Unit 4:
Where We Live
Essential Question: Where do the people and animals around me live?
Focus Questions: Where do I live? Where do my family members live?
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 nature walk or trip to the SUPERMARKET (even if it's just around the block). While walking ASK QUESTIONS and talk about people you see and sounds you hear. Discuss colors, patterns, likes/ dislikes.
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: address, Brooklyn, city
Other words to consider: home, neighborhood, road, street
EXAGGERATE the target letters below and pair those sounds with the vocabulary words
(Focus Letters: A, B, C)
*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 (ie leaf on stem), colors, sizes, tastes, quantity.
*This is where you can use the items gathered during your supermarket trip or nature walk.
STEM House and Flashlight Activity: Using magformers, magtiles or blocks, create houses with your child and use a flashlight to explore shadows and colors. Focus on fine motor skills, following directions and imitations, as well as shapes, colors and parts of the house.
Shape Houses: Engage your child in a cutting activity where they will shapes and colors. While engaged in the activity, focus on counting (i.e. pieces, windows, doors, trees), identifying colors and shapes and sorting (i.e. by color, shape or size) No paint? No problem! Use one of the recipes on the Resources page.
Map Making in Pre-K: Assist your child to label items in their room, around the house, and neighborhood. Consider using actual pictures or shapes to create items to place on your child's "map". Using safety scissors, assist your child to cut pictures of items or draw guidelines to cut out shapes and adhere to paper. Once complete, assist your child to count items, label pictures or shapes and make comparisons to between the map and actual items depicted. Target fine motor skills, following directions, counting and item identification. (Alternative to scissors, assist your child to hold paper and tear using finger tips and wrist rotation).
Roads: Use the attachment as a template to create your own roads and set up the houses you created above around the "neighborhood". Don't use the ink in your printers, instead, try using cut up black construction paper, with small white or yellow pieces affixed to the black "road". Allow your child to explore the materials and shapes, place cars, trucks or other items on the road.
Build A City: Using painter's tape and legos, assist your child to create a city/ town of their own. Consider using blocks as ramps and highways, building skyscrapers, houses, parks and schools. Discuss the materials used, colors, shapes and sizes, who lives in a neighborhood and its components.
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 animals, where we and they live. 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!