic concepts • Families live in different kinds of homes.

• People who help to take care of you can feel
like family.
• Family members can communicate ideas and
feelings by talking to one another.
• Family members can communicate ideas and
feelings by writing or drawing.
• Family members can communicate ideas and
feelings with their bodies.

Creative Domain
Children will:
• explore a variety of media. Language/Literacy Domain
• take pleasure in creating. Children will:
• use art materials to create crayon rubbings. • learn the meanings of new theme-related
• pretend and imitate during dramatic vocabulary words.
play activities. • find the first page of a story.
• become familiar with the names, shapes, and
sounds of the letters “f” and “h.”
• observe various letter shapes.
• count the number of words in a sentence.
• observe that a question mark tells us that a
Emotional/Personal Domain sentence asks something.
• observe that some words are longer
Children will: than others.
• demonstrate active listening when • recite rhymes and sing songs.
others speak.
• recognize rhyming words.
• participate in group activities.
• manipulate word order in a rhyme.
• organize materials when finished with them.
• listen attentively to stories.
• follow classroom rules and routines.
• answer comprehension questions about
• learn to focus and pay attention. informational text and literature.
• actively participate in the retelling of stories.
• sequence story events.
• explore with writing materials.
• begin to demonstrate an interest in writing to
communicate meaning.

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 SETTING THE SCENE | Unit 3: Family Matters

Mathematical Domain
Children will:
• count by rote to 11 and 12.
Science/Social Studies Domain
• identify and create sets of four and five.
• recognize and name two-dimensional shapes: Children will:
circle, square, triangle, and rectangle. • make discoveries by experimenting
• represent the month and day on the calendar. with materials.
• observe, predict, experiment, and draw
conclusions.
• identify family relationships.
Cognitive Domain • describe how families grow and change.
Children will: • acquire concepts about various forms
of communication.
• participate in brain games that help to develop
the ability to remember. • demonstrate awareness of the local
neighborhood and community.
• participate in brain games that help to develop
the ability to stop and think.
• observe and make discoveries.
• use real and imaginary props in dramatic play.
• solve simple problems.

Interpersonal/Social Domain
Children will:
• notice and name feelings in themselves
and others.
• categorize feelings. Physical Domain
• identify helping behaviors among
family members. Children will:
• manipulate writing tools and puzzles for
fine-motor control.
• explore rhythm and movement in response
to music.
• throw and catch a ball.
• exhibit response inhibition when playing
simple games.

Curiosity Corner 2nd Edition Theme Guide vii

SETTING THE SCENE | Unit 3: Family Matters

Vocabulary
Theme-Related Words Wonderful Words

adopt married Day 1 family

aunt mother Day 2 care
babysitter neighbor
Day 3 grandparents
brother related
brother-in-law relatives
Day 4 size
computer sign language Day 5 grow (quantity)
cousin sister Day 6 home
e-mail sister-in-law Day 7 help
father talk
Day 8 communicate
grandfather telephone
grandmother uncle
Day 9 write
house Day 10 expression
The theme-related vocabulary words are taught as a part of Wonderful Words are theme-related
content instruction. words that have been highlighted for
additional emphasis and practice. A new
Wonderful Word is introduced each day.
Developing oral language and vocabulary is
one of the most important goals for preschool
children to achieve to prepare them for later
success in school. In Curiosity Corner, we
balance specific vocabulary instruction with
experiences that promote natural language
acquisition. The teaching strategies help to
ensure that all children get ample opportunities
to hear and practice using new words in a
variety of situations.

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 SETTING THE SCENE | Unit 3: Family Matters

Basic Words

around door happy round

baby edges identify sad
bat envelope laugh short
bee first letter long sides
book fork mail smile
cat frown message tear
cry girl picture together
dog groups proud young
Basic words are those that are helpful for four- and five-year-old children to know. If children do
not know them already, there will be opportunities to learn the basic words during this unit.

Math Words Getting Along Together Words STaR Words

circle feelings Jonathan and His Mommy

steps
collection focus
A Chair for My Mother
counting “I” Message
coins
five pay attention A House Is a House for Me
four Getting Along Together words and
house
phrases help children communicate
rectangle their feelings in social situations and A Letter to Amy
help them work together to solve
blew
shape problems.

STaR words help children to enrich their

square speaking vocabularies and increase their
story comprehension.

triangle
Math words help children
communicate about new
concepts they are learning
in math.

Curiosity Corner 2nd Edition Theme Guide ix

SETTING THE SCENE | Unit 3: Family Matters

Peek at the Week 1

Lesson Component Day 1 Day 2
Each of us is part of a family. Family members are joined together
Learning Focus for the Day
by caring for one another.

Classroom Library Lab Enjoy a Story Enjoy a Story

Letter Lab Making Words “F” is for Family

Math Lab Bear Families Bear Families

Greetings, Exploring with Technology Exploring with Technology
Readings, Computer/Media Lab
& Writings
Writing Lab Sending Greetings Sending Greetings
Children’s
Choices Art Lab Creation Station For My Family

Science Lab Fingerprint Fun Fingerprint Fun

Puzzles & Games Lab Free Exploration Free Exploration

✿ Gathering Circle Daily start-up routines Daily start-up routines

Move It! Jumping Bean Ball Pass: ABCs

Describe families from pictures. Identify ways family members care for
Clues & Questions Introduce the letter “f.” one another.
Review the letter “f.”

“This Is My Grandma” Rhyme Identification:

Rhyme Time Picture Match game

Getting Along Together Focus: Learn to use focus binoculars.

Scenario Options: Scenario Options:

Play Home Same as day 1
Plan & Play Visiting a Relative
Dress-Up Small-Group Instruction:
Home Builders My Family

Interactive Story Reading: Jonathan and His Mommy

STaR Jonathan and His Mommy by Irene Smalls Story Retell: Dramatization
Story Retelland Retelling
Story Telling

Count by rote to 11. Count by rote to 11.

Math Moments Number Sense for 4: Identify sets of four. Number Sense for 4: Identify sets of four.

Brain Game: What Is the Magic Word? Brain Game: What Is Missing?
Question/Reflection
New Brain Game: What Is Missing? Letter “f” classroom search

We recommend that snacks and outdoor gross-motor play be an integral part of the daily schedule. You will find suggested snacks and
activities to support this theme in the appendix.

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 SETTING THE SCENE | Unit 3: Family Matters

Day 3 Day 4 Day 5

Grandparents are part of a family. Families come in different sizes. Families grow.

Enjoy a Story Enjoy a Story Enjoy a Story

“F” is for Family “F” is for Family “F” is for Family

Bear Families Bear Families Bear Families

Exploring with Technology Exploring with Technology Exploring with Technology

Sending Greetings Sending Greetings Sending Greetings

People in My Family People in My Family People in My Family

Fingerprint Fun Fingerprint Fun Fingerprint Fun

Free Exploration Free Exploration Free Exploration

Daily start-up routines Daily start-up routines Daily start-up routines

Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes Animal Movements Freeze

Identify extended family members. Name and count family members. Describe how families grow and change.
Review the letter “f.” Concepts-of-print book: Meet My Family Review the letter “f.”
Review the letter “f.”

“This Is My Grandma” Rhyme Recognition: “This Is My Grandma” Word Manipulation:

Stand Up, Sit Down Nonsense game

Pay Attention: Play I Spy.

Scenario Options: Scenario Options: Scenario Options:

Same as day 1 Same as day 1 Same as day 1

Small-Group Instruction: Small-Group Instruction: Small-Group Instruction:

Same as day 2 Same as day 2 Same as day 2

Interactive Story Reading: A Chair for My Mother Free-Choice Story Reading:

A Chair for My Mother by Vera Williams Story Retell: Sequencing Suggestion – Who’s in a Family?
by Robert Skutch

Count by rote to 11. Count by rote to 11. Count by rote to 11.

Number Sense for 5: Identify sets of five. Number Sense for 5: Bird family finger play Problem Solving: Match numerals with
number of objects.

Brain Game: What Is Missing? Brain Game: What Is Missing? Brain Game: What Is Missing?
Which Relative Am I? Determine family size. Identify ways that families grow.

Curiosity Corner 2nd Edition Theme Guide xi

SETTING THE SCENE | Unit 3: Family Matters

Peek at the Week 2

Lesson Component Day 6 Day 7
Families live in different kinds of homes. People who help to take care of you can
Learning Focus for the Day
feel like family.

Classroom Library Lab Enjoy a Story Enjoy a Story

Letter Lab “F” Is for Family “H” Dough Shapes

Math Lab Bear Families Finding Shapes: Circle

Greetings, Exploring with Technology Exploring with Technology
Readings, Computer/Media Lab
& Writings
Writing Lab Family Fun Family Fun
Children’s
Choices Art Lab People in My Family People in My Family

Science Lab Invisible Message Invisible Message

Puzzles & Games Lab Free Exploration Free Exploration

✿ Gathering Circle Daily start-up routines Daily start-up routines

Move It! Follow the Leader Balloon Ball

Identify and describe different family homes. Identify people other than family members
Introduce the letter “h.” who care for us.
Clues & Questions Review the letter “h.”

“Grandpa’s Glasses” Rhyme Recognition:

Rhyme Time Stand Up, Sit Down

Notice and Name Own Feelings:

Getting Along Together Read Cookies: Bite-Size Life Lessons.

Scenario Options: Scenario Options:

Play Home Same as day 6
Plan & Play Visiting a Relative
Dress-Up Small-Group Instruction:
Home Builders Meet My Family.

STaR Interactive Story Reading: A House Is a A House Is a House for Me Story Retell:
Story Retelland Retelling
Story Telling House for Me by Mary Ann Hoberman Jump right in with repetitive text.

Count by rote to 12. Count by rote to 12.

Math Moments
Two-Dimensional Shapes: Identify circles. Two-Dimensional Shapes: Identify squares.

Brain Games: What Is Missing? Brain Game: Hot Potato Memory

Question/Reflection and Hot Potato Memory Review two meanings of the word “grow.”
How do families grow?

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 SETTING THE SCENE | Unit 3: Family Matters

Day 8 Day 9 Day 10

Family members can communicate ideas Family members can communicate ideas Family members can communicate ideas
and feelings by talking to one another. and feelings by writing or drawing. and feelings in many ways.

Enjoy a Story Enjoy a Story Enjoy a Story

“H” Dough Shapes “H” Dough Shapes “H” Dough Shapes

Finding Shapes: Square Finding Shapes: Rectangle Finding Shapes: Triangle

Exploring with Technology Exploring with Technology Exploring with Technology

Family Fun You’re Invited You’re Invited

People in My Family People in My Family People in My Family

Invisible Message Invisible Message Invisible Message

Free Exploration Free Exploration Free Exploration

Daily start-up routines Daily start-up routines Daily start-up routines

Get on Up and Move Your Body Beanbag Pass: Feelings The Elmo Slide

We can use a phone to communicate. Communicating by mail Communicating without words

Review the letter “h.” Reread concepts-of-print book: Meet Review the letter “h.”
My Family
Review the letter “h.”

“Grandpa’s Glasses” Rhyme Recognition: “Grandpa’s Glasses” Word Manipulation:

Picture Match game Nonsense game

Notice and Name Feelings of Others:

Name feelings based on facial expressions.

Scenario Options: Scenario Options: Scenario Options:

Same as day 6 Same as day 6 Same as day 6

Small-Group Instruction: Small-Group Instruction: Small-Group Instruction:

Same as day 7 Same as day 7 Same as day 7

Interactive Story Reading: A Letter to Amy Free-Choice Story Reading:

A Letter to Amy by Ezra Jack Keats Story Retell: Sequencing Suggestion – The Post Office Book

Count by rote to 12. Count by rote to 12. Count by rote to 12.

Two-Dimensional Shapes: Identify rectangles. Two-Dimensional Shapes: Identify triangles. Two-Dimensional Shapes: Construct shapes.

Brain Game: Hot Potato Memory Brain Game: Hot Potato Memory Brain Game: Hot Potato Memory
Help Curiosity think of something to talk Curiosity scans her letter to her grandpa. Read My Expression
about with her grandpa. Letter “h” classroom search

Curiosity Corner 2nd Edition Theme Guide xiii

SETTING THE SCENE | Unit 3: Family Matters

You Will Need

Supplied by SFAF:
Books STaR
• Jonathan and His Mommy by Irene Smalls
• A Chair for My Mother by Vera Williams
• Who’s in a Family? by Robert Skutch
• A House Is a House for Me by Mary Ann Hoberman
• A Letter to Amy by Ezra Jack Keats
Concepts of Print
• Meet My Family by Sally Francis Anderson (class set)
Theme Learning
• The Post Office Book by Gail Gibbons
Getting Along Together
• Cookies: Bite-Size Life Lessons by Amy Krouse Rosenthal
Media
• Curiosity Corner 2nd Edition Software
• Curiosity Corner Home Link show for unit 3
Cards/Card Sets Curiosity Corner Activity Cards for Unit 3
Letter Cards • “Ff,” “Tt,” “Oo,” “Hh,” “Cc,” and “Bb”
Numeral Cards • 4 and 5
• 1–10
Thematic Content • Wonderful Word picture cards: “family,”
“care,” “grandparents,” “size,” “grow,”
“home,” “help,” “communicate,” “write,”
“expression”
• Day 1: Curiosity’s family picture card,
Family Groups set
• Day 2: Caring Family Members set
• Day 3: Curiosity’s Father’s Family
picture card
• Day 4: Curiosity’s family picture card
Rhyme Time • Day 1: cat, bee, girl, tear, fork, book
• Day 9: bat, dog, door
Getting Along Together • Day 8: Feelings Faces set

Plan & Play Scenario Cards • Play House, Visiting a Relative,

Dress Up, Home Builders, Family
Picnic, Baby Bath

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 SETTING THE SCENE | Unit 3: Family Matters

Rhyme Cards
• “This Is My Grandma”
• “Grandpa’s Glasses”
• “Bird Family”
STaR Story Retell Cards
• A Chair for My Mother
• A Letter to Amy
Other Card Sets
• Ear and mouth cards
• Letter-blending cards, deck 1
General —
Used in Every Unit
• Puppets: Curiosity (cat) and Chilly (penguin)
• Paw point chips
• Cool Kid certificates
• Cool Kid stamp
• Colored clothespins (for Plan & Play scenario selection)
• Read & Respond bookmarks
• Home Link animal hand stamps and ink pad
Other SFAF Items
• Counting bears
• Pretend and Play Family set
• Curiosity Corner Unit Record Form for unit 3 (generate with data-tools system)

Curiosity Corner 2nd Edition Theme Guide xv

SETTING THE SCENE | Unit 3: Family Matters

Teacher Acquired:
General
• Photo of your family (Clues & Questions, day 1)
• Ball (Move It!, day 2)
• Objects that could be connected to one family member helping another (bandage,
sponge, pencil, etc.) (Clues & Questions, day 2)
• Four common classroom objects (transition to Question/Reflection, days 1–5)
• Coins (a penny, nickel, dime, and quarter) (STaR, day 3)
• Baby item (bottle, pacifier, bib, diaper) (Clues & Questions, day 5)
• Small toy house or picture of a house (Clues & Questions, day 6)
• Construction paper to create shapes (Math Moments, days 6–9)
• Lively music and music player plus object to pass for Hot Potato Memory
(Question/Reflection, days 6–10)
• Inflated balloon (Move It!, day 7)
• Picture of a woman (Clues & Questions, day 7)
• Toy phone (Clues & Questions, day 8)
• Colored tape (such as painter’s tape) (Math Moments, days 8 and 9)
• Beanbag or other object that children can pass (Move It!, day 9)
• Resealable baggies (Math Moments, days 1–10)
• Yarn (Math Moments, day 10)
• Green paper (for story tree leaves)
• Wonder Box and supplies for Plan & Play prop creation (See the Curiosity Corner
2nd Edition Teacher’s Manual, chapter 10, Getting Started for information about
setting up a Wonder Box.)
• Supplies for Learning Labs and Plan & Play scenarios (See next section.)

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 SETTING THE SCENE | Unit 3: Family Matters

Suggested Materials for Setting Up Learning Labs and Plan & Play Scenarios:
Learning Labs Classroom Library Lab
Enjoy a Story • Books of all kinds, theme-related books

Letter Lab
Making Words • Letter “C” sheet (appendix), glue sticks,
confetti (or small circles from hole
punch)
“F” Is for Family • Textured letter “f,” paper, crayons with
paper removed
“H” Dough Shapes • CC Activity Card: Letter card for “Ff,”
playdough
Math Lab
Bear Families • Bear counters
• Bear Houses sheet (appendix)
• Number cards 1–5 (appendix)
Finding Shapes • Paper circles, squares, rectangles, and
triangles; three or four of each shape
Computer/Media Lab
Exploring with Technology • Computers, tablets, listening media,
software
Writing Lab
Sending Greetings • Variety of writing materials
You’re Invited • Heavy paper to make cards
Art Lab
Creation Station • Variety of materials for creative
activities
Helper’s Helmet • Fire helmet patterns (appendix), badge
pattern (appendix), scissors
Science Lab
Fingerprint Fun • Stamp pads, paper, magnifiers

Invisible Message • Paper, plain white cotton-tipped swabs,

lemon juice, lamp (or other heat source)
Puzzles & Games Lab
Free Exploration • Classroom puzzles and/or games
Teacher Acquired • Sets of five envelopes, forty-five or sixty
notes (See To Be Prepared, day 6.)
SFAF Provided • Post office and/or safety puzzles, traffic
signs, Pretend and Play Family set

Curiosity Corner 2nd Edition Theme Guide xvii

SETTING THE SCENE | Unit 3: Family Matters

Plan & Play

Scenario Suggested Ideas for Props
Classroom Space
Play House Housekeeping area • Bandages, pretend cleaning supplies,
doll babies, etc.
Visiting a Relative Any area • Steering wheel (or an object to
represent a steering wheel), suitcases,
backpacks, maps, etc.
Dress Up Any area • Oversized clothing, hats, shoes, men’s
shirts, purses
Home Builders Any area • Fire trucks, ladder, hose (or rope
to represent a hose), child’s plastic
helmets, boots, large jackets
Family Picnic Any area • Table cloth, toy dishes, picnic basket,
board games
Baby Bath Water table • Dolls, soap, towels, doll clothes,
wash cloths

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 SETTING THE SCENE | Unit 3: Family Matters

To Be Prepared:
Every day: Pull the materials listed on the Ready, Set chart for your daily lessons. Use the information in the
You Will Need section to determine whether the materials are provided by SFAF or you will need to acquire
them elsewhere. Follow the additional preparation steps for each day as described below.
Day 1
G, R, & W • Locate paper dolls used in unit 2, day 9, Math Moments.
• Duplicate the Learning Labs Facilitator Guide.
STaR • Number the pages of the book Jonathan and His Mommy. Page 2 begins, “I like to
go walking….”
MM • Place eight or twelve objects in resealable plastic bags, one bag per partnership.
Q/R • Gather three or four items (theme related if possible) for the brain game,
What Is Missing?
• Duplicate the theme introduction letters.
• Duplicate and prepare the Learning Labs Facilitation Guide.
Day 2
G, R, & W • Glue sand or a cut out “f” from sandpaper on heavy paper.
MM • Duplicate the bus sheet (appendix), one per partnership.
Day 3
G, R, & W • Create a number line for 0–5. Make the space for each number large enough for
children to attach a clothespin to it.
STaR • Number the pages of the book A Chair for My Mother. Page 1 begins, “My mother
works as a waitress….”
MM • Place ten or fifteen counting bears in resealable plastic bags, one bag per partnership.
Day 4
G, R, & W • Make four copies of the Bear Houses sheet (appendix).
• Place fifteen or twenty counting bears in resealable bags, four or five bags in all.
Day 5
STaR • Preview the suggested STaR book, Who’s in a Family?, which contains a variety of
family structures, some of which may not be represented in your area. Select a different
book if necessary.
MM • Copy and cut out the Match Game cards (appendix). Place each set in a resealable
plastic bag. Make one set per partnership.
Day 6
G, R, & W • Prepare sets of five envelopes by writing the numerals 1, 2, 3, 4, or 5 on one envelope
in each set. Make three or four sets (fifteen or twenty envelopes total).
• Prepare forty-five to sixty notes to correspond with the number of sets of envelopes
with simple greetings such as “Hello,” “Have a great day,” “I you,” etc.
STaR • Number the pages of the book A House Is a House for Me. Page 1 begins, “A hill is
a house for an ant….” Read the story several times to get a sense of its rhyme and
rhythm before reading to the children.
MM • Cut out a large construction paper circle.

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SETTING THE SCENE | Unit 3: Family Matters

Day 7
G, R, & W • Cut out four or five construction paper circles.
MM • Cut out a large construction paper square.
Day 8
G, R, & W • Cut out four or five construction paper squares.
GAT • Gather pictures (from magazines or books) or photographs of people that depict a
variety of feelings.
MM • Make a large rectangle on the floor with brightly colored tape.
Day 9
G, R, & W • Cut out four or five construction paper rectangles.
C&Q • Number the pages of the book The Post Office Book. Page 1 begins, “Since early
times….”
• Duplicate the Curiosity and Her Grandpa sheet (appendix).
MM • Make a triangle on the floor with brightly colored tape.
Day 10
G, R, & W • Cut out four or five construction paper triangles.
MM • Place ten craft sticks, a piece of yarn approximately 12 inches long, and a paper circle,
square, triangle, and rectangle in a resealable plastic bag, one per partnership.

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 DAY 1 | Unit 3: Family Matters

Day 1 | Ready, Set

Focus
Each of us is part of a family.

Materials

General • Sign-in sheet

You will need these • Sharing sticks
items at various points • Ear and mouth cards
every day throughout • Curiosity puppet
the unit. • Partnership chart and name cards
• Curiosity’s water dish
• Cool Kid stamp
• Paw point chips
• Curiosity Corner 2nd Edition flash drive
• Unit record form for unit 3

Greetings, Readings, • Learning Labs Facilitation Guide (appendix)

& Writings • Refer to the Suggested Materials for Setting Up Learning
Labs and Plan & Play Scenarios chart in the You Will
Need section of the front matter for materials related to
Learning Labs and Plan & Play scenarios.

Gathering Circle • Calendar plus calendar cutout for today’s date

Move It! • CC Activity Cards: Numeral cards 1–10

Clues & Questions • CC Activity Cards: Curiosity’s family picture card, Family
Groups set
• Photo of your family
• CC Activity Card: Wonderful Word picture card for
“family”
• Daily Message board or IWB access
• CC Activity Cards: Letter cards for “Ff,” “Tt,” and “Oo”

Rhyme Time • Rhyme card for “This Is My Grandma” (optional)

• CC Activity Cards: Picture cards for cat, bee, girl, tear,
fork, book

Plan & Play • Wonder Box for prop creation

• CC Activity Cards: Scenario cards for Play Home, Visiting
a Relative, Dress Up, and Home Builders
• Colored clothespins
• Paper and crayons or pencils for writing play plans

STaR • Trade book: Jonathan and His Mommy by Irene Smalls

• Leaf for story tree

Math Moments • Baggies of eight or twelve objects, one per partnership

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DAY 1 | Unit 3: Family Matters

Materials

Question/Reflection • Three or four items (theme related)

• Cool Kid certificate and marker
• Celebration jar
• Home Link show for unit 3
• Read & Respond bookmarks
• Theme introduction letter for unit 3 (appendix)
• Home Link animal stamp: chick

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 DAY 1 | Unit 3: Family Matters

Greetings, Readings,
Day 1 & Writings

Child Routines Teacher Routines

1. Remove coats and backpacks. 1. Greet parents and children.

2. Sign in. 2. Remind children to read the Arrival
3. Self-select labs or other activities. Activities poster as they prepare for
their day.
3. Guide children, as needed, to select
a Learning Lab to explore. Introduce
newly added labs as appropriate.
4. Encourage children to describe what
they are doing in full sentences as you
observe their activities.
5. Observe for children’s developing
oral language and social skills as
guided by the unit record form for the
current unit.

Available Activities

See the Learning Classroom Library Lab: Enjoy a Story

Labs Facilitation
Guide in the • Point out any books related to families. Encourage children to read books about
appendix for more families or to read to the family member figures.
detailed information
and ideas about
engaging with Letter Lab: Making Words
children in the labs.
• Point out the magnetic letters in the lab. Encourage children to use the letters to
form words from the My Five Senses book or another storybook with large print.

Math Lab: Bear Families

• Invite children to play a game called Bear Families. First, they should draw one of
the number cards. Then, they should place the number of bears shown on the card
into each of the houses from the Bear Houses sheet.

Computer/Media Lab: Exploring with Technology

• If you have computers, tablets, or listening media available for children to use,
have them turned on and ready to use. (Load software, have website links available,
have CDs available, etc. depending on the type of devices that you are using.)

Writing Lab: Sending Greetings

• Point out the writing instruments (crayons, markers, pencils) and types of writing
paper (lined, unlined, construction) available. Children’s writing journals should
also be easily accessible. Encourage children to write a note or make a greeting
card for a family member.

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DAY 1 | Unit 3: Family Matters

Art Lab: Creation Station

• Provide a variety of general items, such as construction paper, glue, scissors, or
paint, and encourage children to create whatever they’d like. Demonstrate writing
your name on a drawing or painting you’ve made.

