March - May Literacy Events

Most recent listed first.

Thursday, May 31st

Language Experience:  

  • I put up a poster of some sea animals and of course the children spotted it right away so we talked about what it showed.  It broke down sea animals to be three types:  mammals, fish, and invertebrates.  We talked about the differences and then I asked each child during attendance to tell me one that's a ________(mammal, fish or invertebrate).

Read Aloud Stories:  

  • The children seem most interested in whales, so I brought out lots of whale books and read one called Whale Watching.  I also read the story Waves in the Bathtub.

Shared Reading

  • Predictable Books:  Who Lives in the Sea?  we looked more closely at the photographs and the repetitive words

Songs:  

  • Baby Beluga
  • Slippery Fish
  • Rubber Blubber Whale (by Charlotte Diamond)

Journal: 

  • I put up some posters of 4 kinds of whales and we discussed some facts that I knew about them.  Today we drew a beluga whale in our journals.

Other Activities that Involve Literacy:  

  • We made math stories today using some manipulatives.  In a large group, each child got a story board and 7 small bears.  We told take away stories and addition stories.  I told the first few and then I asked other children to make them up for us.

     

Wednesday, May 30th

The classes went to see Charlotte Diamond perform at the Children's Festival today.  What a blast!  And she even sang quite a few of the songs we learned in class.

 

Tuesday, May 29th

Language Experience: 

  • We began the day with a brainstorm on chart paper of all the sea animals we know. 

Read Aloud Stories: 

  •  Journey Through the Ocean 
  • Somewhere in the Ocean (a story sung to the tune of Over in the Meadow)

Shared Reading

  • Predictable Books:  Who Lives In the Sea?  a book from our Bookshop program.  We looked at each individual word in the title to see if we could sound it out to try and read it.  I started reading the story on my own until the children figured out the simple pattern and joined in.  We read it a second time together.

  • Songs:  We used the book to help us sing Baby Beluga.  I also taught them the song Slippery Fish from chart paper (and with Charlotte Diamonds CD).

Writing Activity:  

The children wrote in their calendar books doing their month of May.  After the finished their fish craft from yesterday.

Monday, May 28th  ELI day

(the sub read The Rainbow Fish and did a rainbow fish craft)  WE ARE STARTING AN OCEAN THEME AS OF TODAY!  

Friday, May 25th

An author was in to visit the Gr.1-3 classes today to do a Story Presentation.

Storytime:  

The children gathered together after finishing their books to tell the story a couple times.  After we practiced, the children got to take them home to tell their families.

Thursday, May 24th

Read Aloud Stories:  

  • There Was An Old Lady
  • Sunflower House (the children were telling me about how their sunflowers are growing at home) 

Shared Reading:

  • Retelling:  The children used some large pieces (characters and things from the story: i.e.. Leaf, moon, small caterpillar, apple, etc.) to help retell The Very Hungry Caterpillar.  As we told the story, the child with that piece would hold it up.
  • Predictable Books:  The children are reading A Week With Aunt Bea more independently now.  They read it together without the teacher and a couple children are able to read it on their own with little help from their friends.

Writing Activity:  

  • The children have been making their own Very Hungry Caterpillar books, some pages have illustrations and others we did fruit printing (for the fruits the caterpillar ate).  We ate samples of the fruit as we went along!  Small groups are pulled out during center time for this.

Literacy Activity:  

  • The children had pictures from the story all mixed up and had to sequence them and put them back together in the proper order.  The worked on this for a couple days.

 

Monday, May 21st,Tuesday, May 22nd , and Wednesday, May 23rd ELI days (the sub introduced the Story The Very Hungry Caterpillar and did various crafts and did retelling and sequencing of the story.  The children also began making their own The Very Hungry Caterpillar books).  She also introduced a new book for Shared Reading, A Week With Aunt Bea (from our Bookshop program)

 

Thursday, May 17th

Read Aloud Stories:  

  • Tale Of A Tadpole

  • Butterflies

  • Jump Frog Jump

Songs:  

  • Little Green Frog (Raffi)

Writing Activity:  

  • Field trip books  drawing the animals we found/saw at the pond.
  • Butterfly Books - Day 17 painted lady butterfly

Language Experience:  

  • The children finished painting wings for their egg carton caterpillars.  We had made a large tree on a bulletin board to put them on (with leaves and flowers).  Today was also the day we let our butterflies go free!  What a memorable experience that was.

