Baby Unit Week 3

Essential Question: What are babies?

Focus Question: What can we learn about animal babies?

Story Time: Scroll down for the Books of the Week

Choose one book each day to focus on

Scroll down for the Books of the Week. Pause during the book reading to discuss what you see and ask your child to identify items either by labeling or pointing. Keep a list of what they were able to identify and share it with us!

After reading the books/watching the videos, go on a nature walk (even if it's just around the block) and talk about the animals you see. Talk about what you hear, whether it was a bird chirping or dog barking. Gather twigs, leaves, and blades of grass; talk about how animals use these materials to make cozy beds and homes for their babies Allow your child to explore what you've discovered and we'll be using some of these materials throughout the week

Literacy Activity:

Choose an activity to work on over a couple of days or choose one activity per day

Review of vocabulary words to target this week: baby, bottle, bib, cry, sleep, small

EXAGGERATE the target letters below and pair those sounds with the vocabulary words

(Focus Letters: B,C S)

*Feel free to add your own words, the key is consistency. KEEP LANGUAGE GOING ALL DAY*

CLICK HERE FOR NAME MATS

CLICK HERE FOR LETTER PRINTABLES

There are puzzles, tracing, painting, play-dough mats to choose from. The goal is to have your child engage with letters of the alphabet but also to be able to identify the letters in the vocabulary words. Experiment with what your child shows the most interest in. Target fine motor skills, following directions and communication. Allow your child to use glue, safety scissors, paint, markers, stickers, etc. For play-dough and paint recipes, click on this link below or check our "Resources" page.

NO PRINTER? NO PROBLEM! DRAW LETTERS FOR YOUR CHILD TO TRACE WITH THEIR FINGERS, MARKER, ETC

STEAM:

Science/ Technology/ Engineering/ Art/ Math/ Science

Choose an activity to work on over a couple of days or choose one activity per day

Examples of questions to ask:

What happens when ___? How do you think that works? How could you change that?

What does that remind you of? What would happen if ___? Tell me more.

*Remember to narrate play and ask questions; label objects, animals, parts of things (ie leaf on stem), colors, sizes, be creative!

*This is where you can use the items gathered during your nature/ neighborhood walk (ie branches, leaves, grass, dirt, flowers)

  1. Baby Bath: Create a sensory bin by adding child-safe soap, baby dolls and washcloths to water (or do this in the bathtub). Invite your child to give the babies a bath and consider why babies need help to wash or take a bath. Model using vocabulary words such as baby, infant, newborn, gentle and tiny as you interact with the children in this activity. *Practice: scooping/ pouring, turn taking, following directions and labeling. Target body parts and function of body parts.

  2. Play-dough Animals: Engage your child in cooking activity to make their own play-dough using baby powder! (CLICK HERE for the recipe)Provide images (on phone/ tablet) OR pictures of their favorite animals for your child to look at and reference. Use the names of the animal babies and animal sounds throughout the activity. Encourage your child to also create objects related to the animal babies such as food, homes, etc. *REMEMBER to target body parts, function of body parts, animal sounds and labels*

  3. Life Cycle: Provide pictures that model an animal life cycle. NARRATE THE PICTURES AND SEQUENCE. Invite your child to sequence the pictures. START WITH TWO PICTURES ONLY. Use language like: FIRST/ THEN (ie FIRST the egg, THEN the chick). Assist your child to sequence the pictures by labeling, pointing or moving pictures OR you can draw your own together! *Remember to narrate and label pictures throughout the activity*

  4. Egg Hatch Match: Supply paper or felt egg cutouts. Write numbers 1-5 on small parer cut out and ask your child to place that number of items onto egg. (check out the link below). You may also use plastic eggs from last week and have your child place items INTO the eggs.

CHALLENGE: Cut each egg into two parts to resemble a cracked egg. Write a numeral on one part of the egg and draw the corresponding number of dots on the other part. Scramble the parts and invite children to reassemble the eggs by matching the numerals and dot

  1. Move Like Your Animal: Invite children to move like the animal babies they are studying. Check out the link below for inspiration and information about movement and self regulation. BONUS: Check out "Videos of Week" for a classroom favorite!

*Remember to narrate, label and sequence. Ask questions, target turn taking and HAVE FUN!

1.Baby Bath Sensory Bin Sample

Books of the Week

Once finished with the book, go through it again and PAUSE video to get a better look at pictures; assist your child to identify pictures (focus on animal labels, body parts, animal sounds, verbs, colors, quantity).

Use this as an opportunity to talk about different types of animals and where they live (habitat). If you have any pets at home, assist your child to engage in play with the pet and explore its body parts, actions and sounds. Afterwards, you can engage your child in an art activity to draw their favorite animal and where it lives.

Over in the Meadow by Ezra Jack Keats

Baby Animals Book

Baby Farm Animals

Videos of the Week/ Music and Movement

When exploring these videos, use this as an opportunity to talk with your child about baby animals, what's the same and what's different?You can also tie in things we learned during the plant unit to talk about how animals eat plants (ie cows eat grass, birds eat seeds) and what they use to make their houses (ie birds make nests). See if your child can identify the many animals in the videos, make animal sounds and perform animal actions (you can have them point or label to animals).

I added a few classroom favorite songs, maybe have your child dance with the rattles they made last week!

The goal here is to HAVE FUN! Making noise is okay, it's all part of the learning process!

ZooBorns Baby Animals

Pink Fong Animal Action Dance Along

Baby Beluga

Baby Animal Song

A Classroom FAVORITE: Animal Action

Baby Animals Song & Dance Along