Science Lab: Fingerprint Fun

• Children may make their fingerprints and observe the details with magnifiers.
Model making a fingerprint on the paper and examining it with a magnifier.

Puzzles & Games Lab: Free Exploration

• Encourage children to engage in imaginative play with the “Pretend and Play
Family” set.
• If you have any theme-related puzzles or games, make them available.

Give five- and three-minute warnings near the end of Greetings, Readings, & Writings.
TRANSITION Encourage children to join you in singing the tidy-up song as they put away the lab
supplies and then move to the gathering area.

This is the way we tidy our labs,

tidy our labs, tidy our labs.
This is the way we tidy our labs,
all of us together.
(Repeat if children need more time.)
And now we will gather for circle time,
circle time, circle time.
And now we will gather for circle time,
all of us together.

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 DAY 1 | Unit 3: Family Matters

✿ Gathering Circle

Welcome Activities

Welcome
• Welcome children to the circle. Award paw points if everyone arrived in an orderly
and effective manner.

Attendance
• Use the sign-in sheet to quickly check attendance.

Partners
• Assign new partners for the week. Ask children to move next to their new partners
so they can share ideas with each other. Place partners’ name cards together on the
partnership chart so everyone will remember the partnerships throughout the day.

Home Link Debrief

• Ask if children were able to explore a book with someone at home last night (or
over the weekend). Remind children to ask their family members to complete the
Read & Respond bookmark each day.
Tell your partner about a book that someone read to you at home.
T-P-S: What was your favorite part?
• Use the sharing sticks to select two or three children to share their responses with
the whole class. Award paw points in recognition of thoughtful answers.

Classroom Jobs
• Assign classroom jobs for the week. Place each child’s name card next to his or her
assigned job on the jobs chart.

Calendar
• Have children count together with you as you touch the dates on the calendar up to
yesterday’s date.
WGR: What will the number for today’s date be? Children will likely respond
using a cardinal-number form. Tell the number if no one is able to answer.
• Challenge children to determine the shape and color of the calendar cutout that
will be used today.
EXAMPLE

Yesterday our number was on a/an (name the shape for yesterday’s date).
What shape do you think today’s number will be on? Replies. Yes, our
pattern this month is (describe your pattern).

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DAY 1 | Unit 3: Family Matters

• Invite children to say the day and date with you in unison.
Today is (day of the week), (month) (date as an ordinal number), (year).

Weather
• Invite the weather watcher to look out the window to determine the current
weather conditions and mark the weather chart accordingly. If the weather changes
during the day, it is the weather watcher’s job to change the chart.

Cool Kid
• Announce today’s Cool Kid. Remind children that the Cool Kid will be working on
all the things that make our classroom a wonderful place to be, such as using active
listening when someone is speaking, sharing, and taking turns. Use the Cool Kid
stamp to mark his or her hand for easy identification.

Invite children to stand in preparation for the Move It! activity.

TRANSITION

Move It!
• Introduce today’s Move It! activity, Jumping Bean. Remind children how to play
the game.
We’re going to play Jumping Bean today. I will show you a number card.
Call out the name of the number that you see on the card. After you say
the number, you can jump in place the number of times that matches the
number on the card.
• Allow children to play Jumping Bean for several minutes.

Lead children as they recite “Cat in a Box” to entice Curiosity to come out of
TRANSITION her house.

Cat in a box,
Sit so still,
Will you come out?
Yes, I will!

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 DAY 1 | Unit 3: Family Matters

Clues & Questions

Theme-related
word(s): Curiosity’s Clues
family*
• Have Curiosity reach into her bag and take out the picture of her family.
mother
Curiosity: I have a picture that will give you a clue about what we will learn
father
for the next two weeks. T-P-S: Who do you think is in this picture? In the
sister photograph, we see Curiosity with her mother and father.
brother
• Use the sharing sticks to select a few children to share their responses.
grandmother
Curiosity: This is a picture of me with my parents when I was a
grandfather
little kitten.
aunt
T-P-S: What do you think we will learn about? Families.
uncle
cousin
Learning with Curiosity
• Explain that everyone in the class has a family. Show your own family picture, and
explain who each person is.
• Distribute a family groups picture card to each partnership. (More than one
partnership will have the same picture card.) Ask partners to talk about the family
members shown in each picture.
• Use the sharing sticks to select a few partnerships to tell about one family
member in their partnership’s picture. Encourage the use of the words “father,”
“mother,” “sister,” “brother,” “grandfather,” and “grandmother” as children describe
their pictures.
• Show an example of a family by showing the “Carlos’s Family” video.

Wonderful Word
• Show the Wonderful Word picture card for “family.”
Our Wonderful Word today is “family.” A family is a group of people who
take care of one another.
• Play the digital dictionary video for “family.”
• Remind children that they can earn paw points when they use or hear the word
“family” today.
• Post the Wonderful Word picture card where children will be able to refer to it
throughout the day.

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DAY 1 | Unit 3: Family Matters

Daily Message
• Write the Daily Message in front of children, reading each word as you finish
writing it. Then read the message again, touching each word as you read it.
Each of us is part of a family.

Letter Links
• Have Curiosity provide clues about the letter “f.” Use Think-Pair-Share to have
children guess the letter, then show the letter card to reveal it to the children.
• Display the letter cards for “Tt,” “Ff,” and “Oo.”
Our letter of the week is one of these three letters. The letter is in our
message today. Curiosity has brought some clues for us about the letter.
Listen carefully to see if you can tell what it is!
– My uppercase shape is tall. So is my lowercase shape.
– My uppercase shape looks different than my lowercase shape.
– My lowercase shape has a curved line.
WGR: What letter am I? “F.” “F” is the letter of the week!
• Have children help you identify the letter in the Daily Message. Reread the message,
running your finger underneath each word as you read it. Children should raise
their hands when your finger is underneath the letter of the week and put their
hands down again when it’s not.
We’re going to use our letter goggles to see if we can find the letter of
the week in our message. I will move my finger beneath each word as
I read it. Raise your hand if my finger is underneath the letter of the
week. Be sure to put your hand down once my finger moves! Ready? Put
on your goggles now.
Was the letter in our message today? Yes. Circle each instance of the letter in
the message.
• Reinforce the sound and shape of the letter “f” by showing the “Shopping for F”
video.

Ask children to stand up as they sing “It’s Time for a Rhyme” to signal the transition to
TRANSITION Rhyme Time.

It’s Time for a Rhyme

Penny, nickel, dime,
It’s time for a rhyme.
We know words that sound the same,
Now it’s time to play our game.

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 DAY 1 | Unit 3: Family Matters

Rhyme Time

Say the Rhyme

• Introduce the new rhyme.
Today we will begin to learn a new rhyme about people in our families.
It’s called “This Is My Grandma.” When we say this rhyme, you will hear
words that sound the same at the end.
• Start the video so children can hear the audio and see the motions.
• Use My Turn, Your Turn to teach the rhyme and motions to children, one line at
a time.

This Is My Grandma
This is my grandma, kind and dear. (Hold up forefinger.)
This is my aunt, sitting near. (Add middle finger.)
This is my mother, smiling at me! (Add ring finger.)
This is my sister, climbing a tree. (Add pinkie finger.)
These are the females in my family tree. (Wiggle all four fingers.)

Develop Phonological Awareness—Rhyme Recognition

• Invite children to recall the rhyming words from the poem.
Which word rhymes with “dear”? “Near.” Dear, near. They both
have /ear/ at the end. Which word rhymes with “tree”? “Me.” Tree, me.
They both end with / ē/.
• Lead the Picture Match game. Show the first set of pictures. Point to and name
each picture.

cat bee girl

WGR: Which word rhymes with “tree” and “me”: “cat,” “bee,” or “girl”?
“Bee.”

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DAY 1 | Unit 3: Family Matters

• Use My Turn, Your Turn to have children say “bee,” “tree,” and “me.” Encourage
them to think about how their mouths feel the same as they say the end of
If children each word.
need support
to identify which • Repeat the process with the second set of picture cards. Have children identify
of the picture card which picture rhymes with the words “near” and “dear.”
words rhymes with
the given pair of
rhyming words, you
may want to state
the two rhyming
words before each
of the choices, e.g.,
“Tree, me, cat,”
“Tree, me, be,”
“Tree, me, girl.”

tear fork book

Plan & Play

Scenario Introduction
• Briefly explain the scenarios that are available for children to choose from this
week. Show children where each scenario can take place. Introduce any props
that you have added to the area. Invite children to think about what kinds of things
might happen in each scenario.

Play Home
Pretend that you are at home. Who is there with you? What do you do at
home with your family? What will your home look like? Will you have a
room for eating and cooking? Is there a place where you will sleep and
keep your toys?

Visiting a Relative
Pretend that you are going on a trip to visit someone in your family
who lives far away from you. Whom will you visit, your grandparents,
your cousins? How will you get there? What will happen when all of you
are together?

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 DAY 1 | Unit 3: Family Matters

Dress Up
You can use dress-up clothes to pretend that you are someone in your
family. Who will you be? What does that person do?

Home Builders
Pretend that you are going to build a house for a family to live in. What
will the house look like? Who will live in the house? Where will the house
be? What kinds of materials will you use to build your house?

Scenario Selection
• Identify which scenario is represented by each of the cards on the play-planning
board to introduce the potential scenarios for the week. Place a different colored
clip on each scenario card. If there are limitations on the number of children that
can play in a given scenario, only make a certain number of clips available in the
associated color.
EXAMPLE

I have placed a red clip on this picture of children playing house. If you
want to pretend in the housekeeping area today, you will wear a red clip
on your clothing. As you can see, we could fit about eight children in the
housekeeping area, so I have eight red clips here. Once the clips are all
gone, you will need to choose another scenario.
Remember to stop by the planning table on your way to your chosen area
so you can think about what you’d like to pretend today.
• Use the sharing sticks to randomly select children to choose the scenario they’d
like to play in. Once each child selects a scenario, place the appropriate colored
clip on his or her clothing, and send him or her to the table(s) for planning.

Plan
• Invite children to write about what they will do in the pretend scenario today.
Accept all forms of writing (scribbling, drawing lines, attempts at letter formation,
pictures, etc.). Encourage children to tell you what they have written.

Play
• Observe children as they participate in each play scenario. Join in the play to
encourage conversation, prop use, and role-playing and to model the use of writing
in the context of the scenario.

Coaching
• Encourage children to become engaged in the new scenarios by joining in the play.
Acknowledge any props they have made.

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DAY 1 | Unit 3: Family Matters

EXAMPLES
Play Home: Knock on the door. Hello. I’m your new neighbor. Our
telephones are not working yet. May I borrow your phone to make
a call? Pick up a block that you’ve seen children pretending is a phone.
Proceed to make a call with the block.
Visiting a Relative: Hello. I’m your neighbor, and I heard you were going out
of town. May I offer to water your plants and feed your cat while you’re
gone? (Refer to a stuffed animal toy.) Is this your pet? He’s so cute! What’s
his name?

Provide five- and three-minute warnings before the end of Plan & Play. Then sing the
TRANSITION clean-up song or another song to prompt children to put away any props and move to
the STaR area.

The Clean-Up Song

Clean up, clean up,
Everybody, everywhere.
Clean up, clean up,
Everybody do your share.

Once children have arrived at the STaR area, lead them in reciting and doing the
motions to “Two Little Hands.”

Two Little Hands

Two little hands go clap, clap, clap.
Two little feet go tap, tap, tap.
One little body turns round and round.
One little body sits quietly down.

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 DAY 1 | Unit 3: Family Matters

STaR
Interactive Story Reading
STaR word(s):
steps
Jonathan and His Mommy
Author: Irene Smalls
Illustrator: Michael Hays

This is a story about what happens when Jonathan and his mother take a
walk through their neighborhood in a very special way. The muted colors
of the lifelike illustrations and the warm bond between mother and son
add to the visual and emotional delight of this story.

Interactive Story Reading

Before Reading
• Introduce the title, author, and illustrator of the story.
The title of our story today is Jonathan and His Mommy. That’s the
name of the story. The author is Irene Smalls. She wrote the words for
the story. The illustrator is Michael Hays. He drew the pictures.
• Have children preview the story. Guide them as they make predictions about the
story based on the cover illustration and the title.
The title of the book is Jonathan and His Mommy. There is a woman
and a little boy on the cover of this book. T-P-S: Who do you think
they are?
We think the story will be about the two people in this picture. Let’s
see if we can get some ideas about the story by looking at the pictures.
Take a Picture Walk through the book, pausing occasionally for children to get a
good look at the illustrations. T-P-S: What ideas do you have about what will
happen in the story?

During Reading
• Use Think-Pair-Share or Whole-Group Response to engage children in an ongoing
discussion about the story as guided by the following questions and comments.
– Page 2: T-P-S: Where do you think Jonathan and his mommy are going
on their walk? While they walk, let’s notice all the places they go in
their neighborhood.
– Page 9: Jonathan and his mommy like to walk in different ways. So far,
they’ve taken zigzag steps, giant steps, and itsy-bitsy steps. T-P-S: What
kind of steps do you think they will take next?
– Page 21: T-P-S: What do Jonathan and his mommy see happening as
they walk?
– Page 28: T-P-S: Do you think Jonathan is happy to be going home? Why
(or why not)?

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DAY 1 | Unit 3: Family Matters

After Reading
• Ask summative questions about the text, and review STaR words.
• Invite children to talk about some of the things that Jonathan and his mommy see
on their walk through their neighborhood.
Jonathan and his mommy take a long walk through their neighborhood.
T-P-S: What is something they see while they are walking?
Jonathan and his mommy take all different kinds of steps in this story.
They take giant steps, slow steps, bunny steps, and other kinds of steps.
T-P-S: What do you think the word “steps” means in this story?
In this story, the word “steps” means a way of moving your feet.
Jonathan moves his feet in different ways. He stretches his legs as far as
they can go when he moves his feet to take giant steps. If some children
define “steps” as stairs, point out that is another meaning for the word “steps,”
but in this story, it means the way people walk.
• Write the title of the story on a leaf, and have a child attach it to the story tree.
Lead children in reciting “When I’m Doing Math.”
TRANSITION

When I’m Doing Math

When I’m doing math,
I wonder what I’ll see.
Lots of things for counting,
1, 2, 3.

Math word(s):
Math Moments
four

Basic word(s): Count with Curiosity

group • Play the “Count with Curiosity: 1–11” video. Invite children to count to 11
identify with Curiosity.

Active Instruction
• Invite four children to stand where everyone can see them.
Let’s count how many children are standing here. Touch each child on the
head as children count. There are four children.

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 DAY 1 | Unit 3: Family Matters

• Invite seven children to stand at the front of the group. Arrange children in two
groups; one group should have four children, and the other group should have
three children.
One of these groups has four children. Can you tell which group
has four? T-P-S: How can we find out which group has four children?
Count them.
Let’s count the children to see which group has four children. Start with
the group of three children. Touch each child on the head as you count to 3
together. There are three children in this group.
Move to the group of four children. Now let’s count the children in this
group. Touch each child on the head as you count to 4 together. There are four
children in this group.

Partner Practice
• Distribute a set of eight or twelve objects to each partnership. Have partners work
together to create groups of four objects.
• Have children come back together to share.
How many sets of four did you make?
T-P-S: What did you do to find the groups of four? Counted the objects.
• To reinforce the concept of number sense for 4, show “The Dancing Four” video.

Have children play last week’s brain game, What Is the Magic Word? Remind children
TRANSITION that What Is the Magic Word? is a game that will help them to focus.

Brain Game: What Is the Magic Word?

Play any popular appropriate song that has a few words that are repeated often. Select
a word that is clearly heard in the song, and announce that it is the magic word (e.g., in
the song “Old MacDonald,” a word like “farm” would be chosen). Tell children to listen
carefully for the word as they listen to the song. Whenever they hear the magic word
in the song, they will do a specific action, such as touch their noses or stand up. The
challenge is to hear every instance of the chosen word and do the appropriate action.

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DAY 1 | Unit 3: Family Matters

Question/Reflection

Learning-Focus Review
• Review the day’s learning focus.
Let’s think about what we’ve learned today. We are all part of a family.

Wonderful Word
• Review the Wonderful Word.
Our Wonderful Word today is “family.” Remember that a family is a
group of people who care about one another. T-P-S: When did we hear the
word “family” today?
• Use the sharing sticks to select children to share their responses. Award paw points
for reasonable responses.

Theme Learning Extension

• Introduce the brain game, What Is Missing?
This week we will play a new brain game called What Is Missing? This
game is fun, and it helps our brains learn to remember things well!

Brain Game: What Is Missing?

This game is played in partnerships. Select items with which children are familiar
(theme related), and place them on a tray. Gather children so they can easily see the
tray. Give children twenty to thirty seconds to study the tray. Ask children to cover
their eyes, and remove an object. When they open their eyes, allow children to talk
with their partners to determine what is missing.

• Explain that the children will help you make sets of four children.
Let’s see how many sets of four children we can make with our class.
WGR: How can we figure this out? Count.
• Select children one at a time to form a line of four children. Invite the class to count
as children line up. When they reach 4, start a new group.
• When all children are in a group, count the number of groups.
We have ____ groups of four children.
• If you have additional children who don’t form a complete group, you may
want to ask children how to solve this problem. This will give insight into their
problem-solving skills and understanding of the concept of a set of four.

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 DAY 1 | Unit 3: Family Matters

Cool Kid Recognition

• Invite the Cool Kid to come to the front of the circle. Have Curiosity, a marker, and
the Cool Kid certificate ready. Have Curiosity model giving a compliment to the
Cool Kid based on something that happened during the day. Use this opportunity to
model different types of compliments than what the children typically give.
Now it’s time to give compliments to the Cool Kid! Remember that a
compliment is something you say that is nice or encouraging. Take a
minute to think of a compliment for the Cool Kid. Did anyone notice
anything positive, friendly, or helpful that the Cool Kid did today?
Curiosity would like to give the first compliment.
• Write a few compliments on the Cool Kid certificate. Present the certificate to the
child, and encourage him or her to take it home to show family.

Paw Points
• Remind children about why they have earned paw points.
We earned paw points today for using or noticing the Wonderful Word
and also for talking with our partners, sharing materials, and working
well together. Let’s count the paw points that we earned today!
• Transfer the paw point chips from Curiosity’s water bowl to the celebration jar.
Count each chip as you place it into the jar.
• If the chips reach the line on the celebration jar, invite children to sing and dance to
the “Curiosity Shuffle.”

Home Link/Departure
• Make any announcements, or give reminders (upcoming field trips, picture day, etc.).
• Distribute a theme introduction letter and Read & Respond bookmark to
each child.
• Remind children to complete their Read & Respond bookmark and to watch
tonight’s Home Link episode online to share what they learned today with their
family members. They will find today’s episode when they click on the chick.
• Use the chick stamp to place an animal image on each child’s hand. (optional)
• Have children join hands to form a circle. Sing the “I’ll Miss You” song.

I’ll Miss You

(tune: “This Old Man”)
I’ll miss you. (Point to class.)
You’ll miss me. (Point to self.)
We sure learned a lot you see.
We had clues and questioned lots of things.
We want to see what tomorrow brings!

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 DAY 2 | Unit 3: Family Matters

Day 2 | Ready, Set

Focus
Family members are joined together by caring for one another.

Additional Materials Needed Today

Greetings, Readings, • Letter Lab: Textured cards for the letter “f” (e.g.,
& Writings beaded or sandpaper letters), crayons with wrappers
removed, paper
• Art Lab: Finger paints, tempera paint, markers, crayons

Gathering Circle • Calendar cutout for today’s date

Move It! • Ball

Clues & Questions • Objects that could be connected to one family member
helping another (e.g., adhesive bandage, sponge, pencil)
• CC Activity Cards: Caring Family Members set
• CC Activity Card: Wonderful Word picture card for “care”
• CC Activity Card: Letter card for “Ff”

Getting Along • No additional materials needed

Together

Plan & Play • Alphabet books

• CC Activity Cards: Family Groups set

STaR • Trade book: Jonathan and His Mommy by Irene Smalls

Math Moments • CC Activity Card: Numeral card for 4

• Counting bears
• Bus sheet (appendix)
• Bag of eight or twelve objects (from day 1, Math
Moments), one per partnership

Question/Reflection • Four items for the brain game What Is Missing?

• CC Activity Card: Letter card for “Ff”
• Cool Kid certificate and marker
• Home Link animal stamp: dog

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 DAY 2 | Unit 3: Family Matters

Greetings, Readings,
Day 2 & Writings

Child Routines Teacher Routines

1. Remove coats and backpacks. 1. Greet parents and children.

2. Sign in. 2. Remind children to read the Arrival
3. Self-select labs or other activities. Activities poster as they prepare for
their day.
3. Guide children, as needed, to select
a Learning Lab to explore. Introduce
newly added labs as appropriate.
4. Encourage children to describe what
they are doing in full sentences as you
observe their activities.
5. Observe for children’s developing
oral language and social skills as
guided by the unit record form for the
current unit.

Available Activities

Classroom Library Lab: Enjoy a Story

• Same as day 1

Letter Lab: “F” Is for Family

• Introduce a textured letter “f” to create crayon-rubbing letters. Demonstrate how
to place a textured “f” under a piece of paper and rub a crayon over it to create an
image of the letter.

Math Lab: Bear Families

• Same as day 1

Computer/Media Lab: Exploring with Technology

• Same as day 1

Writing Lab: Sending Greetings

• Same as day 1

Art Lab: For My Family

• Point out the finger paints, tempera for easel painting, markers, crayons, etc.
Encourage children to create a picture for a family member.

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DAY 2 | Unit 3: Family Matters

Science Lab: Fingerprint Fun

• Same as day 1

Puzzles & Games Lab: Free Exploration

• Same as day 1

Give five- and three-minute warnings near the end of Greetings, Readings, & Writings.
TRANSITION Encourage children to join you in singing the tidy-up song as they put away the lab
supplies and then move to the gathering area.

✿ Gathering Circle

Welcome Activities

Welcome
• Welcome children to the circle. Award paw points if everyone arrived in an orderly
and effective manner.

Attendance
• Use the sign-in sheet to quickly check attendance.

Partners
• Invite children to sit with their partners. Use the partnership chart to review
assignments as necessary.

Home Link Debrief

• Invite children to share what they remember from last night’s Home Link show.
T-P-S: In the movement song, what does Big Bird say he is happy to be?
Me!
• Use the sharing sticks to select two or three children to share their responses with
the whole class. Award paw points in recognition of thoughtful answers.
• Remind children to ask their family members to complete the Read & Respond
bookmark each day.

Classroom Jobs
• Use the job chart to remind children about their jobs for the week.

Calendar
• Have children count together with you as you touch the dates on the calendar up to
yesterday’s date. Then challenge children to determine the shape and color of the

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 DAY 2 | Unit 3: Family Matters

calendar cutout that will be used today. Invite children to say the day and date with
you in unison.

Weather
• Invite the weather watcher to indicate the current weather conditions on the
weather chart.

Cool Kid
• Announce today’s Cool Kid. Remind children that the Cool Kid will be working on
all the things that make our classroom a wonderful place to be, such as using active
listening when someone is speaking, sharing, and taking turns. Use the Cool Kid
stamp to mark his or her hand for easy identification.

Invite children to stand in preparation for the Move It! activity.

TRANSITION

Move It!
• Invite children to join you in a circle. Explain the Ball Pass: ABCs game to them.
Today we will play Ball Pass with our ABCs. When you pass the
ball to the friend sitting next to you, you will say the next letter in
the alphabet.
• Pass the ball to the child sitting next to you as you say, “A!” aloud.
• If time allows, reverse the direction of the ball, and play the game again.

Lead children as they recite “Cat in a Box” to entice Curiosity to come out of
TRANSITION her house.

Clues & Questions

Theme-related
word(s):
care*
Curiosity’s Clues
Basic word(s): • Present Curiosity and her bag.
together
Curiosity brought some things to give us a clue about what we will
learn today.

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DAY 2 | Unit 3: Family Matters

• Reach into the bag, and ask Curiosity what the item is as you pull it out.
Possible responses from Curiosity:
– My mother put a bandage on my leg when I got a cut.
– I used this sponge to help wash the dishes.
– My father used this pencil to help my sister with her homework.
• Comment on the ways that Curiosity’s family members help one another.
Curiosity, the members of your family help one another. That shows they
care for one another.

Learning with Curiosity

• Distribute a caring-family-members picture card to each partnership. Invite
children to tell their partners what is happening in the picture.
• Use the sharing sticks to select a few children to tell how the picture on their
partnership’s card shows someone helping or caring for another family member.
• State the daily focus.
Family members are joined together by helping and caring for
one another.
• Help children expand the concept of family members caring for one another by
playing the “Kids Take Care” video.

Wonderful Word
• Show the Wonderful Word picture card for “care.”
Our Wonderful Word today is “care.” When we care for people, we
show how much we love them by helping them do something or by doing
something that will make them happy.
• Play the digital dictionary video for “care.”
• Remind children that they can earn paw points when they use or hear the word
“care” today.
• Post the Wonderful Word picture card where children will be able to refer to it
throughout the day.