 

Wednesday, May 16

Read Aloud Stories:  

  • Noah's Ark by Tim and Jenny Wood.  The children tried to recall as much of the story as they could and then I read this story.  It had some different parts to it that yesterdays story.  We identified these as we read.

Songs:  

  • We listened to/sang Who Built the Ark by Raffi.

Field Trip:  

  • After a story, song and attendance, we were off to the Devonian Botanical Gardens for a pond study.  We spent lots of time there catching creatures in the pond.  It was great!  After, we studied more closely (using magnifying glasses) all the different pond life we found.  
  • While on the bus to and from the Gardens, I gave the children each a paper with different objects/animals to search for while we drive.  They tallied beside each picture as they saw them.  They got different things to search for on the way than on the way back.

 

Tuesday, May 15th

Read Aloud Stories:  

  • I Wish I Were A Butterfly by James Howe
  • Noah from the Children's Bible.

Shared Reading:  

  • The children retold the story The Very Hungry Caterpillar (from yesterday), and we put the pictures up on the pocket chart sequencing what happened from Sunday to Saturday.

Songs/Rhymes:  

  • Little Arabella Miller  we kept the beat as we sang it in different ways and then sang it in groups singing verses back and forth to each other.  We also repeated our other butterfly rhymes and songs we've learned.  We also listened to Who Built the Ark by Raffi.

Writing Activity:  

  • The children made books called Two by Two, drawing animals that Noah would have taken on the ark with him.  The children were encouraged to sound out the animal name and attempt to spell it in their books.

Art:  

The children have seen 5 butterflies emerge from their chrysalis already.  So we now want to turn our caterpillars on the tree into butterflies.  We talked about the color in our butterflies wings and looked at books of other butterflies, and noticed also the SYMMETRY in their wings.  The children were able to go to the Art table at center time to paint their butterfly wings today (and for the rest of the week).

Language Experience:  

We brainstormed all the animals that God made.  For Take Home Book the children were to tell their parents about Noah. 

Friday, May 4th

Read Aloud Stories: 

  • Chicken Sisters by Laura Numeroff

  • Mouse Paint by Ellen Stoll Walsh

Songs:

  •  Today was request day, so we sang the songs that the children wanted to. 

Writing Activity: 

  • We began a “caterpillar to butterfly” book to record how our caterpillars are growing and changing.

 

Thursday, May 3rd

Read Aloud Stories: 

  • The Tiny Seed by Eric Carle - our Mother's flowers we planted last week are growing like crazy so this story was very appropriate.  I told the children their flowers will grow bigger than them too if they take good care of them.

  • I'm A Caterpillar by Jean Marzollo - this story got us talking about the circle of life and how many of the animals we are learning about as well as people have life cycles.

Shared Reading: 

  • Predictable Books:  The children read the Color Chants book for me.  I also put posters up around the room with the same patterns from the book so that we can read them and write about them.
  • Songs: 
    • Apples and Bananas
    • Little White Duck - we followed the book to sing the song. 
    • We also learned a new fingerplay song about caterpillars:

(to the tune of Up On The Housetop)
First comes a caterpillar and lays an egg,
Out comes a caterpillar with many legs.
Oh, see the caterpillar spin and spin,
A little chrysalis to sleep in,
Oh, oh, oh,
Look and see,
Oh, oh, oh,
Look and see,
Out of the chrysalis my oh my, Out comes a pretty butterfly.

