Unit 6:
Light Unit
Week 1
Essential Question: How and why do we use different kinds of light?
Focus Questions: What kinds of light are around us?
Outcomes: There are many types of lights in our homes and our cities.
Week 1
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, MASK UP and go on a trip to the park or neighborhood walk, even if it's just around the block! Invite your child to find various modes of transportation in their environment, i.e. bus, car, van, truck. While walking ASK QUESTIONS and talk about vehicles you see, and sounds you hear, ie. beep, honk, vroom, zoom. Discuss colors, patterns, quantity, and shapes. Discuss what types of vehicles you see, what is similar or different? What did you notice about the vehicles? Were they large/ small, clean/dirty? Did they have a lot of windows?Did you notice vehicles using turn signals or hazard lights, why use those lights?
Literacy Activity:
Choose an activity to work on over a couple of days or choose one activity per day
Vocabulary words to target this week: eyes, light, moon, sun, stars, traffic light
Other words to consider: flashlight, lightning, rainbow
EXAGGERATE the target letters below and pair those sounds with the vocabulary words
(Focus Letters: S, T)
*Feel free to add your own words, the key is consistency. KEEP LANGUAGE GOING ALL DAY*
CLICK HERE FOR LETTER PRINTABLES
*Explore the links above: there are puzzles, tracing, painting, and play-dough mats to choose from. The goal is to have your child engage with letters of the alphabet and 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 (i.e. wheel on car), colors, sizes, patterns, quantity.
*This is where you can use the items gathered during your park trip or neighborhood walk.
Counting Sun Spots: Let's target math and fine motor skills. Using clothespins, markers, paint and paper, have your child count the sun spots on the sun and match them to the corresponding numeral found on the clothespin sun rays. Assist your child to pick up and use pincer grasp to place corresponding cotton balls (clouds) on paper. Count out loud with your child using 1:1 correspondence. No paint, no problem! Refer to the "Resources" page for homemade paint recipes.
Counting Sun Rays: Time to practice cutting skills! Using paper and scissors, assist your child to feed paper into scissors while they snip to create sun rays. Count the sun rays with your child using 1:1 correspondence, and have them arrange the rays around the sun. No paint, no problem! Refer to the "Resources" page for homemade paint recipes.
Round Trip: After reading the book Round Trip by Ann Jonas, provide black and white paper for your child to use to create a picture about a trip or outing of their own. They can cut or rip the paper and use glue to assemble their art.
Starry Night Sensory Play: Present Van Gogh's "Starry Night" to your child; discuss colors and parts of the painting. Engage your child in a variety of sensory play where they may explore colors, shapes, and textures.
Jack Be Nimble Craft and Gross Motor Activity: While reciting the nursery rhyme, assist your child to craft and candlestick. Next, replace "Jack" with your child's name (i.e. Justin be nimble, Justin be quick, Justin jump over the candle stick). Have your child jump or step over the candle stick.
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 labels, body parts, sounds, shapes, verbs, colors, quantity).
Use this as an opportunity to talk about vehicles, where we see them in the neighborhood, how and when we use vehicles. Discuss colors, shapes, quantity, and patterns. Pause the books at any time to answer questions, ASK questions, and point out important information. At the end of the book, talk about it some more. Ask WH questions (ie WHAT did we just read?/ WHAT did you see?)
Interested in reading some more? Check this out: Joan Snow PreK Library
Videos of the Week/ Music and Movement
When exploring these videos, use this as an opportunity to talk with your child about parts of their bodies and the function of body parts (ie touch/ feel with hands/ feet), EMOTIONS and following directions and imitations.
I've included some videos that target daily living skills; review these videos and talk about your daily routines, allow your child to practice and remember to narrate and model.
It's important to engage with your child, narrate videos and PAUSE video if you need to. Have your child perform emotions and movements with their bodies. Write down any reactions or words and share with us!
The goal here is to HAVE FUN! Making mistake and having a do-over is OKAY, it's all part of the learning process!