Daily Message
• Write the Daily Message in front of children, reading each word as you finish
writing it. Then read the message again, touching each word as you read it.
Family members care for one another.
• Point out that some of the letters in the message reach way up high, and others
reach way down low.

Letter Links
• Have Curiosity show the letter card for “f.”

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 DAY 2 | Unit 3: Family Matters

• Invite children to help you identify the letter in the Daily Message. Reread the
message, running your finger underneath each word as you read it. Children should
raise their hands when your finger is underneath the letter of the week and put their
hands down again when it’s not.
We’re going to use our letter goggles to see if we can find the letter of
the week in our message. I will move my finger beneath each word as
I read it. Raise your hand if my finger is underneath the letter of the
week. Be sure to put your hand down once my finger moves! Ready? Put
on your goggles now.
Was the letter in our message today? Yes. Circle each instance of the letter in
the message.
• To reinforce the sound and shape of the letter “f,” show the “Fun Factory’s Letter F”
video.

Have children stand and recite “This Is My Grandma” as a transition to Getting

TRANSITION Along Together.

Getting Along Together

GAT word(s):
focus
pay attention Active Instruction
• Introduce the Focus Signal.
In the last unit, we played two brain games that helped us focus—I Spy
and What Is the Magic Word? To focus, we need to pay close attention.
We also need to pay attention in school. T-P-S: What kinds of things do
you need to pay attention to in our classroom? When the teacher gives
directions, when the teacher reads a story, when we do Think-Pair-Share,
when we play with our friends, and when we are trying to figure out a puzzle
or game.
T-P-S: What are some things you need to pay attention to at home?
Sometimes it’s hard to pay attention. When it feels hard to pay attention,
you can use your brain to help you.
• Demonstrate the Focus Signal—make binoculars with your hands, and hold them
around your eyes.
Can you make the Focus Signal? Put your hands around your eyes to
make binoculars. Binoculars help to focus your eyes in one direction.
Point your binoculars right at me, and pay close attention to what I
do. Make a small movement (blink your eye, raise your eyebrow, or wave your
hand). T-P-S: What did you notice when you were focusing on me with
your binoculars? If some children missed what you did, invite them to put on
their focus binoculars and try again. Remind them to point their eyes directly at
you and pay close attention.

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DAY 2 | Unit 3: Family Matters

Partner Practice
• Have children practice focusing.
I will give the Focus Signal during the day when it’s important to pay
attention. When you see me doing this (Demonstrate the Focus Signal by
making binoculars around your eyes.), I want you to focus and pay close
attention. Let’s practice focusing right now.
Let’s all point our focus binoculars to the right side of the classroom.
(Point to that side of the classroom.) Look carefully; do you see anything
that you haven’t seen before? What colors do you see? Turn and tell your
partner what you see.
Now let’s point our focus binoculars to the left side of the classroom.
(Point to the left side of the classroom.) Look carefully; do you see anything
that you haven’t seen before? What colors do you see? Turn and tell your
partner what you see.
When you see me give the Focus Signal today, point your focus
binoculars at me, and pay attention.

Invite children to join you in front of the play-planning board.

TRANSITION

Plan & Play

Scenario Review
• Review the scenarios for the unit as needed. Include any new scenarios that may
have emerged as a part of yesterday’s play. Remind children where each scenario
can take place in the classroom. Introduce any props that you have added to the
area. Invite children to think about what kinds of things might happen in each
scenario today.

Scenario Selection
• Review which scenario is represented by each of the cards on the
play-planning board.
• Use the sharing sticks to randomly select children to choose the scenario they’d
like to play in. Once each child selects a scenario, place the appropriate colored
clip on his or her clothing, and send him or her to the table(s) for planning.

Plan
• Invite children to write about what they will do in the pretend scenario today.
Accept all forms of writing (scribbling, drawing lines, attempts at letter formation,
pictures, etc.). Encourage children to tell you what they have written.

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 DAY 2 | Unit 3: Family Matters

Play
• Observe children as they participate in each play scenario. Join in the play to
encourage conversation, prop use, and role-playing and to model the use of writing
in the context of the scenario.

Coaching
• Encourage children to become engaged in the new scenarios by joining in the play.
Acknowledge any props they have made.

Small-Group Instruction
• During the last ten minutes, pull five or six children aside for this week’s
small-group activity.

My Family
• Display the family groups picture cards from Clues & Questions, day 1.
Use the pictures to help children name various family members (mother,
father, sister, brother, etc.).
• Share information about your own family (current or when you were
a child). Invite children to tell about their own families. (Do they have
brothers or sisters? Do they have grandparents or cousins? Do their
grandparents or cousins live nearby or far away?)
• Invite children to share any nicknames they use for their parents,
grandparents, or other family members (Mom, Mommy, Pop Pop, Nanna,
Sis, etc.).

Provide five- and three-minute warnings before the end of Plan & Play. Then sing a
TRANSITION clean-up song to prompt children to put away any props and move to the STaR area.

Once children have arrived at the STaR area, lead them in reciting and doing the
motions to “Two Little Hands.”

STaR
Story Retell
STaR word(s):
steps
Jonathan and His Mommy
Author: Irene Smalls
Illustrator: Michael Hays

Review
• Display the front cover of the book. Review the title, author, and illustrator of
the story.

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DAY 2 | Unit 3: Family Matters

We read this story yesterday. The title of the story is Jonathan and His
Mommy. That’s the name of the story. Irene Smalls is the author of this
story. She wrote the words. Michael Hays is the illustrator who drew
the pictures.
• Review the story vocabulary that was introduced yesterday.

Crisscross may be We heard the word “steps” yesterday in the story. Jonathan and his
difficult for children mommy took a walk through their neighborhood and moved their feet in
to understand. many different ways. T-P-S: Which of Jonathan’s steps do you like to use
You may want to
demonstrate with when you walk?
one child. Pretend
to be the mommy,
and have the child Story Retell
stand slightly in
front of you, as • Hold up the book Jonathan and His Mommy, and tell children that they will help
in the illustration. you tell the story today by showing how Jonathan walks with his mommy around
Show children how
to move one leg his neighborhood.
so you now are
standing with one Yesterday we read about the walk that Jonathan takes around his
foot in front of your neighborhood. Today when I read the story, you will pretend that you are
partner. Then have Jonathan. As I read about the kind of steps Jonathan takes on his walk,
your partner repeat
what you just did,
you will walk the way Jonathan does in the story.
moving his or her leg • Invite children to spread out so they can move like Jonathan without bumping into
in front of you. Invite
children to practice one another. Review some of the steps that children are not familiar with, such as
with a partner. zigzag, slow motion, ballet, and crisscross, using the illustrations as a guide.
• Read the story, pausing for children to dramatize the way Jonathan walks on
each page.
• Conclude this activity by having children tell which kind of steps they like best.

Lead children in reciting “When I’m Doing Math.”

TRANSITION

Math Moments

Count with Curiosity

• Play the “Count with Curiosity: 1–11” video. Invite children to count to 11
with Curiosity.

Active Instruction
• Have Curiosity introduce the numeral 4.
Curiosity has something for us in her bag. Let’s see what it is. Pull the
number 4 card from Curiosity’s bag. Curiosity brought us the number 4! We
learned about four yesterday when we counted groups of four. This is
what a four looks like. Show the numeral 4 card to the children.

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 DAY 2 | Unit 3: Family Matters

• Display a group of counting bears and a copy of the bus sheet.

The blue bears are going for a ride in this little bus. Only four blue bears
can fit in the bus. Model putting four blue bears on the bus. Now the blue
bears can go for a ride.

Partner Practice
• Distribute sets of eight or twelve objects to each partnership. Have partners work
together to make groups of four bears to ride the bus.
Now it’s your turn. You and your partner can count out groups of four
bears to ride on the bus. Some of the bears may have to wait for a turn
while a group of four bears goes for a ride.
• Have children come back together to share.
How many groups of four did you make? What did you do to find the
groups of four? We counted the bears to find four and put them into groups.
• To reinforce the concept of number sense for 4, play the “Acrobats Math: Counting
Dishes” and the “Wall of Numbers: Number 4 Song” videos.
• Tell children that tomorrow morning they will play the game Roll a Number, in
which they will match the numbers they have learned about.

Have children play this week’s brain game, What Is Missing? Remind children that
TRANSITION What Is Missing? is a game that will help them to remember things well.

Question/Reflection

Learning-Focus Review
• Review the day’s learning focus.
Let’s think about what we’ve learned today. People in families take care
of and help one another.

Wonderful Word
• Review the Wonderful Word.
Our Wonderful Word today is “care.” Remember that when we care for
someone, we do things to help him or her or show that we love him or
her. T-P-S: When did we hear the word “care” today?
• Use the sharing sticks to select children to share their responses. Award paw points
for reasonable responses.

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DAY 2 | Unit 3: Family Matters

Theme Learning Extension

• Review the sound and shape of the letter “f.”
When we listen to the word “family,” we hear the sound /f/ at
the beginning.
• Show the video, “Shopping for F.”
• Encourage children to find things in the classroom that begin with the /f/ sound.
(This may include some of their names.)
Before we go home, let’s look around the classroom to see if we can find
anything that begins with the /f/ sound.
• Allow children to walk around the room and look for objects that begin with /f/. If
they find one, they should stop in front of the object and raise their hands.

Cool Kid Recognition

• Invite the Cool Kid to come to the front of the circle. Have Curiosity, a marker, and
the Cool Kid certificate ready. Have Curiosity model giving a compliment to the
Cool Kid based on something that happened during the day. Use this opportunity to
model different types of compliments than what the children typically give.
Now it’s time to give compliments to the Cool Kid! Remember that a
compliment is something you say that is nice or encouraging. Take a
minute to think of a compliment for the Cool Kid. Did anyone notice
anything positive, friendly, or helpful that the Cool Kid did today?
Curiosity would like to give the first compliment.
• Write a few compliments on the Cool Kid certificate. Present the certificate to the
child, and encourage him or her to take it home to show family.

Paw Points
• Remind children about why they have earned paw points.
We earned paw points today for using or noticing the Wonderful Word
and also for talking with our partners, sharing materials, and working
well together. Let’s count the paw points that we earned today!
• Transfer the paw point chips from Curiosity’s water bowl to the celebration jar.
Count each chip as you place it into the jar.
• If the chips reach the line on the celebration jar, invite children to sing and dance to
the “Curiosity Shuffle.”

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 DAY 2 | Unit 3: Family Matters

Home Link/Departure
• Make any announcements, or give reminders (upcoming field trips, picture day, etc.).
• Remind children to complete their Read & Respond bookmark and to watch
tonight’s Home Link episode online to share what they learned today with their
family members. They will find today’s episode when they click on the dog.
• Use the dog stamp to place an animal image on each child’s hand. (optional)
• Have the children join hands to form a circle. Sing the “I’ll Miss You” song.

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 DAY 3 | Unit 3: Family Matters

Day 3 | Ready, Set

Focus
Grandparents are part of a family.

Additional Materials Needed Today

Greetings, Readings, • Classroom Library Lab: Jonathan and His Mommy

& Writings by Irene Smalls
• Art Lab: Crayons, markers, easel paints, paper

Gathering Circle • Calendar cutout for today’s date

Move It! • No additional materials needed

Clues & Questions • CC Activity Card: Curiosity’s Father’s Family

• CC Activity Card: Wonderful Word picture card for
“grandparents”
• CC Activity Card: Letter card for “Ff”

Getting Along • No additional materials needed

Together

Plan & Play • No additional materials needed

STaR • Trade book: A Chair for My Mother by Vera Williams

• Leaf for story tree
• Coins

Math Moments • Bags with counting bears, one per partnership

Question/Reflection • Four items for the brain game What Is Missing?

• Cool Kid certificate and marker
• Home Link animal stamp: goose

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 DAY 3 | Unit 3: Family Matters

Greetings, Readings,
Day 3 & Writings

Child Routines Teacher Routines

1. Remove coats and backpacks. 1. Greet parents and children.

2. Sign in. 2. Remind children to read the Arrival
3. Self-select labs or other activities. Activities poster as they prepare for
their day.
3. Guide children, as needed, to select
a Learning Lab to explore. Introduce
newly added labs as appropriate.
4. Encourage children to describe what
they are doing in full sentences as you
observe their activities.
5. Observe for children’s developing
oral language and social skills as
guided by the unit record form for the
current unit.

Available Activities

Classroom Library Lab: Enjoy a Story

• Point out the STaR story Jonathan and His Mommy that you have added to the
lab. Encourage children to dramatize the story by moving like the characters do on
various pages.

Letter Lab: “F” Is for Family

• Same as day 2

Math Lab: Bear Families

• Same as day 1

Computer/Media Lab: Exploring with Technology

• Same as day 1

Writing Lab: Sending Greetings

• Same as day 1

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DAY 3 | Unit 3: Family Matters

Art Lab: People in My Family

• Encourage children to draw or paint pictures of their families. You may want to
post the picture card of Curiosity’s family as a reference.

Science Lab: Fingerprint Fun

• Same as day 1

Puzzles & Games Lab: Free Exploration

• Same as day 1

Give five- and three-minute warnings near the end of Greetings, Readings, & Writings.
TRANSITION Encourage children to join you in singing the tidy-up song as they put away the lab
supplies and then move to the gathering area.

✿ Gathering Circle

Welcome Activities

Welcome
• Welcome children to the circle. Award paw points if everyone arrived in an orderly
and effective manner.

Attendance
• Use the sign-in sheet to quickly check attendance.

Partners
• Invite children to sit with their partners. Use the partnership chart to review
assignments as necessary.

Home Link Debrief

• Invite children to share what they remember from last night’s Home Link show.
The review letter in last night’s show was the letter “s.” T-P-S: Can you
remember one of the words that begins with the letter “s”? Shadow,
soccer ball, sand, and slide.
• Use the sharing sticks to select two or three children to share their responses with
the whole class. Award paw points in recognition of thoughtful answers.
• Remind children to ask their family members to complete the Read & Respond
bookmark each day.

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 DAY 3 | Unit 3: Family Matters

Classroom Jobs
• Use the job chart to remind children about their jobs for the week.

Calendar
• Have children count together with you as you touch the dates on the calendar up to
yesterday’s date. Then challenge children to determine the shape and color of the
calendar cutout that will be used today. Invite children to say the day and date with
you in unison.

Weather
• Invite the weather watcher to indicate the current weather conditions on the
weather chart.

Cool Kid
• Announce today’s Cool Kid. Remind children that the Cool Kid will be working on
all the things that make our classroom a wonderful place to be, such as using active
listening when someone is speaking, sharing, and taking turns. Use the Cool Kid
stamp to mark his or her hand for easy identification.

Invite children to stand in preparation for the Move It! activity.

TRANSITION

Move It!
• Explain that today’s Move It! activity will be Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes.
Teach children how to play.
When we play Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes, we sing the song and
touch the parts of our bodies as we sing about them. Elmo will show
us how.
• Show the “Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes” video. Invite children to sing and do
the motions along with Elmo as they learn the song.

Lead children as they recite “Cat in a Box” to entice Curiosity to come out of
TRANSITION her house.

Theme-related Clues & Questions

word(s):
grandparents*
related Curiosity’s Clues
relatives • Have Curiosity present a picture of her father as an adult from the bag.
Basic word(s): Curiosity: I brought a picture of my father today to give you a clue about
young what we will learn today.

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DAY 3 | Unit 3: Family Matters

Teacher: That’s a nice picture, Curiosity, but we’ve been talking about
family members, such as fathers, for a few days now. What is different
about today?
Curiosity: Well, you have to hear the story about the picture to get the
whole clue.
• Bring out the picture of Curiosity’s father as a kitten with his family.
Curiosity: My father wasn’t always a grown-up like he is now. When
he was young, he lived with his father, his mother, a big sister, and a
little brother.
After he grew up, he met my mother, and they had my sister and me. So
even though they don’t live with us, my father’s parents and his brother
and sister are members of my family.
Teacher: That’s right! We say that they are related to you. They are your
relatives. We must be talking about relatives today.

Learning with Curiosity

• Post the picture of Curiosity’s father’s family where all children can see it. Facilitate
a discussion to name Curiosity’s relatives as her grandfather, grandmother, aunt,
and uncle.
EXAMPLE

This cat is the father of Curiosity’s father. T-P-S: What do you call
the person who is your daddy’s father? He’s not your father; he’s
your ____. Grandfather. Point to the grandfather cat in the photo (the cat with
the necktie). This cat is Curiosity’s grandfather.
• Point out that when we refer to a grandfather and grandmother together, we call
them grandparents.
• To reinforce the concept of family units, play the “We’re a Family” video.

Wonderful Word
• Show the Wonderful Word picture card for “grandparents.”
Our Wonderful Word today is “grandparents.” Your grandparents are the
parents of your mothers and fathers.
• Play the digital dictionary video for “grandparents.”
• Remind children that they can earn paw points when they use or hear the word
“grandparents” today.
• Post the Wonderful Word picture card where children will be able to refer to it
throughout the day.

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 DAY 3 | Unit 3: Family Matters

Daily Message
• Write the Daily Message in front of children, reading each word as you finish
writing it. Then read the message again, touching each word as you read it.
• Name some family member titles.
Grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins are part of a family.

Letter Links
• Have Curiosity show the letter card for “f.”
Today we will review a letter that we have already learned. Our letter
today is “f.”
The letter “f” makes the /f/ sound. T-P-S: What are some words that begin
with /f/?
• Invite children help you identify the letter in the Daily Message. Reread the
message, running your finger underneath each word as you read it. Children should
raise their hands when your finger is underneath the letter of the week and put their
hands down again when it’s not. Circle any letters that they found in the message.
• Reinforce the sound and shape of the letter “f” by showing the “Planting Letters: F”
video.

Have children stand and recite “This Is My Grandma” along with the video as a
TRANSITION transition to Getting Along Together.

Getting Along Together

Active Instruction
• Review the Focus Signal and why paying attention is important in the classroom.
Give the Focus Signal.
What do you do when you see the Focus Signal? Yes, you focus your eyes
and pay close attention. Paying attention means looking and listening.
T-P-S: What kinds of things do you need to pay close attention to in
the classroom?
• Use the sharing sticks to select children to share their responses. Award paw points
for reasonable responses.

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DAY 3 | Unit 3: Family Matters

Partner Practice
• Play I Spy to practice focusing.
We play brain games to help build our brain skills. One of the focus
games that we play is I Spy. Remember to pay close attention by looking
and listening as we play.

Brain Game: I Spy

This game is played in partnerships. A person chooses an object in the room and names
something about the object (e.g., color), saying: “I spy with my little eye something that
is [descriptive word].” Children work with their partners to find objects that match the
clue. Then they ask questions, such as “Is it the clock?,” as they try to guess the object.
You may want to ask questions with children the first time so you can model how to
ask useful questions. After about a minute, if no one has guessed the object, a second
clue (e.g., location, size) may be provided. The person who guesses the object first gets
to choose the next object.

• Play several rounds of I Spy. Remind children to use their focus binoculars.
Great job focusing today! Remember to use your focus binoculars to pay
close attention in the classroom throughout the day.

Invite children to join you in front of the play-planning board.

TRANSITION

Plan & Play

Scenario Review
• Review the scenarios for the unit as needed. Include any new scenarios that may
have emerged as a part of yesterday’s play. Remind children where each scenario
can take place in the classroom. Introduce any props that you have added to the
area. Invite children to think about what kinds of things might happen in each
scenario today.

Scenario Selection
• Review which scenario is represented by each of the cards on the
play-planning board.
• Use the sharing sticks to randomly select children to choose the scenario they’d
like to play in. Once each child selects a scenario, place the appropriate colored
clip on his or her clothing, and send him or her to the table(s) for planning.

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 DAY 3 | Unit 3: Family Matters

Plan
• Invite children to write about what they will do in the pretend scenario today.
Accept all forms of writing (scribbling, drawing lines, attempts at letter formation,
pictures, etc.). Encourage children to tell you what they have written.

Play
• Observe children as they participate in each play scenario. Join in the play to
encourage conversation, prop use, and role-playing and to model the use of writing
in the context of the scenario.

Coaching
• Encourage children to become engaged in the new scenarios by joining in the play.
Acknowledge any props they have made.

Small-Group Instruction
See day 2 for • During the last ten minutes, pull five or six children aside for this week’s
small-group activity small-group activity.
instructions.

Provide five- and three-minute warnings before the end of Plan & Play. Then sing a
TRANSITION clean-up song to prompt children to put away any props and move to the STaR area.

Once children have arrived at the STaR area, lead them in reciting and doing the
motions to “Two Little Hands.”

STaR
Interactive Story Reading
STaR word(s):
coin
A Chair for My Mother
Author and illustrator: Vera Williams

This is a story about a hard-working family that loses their home in a fire.
The young girl, her mother, and her grandmother work together to save
money for a comfortable chair that all three can enjoy. Because of their
own hard work and the help of family and friends, the three are able to
live comfortably in their new home.

Interactive Story Reading

Before Reading
• Introduce the title, author, and illustrator of the story.
The title of our story today is A Chair for My Mother. That’s the name
of the story. The author and illustrator is Vera Williams. She wrote the
words and drew the pictures for this story.

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DAY 3 | Unit 3: Family Matters

• Have children preview the story. Guide them as they make predictions about the
story based on the cover illustration and the title.
Let’s look at the cover of this book to see if we can get an idea of what
the story is about. What do you see in this picture?
Point out the small pictures across the front cover, and explain that the author is
showing us the inside of a diner through its windows. These are the windows
of a diner. A diner is a type of restaurant where people go to eat. The girl
is looking in one of the windows, and she sees people eating.
Think Aloud: The title of the story is A Chair for My Mother. I wonder
why there is a picture of a diner on the cover. T-P-S: What does a diner
have to do with a chair for a mother? Maybe if I look at some of the
pictures in the story, I will get some ideas about why there is a picture of
a diner and what it has to do with this story.
• Take a Picture Walk through the book, stopping occasionally for children to get a
good look at the illustrations and to talk about what they see.
T-P-S: What ideas do you have now about the story? Let’s read the story
and find out if your ideas are in here.

During Reading
• Use Think-Pair-Share or Whole-Group Response to engage children in an ongoing
discussion about the story as guided by the following questions and comments.
– Page 3: The mother and her daughter put all of their coins in a big jar.
Some children who Some people put money in a jar to save up for something they want
have experienced a to buy. Think about the title of the story, A Chair for My Mother.
house fire may want
to talk about that T-P-S: What do you think the girl and her mother are saving their
right away. Let them money to buy?
know that you would
like to hear about
– Page 15: T-P-S: How do the neighbors help the girl and her family when
it after you read they move to a new apartment?
the story. Be sure – Page 21: T-P-S: Why does grandma feel like Goldilocks in the story
to give them time
to talk about it at a about the three bears?
later time. – Page 27: T-P-S: How do the girl and her family feel after they get their
new chair? How can you tell they feel that way?

After Reading
• Ask summative questions to review the text and reinforce the STaR vocabulary.
T-P-S: Why does the family in this story want a new chair?
The girl, her mother, and her grandmother save their coins to buy a new
chair. T-P-S: What do you think the word “coins” means?
Show children coins of different denominations. The family in this story
saved coins to buy a chair. Coins are pieces of money that are small
and round.
T-P-S: What would you want to save coins to buy?
• Ask children to recall the name of the story as you write it on a leaf. Invite a child
to attach it to the story tree.

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 DAY 3 | Unit 3: Family Matters

Lead children in reciting “When I’m Doing Math.”

TRANSITION

Math word(s):
five
Math Moments
counting

Basic word(s): Count with Curiosity

first • Play the “Count with Curiosity: 1–11” video. Invite children to count to 11
with Curiosity.

Active Instruction
• To introduce the number 5, have five children come up.
Let’s count how many children are standing here. Touch each child on the
head as children count. There are five children here.
• Show ten counting bears. Tell children that the bears are going to soccer camp.
Each team at soccer camp will have five bears.
I will put the bears in teams for soccer camp. Model counting five bears, and
put each group of five in a separate pile.

Partner Practice
• Distribute bags of ten or fifteen counting bears. Have partners work together to
make groups of five counting bears.
Now it’s your turn. You and your partner can put the bears in your bag
into teams of five bears each.
• Have children come back together to share.
How many groups of five did you make? What did you do to make the
groups of five? We counted the bears to find five.
• To reinforce the concept of number sense for 5, show the “5 Starfish and Eels”
video.

Have children play this week’s brain game, What Is Missing? Remind children that
TRANSITION What Is Missing? is a game that will help them to remember things well.

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DAY 3 | Unit 3: Family Matters

Question/Reflection

Learning-Focus Review
• Review the day’s learning focus.
Let’s think about what we’ve learned today. We learned about
grandparents. They are the mothers and fathers of our moms and dads.

Wonderful Word
• Review the Wonderful Word.
Our Wonderful Word today is “grandparents.” Remember that
grandparents are people in your family. Some grandparents live with
you, and some live in different homes. T-P-S: When did we hear the word
“grandparents” today?
• Use the sharing sticks to select children to share their responses. Award paw points
for reasonable responses.