 Art: 

  • The children drew Spring pictures on white paper (we looked at some of the illustrations in Eric Carle's book and some others we've read) for ideas.  We also used the brainstorm page we made from yesterday for ideas as well. One child volunteered to do a title page for it.  

Language Experience: 

  • Our caterpillars arrived today!  The children enjoyed watching how they were put into their little cups with food.  The children gave them all names which we wrote on the sides of the cups.  We put together a little craft where the children make caterpillars out of egg cartons and we put them crawling up on a large tree we made on a bulletin board.

 

Wednesday, May 2nd

Read Aloud Stories: 

  • How They Grow: Butterflies - this book introduced the children to the life cycle of a butterfly.

  • I also read the class book the children made yesterday, Chickie’s Walk.
  • Brewster Rooster by Berny Lucas

Songs: 

  • Little White Duck
  • Apples and Bananas

Language Experience:

  • As a class we brainstormed Spring on chart paper. 
  • We also discussed the vowels as we did the Special Person guessing name game, and how every word has at least one.  We counted how many were in today's name and looked at some of the other words around the room.  Afterwards I taught them the “Apples and Bananas” song by Raffi.

Writing Activity: 

  • After we brainstormed Spring, each child made a flip book about Spring.  On it, it said “In Spring I see ___ “ (They drew pictures and wrote words to finish the sentence.)

Other: 

  • The firefighter from earlier this year came back today to review what we learned with him and teach us about Fire Safety in our home. They brought the Fire Safe House with them.  We got to practice what we learned for real!

Monday, April 30th

Read Aloud Stories:  

  • Take A Walk On A Rainbow by Miriam Ross (the children got on the topic of rainbows after we talked about the weather we had over the weekend)

Shared Reading

  • Predictable Books: 

    • Color Chants by Vera Trembach - each page of the book is about a different color and things that are that color.  There is a very predictable pattern to it as well (i.e..  An apple (picture instead of word) is red.  A strawberry (picture) is red.  A heart is red.  A rose is red.  Red.  After reading each page the children tried to think of at least 2 more things of that color.

  • How Many Pets?  on the pocket chart

  • Songs:  We repeated some of our Spring songs from last week as well as sang some new ones about rainbows:
    • Red, and orange, and yellow and green
      Blue and purple too.
      I can sing a rainbow, sing a rainbow, sing a rainbow too.
    • How many colors does the rainbow have,
      Before it appears in the sky,
      Red, and orange,
      Yellow, and green,
      Blue, and indigo,
      And the last one’s violet.

Language Experience:  

  • I showed the children how to make rainbows with prisms and flashlights.  I made one for each table and then left them out for the children to experiment with.

Writing Activities:  

  • The children did their April calendars today.  As well, together we drew a diagram of one of our chicks and labelled the different parts of its body.  The children then went and did their own diagram in their Egg to Chick books.

  • A number of children volunteered to do illustrations for our May newsletter.  We talk about the information that’s inside and share ideas about what we could draw related to that and our themes.

 

Thursday, April 26th

Read Aloud Stories:  

  • Zinnia and Dot by Lisa Campbell Ernst- this story is fun to read with lots of expression and using different voices.  The children got very involved predicting and imitating and talking about the lesson it teaches.

  • Egg Surprise by Cathie Felstead  each page gives clues about an animal that hatches from an egg.  After I read all the clues, I had the children repeat them all back to me and then try and guess what animal it could be.  We lift the flap of the next page to find our if we were right! 

Shared Reading: 

  • Using the puppets, together we retold the story of Chicken Little.  The children have been playing with them like crazy, so I wanted to model for them once again how the story goes and how little chick

In twenty-one days.
He hatches from the egg and flaps his wings
Flap, flap, flap, flap, flap!

Writing Activity:  

  • We began a  book today that we can use to record what's happening to our chicks each day.  We wrote Day 1 and drew a picture of the incubator with the 12 eggs inside (the words 12 eggs and incubator were written beside the pictures).
  • The children also continued working on their Spring Word books.