Theme Learning Extension

If you are using • Play a guessing game with children to reinforce the titles of family members.
an interactive
whiteboard, a Let’s play a game called Which Relative Am I? I will give you some clues,
photograph of a and you will guess which relative I’m thinking of. You may want to use the
family has been
provided to aid in
following clues or make up others that reflect the family members with which
your discussion. your children are familiar.
(optional)
Sample clues:
I am a man.
I have children.
The name my children call me rhymes with “mad.”
Which relative am I? Dad.

I am a woman.
I have grown-up children.
Their children call me Nana.
Which relative am I? Grandmother.

I am a boy.
My mom takes me to visit her brother.
His children and I play together.
They call me a name that rhymes with “dozen.”
Which relative am I? Cousin.

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 DAY 3 | Unit 3: Family Matters

Cool Kid Recognition

• Invite the Cool Kid to come to the front of the circle. Have Curiosity, a marker, and
the Cool Kid certificate ready. Have Curiosity model giving a compliment to the
Cool Kid based on something that happened during the day. Use this opportunity to
model different types of compliments than what the children typically give.
Now it’s time to give compliments to the Cool Kid! Remember that
a compliment is something you say that is nice or encouraging. Take a
minute to think of a compliment for the Cool Kid. Did anyone notice
anything positive, friendly, or helpful that the Cool Kid did today?
Curiosity would like to give the first compliment.
• Write a few compliments on the Cool Kid certificate. Present the certificate to the
child, and encourage him or her to take it home to show family.

Paw Points
• Remind children about why they have earned paw points.
We earned paw points today for using or noticing the Wonderful Word
and also for talking with our partners, sharing materials, and working
well together. Let’s count the paw points that we earned today!
• Transfer the paw point chips from Curiosity’s water bowl to the celebration jar.
Count each chip as you place it into the jar.
• If the chips reach the line on the celebration jar, invite children to sing and dance to
the “Curiosity Shuffle.”

Home Link/Departure
• Make any announcements, or give reminders (upcoming field trips, picture day, etc.).
• Remind children to complete their Read & Respond bookmark and to watch
tonight’s Home Link episode online to share what they learned today with their
family members. They will find today’s episode when they click on the goose.
• Use the goose stamp to place an animal image on each child’s hand. (optional)
• Have children join hands to form a circle. Sing the “I’ll Miss You” song.

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 DAY 4 | Unit 3: Family Matters

Day 4 | Ready, Set

Focus
Families come in different sizes.

Additional Materials Needed Today

Greetings, Readings, • Math Lab: Counting bears, fifteen or twenty, enough for
& Writings five bears per house; the Bear Houses sheet (appendix),
four or five copies

Gathering Circle • Calendar cutout for today’s date

Move It! • No additional materials needed

Clues & Questions • CC Activity Cards: Curiosity’s family picture card

(from day 1, Clues & Questions)
• Concepts-of-print book: Meet My Family
• CC Activity Card: Numeral card for 3
• CC Activity Card: Wonderful Word picture card for “size”
• CC Activity Card: Letter card for “f”

Rhyme Time • No additional materials needed

Plan & Play • No additional materials needed

STaR • Trade book: A Chair for My Mother by Vera Williams

• STaR story retell picture cards for A Chair for My Mother

Math Moments • CC Activity Card: Numeral card for 5

Question/Reflection • CC Activity Cards: Family Groups set (from day 1, Clues &
Questions), one per partnership
• Cool Kid certificate and marker
• Home Link animal hand stamp: lamb

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 DAY 4 | Unit 3: Family Matters

Greetings, Readings,
Day 4 & Writings

Child Routines Teacher Routines

1. Remove coats and backpacks. 1. Greet parents and children.

2. Sign in. 2. Remind children to read the Arrival
3. Self-select labs or other activities. Activities poster as they prepare for
their day.
3. Guide children, as needed, to select
a Learning Lab to explore. Introduce
newly added labs as appropriate.
4. Encourage children to describe what
they are doing in full sentences as you
observe their activities.
5. Observe for children’s developing
oral language and social skills as
guided by the unit record form for the
current unit.

Available Activities

Classroom Library Lab: Enjoy a Story

• Same as day 1

Letter Lab: “F” Is for Family

• Same as day 2

Math Lab: Bear Families

• Same as day 1

Computer/Media Lab: Exploring with Technology

• Same as day 1

Writing Lab: Sending Greetings

• Same as day 1

Art Lab: People in My Family

• Same as day 3

Science Lab: Fingerprint Fun

• Same as day 1

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DAY 4 | Unit 3: Family Matters

Puzzles & Games Lab: Free Exploration

• Same as day 1

Give five- and three-minute warnings near the end of Greetings, Readings, & Writings.
TRANSITION Encourage children to join you in singing the tidy-up song as they put away the lab
supplies and then move to the gathering area.

✿ Gathering Circle

Welcome Activities

Welcome
• Welcome children to the circle. Award paw points if everyone arrived in an orderly
and effective manner.

Attendance
• Use the sign-in sheet to quickly check attendance.

Partners
• Invite children to sit with their partners. Use the partnership chart to review
assignments as necessary.

Home Link Debrief

• Invite children to share what they remember from last night’s Home Link show.
In the story, Mom’s Home, Jason is very excited that his mom is home for
a special holiday. T-P-S: What holiday is it? Thanksgiving.
• Use the sharing sticks to select two or three children to share their responses with
the whole class. Award paw points in recognition of thoughtful answers.
• Remind children to ask their family members to complete the Read & Respond
bookmark each day.

Classroom Jobs
• Use the job chart to remind children about their jobs for the week.

Calendar
• Have children count together with you as you touch the dates on the calendar up to
yesterday’s date. Then challenge children to determine the shape and color of the
calendar cutout that will be used today. Invite children to say the day and date with
you in unison.

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 DAY 4 | Unit 3: Family Matters

Weather
• Invite the weather watcher to indicate the current weather conditions on the
weather chart.

Cool Kid
• Announce today’s Cool Kid. Remind children that the Cool Kid will be working on
all the things that make our classroom a wonderful place to be, such as using active
listening when someone is speaking, sharing, and taking turns. Use the Cool Kid
stamp to mark his or her hand for easy identification.

Invite children to stand in preparation for the Move It! activity.

TRANSITION

Move It!
• Invite children to come up and join you. Tell children that you will play a game
called Animal Movements. Explain how to play the game.
Everyone will lie down on the ground and pretend to sleep. I will sing
a song that goes “I went to sleep, I went to sleep, and when I woke up,
I was a…,” and I will say an animal name. When I say the name of the
animal, you may get up and move like that animal. Let’s try it together.
• Pick different animals for children to imitate. Remind children to lie down before
you sing the song again and name another animal.

Lead children as they recite “Cat in a Box” to entice Curiosity to come out of her house.
TRANSITION

Clues & Questions

Theme-related
word(s):
size*
Curiosity’s Clues
married
sister-in-law • Have Curiosity present the numeral 3 card. Ask Curiosity why she has the card.
brother-in-law Teacher: Curiosity, why did you bring the number 3 today?
Curiosity: Because the number 3 is VERY important to my family.
Basic word(s):
young Teacher: Hmm. I wonder why the number 3 is so important to Curiosity’s
family. Hold up Curiosity’s family picture to help children determine why the
baby
number 3 is important to her family. T-P-S: Why do you think the number 3 is
important? There are three family members in Curiosity’s family. WGR: Do
all families have three people in them? No.

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DAY 4 | Unit 3: Family Matters

Learning with Curiosity

• Explain the concept of the size of a family.
Families come in different sizes. That means some families have lots of
people in them while others may not have very many at all. Your family
might just be you and one of your parents. Today we will talk about the
sizes of our families.
• Provide time for children to think about how many family members they have. Ask
them to name and count their family members in partnerships.
See if you can tell your partner the names of all the family members
who live in your home. Try to count them all on your fingers as you
name them.
• Use the sharing sticks to invite a few children to tell how many family members
they have.
• Distribute the concepts-of-print book Meet My Family. Explain that you will read
this book about family members together. Walk around the room, and make sure
that each child is holding his or her book right-side up, with the front cover facing
him or her.
Point to the title of the book. The title of this story is Meet My Family. Let’s
read the name of the book together. Ready? Meet My Family. The title of
the book tells us that it will be about people in a family.
• Ask children to look at the family pictured on the cover of the book.
How many people are in this family? Do you think this family is small
or large?
• Show children the title page, and point out that the title is written there again.
The goal of reading
concepts-of-print • Ask children to follow along while you read the book. After reading each page,
books is to give invite children to say the words with you.
children experience
with handling books EXAMPLE
and turning pages Turn to page 2. Put your finger on the 2 when you find it. Help children
from front to back.
They may not be able
locate and point to page 2 as needed. The words on this page say, “This is
to repeat the words my mother.” The picture can help you remember the words on this page.
on the page or fully Let’s say the words together. “This is my mother.”
understand that
the printed words • Continue in this manner with the rest of the story, modeling how to read the text on
indicate what the the page and allowing children to repeat it.
reader says.
• Introduce and play the “Brothers and Sisters” video. Let’s watch a video about
family members.

Wonderful Word
• Show the Wonderful Word picture card for “size.”
Our Wonderful Word today is “size.” When we talk about the size of your
family, we are talking about how many family members you have.

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 DAY 4 | Unit 3: Family Matters

• Play the digital dictionary video for “size.”

• Remind children that they can earn paw points when they use or hear the word
“size” today.
• Post the Wonderful Word picture card where children will be able to refer to it
throughout the day.

Daily Message
• Write the Daily Message in front of children, reading each word as you finish
writing it. Then read the message again, touching each word as you read it.
Families come in different sizes.
• Restate that some families are small, some are medium, and others are large in size.

Letter Links
• Have Curiosity show the letter card for “f.”
• Invite children to help you identify the letter in the Daily Message. Reread the
message, running your finger underneath each word as you read it. Children should
raise their hands when your finger is underneath the letter of the week and put their
hands down again when it’s not. Circle any letters that they found in the message.
Was the letter in our message today? Yes. Circle each instance of the letter in
the message.
• Reinforce the sound and shape of the letter “f” by showing the “Alpha Boy’s Letter
F” video.
Ask children to stand up as they sing “It’s Time for a Rhyme” to signal the transition to
TRANSITION Rhyme Time.

Rhyme Time

Say the Rhyme

• Have children recite “This Is My Grandma” along with the children in the video.
Encourage them to do the physical motions that accompany the rhyme.

Develop Phonological Awareness—Rhyme Recognition

• Introduce the game Stand Up, Sit Down.
Today we are going to play Stand Up, Sit Down. I will ask you whether
two words rhyme. If they rhyme, you will stand up. If they do not rhyme,
you will sit down. Let’s play now!

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DAY 4 | Unit 3: Family Matters

• Play the game.

me be (Stand up.)
tree fall (Sit down.)
kind find (Stand up.)
near hear (Stand up.)
sitting standing (Sit down.)
aunt mother (Sit down.)

• Award paw points if children were able to successfully identify rhyming word pairs.

Invite children to join you in front of the play-planning board.

TRANSITION

Plan & Play

Scenario Review
• Review the scenarios for the unit as needed. Include any new scenarios that may
have emerged as a part of yesterday’s play. Remind children where each scenario
can take place in the classroom. Introduce any props that you have added to the
area. Invite children to think about what kinds of things might happen in each
scenario today.

Scenario Selection
• Review which scenario is represented by each of the cards on the
play-planning board.
• Use the sharing sticks to randomly select children to choose the scenario they’d
like to play in. Once each child selects a scenario, place the appropriate colored
clip on his or her clothing, and send him or her to the table(s) for planning.

Plan
• Invite children to write about what they will do in the pretend scenario today.
Accept all forms of writing (scribbling, drawing lines, attempts at letter formation,
pictures, etc.). Encourage children to tell you what they have written.

Play
• Observe children as they participate in each play scenario. Join in the play to
encourage conversation, prop use, and role-playing and to model the use of writing
in the context of the scenario.

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 DAY 4 | Unit 3: Family Matters

Coaching
• Encourage children to become engaged in the new scenarios by joining in the play.
Acknowledge any props they have made.

Small-Group Instruction
• During the last ten minutes, pull five or six children aside for this week’s
small-group activity.

Provide five- and three-minute warnings before the end of Plan & Play. Then sing the
TRANSITION clean-up song to prompt children to put away any props and move to the STaR area.

Once children have arrived at the STaR area, lead them in reciting and doing the
motions to “Two Little Hands.”

STaR
Story Retell
STaR word(s):
coin
A Chair for My Mother
Author and illustrator: Vera Williams

Review
• Display the front cover of the book. Review the title, author, and illustrator of
the story.
We read this story yesterday. The title of the story is A Chair for My
Mother. That’s the name of the story. Vera Williams is the author and
illustrator of this story. She wrote the words and made the pictures.
• Review the story vocabulary that was introduced yesterday.
The family in this story saved their coins to buy new furniture. T-P-S:
Have you ever bought something with coins? What did you buy?

Story Retell
• Hold up the story A Chair for My Mother, and tell children that they will use
pictures from the book to help you retell the story.
Yesterday we read about the girl and her family saving their coins to buy
a comfortable chair for their new apartment. Today we will use pictures
from the book to tell what happens in different parts of the story.
• Place children in five groups. Distribute the picture cards, one per group. Invite
children to talk with the others in their group about their group’s card. Tell them
that you will read the story, and when you get to the part that tells what’s on their
card, they will hold it up and place it in a designated spot.

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DAY 4 | Unit 3: Family Matters

Look at the picture on your group’s card. Talk with your friends about
the picture. What do you see in your picture?
Quickly have a member of each group describe the group’s picture.
Look at your card, and listen carefully as I read the story today. When
you hear the part of the story that your picture shows, hold it up so
everyone can see it.
You may want to Read the story. Pause when you come to the part of the story depicted in each
preselect a child picture so the group with the corresponding card can show it to the class and place
from each group
to hold up the it in the designated area. As each card is introduced, have the child place it to the
card to keep the right of the previous card so the picture cards are in the correct sequence.
retell moving.
After rereading the story, review the picture cards to verify the story sequence.
Let’s look at the cards we’ve lined up to see if we can use them to tell the
story without the book.
• Conclude this activity by having children tell a partner which part of the story they
like best.

Lead children in reciting “When I’m Doing Math.”

TRANSITION

Math Moments

Count with Curiosity

• Play the “Count with Curiosity: 1–11” video. Invite children to count to 11
with Curiosity.

Active Instruction
• Bring out Curiosity with the numeral 5 card hidden in her house.
Curiosity has something to show us. Let’s see what it is. Pull out the
numeral 5 card from Curiosity’s house. We talked about the number 5
yesterday, and this is what it looks like.
• Use My Turn, Your Turn to teach children the bird family finger play.

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 DAY 4 | Unit 3: Family Matters

I see a big nest high in a tree. (Shield eyes, and look up high.)
Here comes Daddy Bird; where could Mommy be? (Hold up thumb,
and keep it up.)
Mommy Bird is home (Hold up index finger, and keep it up.),
with Baby Bird too. (Hold up middle finger, and keep it up.)
Tim and Jill are back from school (Hold up last two fingers, and keep
them up.); now what will they do?
How many birds have come back to the nest?
Everybody’s here, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 (Point to each finger with the other hand
as you say each number.), and now (quietly and slowly) it’s time to
rest. (Close fingers together.)

• Have children do the finger play with you two times or until they are somewhat
familiar with it.

Partner Practice
• Invite children to turn and face their partners. Lead them in saying the words to
the finger play two or three times. Encourage them to help their partners with the
motions as they say the words.
• To reinforce the concept of number sense for 5, show the “Wall of Numbers: 5”
video.

Have children play this week’s brain game, What Is Missing? Remind children that
TRANSITION What Is Missing? is a game that will help them to remember things well.

Question/Reflection

Learning-Focus Review
• Review the day’s learning focus.
Let’s think about what we’ve learned today. We found out that families
come in different sizes.

Wonderful Word
• Review the Wonderful Word.
Our Wonderful Word today is “size.” Remember that when we talk about
a family’s size, we mean how many people are in that family. T-P-S: When
did we hear the word “size” today?

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DAY 4 | Unit 3: Family Matters

• Use the sharing sticks to select children to share their responses. Award paw points
for reasonable responses.

Theme Learning Extension

• Distribute the family groups picture cards to partnerships. Explain that partners
will count how many people are in the family on their card.
You and you partner will count how many people are in the family on
your card. Then you will talk about what size the family is. You can
decide whether it is a big or small family.
Quickly go around the group, and have each partnership tell how many family
members are pictured on their card.
• Use the sharing sticks to select several partnerships to tell about the size of the
family pictured on their card. Ask how they decided whether the family is big or
small. Encourage the use of family member titles, such as “grandmom,” “daddy,”
and “niece,” as children describe the families on the cards.

Cool Kid Recognition

• Invite the Cool Kid to come to the front of the circle. Have Curiosity, a marker, and
the Cool Kid certificate ready. Have Curiosity model giving a compliment to the
Cool Kid based on something that happened during the day. Use this opportunity to
model different types of compliments than what the children typically give.
Now it’s time to give compliments to the Cool Kid! Remember that a
compliment is something you say that is nice or encouraging. Take a
minute to think of a compliment for the Cool Kid. Did anyone notice
anything positive, friendly, or helpful that the Cool Kid did today?
Curiosity would like to give the first compliment.
• Write a few compliments on the Cool Kid certificate. Present the certificate to the
child, and encourage him or her to take it home to show family.

Paw Points
• Remind children about why they have earned paw points.
We earned paw points today for using or noticing the Wonderful Word
and also for talking with our partners, sharing materials, and working
well together. Let’s count the paw points that we earned today!
• Transfer the paw point chips from Curiosity’s water bowl to the celebration jar.
Count each chip as you place it into the jar.
• If the chips reach the line on the celebration jar, invite children to sing and dance to
the “Curiosity Shuffle.”

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 DAY 4 | Unit 3: Family Matters

Home Link/Departure
• Make any announcements, or give reminders (upcoming field trips, picture day, etc.).
• Remind children to complete their Read & Respond bookmark and to watch
tonight’s Home Link episode online to share what they learned today with their
family members. They will find today’s episode when they click on the lamb.
• Use the lamb stamp to place an animal image on each child’s hand. (optional)
• Have children join hands to form a circle. Sing the “I’ll Miss You” song.

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 DAY 5 | Unit 3: Family Matters

Day 5 | Ready, Set

Focus
Families grow.

Additional Materials Needed Today

Greetings, Readings, • Classroom Library Lab: A Chair for My Mother

& Writings

Gathering Circle • Calendar cutout for today’s date

Move It! • No new materials

Clues & Questions • Baby item (e.g., bottle, pacifier)

• CC Activity Card: Wonderful Word picture card for “grow”
• CC Activity Card: Letter card for “Ff”

Rhyme Time • No additional materials needed

Plan & Play • No additional materials needed

STaR • Trade book: Who’s in a Family? by Robert Skutch or

other storybook for free choice
• Leaf for the story tree

Math Moments • The Match Game page (appendix), one set of cards per
partnership

Question/Reflection • Cool Kid certificate and marker

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 DAY 5 | Unit 3: Family Matters

Greetings, Readings,
Day 5 & Writings

Child Routines Teacher Routines

1. Remove coats and backpacks. 1. Greet parents and children.

2. Sign in. 2. Remind children to read the Arrival
3. Self-select labs or other activities. Activities poster as they prepare for
their day.
3. Guide children, as needed, to select
a Learning Lab to explore. Introduce
newly added labs as appropriate.
4. Encourage children to describe what
they are doing in full sentences as you
observe their activities.
5. Observe for children’s developing
oral language and social skills as
guided by the unit record form for the
current unit.

Available Activities

Classroom Library Lab: Enjoy a Story

• Point out the STaR story A Chair for My Mother that you added to the lab. Model
how to use the STaR story retell cards for this book to retell the story.

Letter Lab: “F” Is for Family

• Same as day 2

Math Lab: Bear Families

• Same as day 1

Computer/Media Lab: Exploring with Technology

• Same as day 1

Writing Lab: Sending Greetings

• Same as day 1

Art Lab: People in My Family

• Same as day 3

Science Lab: Fingerprint Fun

• Same as day 1

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Puzzles & Games Lab: Free Exploration

• Same as day 1

Give five- and three-minute warnings near the end of Greetings, Readings, & Writings.
TRANSITION Encourage children to join you in singing the tidy-up song as they put away the lab
supplies and then move to the gathering area.

✿ Gathering Circle

Welcome Activities

Welcome
• Welcome children to the circle. Award paw points if everyone arrived in an orderly
and effective manner.

Attendance
• Use the sign-in sheet to quickly check attendance.

Partners
• Invite children to sit with their partners. Use the partnership chart to review
assignments as necessary.

Home Link Debrief

• Invite children to share what they remember from last night’s Home Link show.
In the Digital Dictionary clip for “size,” the size of two groups of animals
were compared. T-P-S: What animals are in this video? Frogs.
• Use the sharing sticks to select two or three children to share their responses with
the whole class. Award paw points in recognition of thoughtful answers.
• Remind children to ask a family member to complete the Read & Respond
bookmark each day.

Classroom Jobs
• Use the job chart to remind children about their jobs for the week.

Calendar
• Have children count together with you as you touch the dates on the calendar up to
yesterday’s date. Then challenge children to determine the shape and color of the
calendar cutout that will be used today. Invite children to say the day and date with
you in unison.

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Weather
• Invite the weather watcher to indicate the current weather conditions on the
weather chart.

Cool Kid
• Announce today’s Cool Kid. Remind children that the Cool Kid will be working on
all the things that make our classroom a wonderful place to be, such as using active
listening when someone is speaking, sharing, and taking turns. Use the Cool Kid
stamp to mark his or her hand for easy identification.

Invite children to stand in preparation for the Move It! activity.

TRANSITION

Move It!
• Introduce today’s Move It! activity, Freeze.
We’re going to play Freeze today. I will play some music that is fun to
dance to. Occasionally, I will pause the music. When the music stops, you
must freeze in place until the music starts again.
• Play a song that children enjoy from a CD or digital music player.

Lead children as they recite “Cat in a Box” to entice Curiosity to come out of
TRANSITION her house.

Clues & Questions

Theme-related
word(s):
help*
Curiosity’s Clues
adopt
• Have Curiosity present a baby item (such as a baby bottle) from the bag. Facilitate
a discussion with her about why she has the item.
EXAMPLE
Teacher: Curiosity, why do you have a baby bottle? You don’t drink from a
bottle, do you?
Curiosity: No. This bottle is a clue about what we’ll learn today. T-P-S:
Boys and girls, who uses a bottle like this? Babies. What does a baby
bottle make you think we’ll learn about today? When a family gets a
new baby.

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Learning with Curiosity

• Explain that families grow when a new baby is born or a child is adopted.
One way that families grow is when a new baby comes into the family.
The baby may grow inside the body of one of the family members such as
the mother or the aunt. Sometimes a family may adopt a baby. Families
can also adopt children who are no longer babies.
Do you have a younger brother or sister? Do you remember when he
or she first came home? T-P-S: Tell your partner about what you can
remember. Were you excited? How did it make you feel not to be the
youngest anymore?
• Allow children with younger siblings to share their experiences. You may also ask
other children how they would feel if they had a younger brother or sister.
• Explain that families also grow when someone gets married.
Families also grow when people get married. If you have an older brother
who gets married, his new wife becomes a part of your family. She is your
sister-in-law. If your sister gets married, you get a new brother-in-law in
your family.
Have you ever been to a family wedding? T-P-S: If you have, tell your
partner what happened there and how you felt about it.
• Invite children who have attended a wedding to share their experiences with the
larger group.
• Introduce and play the “Mom’s Having a Baby” video.
Let’s watch a video about a family that is growing. We have talked about
different ways that families grow. How will this family grow?

Wonderful Word
• Show the Wonderful Word picture card for “grow.”
Our Wonderful Word today is “grow.” “Grow” means to get bigger. Today
we will learn about when families grow. We will talk about when families
get more family members.
• Play the digital dictionary video for “grow.”
• Remind children that they can earn paw points when they use or hear the word
“grow” today.
• Post the Wonderful Word picture card where children will be able to refer to it
throughout the day.

Daily Message
• Write the Daily Message in front of children, reading each word as you finish
writing it. Then read the message again, touching each word as you read it.
A family grows when a baby is born.

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• Count the number of words in the message.

I wonder how many words are in our message today. Count them
with me. Point to each word as you count it. There are eight words in
our message.

Letter Links
• Have Curiosity show the letter card for “f.”
• Invite children to help you identify the letter in the Daily Message. Reread the
message, running your finger underneath each word as you read it. Children should
raise their hands when your finger is underneath the letter of the week and put their
hands down again when it’s not. Circle any letters that they found in the message.
• Reinforce the sound and shape of the letter “f” by playing the “Planting Letters: F”
video.

Ask children to stand up as they sing “It’s Time for a Rhyme” to signal the transition to
TRANSITION Rhyme Time.

Rhyme Time

Say the Rhyme

• Have children recite “This Is My Grandma” along with children in the video.
Encourage children to do the physical motions that accompany the rhyme.

Develop Phonological Awareness—Word Manipulation

• Bring Curiosity out. Introduce the Nonsense game, in which you switch word order.
Today we are going to play a game with Curiosity called the Nonsense
game. Curiosity will say a line from our poem, and you will tell her
whether she said it correctly. If it’s correct, say, “That’s right!” If not,
say, “That’s nonsense!” Are you ready, Curiosity?
• Invite children to close their eyes so they can listen carefully while Curiosity recites
“This Is My Grandma.” Repeat the rhyme as if correct, switching the words “sister”
and “tree” so the line reads, “This is my tree climbing a sister.”
Curiosity: Listen while I say the rhyme.
This is my grandma, kind and dear.
This is my aunt, sitting near.
This is my mother, smiling at me.
This is my tree climbing a sister.
These are the females in my family tree.
That’s nonsense!

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• Expect some giggles or comments about the fact that Curiosity said the rhyme
wrong when children recognize the word switch. Play along as if you don’t realize
that the words are in the wrong order by saying something like, “That’s nonsense?
What was wrong about the way Curiosity said the rhyme?” to encourage children to
identify the incorrect word order.
• If children don’t recognize the incorrect word order, repeat the rhyme slowly so
they can hear the mistake. Emphasize the line in which the switch occurs, and
pause for children to respond. If necessary, guide them to the realization that there
is something wrong with the way Curiosity said the rhyme, and help them identify
the mistake.
• Continue in this manner with the other lines of the poem, alternating between
switching words in various lines and saying lines correctly. You may want to use the
following suggestions:
Dear is my grandma, kind and this.
This is my me, smiling at mother.
• If children successfully identify the switched words, recite the rhyme again, making
additional switches. If children are able, invite them to think of words to switch in
the rhyme.
• Award paw points if children were able to successfully identify the switched words.

Invite children to join you in front of the play-planning board.

TRANSITION

Plan & Play

Scenario Review
• Review the scenarios for the unit as needed. Include any new scenarios that may
have emerged as a part of yesterday’s play. Remind children where each scenario
can take place in the classroom. Introduce any props that you have added to the
area. Invite children to think about what kinds of things might happen in each
scenario today.

Scenario Selection
• Review which scenario is represented by each of the cards on the
play-planning board.
• Use the sharing sticks to randomly select children to choose the scenario they’d
like to play in. Once each child selects a scenario, place the appropriate colored
clip on his or her clothing, and send him or her to the table(s) for planning.

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Plan
• Invite children to write about what they will do in the pretend scenario today.
Accept all forms of writing (scribbling, drawing lines, attempts at letter formation,
pictures, etc.). Encourage children to tell you what they have written.

Play
• Observe children as they participate in each play scenario. Join in the play to
encourage conversation, prop use, and role-playing and to model the use of writing
in the context of the scenario.

Coaching
• Encourage children to become engaged in the new scenarios by joining in the play.
Acknowledge any props they have made.

Small-Group Instruction
• During the last ten minutes, pull five or six children aside for this week’s
small-group activity.

Provide five- and three-minute warnings before the end of Plan & Play. Then sing the
TRANSITION clean-up song to prompt children to put away any props and move to the STaR area.

Once children have arrived at the STaR area, lead them in reciting and doing the
motions to “Two Little Hands.”

STaR
Free Choice

• Reread a favorite STaR book or another book that you would like to share. We
would like to recommend Who’s in a Family? by Robert Skutch.
• Ask children what they think the story will be about based on the cover illustration
and the title. After reading the story, use Think-Pair-Share to have children tell their
favorite parts of the book.
• Write the title of the story that you read on a leaf, and add it to the story tree.

Lead children in reciting “When I’m Doing Math.”

TRANSITION

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Math Moments

Count with Curiosity

• Play the “Count with Curiosity: 1–11” video. Invite children to count to 11
with Curiosity.

Active Instruction
• Use Curiosity to introduce the matching game with numeral and object picture
cards for the numbers 0–5.
Curiosity has a game she would like to play with us. It’s called the Match
Game. In this game, there are number cards for the numbers 0–5. I will
lay the number cards in a row with the numbers up so we can see them.
Lay the number cards in a row with the numbers facing up. There are also
cards with objects on them. I will lay these cards in a row next to the
number cards. Lay the object cards face up in a row opposite the number cards.
First, Curiosity will pick up a number card. Have Curiosity pick up the
number 2 card. WGR: What is this number? Two. Now Curiosity will find
the card that shows two objects. Have Curiosity pick up the card that shows
two objects. Does this picture card show two (name of item)? Yes! This is
the number 2, and this card shows two (name of item). Curiosity made
a match.
• Model the game with Curiosity two more times.

Partner Practice
• Distribute the Match Game cards. Remind children to lay the cards in separate
rows, just as you did when Curiosity played the game.
• Have children play the Match Game with partners.
• To reinforce the concept of number sense for 5, play the “5 People in My Family”
video.

Have children play this week’s brain game, What Is Missing? Remind children that
TRANSITION What is Missing? is a game that will help them to remember things better.

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Question/Reflection

Learning-Focus Review
• Review the day’s learning focus.
Let’s think about what we’ve learned today. We learned that sometimes
families have new babies.

Wonderful Word
• Review the Wonderful Word.
Our Wonderful Word today is “grow.” Remember that a family can grow,
or get bigger, when a new baby comes into the family. T-P-S: When did we
hear the word “grow” today?
• Use the sharing sticks to select children to share their responses. Award paw points
for reasonable responses.

Theme Learning Extension

• Play the Stand Up, Sit Down game similar to the Rhyme Time activity of the
same name.
Let’s play the Stand Up, Sit Down game. This time when we play, you will
listen for ways that a family can grow. If I say something that tells a way
that a family grows, you will stand up. If I say something that doesn’t tell
a way that a family grows, you will sit down. Let’s play now.
• Use the following examples, or choose situations that are familiar to your children.
EXAMPLES
– Your mommy has a baby. (Stand up.)
– Your sister gets married. (Stand up.)
– Your friend comes to your house to play. (Sit down.)
– Your aunt adopts a baby. (Stand up.)
– You go to your grandma’s house for a party. (Sit down.)
– Your cousins come over for dinner. (Sit down.)

Cool Kid Recognition

• Invite the Cool Kid to come to the front of the circle. Have Curiosity, a marker, and
the Cool Kid certificate ready. Have Curiosity model giving a compliment to the
Cool Kid based on something that happened during the day. Use this opportunity to
model different types of compliments than what the children typically give.

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Now it’s time to give compliments to the Cool Kid! Remember that a
compliment is something you say that is nice or encouraging. Take a
minute to think of a compliment for the Cool Kid. Did anyone notice
anything positive, friendly, or helpful that the Cool Kid did today?
Curiosity would like to give the first compliment.
• Write a few compliments on the Cool Kid certificate. Present the certificate to the
child, and encourage him or her to take it home to show family.

Paw Points
• Remind children about why they have earned paw points.
We earned paw points today for using or noticing the Wonderful Word
and also for talking with our partners, sharing materials, and working
well together. Let’s count the paw points that we earned today!
• Transfer the paw point chips from Curiosity’s water bowl to the celebration jar.
Count each chip as you place it into the jar.
• If the chips reach the line on the celebration jar, invite children to sing and dance to
the “Curiosity Shuffle.”

Home Link/Departure
• Make any announcements, or give reminders (upcoming field trips, picture day, etc.).
• Remind children to complete their Read & Respond today with a family member.
• Have children join hands to form a circle. Sing the “I’ll Miss You” song.

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Day 6 | Ready, Set

Focus
Families live in different kinds of homes.

Additional Materials Needed Today

Greetings, Readings, • Science Lab: White paper, cotton-tipped swabs, lemon

& Writings juice, lamp
• Puzzles & Games Lab: Sets of five envelopes, forty-five to
sixty notes (according to the number of sets of envelopes)

Gathering Circle • Calendar cutout for today’s date

Move It! • No additional materials needed

Clues & Questions • Small toy house or picture of a house

• CC Activity Card: Wonderful Word picture card for “home”
• CC Activity Cards: Letter cards for “Hh,” “Cc,” and “Bb”

Rhyme Time • Rhyme card for “Grandpa’s Glasses” (optional)

Plan & Play • No additional materials needed

STaR • Trade book: A House Is a House for Me by Mary Ann

Hoberman
• Leaf for story tree

Math Moments • Large paper circle

Question/Reflection • Media player

• Lively music
• Item for the brain game Hot Potato Memory
• Cool Kid certificate and marker
• Read & Respond bookmarks
• Home Link animal hand stamp: goat

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Greetings, Readings,
Day 6 & Writings

Child Routines Teacher Routines

1. Remove coats and backpacks. 1. Greet parents and children.

2. Sign in. 2. Remind children to read the Arrival
3. Self-select labs or other activities. Activities poster as they prepare for
their day.
3. Guide children, as needed, to select
a Learning Lab to explore. Introduce
newly added labs as appropriate.
4. Encourage children to describe what
they are doing in full sentences as you
observe their activities.
5. Observe for children’s developing
oral language and social skills as
guided by the unit record form for the
current unit.

Available Activities

Classroom Library Lab: Enjoy a Story

• Same as day 5

Letter Lab: “F” Is for Family

• Same as day 2

Math Lab: Bear Families

• Same as day 1

Computer/Media Lab: Exploring with Technology

• Same as day 1

Writing Lab: Family Fun

• Children use lab materials to write about something they like to do with
their families.

Art Lab: People in My Family

• Same as day 3

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Science Lab: Invisible Message

• Provide lemon juice and cotton-tipped swabs for children to write messages.
Demonstrate how to write a message. Write your name or initials in the corner of
the paper, and then dip the swab in lemon juice to write a message. Put it aside
to dry. Have children create messages. At the end of lab time, before moving
on to Gathering Circle, hold the papers up to a bare light bulb, and watch the
messages appear.

Puzzles & Games Lab: Free Exploration

• Provide numbered envelopes and letters for children to place in the mail.
Invite children to count the appropriate number of letters to place in the
numbered envelopes.
• If you have any theme-related puzzles or games, make them available.

Give five- and three-minute warnings near the end of Greetings, Readings, & Writings.
TRANSITION Encourage children to join you in singing the tidy-up song as they put away the lab
supplies and then move to the gathering area.

✿ Gathering Circle

Welcome Activities

Welcome
• Welcome children to the circle. Award paw points if everyone arrived in an orderly
and effective manner.

Attendance
• Use the sign-in sheet to quickly check attendance.

Partners
• Invite children to sit with their partners. Use the partnership chart if children need
help remembering their partners.

Home Link Debrief

• Ask if children were able to explore a book with someone at home last night (or
over the weekend). Remind children to ask their family members to complete the
Read & Respond bookmark each day.
Tell your partner about a book that someone read to you at home.
T-P-S: What was your favorite part?

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• Use the sharing sticks to select two or three children to share their responses with
the whole class. Award paw points in recognition of thoughtful answers.

Classroom Jobs
• Assign classroom jobs for the week. Place each child’s name card next to his or her
assigned job on the jobs chart.

Calendar
• Have children count together with you as you touch the dates on the calendar up to
yesterday’s date. Then challenge children to determine the shape and color of the
calendar cutout that will be used today. Invite children to say the day and date with
you in unison.

Weather
• Invite the weather watcher to indicate the current weather conditions on the
weather chart.

Cool Kid
• Announce today’s Cool Kid. Remind children that the Cool Kid will be working on
all the things that make our classroom a wonderful place to be, such as using active
listening when someone is speaking, sharing, and taking turns. Use the Cool Kid
stamp to mark his or her hand for easy identification.

Invite children to stand in preparation for the Move It! activity.

TRANSITION

Move It!
• Introduce today’s Move It! activity, Follow the Leader.
Today we will play Follow the Leader. In a moment, everyone will line up
behind the Cool Kid. The Cool Kid will walk around the classroom and
do different movements, such as raising his or her hands high in the sky
or jumping up and down. Everyone should do what the leader does.
• Help children form a line behind the Cool Kid. You may wish to play music as they
move around the room.

Lead children as they recite “Cat in a Box” to entice Curiosity to come out of
TRANSITION her house.

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Clues & Questions

Theme-related
word(s):
home*
Curiosity’s Clues
• Have Curiosity bring her bag and join the group. Ask her what she brought to help
children guess what they will learn about today.
Teacher: Curiosity, I’ll bet you have something in your bag that will help
us guess what we will learn about today. Will you tell us what it is?
Curiosity: You will have to guess what I have in my bag today. I’ll give you
some clues, and let’s see if you can guess.
Teacher: Boys and girls, get ready to listen to the clues to guess what
Curiosity has.
Curiosity:
This is a place where people live.
It has rooms for eating and sleeping.
It rhymes with “foam.”
What is it? Home.
Help Curiosity take the house (or picture of a house) from her bag.
• Explain that the house is the home where Curiosity lived before she came to live in
your classroom.
T-P-S: Boys and girls, why do you think Curiosity brought this house (or
picture of her house) today?

Learning with Curiosity

• Explain that everyone in the class has a home, or a place where he or she lives with
Be sensitive when his or her family. Point out that people live in all different types of homes, including
asking questions apartments, houses, townhouses, condos, and mobile homes.
about the kinds of
housing children • Invite children to tell their partners something about their homes. If they need
have, particularly help getting started, you may ask questions such as, “Where do you eat with your
if you know that
there are children
family?” “Where do you sleep?” “Where does your family go when they want to play
in your class who a game or watch television?”
live in shelters
or temporary • Use the sharing sticks to select a few partnerships to tell about their homes.
housing situations. Encourage the use of the word “home” and the previously introduced titles of
family members such as “grandmother,” “father,” “sister,” “uncle,” etc.
• Introduce and play the “House: City, Jungle, Igloo” video.
This video shows many kinds of houses. Which one would you like to
have for a home?

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Wonderful Word
• Show the Wonderful Word picture card for “home.”
Our Wonderful Word today is “home.” A home is the place where you live
with your family.
• Play the digital dictionary video for “home.”
• Remind children that they can earn paw points when they use or hear the word
“home” today.
• Post the Wonderful Word picture card where children will be able to refer to it
throughout the day.

Daily Message
• Write the Daily Message in front of children, reading each word as you finish
writing it. Then read the message again, touching each word as you read it.
Families live in different kinds of homes.
• Invite children to name some types of homes (houses, apartments, etc.)

Letter Links
• Have Curiosity provide clues about the letter “h.” Use Think-Pair-Share to have
children guess the letter, and then show the letter card to reveal it to the children.
• Display the letter cards for “Hh,” “Cc,” and “Bb.”
Our letter of the week is one of these three letters. The letter is in our
message today. Curiosity has brought some clues for us about the letter.
Listen carefully to see if you can tell what it is!
– Both of my shapes are tall.
– My two shapes do not look the same.
– Neither my uppercase nor my lowercase shapes have closed spaces.
They are both open.
WGR: What letter am I? “H.” “H” is the letter of the day!
• Have children help you identify the letter in the Daily Message. Reread the message,
running your finger underneath each word as you read it. Children should raise
their hands when your finger is underneath the letter of the week and put their
hands down again when it’s not.
We’re going to use our letter goggles to see if we can find the letter of
the week in our message. I will move my finger beneath each word as
I read it. Raise your hand if my finger is underneath the letter of the
week. Be sure to put your hand down once my finger moves! Ready? Put
on your goggles now.
Was the letter in our message today? Yes. Circle each instance of the letter in
the message.
• Reinforce the sound and shape of the letter “h” by showing the “H is for Home” video.

Ask children to stand up as they sing “It’s Time for a Rhyme” to signal the transition to
TRANSITION Rhyme Time.

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Rhyme Time

Say the Rhyme

• Introduce the new rhyme.
Today we will begin to learn a new rhyme about families. It’s called
“Grandpa’s Glasses.” When we say the rhyme, listen carefully for words
that rhyme. They have the same sound at the end.
• Start the video so children can hear the audio and see the motions.
• Use My Turn, Your Turn to teach the rhyme and motions to children one line at
a time.

Grandpa’s Glasses
Here are Grandpa’s glasses.
(Use thumbs and forefingers to make glasses.)
Here is Grandpa’s hat.
(Put hands on your head.)
This is the way he folds his hands,
And sits like that.
(Fold hands in your lap.)

Develop Phonological Awareness—Rhyme Recognition

• Introduce the game Stand Up, Sit Down.
Today we are going to play Stand Up, Sit Down. I will ask you whether
two words rhyme. If they rhyme, you will stand up. If they do not rhyme,
you will sit down. Are you ready?
• Play the game.

hat bat (Stand up.)

glasses shoes (Sit down.)
here near (Stand up.)
hands stands (Stand up.)
sits runs (Sit down.)

• Award paw points if children were able to successfully identify rhyming word pairs.

Invite children to join you in front of the play-planning board.

TRANSITION

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Plan & Play

Scenario Review
• Review the scenarios for the unit. Include the new scenarios. Remind children
where each scenario can take place in the classroom. Introduce any props that you
have added to the area. Invite children to think about what kinds of things might
happen in each scenario today.
Family Picnic
Imagine that you are part of a family going on a picnic. Where will your
picnic be, in the back yard or at a park? What will you eat? What games
will you play?
Baby Bath
Sometimes families have new babies. One of the things we must do to
take care of babies is give them a bath. You can use these supplies at the
water table to bathe and dress the new babies. Be careful not to get soap
in their eyes!

Scenario Selection
• Review which scenario is represented by each of the cards on the
play-planning board.
• Use the sharing sticks to randomly select children to choose the scenario they’d
like to play in. Once each child selects a scenario, place the appropriate colored
clip on his or her clothing, and send him or her to the table(s) for planning.

Plan
• Invite children to write about what they will do in the pretend scenario today.
Accept all forms of writing (scribbling, drawing lines, attempts at letter formation,
pictures, etc.). Encourage children to tell you what they have written.

Play
• Observe children as they participate in each play scenario. Join in the play to
encourage conversation, prop use, and role-playing and to model the use of writing
in the context of the scenario.

Coaching
• Encourage children to become engaged in the new scenarios by joining in the play.
Acknowledge any props they have made.

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Provide five- and three-minute warnings before the end of Plan & Play. Then sing the
TRANSITION clean-up song or another song to prompt children to put away any props and move to
the STaR area.

Once children have arrived at the STaR area, lead them in reciting and doing the
motions to “Two Little Hands.”

STaR
Interactive Story Reading
STaR word(s):
house
A House Is a House for Me
Author: Mary Ann Hoberman
Illustrator: Betty Fraser

Everything has a house. As this story told in rhyme progresses, we

see familiar houses, such as a barn for a horse or a kennel for a dog,
and more obscure houses, such as a mitten for a hand or a carton for
crackers. This delightful story expands the concept of a house while
introducing a wide expanse of vocabulary.

Interactive Story Reading

Before Reading
• Introduce the title, author, and illustrator of the story.
The title of our story today is A House Is a House for Me. That’s the
name of the story. The author is Mary Ann Hoberman. She wrote the
words for the story. The illustrator is Betty Fraser. She drew the pictures
for this story.
• Have children preview the story. Guide them as they make predictions about the
story based on the cover illustration and the title.
Look at the cover of this book. T-P-S: What do you see? There is a lot to
see in this picture. There are all kinds of animals and children in it.
The title of the story is A House Is a House for Me. We’re going to hear
the word “house” in this story many times. T-P-S: What does the word
“house” mean?
A house is where you live. There are many kinds of houses where people
and animals live. This story is about all kinds of houses for all kinds of
people, animals, and even some silly things.
When I read the story today, listen carefully to hear about some unusual
kinds of houses.

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During Reading
• Read the story all the way through without stopping to ask questions or discuss
the story.

After Reading
• Talk with children about some of the types of houses presented in the story. Ask
them to recall the title of the story as you write it on a leaf.
Before I read the story, I asked you to listen carefully because the
story tells about so many different kinds of houses. Let’s see if we can
remember some of the kinds of houses in the story.
• Turn back to the beginning of the book, and page through slowly to remind children
of some of the types of houses represented in the story.
T-P-S: What is one kind of house that you remember from the story?
T-P-S: Which house from the story would you like to live in? Why?
• Invite a child to attach the leaf to the story tree.

Lead children in reciting “When I’m Doing Math.”

TRANSITION

Math word(s): Math Moments

circle
shape
Count with Curiosity
Basic word(s):
round • Play the “Count with Curiosity: 1–12” video. Invite children to count to 12
with Curiosity.
around

Active Instruction
• Bring out Curiosity and the circle.
Curiosity has something for us today. Let’s see what it is. Hold up the
circle. It’s a circle! Trace the edge of the circle with your finger. A circle is a
round shape. It goes around and around like this. Have Curiosity whisper in
your ear. Oh, Curiosity wants to know if we can make a circle. Let’s stand
up and show Curiosity how we can make a circle with our bodies!
• Have children hold hands to form a large circle.
Our circle is round. It goes all the way around.
• Encourage children to use their arms to form a circle, over their heads or in front of
their bodies.

Partner Practice
• Have children do a shape hunt for circles around the room.

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• Bring children together to share the circles they found.

• To reinforce the concept of circular shapes, show the “Ziggysaurus Shape Rap” video.

Have children play last week’s brain game, What Is Missing? Remind children that
TRANSITION
What is Missing? is a game that will help them to remember things better.

Question/Reflection

Learning-Focus Review
• Review the day’s learning focus.
Let’s think about what we’ve learned today. There are lots of different
kinds of homes.

Wonderful Word
• Review the Wonderful Word.
Our Wonderful Word today is “home.” Remember that your home is the
place where you live with your family. T-P-S: When did we hear the word
“home” today?
• Use the sharing sticks to select children to share their responses. Award paw points
for reasonable responses.

Theme Learning Extension

• Teach children how to play the brain game, Hot Potato Memory.
Today we’re going to play a new brain game called Hot Potato Memory.
Playing Hot Potato Memory helps our brains to remember things better,
and it’s also fun to play!

Brain Game: Hot Potato Memory

Have children sit or stand in a circle. (If you have a large class, you may want to have
more than one circle to allow children more turns to pass the hot potato.) Use a small
ball or other item that they can hold with one hand to use as the potato. Announce
a task that the child left holding the hot potato will perform when the music stops
(e.g., jump, turn around, touch his or her head). Play a lively song. While the music is
playing, have children pass the potato around the circle until the music stops. The child
left holding the potato when the music stops has to remember and perform the task
that you announced at the start of the game. Start and stop the music several times
when you play this game. Change the required action with the start of each round.

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Cool Kid Recognition

• Invite the Cool Kid to come to the front of the circle. Have Curiosity, a marker, and
the Cool Kid certificate ready. Have Curiosity model giving a compliment to the
Cool Kid based on something that happened during the day. Use this opportunity to
model different types of compliments than what the children typically give.
Now it’s time to give compliments to the Cool Kid! Remember that a
compliment is something you say that is nice or encouraging. Take a
minute to think of a compliment for the Cool Kid. Did anyone notice
anything positive, friendly, or helpful that the Cool Kid did today?
Curiosity would like to give the first compliment.
• Write a few compliments on the Cool Kid certificate. Present the certificate to the
child, and encourage him or her to take it home to show family.

Paw Points
• Remind children about why they have earned paw points.
We earned paw points today for using or noticing the Wonderful Word
and also for talking with our partners, sharing materials, and working
well together. Let’s count the paw points that we earned today!
• Transfer the paw point chips from Curiosity’s water bowl to the celebration jar.
Count each chip as you place it into the jar.
• If the chips reach the line on the celebration jar, invite children to sing and dance to
the “Curiosity Shuffle.”

Home Link/Departure
• Make any announcements, or give reminders (upcoming field trips, picture day, etc.).
• Remind children to complete their Read & Respond bookmark and to watch
tonight’s Home Link episode online to share what they learned today with their
family members. They will find today’s episode when they click on the goat.
• Use the goat stamp to place an animal image on each child’s hand. (optional)
• Have children join hands to form a circle. Sing the “I’ll Miss You” song.

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Day 7 | Ready, Set

Focus
People who help to take care of you can feel like family.

Additional Materials Needed Today

Greetings, Readings, • Letter Lab: Playdough, CC Activity Cards: Letter card

& Writings for “Hh”
• Math Lab: Construction paper circles, several

Gathering Circle • Calendar cutout for today’s date

Move It! • Balloon, inflated

Clues & Questions • Picture of a woman

• CC Activity Card: Wonderful Word picture card for “help”
• CC Activity Card: Letter card for “Hh”

Getting Along • Trade book: Cookies: Bite-Size Life Lessons

Together by Amy Krouse Rosenthal

Plan & Play • Concepts-of-print book: Meet My Family

STaR • Trade book: A House Is a House for Me

by Mary Ann Hoberman

Math Moments • Large paper square

Question/Reflection • Cool Kid certificate and marker

• Home Link animal stamp: pig

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Greetings, Readings,
Day 7 & Writings

Child Routines Teacher Routines

1. Remove coats and backpacks. 1. Greet parents and children.

2. Sign in. 2. Remind children to read the Arrival
3. Self-select labs or other activities. Activities poster as they prepare for
their day.
3. Guide children, as needed, to select
a Learning Lab to explore. Introduce
newly added labs as appropriate.
4. Encourage children to describe what
they are doing in full sentences as you
observe their activities.
5. Observe for children’s developing
oral language and social skills as
guided by the unit record form for the
current unit.