Shared Reading: 

 

  • Using the puppets, together we retold the story of Chicken Little.  The children have been playing with them like crazy, so I wanted to model for them once again how the story goes and how they to tell it.
  • Predictable Books:  How Many Pets? (this is the hardest book we've learned yet, so we are reading it lots for practice)

 

 

Wednesday, April 25th

Read Aloud Stories:  

  • Good Morning Chick by Mirra Ginsburg - the children had fun figuring out the pattern in this story.
  • Mother Hen text and photos by Jan McPherson - the children are now able to recognize between books with illustrations and books with photos.  We talked about what we thought was good about each.

Language Experience:  

  • I brought in a few dozen eggs today to have some fun with.  During attendance I asked children how they cook their eggs at home and what they put on them. We also charted this on our pocket chart to compare with yesterday.  I showed pictures of the different ways eggs can be cooked.  I showed a poster that displays the parts of an egg (that’s not fertilized).  Lots of discussion came from that.  We discovered that the majority of students like their eggs scrambled so during center time the children one at a time helped my T.A. to make scrambled eggs and we ate them for a snack with salt, pepper and ketchup (if they wanted). 
  • We also did a couple eggs-periments  with the eggs and I challenged the children to go home and try them with their family (rolling an egg, trying to squeeze an upright egg, putting an egg in vinegar for a day) Songs:  5 Little Frogs (Raffi), 5 Little Ducks, Mr. Sun, Each Of Us Is A Flower.  We also learned a new prayer we can sing before we eat (from our religion program):

    Come and gather, come and share,
    Come join hands, come be near,
    Food for one, food for all,
    God our God, has blessed us. (We put it up on a poster in the class where we can read it each time we sing it)

     

     

    Tuesday, April 24th

    Read Aloud Stories:  

  • Henny Penny - a different version compared to Chicken Little from yesterday.  The children briefly recalled yesterdays story and as we read this one we noted what characters and parts of the story were the same and different.  At the end, I asked the class which one they liked best and asked some of them for their reasons why.  They had excellent answers! 
  • Shared Reading
    • Predictable Books:  How Many Pets? 
    • Rhymes:  We followed this rhyme/fingerplay on a poster:

    •  Three Little Eggs

            Three little eggs in the birdies nest,
                     One little egg in the birdies nest,
            Missing all the fun,
           All of a sudden it did hatch,
                        No little eggs in the birdies nest,
            As you can plainly see,
            Three little birdies sit and sing,
           

  • Songs:  
    • Five Little Ducks - we sang the song with a cassette with the book, then we sang it once without the book. (With actions)

    •   Mr. Sun  by Raffi (we sang it to try and keep the warm sunny days here)


Writing Activity: 

  • We had a different picture to draw in our Chick Books  7 chicks and 5 eggs.  The children all finished their Spring word books as well, so I had them get into partners and read them to each other.  They had time to read them to several partners.

 

Monday, April 23rd

 Our chick eggs arrived today!  So the first part of the day was spent showing what I brought in (the incubator and its parts, the eggs-how many? What color?) and how we need to care for them. 

Read Aloud Stories: 

  • Chicken Little by Sally Hobson - several children helped me tell the story by using the stick puppets when we got to each animal in the story.
  • How A Chick Hatches - a book I made sequencing the life of a chicken (how long it takes to develop in the egg, how it gets out, what it will look like, when its full grown, etc.)

Shared Reading  

  • Predictable Books:  How Many Pets?  the children read it with me, then without me and then two children read to the class.
  • Rhymes:  We learned this fun little rhyme and made up some actions for it:
    • The Chick in the Egg (tune of Wheels on the Bus)
      The hen on the farm lays a smooth white egg, smooth white egg
      Cluck, cluck, cluck, cluck, cluck!
      The hen keeps her chick warm in the nest
      Peep, peep, peep, peep, peep!
      Inside the egg grows a little chick
      In twenty-one days.
      He hatches from the egg and flaps his wings
      Flap, flap, flap, flap, flap!