Available Activities

Classroom Library Lab: Enjoy a Story

• Same as day 1

Letter Lab: “H” Dough Shapes

• Encourage children to make “H” and “h” shapes with the playdough. Demonstrate
how to roll dough into lengths to form letters.

Math Lab: Finding Shapes

• Provide construction paper circles for children to use to find objects in the room
that have a circular shape. Model matching a circle to something in the room that
has a circular shape.

Computer/Media Lab: Exploring with Technology

• Same as day 1

Writing Lab: Family Fun

• Same as day 6

Art Lab: People in My Family

• Same as day 3

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Science Lab: Invisible Message

• Same as day 6

Puzzles & Games Lab: Free Exploration

• Same as day 6

Give five- and three-minute warnings near the end of Greetings, Readings, & Writings.
TRANSITION Encourage children to join you in singing the tidy-up song as they put away the lab
supplies and then move to the gathering area.

✿ Gathering Circle

Welcome Activities

Welcome
• Welcome children to the circle. Award paw points if everyone arrived in an orderly
and effective manner.

Attendance
• Use the sign-in sheet to quickly check attendance.

Partners
• Invite children to sit with their partners. Use the partnership chart to review
assignments as necessary.

Home Link Debrief

• Invite children to share what they remember from last night’s Home Link show.
T-P-S: Can you name one of the shapes that Ziggysaurus sang about in his
shape rap? Circle, triangle, rhombus, and pentagon.
• Use the sharing sticks to select two or three children to share their responses with
the whole class. Award paw points in recognition of thoughtful answers.
• Remind children to ask a family member to complete the Read & Respond
bookmark each day.

Classroom Jobs
• Use the job chart to remind children about their jobs for the week.

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Calendar
• Have children count together with you as you touch the dates on the calendar up to
yesterday’s date. Then challenge children to determine the shape and color of the
calendar cutout that will be used today. Invite children to say the day and date with
you in unison.

Weather
• Invite the weather watcher to indicate the current weather conditions on the
weather chart.

Cool Kid
• Announce today’s Cool Kid. Remind children that the Cool Kid will be working on
all the things that make our classroom a wonderful place to be, such as using active
listening when someone is speaking, sharing, and taking turns. Use the Cool Kid
stamp to mark his or her hand for easy identification.

Invite children to stand in preparation for the Move It! activity.

TRANSITION

Move It!
• Have children spread out. Explain how they will use the balloon for the activity.
Today we will play Balloon Ball. To play Balloon Ball, we have to keep
the balloon from touching the ground.
• Encourage children to use different body parts to keep the balloon in the air.

Lead children as they recite “Cat in a Box” to entice Curiosity to come out of
TRANSITION her house.

Clues & Questions

Theme-related
word(s):
grow*
Curiosity’s Clues
babysitter
neighbor • Have Curiosity show you a picture of a woman. Ask her why she brought a picture
of this person today.
Curiosity, I see you have a picture with you today. Let’s see if our friends
can figure out who this person is. We can tell that she isn’t someone in
your family because she is not a cat. Will you give us some clues about
this person?
Curiosity: Of course.

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This person takes care of me when my mommy is not home.

She reads to me and fixes my meals.
She loves me and helps me.
Teacher: Curiosity told us some things about this person in the picture.
T-P-S: Who do you think she is?
• If no one guesses that she is Curiosity’s babysitter, explain that’s who the person in
the picture is.
Teacher: Curiosity brought a picture of her babysitter today. Why do you
think Curiosity brought a picture of this person?

Learning with Curiosity

• Explain that there are other people besides those who live in our households who
help to take care of us.
We’ve learned that there can be many people in our family, such as
aunts, uncles, and grandparents, who love us and help to take care of us.
Sometimes there are people we know who aren’t relatives, but they feel
like they are a part of our family because they love us and help to take
care of us. Curiosity’s babysitter is one of those people.
• Invite children to play the game, That’s Me!
Now we will play a game about people who are like family. When I tell
about someone who is like family to you, stand up and say, “That’s me!”
Listen while I practice with Curiosity. I have a babysitter who takes care
of me.
Have Curiosity jump up and say, “That’s me!”
Thank you, Curiosity. Now let’s all play the game.
• Make statements about people who may be like family members, and encourage
children to stand and say, “That’s me!” if it applies to them. Have children sit
down before the next statement is made. You may use the following statements or
substitute those that you know apply to your children.
Suggestions:
– I have a neighbor who walks me to school.
– My family has a friend who comes to spend holidays with us.
– My family has a friend who brings us treats when they come to visit.
– I have a babysitter who takes care of and loves me.
• Play the “Doing the Family Thing” video.

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Wonderful Word
• Show the Wonderful Word picture card for “help.”
Our Wonderful Word today is “help.” When we can’t do something by
ourselves, someone else can help us.
• Play the digital dictionary video for “help.”
• Remind children that they can earn paw points when they use or hear the word
“help” today.
• Post the Wonderful Word picture card where children will be able to refer to it
throughout the day.

Daily Message
• Write the Daily Message in front of children, reading each word as you finish
writing it. Then read the message again, touching each word as you read it.
Does your family have a babysitter who helps take care of you?
• Point out the question mark at the end of the message.
At the end of today’s message, I see a funny mark. This is a question
mark. It tells us that the message is asking a question. Let’s see if we
can answer the question. T-P-S: Tell your partner about who helps to take
care of you.

Letter Links
• Have Curiosity show the letter card for “h.”
• Invite children to help you identify the letter in the Daily Message. Reread the
message, running your finger underneath each word as you read it. Children should
raise their hands when your finger is underneath the letter of the week and put their
hands down again when it’s not.
We’re going to use our letter goggles to see if we can find the letter of
the week in our message. I will move my finger beneath each word as
I read it. Raise your hand if my finger is underneath the letter of the
week. Be sure to put your hand down once my finger moves! Ready? Put
on your goggles now.
Was the letter in our message today? Yes. Circle each instance of the letter in
the message.
• Reinforce the sound and shape of the letter “h” by showing “The Soul Letter H
Song” video.

Have children stand and recite “Grandpa’s Glasses” along with the video as a
TRANSITION transition to Getting Along Together.

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Getting Along Together

GAT word(s):
feelings
“I” Messages Active Instruction
Basic word(s): • Review feelings and “I” Messages.
happy A few weeks ago we talked about feelings and “I” Messages. We learned
sad that everybody has feelings and that feelings are OK. We also learned to
proud tell other people how we feel by giving an “I” Message. Who would like
to give an “I” Message to describe how they are feeling? Guide children in
using the sentence structure “I feel…because….”
Every day we have lots of different feelings, depending on what we
are doing and what is happening around us. We can learn more about
feelings by reading a book. Let’s listen to a story and see if we hear
about any feelings.
• Read the book Cookies: Bite-Size Life Lessons. Read with expression, allowing
children to comment on the text or illustrations as you read. After finishing the
book, ask summative questions.
T-P-S: What did the little girl look like when she felt proud? Standing tall
with her chin up. What did the characters who were content look like?
What other feelings words did you hear in the book?

Partner Practice
• Invite children to share their feelings with their partners.
How are you feeling right now? Turn and tell your partner using an
“I” Message.

Invite children to join you in front of the play-planning board.

TRANSITION

Plan & Play

Scenario Review
• Review the scenarios for the unit as needed. Include any new scenarios that may
have emerged as a part of yesterday’s play. Remind children where each scenario
can take place in the classroom. Introduce any props that you have added to the
area. Invite children to think about what kinds of things might happen in each
scenario today.

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Scenario Selection
• Review which scenario is represented by each of the cards on the
play-planning board.
• Use the sharing sticks to randomly select children to choose the scenario they’d
like to play in. Once each child selects a scenario, place the appropriate colored
clip on his or her clothing, and send him or her to the table(s) for planning.

Plan
• Invite children to write about what they will do in the pretend scenario today.
Accept all forms of writing (scribbling, drawing lines, attempts at letter formation,
pictures, etc.). Encourage children to tell you what they have written.

Play
• Observe children as they participate in each play scenario. Join in the play to
encourage conversation, prop use, and role-playing and to model the use of writing
in the context of the scenario.

Coaching
• Encourage children to become engaged in the new scenarios by joining in the play.
Acknowledge any props they have made.

Small-Group Instruction
• During the last ten minutes, pull five or six children aside for this week’s
small-group activity.

Meet My Family
Give each child a copy of the concepts-of-print book Meet My Family. Have
children demonstrate how to hold a book right-side up and find the first page
of a story. Use family member titles, such as “aunt,” “sister,” and “cousin,” to
engage children in conversation about the people in the pictures.

Provide five- and three-minute warnings before the end of Plan & Play. Then sing a
TRANSITION clean-up song to prompt children to put away any props and move to the STaR area.

Once children have arrived at the STaR area, lead them in reciting and doing the
motions to “Two Little Hands.”

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STaR
Story Retell
STaR word(s):
house
A House Is a House for Me
Author: Mary Ann Hoberman
Illustrator: Betty Fraser

Review
• Display the front cover of the book. Review the title and the names of the author
and illustrator.
We read this story yesterday. The title of the story is A House Is a
House for Me. The author is Mary Ann Hoberman. She wrote the words.
Betty Fraser is the illustrator. She drew the pictures.
• Review the story vocabulary that was introduced yesterday.
We heard the word “house” in the title of the book and many times in the
story. T-P-S: What kind of house does the cow live in?

Story Retell
• Hold up the story A House Is a House for Me, and tell children that they will help
you read the story today. Review the repetitive sentence, “A house is a house for
me.” Provide a signal for children to jump right in with the sentence.
Yesterday we read this story about all different kinds of houses for
people, animals, and other silly things. One sentence that we heard many
times in the story was, “A house is a house for me.”
Today when I read the story, you will read the sentence “A house is
a house for me.” When it’s your turn to read, I will give you a signal
(Demonstrate your signal.) to read the sentence, “A house is a house
for me.”
Let’s practice saying that together. “A house is a house for me.”
• As you read the story, pause and give the signal for children to jump right in with
the repetitive sentence.
• Conclude this activity by having children tell their partners about a house for
something. This can be something from the book or something they make up.

Lead children in reciting “When I’m Doing Math.”

TRANSITION

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Math word(s):
Math Moments
square

Basic word(s): Count with Curiosity

sides • Play the “Count with Curiosity: 1–12” video. Invite children to count to 12
edges with Curiosity.

Active Instruction
• Bring out Curiosity and her bag with a square inside.
Curiosity has something for us today. Let’s see what it is. Take the square
out of Curiosity’s bag. Oh, Curiosity brought us a square. Slide your finger
around the sides of the square. A square is a shape that has four sides that
are the same size.
Let’s show Curiosity how we can make a square with our bodies.
• Invite four children who are about the same height to come up and make a square
on the floor with their bodies. Repeat this activity with other children in the group.

Partner Practice
• Have partners go on a shape hunt for squares around the room.
• Bring children together to share the squares they found.
• To reinforce the concept of square shapes, show the “Worms in Space: Shapes” video.

Have children play this week’s brain game, Hot Potato Memory. Remind children that
TRANSITION Hot Potato Memory is a game that will help them to remember things better.

Question/Reflection

Learning-Focus Review
• Review the day’s learning focus.
Let’s think about what we’ve learned today. Sometimes people who are
not our relatives help our families take care of us.

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Wonderful Word
• Review the Wonderful Word.
Our Wonderful Word today is “help.” Remember that sometimes if we
can’t do something ourselves, others may help us. T-P-S: When did we
help someone today?
• Use the sharing sticks to select children to share their responses. Award paw points
for reasonable responses.

Theme Learning Extension

• Review two meanings of the word “grow” from day 2.
We learned that our Wonderful Word “grow” means to get bigger. We
know that all people start out as babies and then grow bigger (taller) and
learn to do things for themselves. This week we learned that families can
grow. When our families grow, it means there are more people in them.
T-P-S: What is one way that a family can grow? A new baby is born, someone
gets married, a child is adopted, etc.
• Use the sharing sticks to select several children to share their ideas. Encourage
children to answer in a complete sentence such as, “Families grow when ________.”

Cool Kid Recognition

• Invite the Cool Kid to come to the front of the circle. Have Curiosity, a marker, and
the Cool Kid certificate ready. Have Curiosity model giving a compliment to the
Cool Kid based on something that happened during the day. Use this opportunity to
model different types of compliments than what the children typically give.
Now it’s time to give compliments to the Cool Kid! Remember that a
compliment is something you say that is nice or encouraging. Take a
minute to think of a compliment for the Cool Kid. Did anyone notice
anything positive, friendly, or helpful that the Cool Kid did today?
Curiosity would like to give the first compliment.
• Write a few compliments on the Cool Kid certificate. Present the certificate to the
child, and encourage him or her to take it home to show family.

Paw Points
• Remind children about why they have earned paw points.
We earned paw points today for using or noticing the Wonderful Word
and also for talking with our partners, sharing materials, and working
well together. Let’s count the paw points that we earned today!
• Transfer the paw point chips from Curiosity’s water bowl to the celebration jar.
Count each chip as you place it into the jar.
• If the chips reach the line on the celebration jar, invite children to sing and dance to
the “Curiosity Shuffle.”

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Home Link/Departure
• Make any announcements, or give reminders (upcoming field trips, picture day, etc.).
• Remind children to complete their Read & Respond bookmark and watch tonight’s
Home Link episode online to share what they learned today with their family
members. They will find today’s episode when they click on the pig.
• Use the pig stamp to place an animal image on each child’s hand. (optional)
• Have children join hands to form a circle. Sing the “I’ll Miss You” song.

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Day 8 | Ready, Set

Focus
Family members can communicate ideas and feelings by talking to one another.

Additional Materials Needed Today

Greetings, Readings, • Classroom Library Lab: Trade book: A House Is a House

& Writings for Me
• Math Lab: Construction paper squares

Gathering Circle • Calendar cutout for today’s date

Move It! • No additional materials needed

Clues & Questions • Toy phone

• CC Activity Card: Wonderful Word picture card
for “communicate”
• CC Activity Card: Letter card for “Hh”

Getting Along • CC Activity Cards: Feelings Faces card set

Together

Plan & Play • No additional materials needed

STaR • Trade book: A Letter to Amy by Ezra Jack Keats

• Leaf for story tree

Math Moments • Rectangle shape made from tape on the floor

Question/Reflection • Cool Kid certificate and marker

• Home Link animal stamp: donkey

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Day 8 Greetings, Readings,

& Writings

Child Routines Teacher Routines

1. Remove coats and backpacks. 1. Greet parents and children.

2. Sign in. 2. Remind children to read the Arrival
3. Self-select labs or other activities. Activities poster as they prepare for
their day.
3. Guide children, as needed, to select
a Learning Lab to explore. Introduce
newly added labs as appropriate.
4. Encourage children to describe what
they are doing in full sentences as you
observe their activities.
5. Observe for children’s developing
oral language and social skills as
guided by the unit record form for the
current unit.

Available Activities

Classroom Library Lab: Enjoy a Story

• Add the STaR story A House Is a House for Me to the lab. Encourage children to
name the animals (and other items) and their houses depicted on various pages.

Letter Lab: “H” Dough Shapes

• Same as day 7

Math Lab: Finding Shapes

• Add construction paper squares to the lab, and have children choose either a circle
or square shape and find objects in the room that have the same shape as the one
they chose.

Computer/Media Lab: Exploring with Technology

• Same as day 1

Writing Lab: Family Fun

• Same as day 6

Art Lab: People in My Family

• Same as day 3

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Science Lab: Invisible Message

• Same as day 6

Puzzles & Games Lab: Free Exploration

• Same as day 6
Give five- and three-minute warnings near the end of Greetings, Readings, & Writings.
TRANSITION Encourage children to join you in singing the tidy-up song as they put away the lab
supplies and then move to the gathering area.

✿ Gathering Circle

Welcome Activities

Welcome
• Welcome children to the circle. Award paw points if everyone arrived in an orderly
and effective manner.

Attendance
• Use the sign-in sheet to quickly check attendance.

Partners
• Invite children to sit with their partners. Use the partnership chart to review
assignments as necessary.

Home Link Debrief

• Invite children to share what they remember from last night’s Home Link show.
T-P-S: In Chilly Makes New Friends, what happened after Chilly chased
a fish into the middle of the sea? A big storm came with thunder and
lightning and strong winds.
• Use the sharing sticks to select two or three children to share their responses with
the whole class. Award paw points in recognition of thoughtful answers.
• Remind children to ask their family members to complete the Read & Respond
bookmark each day.

Classroom Jobs
• Use the job chart to remind children about their jobs for the week.

Calendar
• Have children count together with you as you touch the dates on the calendar up to
yesterday’s date. Then challenge children to determine the shape and color of the

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calendar cutout that will be used today. Invite children to say the day and date with
you in unison.

Weather
• Invite the weather watcher to indicate the current weather conditions on the
weather chart.

Cool Kid
• Announce today’s Cool Kid. Remind children that the Cool Kid will be working on
all the things that make our classroom a wonderful place to be, such as using active
listening when someone is speaking, sharing, and taking turns. Use the Cool Kid
stamp to mark his or her hand for easy identification.

Invite children to stand in preparation for the Move It! activity.

TRANSITION

Move It!
• Introduce today’s Move It! activity, Get on Up and Move Your Body.
Today we will sing and dance to “Get on Up and Move Your Body.” Get
ready to move and groove!
• To encourage gross-motor activity and engagement, play the “Get on Up and Move
Your Body” video.

Lead children as they recite “Cat in a Box” to entice Curiosity to come out of
TRANSITION her house.

Clues & Questions

Theme-related
word(s):
communicate* Curiosity’s Clues
talk
• Ask Curiosity what she has in her bag that will help children know what they will
telephone learn about today.
Teacher: Curiosity, what do you have with you today?
• Have Curiosity bring out the toy phone.
Curiosity: I have a phone (or telephone) with me. I want to call my grandpa
to tell him that I miss him.
Teacher: If you want to talk to someone and he or she is not with you, a
phone will help you do that. I think we’re going to learn about talking to
people today.

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Learning with Curiosity

• Put Curiosity’s phone where everyone can see it. Explain that when someone wants
to talk to another person and they are not together, the people can use a phone to
call each other.
• Facilitate a discussion about people using language to communicate ideas and
feelings. Refer to “I” Messages introduced in Getting Along Together.
EXAMPLE

Curiosity is going to use her phone today to tell her grandpa that she
misses him. T-P-S: What can we do when we want to tell someone how we
feel? Give an “I” Message.
Yes, we can use an “I” Message to tell people how we feel. People can
talk when they want to tell someone their ideas and feelings.
• Point out that talking is an important way to communicate.
We are going to watch a video about a girl who is moving to a new house.
Watch to see how she feels about the move and how she communicates
her feelings.
• Introduce and play the “No Place Like Home” video, and then use the questions
below to debrief.
How does the girl feel at the beginning of the video? She is not
happy. How does she feel at the end? She is finally happy. How does
she communicate how she feels? Talking, body language, tone of voice,
facial expressions.

Wonderful Word
• Show the Wonderful Word picture card for “communicate.”
Our Wonderful Word today is “communicate.” When we want someone to
know our ideas and feelings, we communicate with him or her. Talking to
someone is one way to communicate our ideas to that person.
• Play the digital dictionary video for “communicate.”
• Remind children that they can earn paw points when they use or hear the word
“communicate” today.
• Post the Wonderful Word picture card where children will be able to refer to it
throughout the day.

Daily Message
• Write the Daily Message in front of children, reading each word as you finish
writing it. Then read the message again, touching each word as you read it.
I talk to my family to communicate with them.
• Point out how long the word “communicate” is compared with the other words in
the message.

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Our Wonderful Word “communicate” is in our Daily Message. Run your

finger under the word “communicate.” This is a very long word with a lot of
letters. Run your finger under the words “to” and “with.” Look at how much
longer the word “communicate” is than the words next to it.

Letter Links
• Have Curiosity show the letter card for “h.”
• Invite children to help you identify the letter in the Daily Message. Reread the
message, running your finger underneath each word as you read it. Children should
raise their hands when your finger is underneath the letter of the week and put their
hands down again when it’s not. Circle any letters that they found in the message.
We’re going to use our letter goggles to see if we can find the letter of
the week in our message. I will move my finger beneath each word as
I read it. Raise your hand if my finger is underneath the letter of the
week. Be sure to put your hand down once my finger moves! Ready? Put
on your goggles now.
Was the letter in our message today? Yes. Circle each instance of the letter in
the message.
• Reinforce the sound and shape of the letter “h” by showing the “Worms in Space: H”
video.

Have children stand and recite “Grandpa’s Glasses” as a transition to Getting

TRANSITION Along Together.

Getting Along Together

Basic word(s):
smile
laugh Active Instruction
cry
• Introduce ways to recognize how others are feeling. Hold up the feelings faces
frown
cards one at a time.
Let’s talk about how we know what someone else is feeling. How do
you know that someone else is happy? Yes, a happy person is smiling or
laughing. Show me your smiles!
How do you know if someone is feeling sad? Yes, a sad person may be
crying or have a big frown! Here is my frown. Make a big sad frown to show
children. Turn to your partner, and show your sad face.
• Show a few pictures of people expressing different feelings. Use pictures from
books in the classroom or from magazines. Highlight facial expressions and body
signals that indicate how someone is feeling.

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Partner Practice
• Discuss the link between situations and feelings. Describe each of the following
situations, and then show how you would feel in the situation. After you describe
the situation, have children share with their partners how they think you
are feeling.
1. It’s a beautiful sunny day! I get to relax outside on my favorite chair. I
go outside and find that my friend has left me some flowers next to my
chair. How do you think I feel? Make a big smile, clap your hands, and look
happy! Tell your partner how you think I feel.
2. I spill paint all over my favorite shirt. The paint is bright red, and my
white shirt is ruined. How do you think I feel? Make a big frown, slump
your shoulders, and look sad. Tell your partner how you think I feel.
3. I don’t like to see spiders. They move fast and might crawl on me. I get
the chills when I see a spider’s web. Today when I got in my car, I saw
a spider dangling from my mirror. How do you think I feel? Cover your
eyes, raise your eyebrows, scream, and look scared. Tell your partner how
you think I feel.
• Encourage children to pay attention to their classmates and how they are feeling
throughout the day. Tell children to notice what makes their friends feel happy, sad,
or scared. Noticing how other people feel is an important way to learn about them.

Invite children to join you in front of the play-planning board.

TRANSITION

Plan & Play

Scenario Review
• Review the scenarios for the unit as needed. Include any new scenarios that may
have emerged as a part of yesterday’s play. Remind children where each scenario
can take place in the classroom. Introduce any props that you have added to the
area. Invite children to think about what kinds of things might happen in each
scenario today.

Scenario Selection
• Review which scenario is represented by each of the cards on the
play-planning board.
• Use the sharing sticks to randomly select children to choose the scenario they’d
like to play in. Once each child selects a scenario, place the appropriate colored
clip on his or her clothing, and send him or her to the table(s) for planning.

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Plan
• Invite children to write about what they will do in the pretend scenario today.
Accept all forms of writing (scribbling, drawing lines, attempts at letter formation,
pictures, etc.). Encourage children to tell you what they have written.

Play
• Observe children as they participate in each play scenario. Join in the play to
encourage conversation, prop use, and role-playing and to model the use of writing
in the context of the scenario.

Coaching
• Encourage children to become engaged in the new scenarios by joining in the play.
Acknowledge any props they have made.

Small-Group Instruction
See day 7 for • During the last ten minutes, pull five or six children aside for this week’s
small-group activity small-group activity.
instructions.
Provide five- and three-minute warnings before the end of Plan & Play. Then sing a
TRANSITION clean-up song to prompt children to put away any props and move to the STaR area.

Once children have arrived at the STaR area, lead them in reciting and doing the
motions to “Two Little Hands.”

STaR
STaR word(s): Interactive Story Reading
blew
A Letter to Amy
Author and illustrator: Ezra Jack Keats

Peter writes a letter to his friend Amy inviting her to his birthday party.
As he walks to the mailbox to mail the letter, the wind takes the letter
from his hand and blows it directly toward Amy. Peter wants her to be
surprised when the letter arrives, and in his hurry to retrieve it before
Amy sees the letter, he bumps into her and knocks her down. Peter
worries that his mishandling of the incident will affect her decision to
come to the party.

Interactive Story Reading

Before Reading
• Introduce the title, author, and illustrator of the story.
The title of our story today is A Letter to Amy. That’s the name of the
story. The author is Ezra Jack Keats. He wrote the words for the story.
Mr. Keats is also the illustrator. He wrote the words and drew the
pictures for this story.

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• Have children preview the story. Guide them as they make predictions about the
story based on the cover illustration and the title.
Let’s look at the cover of this book. T-P-S: What is happening in
this picture?
The title of the story is A Letter to Amy. Point to the letter in the picture.
It looks like the letter blew out of this boy’s hand. What does that make
you wonder about the letter?
Let’s read the story to see if we can find out what happens to the letter.

During Reading
• Use Think-Pair-Share or Whole-Group Response to engage children in an ongoing
discussion about the story as guided by the following questions and comments.
– Page 3: Peter is going outside to go to the mailbox to mail the letter to
Amy. T-P-S: What do you think will happen next?
– Page 11: T-P-S: What do you think will happen to Peter’s letter?
– Page 16: T-P-S: Why is Amy crying?
– Page 22: Point to Peter. Look at Peter’s face. T-P-S: How do you think
Peter feels? Why do you think he feels this way?

After Reading
• Ask summative questions to review the story and the STaR vocabulary.
When Peter went outside to mail his letter, the wind blew the letter out
of his hands. What do you think the word “blew” means?
The wind took the letter from Peter’s hands and carried it in the air.
The word “blew” can mean different things. At the end of the story,
Peter blew out the candles on his cake. WGR: Did the wind make the
candles go out? No, Peter forced air out of his mouth to make the
candles go out. Pretend that you are Peter, and show how you blow air
from your mouth to put out candles.
At the end of the story, Peter’s friends give him some ideas of things to
wish for, but Peter makes his own wish. T-P-S: What do you think Peter
wishes for?
• Ask children to recall the name of the story as you write the title on a leaf. Invite a
child to place the leaf on the story tree.

Lead children in reciting “When I’m Doing Math.”

TRANSITION

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Math Moments
Math word(s):
rectangle • Prior to the lesson, use tape to create a rectangular shape on the floor.

Basic word(s): Count with Curiosity

short
long • Play the “Count with Curiosity: 1–12” video. Invite children to count to 12
with Curiosity.

Active Instruction
• Draw children’s attention to the rectangular shape on the floor.
Look at what we have here…it’s a rectangle! Invite pairs of children up to
walk around the rectangle on the floor. A rectangle has four sides, just like a
square, but two of the sides are long, and two are short.

Partner Practice
• Have partners go on a shape hunt for rectangles around the room.
• Bring children together to share the rectangles they found.
• To reinforce the concept of rectangular shapes, show the “In Great Shape” video.

Have children play this week’s brain game, Hot Potato Memory. Remind children that
TRANSITION Hot Potato Memory is a game that will help them to remember things better.

Question/Reflection

Learning-Focus Review
• Review the day’s learning focus.
Let’s think about what we’ve learned today. We can tell our families our
ideas when we talk to them.

Wonderful Word
• Review the Wonderful Word.
Our Wonderful Word today is “communicate.” Remember that talking is
one way to communicate. T-P-S: When did we communicate, or tell our
ideas, today?

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• Use the sharing sticks to select children to share their responses. Award paw points
for reasonable responses.

Theme Learning Extension

• Bring Curiosity out, and invite children to help her think about what she will tell
her grandpa when she calls him.
Teacher: Curiosity, have you called your grandpa yet?
Curiosity: No. I’m not sure what I will say. Maybe the boys and girls can
help me decide what I will tell my grandpa.
Teacher: Today we learned that family members can talk to one another
to tell their ideas and feelings. Curiosity wants to tell her grandpa how
she feels when he isn’t here with her. T-P-S: What can Curiosity say to
her grandpa?
• Use the sharing sticks to select several children to share their ideas with the class.
Restate their responses to include concepts and vocabulary introduced in this unit.

Cool Kid Recognition

• Invite the Cool Kid to come to the front of the circle. Have Curiosity, a marker, and
the Cool Kid certificate ready. Have Curiosity model giving a compliment to the
Cool Kid based on something that happened during the day. Use this opportunity to
model different types of compliments than what the children typically give.
Now it’s time to give compliments to the Cool Kid! Remember that a
compliment is something you say that is nice or encouraging. Take a
minute to think of a compliment for the Cool Kid. Did anyone notice
anything positive, friendly, or helpful that the Cool Kid did today?
Curiosity would like to give the first compliment.
• Write a few compliments on the Cool Kid certificate. Present the certificate to the
child, and encourage him or her to take it home to show family.

Paw Points
• Remind children about why they have earned paw points.
We earned paw points today for using or noticing the Wonderful Word
and also for talking with our partners, sharing materials, and working
well together. Let’s count the paw points that we earned today!
• Transfer the paw point chips from Curiosity’s water bowl to the celebration jar.
Count each chip as you place it into the jar.
• If the chips reach the line on the celebration jar, invite children to sing and dance to
the “Curiosity Shuffle.”

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Home Link/Departure
• Make any announcements, or give reminders (upcoming field trips, picture day, etc.).
• Remind children to complete their Read & Respond bookmark and watch tonight’s
Home Link episode online to share what they learned today with their family
members. They will find today’s episode when they click on the donkey.
• Use the donkey stamp to place an animal image on each child’s hand. (optional)
• Have children join hands to form a circle. Sing the “I’ll Miss You” song.

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Day 9 | Ready, Set

Focus
Families can communicate ideas and feelings by writing or drawing.

Additional Materials Needed Today

Greetings, Readings, • Math Lab: Construction paper rectangles, several

& Writings • Puzzles & Games Lab: Post office and safety puzzles,
traffic signs

Gathering Circle • Calendar cutout for today’s date

Move It! • Beanbag

Clues & Questions • Trade book: The Post Office Book by Gail Gibbons
• Play Ball drawing (appendix)
• CC Activity Card: Wonderful Word picture card for “write”
• CC Activity Card: Letter card for “Hh”

Rhyme Time • CC Activity Cards: Picture cards for bat, dog, door

Plan & Play • No additional materials needed

STaR • Trade book: A Letter to Amy by Ezra Jack Keats

• STaR story retell picture cards for A Letter to Amy

Math Moments • Triangle shape made from tape on the floor

Question/Reflection • Curiosity’s drawing from Clues & Questions

• Concepts-of-print book: Meet My Family (class set)
• Cool Kid certificate and marker
• Home Link animal stamp: cow

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Greetings, Readings,
Day 9 & Writings

Child Routines Teacher Routines

1. Remove coats and backpacks. 1. Greet parents and children.

2. Sign in. 2. Remind children to read the Arrival
3. Self-select labs or other activities. Activities poster as they prepare for
their day.
3. Guide children, as needed, to select
a Learning Lab to explore. Introduce
newly added labs as appropriate.
4. Encourage children to describe what
they are doing in full sentences as you
observe their activities.
5. Observe for children’s developing
oral language and social skills as
guided by the unit record form for the
current unit.

Available Activities

Classroom Library Lab: Enjoy a Story

• Same as day 1

Letter Lab: “H” Dough Shapes

• Same as day 7

Math Lab: Finding Shapes

• Add construction paper rectangles to the lab. Have children choose a shape and
find objects in the room that are the same shape as the one they chose.

Computer/Media Lab: Exploring with Technology

• Same as day 1

Writing Lab: You’re Invited

• Provide materials for children to make party invitations. Demonstrate how to fold
paper to make a card and write invitation information.

Art Lab: People in My Family

• Same as day 3

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Science Lab: Invisible Message

• Same as day 6

Puzzles & Games Lab: Free Exploration

• Same as day 6
• Add post office and/or safety puzzles and street signs to the lab. Invite children to
talk about the role of the mail carrier and the meanings of the street signs.

Give five- and three-minute warnings near the end of Greetings, Readings, & Writings.
TRANSITION Encourage children to join you in singing the tidy-up song as they put away the lab
supplies and then move to the gathering area.

✿ Gathering Circle

Welcome Activities

Welcome
• Welcome children to the circle. Award paw points if everyone arrived in an orderly
and effective manner.

Attendance
• Use the sign-in sheet to quickly check attendance.

Partners
• Invite children to sit with their partners. Use the partnership chart to review
assignments as necessary.

Home Link Debrief

• Invite children to share what they remember from last night’s Home Link show.
In “Hand Talk” people communicate using their hands. T-P-S: Can you
communicate something to me using your hands? A wave, thumbs up,
OK sign, etc.
• Use the sharing sticks to select two or three children to share their responses with
the whole class. Award paw points in recognition of thoughtful answers.
• Remind children to ask a family member to complete the Read & Respond
bookmark each day.

Classroom Jobs
• Use the job chart to remind children about their jobs for the week.

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Calendar
• Have children count together with you as you touch the dates on the calendar up to
yesterday’s date. Then challenge children to determine the shape and color of the
calendar cutout that will be used today. Invite children to say the day and date with
you in unison.

Weather
Invite the weather watcher to indicate the current weather conditions on the
weather chart.

Cool Kid
Announce today’s Cool Kid. Remind children that the Cool Kid will be working on
all the things that make our classroom a wonderful place to be, such as using active
listening when someone is speaking, sharing, and taking turns. Use the Cool Kid
stamp to mark his or her hand for easy identification.

Invite children to stand in preparation for the Move It! activity.

TRANSITION

Move It!
• Invite children to sit in a circle. Explain to them how to play the game Beanbag
Pass: Feelings.
I will start the game of Beanbag Pass by saying a feelings word, and then
I’ll pass the beanbag to the next person in the circle. That person will
say a feelings word and pass the beanbag on to the next child.
• Say the word “Excited!” and pass the beanbag to the child next to you. Play until all
children have had a turn to pass the beanbag.
• You may choose to play another round, altering the direction of the beanbag.

TRANSITION
Lead children as they recite “Cat in a Box” to entice Curiosity to come out of
her house.
Theme-related
word(s):
write*
e-mail
computer
Clues & Questions
Basic word(s):
picture Curiosity’s Clues
envelope
• Have Curiosity join the group, waving a drawing in her paw.
mail
Teacher: Curiosity, you seem very excited today. What do you have
letter
with you?
message

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Curiosity: Well, yesterday when I called my grandpa on the phone and

told him that I miss him, he asked me to tell him something we can do
together the next time he comes to visit. So I made this picture that
shows me playing with him. There’s just one problem. I don’t know how
he will see my picture.
• Bring out The Post Office Book, and tell Curiosity that you may be able to find the
answer to her problem in this book. Show various pages of the book that show the
way a letter gets from a sender to a recipient.
Pages 8 and 9: Show the people taking their letters to the post office or to a mailbox
when they want to send a letter to someone who lives far away.
Pages 12 and 13: Show the truck transporting the mail.
Pages 22 and 23: Show the various ways that letters travel.
Pages 26 and 27: Show letters being delivered to recipients.
• Invite children to help Curiosity figure out how her grandpa can see her picture.
Let’s see if children can help you, Curiosity. T-P-S: What can Curiosity do
with her picture so her grandpa can see it?
• Ask children to describe the route Curiosity’s picture will take if she sends it to her
grandfather in the mail. Use the pictures in the book to help if needed.

Learning with Curiosity

• Make a connection between writing to share ideas and the concepts-of-print book.
When Curiosity wanted to tell her grandpa something, she made a
picture on paper. Sally Francis Anderson, the author of the book Meet
My Family, wanted to tell people her ideas about a family, so she wrote
this book.
• Reread Meet My Family.
Let’s read the book together again.
• Play the “Kids Talk About Mail” video.

Wonderful Word
• Show the Wonderful Word picture card for “write.”
Our Wonderful Word today is “write.” When we write, we make marks,
pictures, or letters on paper that tell our ideas.
• Play the digital dictionary video for “write.”
• Remind children that they can earn paw points when they use or hear the word
“write” today.
• Post the Wonderful Word picture card where children will be able to refer to it
throughout the day.

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Daily Message
• Write the Daily Message in front of children, reading each word as you finish
writing it. Then read the message again, touching each word as you read it.
We can write to communicate.
• Point out that the Daily Message is a way of writing something that we will
learn today.
Our Daily Message is writing that tells what we will learn in
school today.

Letter Links
• Have Curiosity show the letter card for “h.”
• Invite children to help you identify the letter in the Daily Message. Reread the
message, running your finger underneath each word as you read it. Children should
raise their hands when your finger is underneath the letter of the week and put their
hands down again when it’s not. Circle any letters that they found in the message.
We’re going to use our letter goggles to see if we can find the letter of
the week in our message. I will move my finger beneath each word as
I read it. Raise your hand if my finger is underneath the letter of the
week. Be sure to put your hand down once my finger moves! Ready? Put
on your goggles now.
Was the letter in our message today? No. We’ll have to look for it in our
classroom or in the school today.
• Reinforce the sound and shape of the letter “h” by showing the “Letter H Holiday”
video.

Ask children to stand up as they sing “It’s Time for a Rhyme” to signal the transition to
TRANSITION Rhyme Time.

Rhyme Time

Say the Rhyme

• Have children recite “Grandpa’s Glasses” along with children in the video.
Encourage children to do the physical motions that accompany the rhyme.

Develop Phonological Awareness—Rhyme Recognition

• Invite children to recall the rhyming words from the poem.
Which word rhymes with “hat”? “That.” Hat, that. They both have /at/ at
the end.

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• Lead the Picture Match game. Show the picture cards. Point to and name each
picture in the set.

bat door dog

WGR: Which word rhymes with “hat” and “that”: “bat,” “door,” or “dog”?
“Bat.”
• Use My Turn, Your Turn to have children say “bat,” “hat,” and “that.” Encourage
them to think about how their mouths feel the same as they say the end of
each word.

Invite children to join you in front of the play-planning board.

TRANSITION

Plan & Play

Scenario Review
• Review the scenarios for the unit as needed. Include any new scenarios that may
have emerged as a part of yesterday’s play. Remind children where each scenario
can take place in the classroom. Introduce any props that you have added to the
area. Invite children to think about what kinds of things might happen in each
scenario today.

Scenario Selection
• Review which scenario is represented by each of the cards on the
play-planning board.
• Use the sharing sticks to randomly select children to choose the scenario they’d
like to play in. Once each child selects a scenario, place the appropriate colored
clip on his or her clothing, and send him or her to the table(s) for planning.

Plan
• Invite children to write about what they will do in the pretend scenario today.
Accept all forms of writing (scribbling, drawing lines, attempts at letter formation,
pictures, etc.). Encourage children to tell you what they have written.

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Play
• Observe children as they participate in each play scenario. Join in the play to
encourage conversation, prop use, and role-playing and to model the use of writing
in the context of the scenario.

Coaching
• Encourage children to become engaged in the new scenarios by joining in the play.
Acknowledge any props they have made.

Small-Group Instruction
• During the last ten minutes, pull five or six children aside for this week’s
small-group activity.

Provide five- and three-minute warnings before the end of Plan & Play. Then sing the
TRANSITION clean-up song to prompt children to put away any props and move to the STaR area.

Once children have arrived at the STaR area, lead them in reciting and doing the
motions to “Two Little Hands.”

STaR
Story Retell
STaR word(s):
blew
A Letter to Amy
Author and illustrator: Ezra Jack Keats

Review
• Display the front cover of the book, and review the title and name of the
author/illustrator.
We read this story yesterday. Let’s see if we can remember the name of
the story. The title of this story is A Letter to Amy. Ezra Jack Keats is
the author and illustrator of this book.
• Review the story vocabulary that was introduced yesterday.
When Peter took his letter to the mailbox, the wind blew it out of
his hand. T-P-S: What happened to the letter when it blew out of
Peter’s hand?
T-P-S: When Peter blew the candles out on his cake, how did he do that?
The word “blew” has two different meanings in this story. When the
letter blew out of Peter’s hand, the wind caused that to happen. When
Peter blew out the candles on his cake, he forced air out of his mouth.

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Story Retell
• Hold up the story A Letter to Amy, and tell children that they will use pictures from
the book to help you retell the story.
Yesterday we read the story A Letter to Amy. Today you will help me
tell the story with pictures that show what happens in different parts of
the book.
• Place children in five groups. Distribute the story picture cards, one per group.
Invite children to talk in their groups about what’s happening in their group’s
picture. Tell them that you will read the story again, and when you read the part
that tells about their picture, they will hold it up for everyone to see.
Look at the picture on your card. Talk with your friends about the
picture. What’s happening in the picture?
When I read the story, look at your card. When you hear the part of the
story that your card shows, hold it up so everyone can see it.
• Read the story. Pause when you come to the part of the story depicted in each
picture so the group with the corresponding illustration can show it to the class and
place it in the designated area. As each card is identified, have a child place it to the
right of the previous card so the picture cards are in the correct order.
• After rereading the story, review the picture cards, verifying the story sequence.
Let’s look at the cards that we’ve lined up to see if we can use them to
tell the story without the book.

Lead children in reciting “When I’m Doing Math.”

TRANSITION

Math word(s):
Math Moments
triangle
Count with Curiosity
• Play the “Count with Curiosity: 1–12” video. Invite children to count to 12
with Curiosity.

Active Instruction
• Point out the triangle shape that you previously taped on the floor.
Look what we have here…it’s a triangle! Invite three children to lie on the
lines of the triangle on the floor, forming a triangle with their bodies. A triangle
has three sides. Repeat this activity with other children in the group.

Partner Practice
• Have partners go on a shape hunt for triangles around the room.
• Bring children together to share the triangles they found.

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• Reinforce the concept of triangular shapes by showing the “Worms in Space:

Shapes” video.

Have children play this week’s brain game, Hot Potato Memory. Remind children that
TRANSITION Hot Potato Memory is a game that will help them to remember things better.

Question/Reflection

Learning-Focus Review
• Review the day’s learning focus.
Let’s think about what we’ve learned today. Writing our ideas is a way
to communicate.

Wonderful Word
• Review the Wonderful Word.
Our Wonderful Word today is “write.” Remember that we write words
on paper as a way to tell other people our ideas. T-P-S: When did we
write today?
• Use the sharing sticks to select children to share their responses. Award paw points
for reasonable responses.

Theme Learning Extension

• Have Curiosity join the group with her drawing.
Teacher: Curiosity, I thought you were going to mail that picture to your
grandpa. What happened?
Curiosity: Well, I went to the post office, and it was closed, so I couldn’t
send it. T-P-S: Do you have any ideas about another way I can show my
grandpa my drawing?
• Use the sharing sticks to select several children to share their ideas.
• Tell Curiosity there is a way to show her grandpa the picture without putting it in
the mail or taking it to the post office. She can send it in an e-mail using a computer.
Teacher: Curiosity, you can still send your picture to your grandpa
without putting it in the mailbox. You can use the computer to send it.
Curiosity: Really? How?
Teacher: You can scan it and send it in an e-mail.

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Cool Kid Recognition

• Invite the Cool Kid to come to the front of the circle. Have Curiosity, a marker, and
the Cool Kid certificate ready. Have Curiosity model giving a compliment to the
Cool Kid based on something that happened during the day. Use this opportunity to
model different types of compliments than what the children typically give.
Now it’s time to give compliments to the Cool Kid! Remember that a
compliment is something you say that is nice or encouraging. Take a
minute to think of a compliment for the Cool Kid. Did anyone notice
anything positive, friendly, or helpful that the Cool Kid did today?
Curiosity would like to give the first compliment.
• Write a few compliments on the Cool Kid certificate. Present the certificate to the
child, and encourage him or her to take it home to show family.

Paw Points
• Remind children about why they have earned paw points.
We earned paw points today for using or noticing the Wonderful Word
and also for talking with our partners, sharing materials, and working
well together. Let’s count the paw points that we earned today!
• Transfer the paw point chips from Curiosity’s water bowl to the celebration jar.
Count each chip as you place it into the jar.
• If the chips reach the line on the celebration jar, invite children to sing and dance to
the “Curiosity Shuffle.”

Home Link/Departure
• Make any announcements, or give reminders (upcoming field trips, picture day, etc.).
• Remind children to complete their Read & Respond bookmark and watch tonight’s
Home Link episode online to share what they learned today with their family
members. They will find today’s episode when they click on the cow.
• Use the cow stamp to place an animal image on each child’s hand. (optional)
• Have children join hands to form a circle. Sing the “I’ll Miss You” song.

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Day 10 | Ready, Set

Focus
Family members can communicate ideas and feelings with their bodies.

Additional Materials Needed Today

Greetings, Readings, • Classroom Library Lab: A Letter to Amy

& Writings • Math Lab: Construction paper triangles

Gathering Circle • Calendar cutout for today’s date

Move It! • No additional materials needed

Clues & Questions • CC Activity Card: Wonderful Word picture card for
“expression”
• CC Activity Card: Letter card for “Hh”

Rhyme Time • No additional materials needed

Plan & Play • No additional materials needed

STaR • Trade book: The Post Office Book by Gail Gibbons or other
storybook for free choice
• Leaf for the story tree

Math Moments • Baggies with craft sticks, yarn, and paper shapes, one per
partnership

Question/Reflection • Cool Kid certificate and marker

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Greetings, Readings,
Day 10 & Writings

Child Routines Teacher Routines

1. Remove coats and backpacks. 1. Greet parents and children.

2. Sign in. 2. Remind children to read the Arrival
3. Self-select labs or other activities. Activities poster as they prepare for
their day.
3. Guide children, as needed, to select
a Learning Lab to explore. Introduce
newly added labs as appropriate.
4. Encourage children to describe what
they are doing in full sentences as you
observe their activities.
5. Observe for children’s developing
oral language and social skills as
guided by the unit record form for the
current unit.

Available Activities

Classroom Library Lab: Enjoy a Story

• Point out the STaR story A Letter to Amy that you have added to the lab. Encourage
children to tell the story using the STaR story retell picture cards.

Letter Lab: “H” Dough Shapes

• Same as day 7

Math Lab: Finding Shapes

• Point out the construction paper triangles. Have children choose a shape and find
objects in the classroom that are the same shape as the one they chose.

Computer/Media Lab: Exploring with Technology

• Same as day 1

Writing Lab: You’re Invited

• Same as day 9

Art Lab: People in My Family

• Same as day 3

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Science Lab: Invisible Message

• Same as day 6

Puzzles & Games Lab: Free Exploration

• Same as day 9

Give five- and three-minute warnings near the end of Greetings, Readings, & Writings.
TRANSITION Encourage children to join you in singing the tidy-up song as they put away the lab
supplies and then move to the gathering area.

✿ Gathering Circle

Welcome Activities

Welcome
• Welcome children to the circle. Award paw points if everyone arrived in an orderly
and effective manner.

Attendance
• Use the sign-in sheet to quickly check attendance.

Partners
• Invite children to sit with their partners. Use the partnership chart to review
assignments as necessary.

Home Link Debrief

• Invite children to share what they remember from last night’s Home Link show.
How did you move your body during “The Gooney Bird” song?
• Use the sharing sticks to select two or three children to share their responses with
the whole class. Award paw points in recognition of thoughtful answers.
• Remind children to ask a family member to complete the Read & Respond
bookmark each day.

Classroom Jobs
• Use the job chart to remind children about their jobs for the week.

Calendar
• Have children count together with you as you touch the dates on the calendar up to
yesterday’s date. Then challenge children to determine the shape and color of the
calendar cutout that will be used today. Invite children to say the day and date with
you in unison.

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Weather
• Invite the weather watcher to indicate the current weather conditions on the
weather chart.

Cool Kid
• Announce today’s Cool Kid. Remind children that the Cool Kid will be working on
all the things that make our classroom a wonderful place to be, such as using active
listening when someone is speaking, sharing, and taking turns. Use the Cool Kid
stamp to mark his or her hand for easy identification.

Invite children to stand in preparation for the Move It! activity.

TRANSITION

Move It!
• Introduce today’s Move It! activity, the Elmo Slide.
Today in Move It! we will dance with Elmo as he does the Elmo Slide.
Stand up, and get ready to slide!
• Invite children to stand in a circle. Play “The Elmo Slide” video. Encourage children
to dance along with Elmo.

Lead children as they recite “Cat in a Box” to entice Curiosity to come out of
TRANSITION her house.

Clues & Questions

Theme-related
word(s):
Curiosity’s Clues
expression* • Have Curiosity join the group.
sign language Teacher: Curiosity, you usually bring something with you that gives us a
clue about what we will learn. I don’t see a clue today.
Curiosity: Oh, but I do have a clue. I will use my body to give clues today.
Have Curiosity wave her paw at you and the children.
Teacher: I think Curiosity is telling us something with her body.
T-P-S: What do you think she is saying? Hello.
Teacher: Do you have another clue, Curiosity?
Curiosity: Yes, I do.

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Have Curiosity give you a hug. T-P-S: What is Curiosity doing and telling me?
Curiosity gave me a hug. T-P-S: What was she telling me when she hugged
me? She’s letting me know that she loves me.
I think Curiosity is telling us that we will learn about using our bodies to
communicate without using any words.

Learning with Curiosity

• Invite children to use their bodies and facial expressions to communicate.
I’ll bet you know how to communicate without using words. Let’s show
Curiosity some ways to tell people things without using words.
Suggestions:
Show me what you can do to tell someone goodbye. (Wave.)
Show me what you can do to show someone that you are happy to see
him or her. (Smile.)
Show me how you would let someone know that you are angry with him
or her. (Frown and cross your arms.)
Show me how you would tell someone, without words, that you feel sad.
(Make a sad face, slump shoulders, etc.)
• Introduce and play the video “Hand Talk.”
We can communicate with our hands. Watch to see how the people in the
video use their hands to communicate.

Wonderful Word
• Show the Wonderful Word picture card for “expression.”
Our Wonderful Word today is “expression.” An expression is a look we
give that lets people know how we feel. When we showed Curiosity our
feelings without using words, those were expressions that showed how
we feel.
• Play the digital dictionary video for “expression.”
• Remind children that they can earn paw points when they use or hear the word
“expression” today.
• Post the Wonderful Word picture card where children will be able to refer to it
throughout the day.

Daily Message
• Write the Daily Message in front of children, reading each word as you finish
writing it. Then read the message again, touching each word as you read it.
We can tell people how we feel by the expressions on our faces.
• Point out the length of the Daily Message, and count the words.
This is a long message. Let’s count the words in the message.

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Letter Links
• Have Curiosity show the letter card for “h.”
• Invite children to help you identify the letter in the Daily Message. Reread the
message, running your finger underneath each word as you read it. Children should
raise their hands when your finger is underneath the letter of the week and put their
hands down again when it’s not. Circle any letters that they found in the message.
We’re going to use our letter goggles to see if we can find the letter of
the week in our message. I will move my finger beneath each word as
I read it. Raise your hand if my finger is underneath the letter of the
week. Be sure to put your hand down once my finger moves! Ready? Put
on your goggles now.
Was the letter in our message today? Yes. Circle each instance of the letter in
the message.
• Reinforce the sound and shape of the letter “h” by showing the “Soul Letter H Song”
video.

Ask children to stand up as they sing “It’s Time for a Rhyme” to signal the transition to
TRANSITION Rhyme Time.

Rhyme Time

Say the Rhyme

• Have children recite “Grandpa’s Glasses” along with children in the video.
Encourage children to do the physical motions that accompany the rhyme.

Develop Phonological Awareness—Word Manipulation

• Bring Curiosity out. Introduce the Nonsense Game, in which you switch
word order.
Today we will play a game with Curiosity called the Nonsense Game.
Curiosity will say a line from our poem, and you will tell her whether
she said it correctly. If it’s correct, say, “That’s right!” If not, say, “That’s
nonsense!” Are you ready, Curiosity?
• Invite children to close their eyes so they can listen carefully while Curiosity recites
“Grandpa’s Glasses.” Have Curiosity repeat the rhyme as if it were correct, but
switch the words “folds” and “hands” so the line reads, “This is the way he hands
his folds.”
Curiosity: Listen while I say the rhyme.
Here are Grandpa’s glasses.
Here is Grandpa’s hat.

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DAY 10 | Unit 3: Family Matters

This is the way he hands his folds,

And sits like that.
That’s nonsense!
• Continue in this manner with the other lines of the poem, alternating between
switching words in various lines and saying lines correctly.
EXAMPLES

And that like sits.

Grandpa’s are here glasses.
• If children successfully identify the switched words, recite the rhyme again, making
additional switches. If children are able, invite them to think of words to switch in
the rhyme.
• Award paw points if children were able to successfully identify the switched words.

Invite children to join you in front of the play-planning board.

TRANSITION

Plan & Play

Scenario Review
• Review the scenarios for the unit as needed. Include any new scenarios that may
have emerged as a part of yesterday’s play. Remind children where each scenario
can take place in the classroom. Introduce any props that you have added to the
area. Invite children to think about what kinds of things might happen in each
scenario today.

Scenario Selection
• Review which scenario is represented by each of the cards on the
play-planning board.
• Use the sharing sticks to randomly select children to choose the scenario they’d
like to play in. Once each child selects a scenario, place the appropriate colored
clip on his or her clothing, and send him or her to the table(s) for planning.

Plan
• Invite children to write about what they will do in the pretend scenario today.
Accept all forms of writing (scribbling, drawing lines, attempts at letter formation,
pictures, etc.). Encourage children to tell you what they have written.

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Play
• Observe children as they participate in each play scenario. Join in the play to
encourage conversation, prop use, and role-playing and to model the use of writing
in the context of the scenario.

Coaching
• Encourage children to become engaged in the new scenarios by joining in the play.
Acknowledge any props they have made.

Small-Group Instruction
• During the last ten minutes, pull five or six children aside for this week’s
small-group activity.

Provide five- and three-minute warnings before the end of Plan & Play. Then sing a
TRANSITION clean-up song to prompt children to put away any props and move to the STaR area.

Once children have arrived at the STaR area, lead them in reciting and doing the
motions to “Two Little Hands.”

STaR
Free Choice

• Reread a favorite STaR book or another book that you would like to share. We
would like to recommend The Post Office Book by Gail Gibbons.
• Ask children what they think the story will be about based on the cover illustration
and the title. After reading the story, use Think-Pair-Share to have children tell
something they remember from the book about mailing a letter or package.
• Write the title of the story that you read on a leaf, and add it to the story tree.

Lead children in reciting “When I’m Doing Math.”

TRANSITION

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Math Moments

Count with Curiosity

• Play the “Count with Curiosity: 1–12” video. Invite children to count to 12
with Curiosity.

Active Instruction
• Bring Curiosity and her bag, which contains craft sticks, a piece of yarn
(approximately 12 inches long), and a circle, rectangle, triangle, and square to
the group.
Curiosity has something for us to do today. Let’s see what it is! Take the
craft sticks, yarn, and shapes out of the bag. Have Curiosity pretend to whisper
in your ear. Curiosity says she wants us to see if we can use these craft
sticks and yarn to make shapes.
T-P-S: What shapes have we learned about this week? Circle, square,
rectangle, and triangle. How do you think we can use these sticks, string,
and pieces of paper to make shapes?
• Model how to make one of the shapes using a piece of paper as a pattern and either
the string or the sticks.

Partner Practice
• Distribute a bag of materials to each partnership. Have children work with partners
to form shapes using the craft sticks.
Talk with your partner to decide which shape you will make. Then you
will use the string or sticks in your bag to make some shapes. If you like,
you may use the paper shape to help you remember the shape as I did.
• Use the sharing sticks to select children to share how they made one of the shapes.
Award paw points for accurate shape representations and descriptions.
• Reinforce the concept of shapes by showing the “Shape Makers: Kids Form a
Rectangle” video.

Have children play this week’s brain game, Hot Potato Memory. Remind children that
TRANSITION Hot Potato Memory is a game that will help them to remember things better.

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 DAY 10 | Unit 3: Family Matters

Question/Reflection

Learning-Focus Review
• Review the day’s learning focus.
Let’s think about what we’ve learned today. We can show people how we
feel without talking.

Wonderful Word
• Review the Wonderful Word.
Our Wonderful Word today is “expression.” Remember that an
expression is a look we give that tells people how we feel. T-P-S: When
did we hear the word “expression” today?
• Use the sharing sticks to select children to share their responses. Award paw points
for reasonable responses.

Theme Learning Extension

• Invite children to play the game, Read My Expression. You may use the following
suggestions or choose other nonverbal expressions with which your children are
more familiar.
Today we learned that we can tell people how we feel without using
words. Let’s play a game called Read My Expression. I will use my body
to tell you a feeling or idea, and you will guess what that feeling or
idea is.
SUGGESTIONS

Teacher Possible responses

Wave. Hello, goodbye.
Smile. I like you; I’m happy to see you.
Shrug shoulders while I don’t know.
holding palms up.
Yawn. I’m sleepy.
Rub your eyes. I’m sleepy.

• Review the sound and shape of the letter “h.”

When we listen to the word “home,” we hear the sound /h/ at
the beginning.
• Encourage children to find things in the classroom that begin with the /h/ sound.
(This may include some of their names.)
Before we go home, let’s look around the classroom to see if we can find
anything that begins with the /h/ sound.

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DAY 10 | Unit 3: Family Matters

• Allow children to walk around the room and look for objects that begin with /h/. If
they find one, they should stop in front of the object and raise their hands.

Cool Kid Recognition

• Invite the Cool Kid to come to the front of the circle. Have Curiosity, a marker, and
the Cool Kid certificate ready. Have Curiosity model giving a compliment to the
Cool Kid based on something that happened during the day. Use this opportunity to
model different types of compliments than what the children typically give.
Now it’s time to give compliments to the Cool Kid! Remember that a
compliment is something you say that is nice or encouraging. Take a
minute to think of a compliment for the Cool Kid. Did anyone notice
anything positive, friendly, or helpful that the Cool Kid did today?
Curiosity would like to give the first compliment.
• Write a few compliments on the Cool Kid certificate. Present the certificate to the
child, and encourage him or her to take it home to show family.

Paw Points
• Remind children about why they have earned paw points.
We earned paw points today for using or noticing the Wonderful Word
and also for talking with our partners, sharing materials, and working
well together. Let’s count the paw points that we earned today!
• Transfer the paw point chips from Curiosity’s water bowl to the celebration jar.
Count each chip as you place it into the jar.
• If the chips reach the line on the celebration jar, invite children to sing and dance to
the “Curiosity Shuffle.”

Home Link/Departure
• Make any announcements, or give reminders (upcoming field trips, picture day, etc.).
• Give a copy of the concepts-of-print book This Is My Family to each child. Explain
to children that the book is now theirs to keep. Encourage them to read the book to
a family member.
• Remind children to complete their Read & Respond bookmark today with a
family member.
• Have children join hands to form a circle. Sing the “I’ll Miss You” song.

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 APPENDIX | Unit 3: Family Matters

Appendix
Curiosity Corner Unit Record Form. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141

Learning Labs Facilitation Guide . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 142

Snack Time! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 145

Activity Suggestions for Outside/Gross-Motor Play . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 146

Blackline Masters
• Bus Sheet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 149
• Bear Houses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 150
• Number Cards . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 151
• The Match Game . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 152
• Play Ball . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 154
Theme Introduction Letter (English version) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 155

Theme Introduction Letter (Spanish version) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 156

Curiosity Corner 2nd Edition Theme Guide 139

 APPENDIX | Unit 3: Family Matters

Cur os tyCo ner Unit Record Form

Unit 3: Family Matters Teacher: _______________________ Class Age: __________ Date: ________________

Oral Read & GAT Behaviors** GAT Behaviors

Expressive Vocabulary Expression* Respond (N, P, I) Individual Focus
Total Uses Stay
Expectations: Use 5 words expressively. Expressive Receptive Gives “I” Cool steps
Mark words that each student is heard Words Words # Nights Messages to when excited
Students using sometime during the unit. (0–5) (Optional) (N,E,T,S,A) (0–10) share feelings or angry
care circle computer family groups
help house neighbor size write

care circle computer family groups

help house neighbor size write

care circle computer family groups

help house neighbor size write

care circle computer family groups

help house neighbor size write

care circle computer family groups

help house neighbor size write

care circle computer family groups

help house neighbor size write

care circle computer family groups

help house neighbor size write

care circle computer family groups

help house neighbor size write

care circle computer family groups

help house neighbor size write

care circle computer family groups

help house neighbor size write

care circle computer family groups

help house neighbor size write

care circle computer family groups

help house neighbor size write

care circle computer family groups

help house neighbor size write

care circle computer family groups

help house neighbor size write

care circle computer family groups

help house neighbor size write

care circle computer family groups

help house neighbor size write

care circle computer family groups

help house neighbor size write

care circle computer family groups

help house neighbor size write

care circle computer family groups

help house neighbor size write

care circle computer family groups

help house neighbor size write

care circle computer family groups

help house neighbor size write

care circle computer family groups

help house neighbor size write

care circle computer family groups

help house neighbor size write

care circle computer family groups

help house neighbor size write

care circle computer family groups

help house neighbor size write

* Use these abbreviations for oral-language development stages: N = nonverbal; E = emergent speech (single words);
T = telegraphic sentences; S = simple sentences; A = advanced sentences.
** Use the following abbreviations for GAT behaviors: N = not evident; P = evident with prompting; I= uses independently.

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APPENDIX | Unit 3: Family Matters

Learning Labs Facilitation Guide

Week 1

Enjoy a story
Children explore books related to families and other books in the classroom
Classroom Library Lab library.
What do you like best about this story? (The pictures, the characters, what
Engage all children:
happens in the story, etc.)
Where on the page will I find the words that I should read? Point to the word
Offer support:
that I should read first.
How do you think the illustrator made the illustrations in this book? Did he or
Challenge:
she take pictures with a camera, or draw and color or paint them?

Em Making Words
Children find words in the concept-of-print books and form them with plastic
Letter Lab letters or letters from the letter-blending cards.
Do you know the names of any of these letters in the word that you made?
Engage all children:
Tell me the letter names that you know.
Limit what the child is looking at by writing one word on a piece of paper or giving
Offer support:
the child a word card instead of having him or her look through books.
Model sounding out phonetic words, or point out a letter sound that the child can
see and hear. This word says /sss/… /aaa/… /t/. Sat. or This word says ‘make.’
Challenge:
It starts with the letter “m.” The letter “m” says /mmm/. I hear /mmm/ at the
beginning of /mmm/ake.

Em “F” is for Family

Children place letter “f” shapes under plain paper and then rub crayons on paper
Letter Lab to form an image of the letter.
What is the name of the letter? How could you describe the shape of the
Engage all children:
letter? Does it have straight lines or curved lines?
Offer support: This is the letter “f.” Can you find another letter “f” in our classroom?
“Family” begins with the /f/ sound. Can you think of some words that begin
Challenge:
with the /f/ sound?
Tip: The crayon rubbings will work best if children use crayons with the paper removed, held sideways
against the paper.

Bear Families
Children draw a number card (1–5) and then count out that many bears to place in
Math Lab each of the houses pictured on an activity sheet.
Encourage children to touch each bear as they count to help establish one-to-one
Engage all children:
correspondence.
Once children draw a number card, encourage them to take exactly one bear as
Offer support:
they say each number while counting aloud and placing them in a house.
Place one or two bears inside each of the houses before each child draws a
number card. Have each child explain how many more bears he or she will have to
Challenge:
add to or take away from each house to ensure that there are the correct number
of bears in each house.

Sending Greetings
Writing Lab Children write letters or make cards to send to family members.

Refer to the Steps for Encouraging the Emergent Writer to interact with each child at their writing level.

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Week 1, cont.

Creation Station
For My Family
People in My Family
Art Lab Children use a variety of materials to create a piece of art, including pictures they
make for their families, or drawings of family members.
Tell me about your picture. What materials did you use to make this? Who or
Engage all children:
what is in the picture? Who is the picture for?
Help the child name the colors used in the picture. Accept untraditional uses for
Offer support:
colors, for example, a blue sun.
If the child has used paint, ask them to describe color combinations that can be
Challenge: made such as making orange from combining yellow and red, or green from
combining yellow and blue.

Fingerprint Fun
Children make fingerprints and observe them with a magnifying glass.
Science Lab
Engage all children: Point out that some fingerprints have wavy lines and others have circles.
Describe the child’s fingerprint to the child. Have him or her repeat
Offer support:
descriptive words.
Invite a child to compare a print to two different classmate’s fingers and try to
Challenge:
guess which print comes from which classmate.
Tip: Instead of using ink pads to make the prints, rub a pencil on a child’s finger, and then cover it with clear
tape. Remove the tape and attach it to a white paper or index card. Then have the child wash his or her finger.

Week 2

Enjoy a story
Classroom Library Lab Children explore books related to families and other books in the classroom library.

What do you like best about this story (the pictures, the characters, what
Engage all children:
happens in the story, etc.)?
Where on the page will I find the words that I should read? Point to the word
Offer support:
that I should read first.
How do you think the illustrator made the illustrations in this book? Did he or
Challenge:
she take pictures with a camera, or draw and color, or paint them?

Em “H” Dough Shapes

Letter Lab Children use playdough to create the letter “h,” using letter cards as models.

Ask the children to look at the letter shape on the letter card and explain how
many snakes they will need to create the shape. Encourage them to use phrases
Engage all children:
such as “straight lines” and “curved lines” as they talk about how to form
the shapes.
Help individual children make snake shapes if necessary. Then work with them to
Offer support:
help them form the letters with the snakes.
Ask children to describe the difference between the lowercase and uppercase
Challenge:
forms of the letter.
Tip: You may need to teach the children to first create a ball by rolling a piece of playdough on a table their
palms. Then show them how to roll the ball back and forth to form a snake shape.

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Week 2, cont.

Finding Shapes
Children look around the classroom to find objects of various shapes that match
Math Lab paper shape models (circles, squares, rectangles, triangles).
Encourage children to describe the shape that they are matching. Ask children to
tell you how the object they found is like the paper shape they are holding. Model
Engage all children:
how to use a complete sentence to compare the object with the shape that they
are holding. The clock is a circle shape like the blue circle that you are holding.
As children find a shape that matches the one they have, encourage them to trace
Offer support:
the shape around the object if possible.
Challenge: Ask children to describe the numbers of corners and lines that each shape has.

Family Fun
You’re Invited
Writing Lab Children tell about things that they like to do with their families and/or create
invitations for an event.
Refer to the Steps for Encouraging the Emergent Writer to interact with each child at their writing level.

Invisible Messages
Children use lemon juice and cotton swabs to write messages or draw pictures.
After the messages have dried, an adult can hold them over a light bulb or other
Science Lab
heat source to reveal the message.
Talk with children about what they saw happen. Ask questions, such as:
After you wrote with the lemon juice, what happened?
Why do you think your writing disappeared?
What made the writing come back?
Engage all children:
Why do you think the light bulb made the writing show?
What happened after you moved the paper away from the light?
Do you think this is a good way to send a message to someone? Why do you
think that?
Tips: Be sure to discourage children from holding the papers over heat sources on their own.

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Snack Time!
General Nutritious Snack Ideas*
• Fresh fruit (oranges, pears, apples, grapes, mangos, bananas, strawberries,
blueberries, blackberries, kiwi)
• Fresh vegetables (carrots, broccoli, sugar snap peas, celery)
• Dried fruit (raisins, apricots, cranberries)
• Applesauce
• Low-fat dip or hummus for fresh fruits or veggies
• Canned fruit (packed in water if possible)
• Crackers, bagels, or rice cakes with peanut butter, cream cheese, or hummus
• Trail mix (cereal, pretzels, nuts)
• Whole-grain crackers and cheese
• String cheese
• Pudding (made with low-fat milk)
• Yogurt (alone or spread on graham crackers)
• Vegetable juice
• Cottage cheese with fruit
• Hard-boiled eggs

Theme-Related Snack Ideas

• Berry family bonanza: Serve strawberries, blueberries, and raspberries
mixed together.
• Blended families: Blend yogurt with pineapples, peaches, or other soft fruits.
• Families love: Use a heart-shaped cookie cutter to cut cheese into heart shapes,
and serve on crackers.
• Families stick together: Spread cream cheese on a cracker, and top with
another cracker.
• Families stay connected: Spread two round crackers with cream cheese, and press
them together. Poke six short pretzel sticks between the crackers.
*Always check for children’s allergies before serving any food.

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APPENDIX | Unit 3: Family Matters

Activity Suggestions for

Outside/Gross-Motor Play
Providing organized activities that help children develop gross-motor skills should be
balanced with unstructured free play. The following games and activities can also help
children to internalize the content presented in this unit.

The Family In the Dell

• One child will portray the mother or father. Have the other children form a circle
around this child. Invite children to hold hands and move to the left while singing.

The family in the dell,

The family in the dell,
Hi ho the derry-o,
The family in the dell.
The husband takes a wife,
The husband takes a wife,
Hi ho the derry-o,
The husband takes a wife.

• The child in the center chooses another child to accompany him or her into the
center and names that child as a family member. Continue to sing, substituting
family member titles for “husband” and “wife” in subsequent verses of the song.
Each new member, in turn, chooses the next family member.

Additional verses:
The wife takes a child
The child takes the cousin
The cousin takes the grandma
The grandma takes the sister

• Once all children have been selected to go into the circle, you can foster the
concept of opposite by adapting the song. If children are still interested, you can
continue by singing “The Family Out of the Dell.”

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 APPENDIX | Unit 3: Family Matters

Mother, May I?
• Pretend to be the mother initially. Have children line up side by side a few feet
back from the mother. Call one child at a time to use a specific movement to get
closer to the mother such as “Tammy may take three baby steps forward.” Tammy
asks, “Mother, may I?” The mother responds, “Yes” or “No.” If the mother says yes,
Tammy moves forward three baby steps. If the mother says no, Tammy remains
where she is.
• Continue to call different children to move forward with baby steps, bunny hops,
frog leaps, giant steps, etc. until all children have reached the mother. Once
children understand this game, play a variation of it by inviting a child to be the
leader, calling him or her by a different family member’s name such as grandfather,
sister, uncle, etc.

A Tisket, a Tasket
This game is played • Have children stand or sit in a circle and sing (or recite):
in a fashion similar to
Duck, Duck, Goose.
A tisket, a tasket,
A pink and purple basket.
I wrote a letter to my friend,
And put it in my basket.
I dropped it, I dropped it,
I dropped my little basket.
A little boy (girl) picked it up
And put it in his (her) pocket.

• Select one child to walk behind children in the circle and drop the basket (or
whatever you have decided will serve as the basket) behind a child. The child who
finds the basket picks it up, leaves the circle, and runs around the circle after the
letter writer, who returns to the open spot in the circle left by the finder. The finder
then becomes the mail carrier, and the game resumes.

Mail Delivery
You will need • Have children sit in a large circle with their legs apart or folded. One child has the
a playground ball ball. Pretending that the ball is a letter, he or she says, “I have a letter, and I’m
for this activity.
mailing it to (name of a child in circle).” The first child then rolls the ball to the
second child, who repeats the phrase and mails the ball to another child in the
circle. If the ground is too cold for sitting, invite children to kick or bounce the ball.

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Math Moments | Day 2 APPENDIX | Unit 3: Family Matters

Bus Sheet
Copy and cut out, one per partnership.

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APPENDIX | Unit 3: Family Matters Math Lab | Day 4

Bear Houses
Make four or five copies.

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Math Lab | Days 1–5 APPENDIX | Unit 3: Family Matters

Number Cards
Make one copy of this page and cut out the cards to create five sets of cards.

1 2 3 4 5
1 2 3 4 5
1 2 3 4 5
1 2 3 4 5

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APPENDIX | Unit 3: Family Matters Math Moments | Day 5

The Match Game

Copy one set per partnership. Cut apart and place one set of numbers and one
set of objects in a resealable plastic bag.

0
1
2
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Math Moments | Day 5 APPENDIX | Unit 3: Family Matters

The Match Game

Copy one set per partnership. Cut apart and place one set of numbers and one
set of objects in a resealable plastic bag.

3
4
5
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APPENDIX | Unit 3: Family Matters Clues & Questions | Day 9

Play Ball
Make one copy.

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Theme Introduction Letter APPENDIX | Unit 3: Family Matters

Dear Family,
Our next theme is Family Matters. You are an important part of building our classroom
community because families are the most important influence on children’s lives. This theme
will give children the opportunity to explore roles within families and to develop language
about families.

We will focus on:

• being part of a family,

• different kinds of families,

• the special name and role of each family member,

• extended family members, and

• the idea that friends can be like family.

Some of the activities designed to address these skills include:

• reading books about families, e.g., Jonathan and His Mommy;

• creating family pictures; and

• learning fingerplays, rhymes, and games about families.

How can you support your child’s classroom learning

and reinforce the skills at home?

• Look at family photos (if available) with your child.

This Is My Grandma
• Help count the number of people in your home.
This is my grandma, kind and dear.
(Hold up forefinger.)
• Read a book about families.
This is my aunt, sitting near.
• Prepare a favorite family snack. (Add middle finger.)

• Help your child learn the first name of This is my mother, smiling at me!
(Add ring finger.)
one grandparent.
This is my sister, climbing a tree.
• Talk about the responsibilities of each person in (Add pinkie finger.)
your family.
These are the females in my family tree.
(Wiggle all four fingers.)
• Let your child teach you “This Is My Grandma.”

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UNIT 3: FAMILY MATTERS

APPENDIX | Unit 3: Family Matters Theme Introduction Letter (Spanish)

Estimada familia,
El próximo tema es Family Matters. Usted una parte importante de la comunidad de la
escuela por la familia es lo más importante y influyente en la vida de un niño. Este tema
aprovecha la oportunidad para los niños a explorar los roles en la familia y el vocabulario
sobre la familia.

Enfocaremos en:

• ser parte de una familia,

• los varios tipos diferentes de las familias,

• la familia lejana y los parientes, y

• la idea que los amigos pueden ser como familia.

Varias actividades:

• leer libros y cuentos sobre las familias, e.g., Jonathan and His Mommy;

• hacer pinturas de la familia; y

• aprender ritmas y juegos sobre las familias.

¿Cómo puede suporta el aprendizaje de la escuela

y refuerza las destrezas en casa?
Esta es mi abuela
• Mirar a las fotos de la familia, si hay unas.
Esta es mi abuela, amable y querida
(Levanta el índice.)
• Ayudar en el cuento de los miembros de
la familia en la casa. este es mi tía, que está sentado cerca
(Agrega dedo medio.)
• Leer un libro sobre las familias. esta es mi madre, sonriéndome
(Agrega dedo amlar.)
• Preparar una comida favorita de la familia.
esta es mi hermana, que sube en un árbol
• Ayudar a su niño a aprender el nombre de (Agrega dedo meñique.)
un abuelo. estás son las mujeres en mi árbol
genealógico
• Hablar sobre las responsabilidades de cada (Menee todos los cuatro dedos.)
miembro de la familia.

• Permita que su niño le enseñe “This is my grandma.”

© 2013 Success for All Foundation

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