 Writing Activity: 

  • We began a book today that we can use to record what’s happening to our chicks each day.  We wrote Day 1 and drew a picture of the incubator with the 12 eggs inside (the words 12 eggs and incubator were written beside the pictures).

  •  The children also continued working on their Spring Word books.

Centers:

  •  The store was officially opened today

 

Tuesday, April 10th
(incomplete due to computer failure)  

Read Aloud:

  • Easter Bunny Are You For Real? By Harold Myra

Shared Reading

  • Predictable Books:  Bunny Rabbit, Bunny Rabbit - we read together the rhyming story while doing the actions and then each child got to take their own copy home to color and read

Poems: 

I’m A Little Bunny 
(tune of I'm a Little Teapot)
I’m a little bunny, soft and sweet.
Here are my ears and here are my feet.
When I’m in the garden. I look for treats,
And nibble on all I like to eat.
 
The Days Of Spring
(tune of Farmer in the Dell)
The days of Spring are here, warm sunny days are near,
Birds in trees, flowers and bees,
The days of Spring are here.

Oral Language:

  • We are still counting down the days of Lent and talk about Easter a lot especially when we do calendar and review the
    significance of Holy Thursday, Good Friday and Easter Sunday. 

Read Aloud Stories:

  •  Little Bunny Bobkin by James Riordan

  • Spring by Ron Hirsch 

Shared Reading

  • Predictable Books:  

    • Bunny Rabbit, Bunny Rabbit

    • Big Round Sun
      Big round sun in the springtime sky,
      Winked at a cloud that was passing by,
      The little cloud laughed as it scattered rain,
      Then out came the big round sun again!
       
      Spring Is Here!

Monday, April 9

(Data missing...from computer failure)

...Some children were encouraged to sound out how to spell the words with the pictures.

Language Experiences: 

  • The classes have had some wonderful discussions the past week about Spring.  We have talked about what happens outside, what animals do, things that change, etc.  We’ve learned so much from stories and from the weather.

Shared Reading:

  • Songs/Rhymes:  

    • We learned some new rhymes and songs that I have typed up on posters:

    • reviewed the ones we know plus this new poem:

Five Little Bunnies

Five little bunnies are such dears,
The first little bunny has pink ears,
The second little bunny has soft toes,
The third little bunny sniffs with his nose,
The fourth little bunny is very smart,
The fifth little bunny has a loving heart.

 

  • Music:  

    • Praise God For New Life is a new song we are learning from our religion program cassette.  It is about new life in the Springtime.  We are learning the chorus as well as actions for the words in the verses.

 

  • Predictable Books: 

    •  a book I’ve made the children listened to me read while they acted out.  It goes like this:

Bunny rabbit, bunny rabbit
Run all around,
Bunny rabbit, bunny rabbit
Leap off the ground,
Bunny rabbit, bunny rabbit
Wiggle Your nose,
Bunny rabbit, bunny rabbit
Count your toes,
Bunny rabbit, bunny rabbit
Hop, hop, hop
Bunny rabbit, bunny rabbit
Time to stop.

We repeated it once again to see if they could join in the pattern.

Letters:  

  • We learned the letter Ee for our Alphabet books.  The children helped me think of words we know that start with E.  They drew them in their books as well. 

   

Thursday, March 22nd

 Keep in mind the students and parents have already had an opportunity to experience a Demonstration of learning back in November, so they are familiar with the format.  This is the schedule for our DOL this time around.  We will enjoy yet another day like this in June before the children finish kindergarten!

Demonstration of Learning

**The most important thing today is to have fun with your child.  Step back and let them take over as “teacher.”  Please guide them and support them if they are stuck and having trouble.  Also, feel free to challenge your child where you see fit.**

1.  Calendar – Ask your child to show you the “calendar show”   

  · counting the numbers in order

· singing the days of the week song,

· ask your child what TODAY IS, YESTERDAY WAS, and what TOMORROW WILL BE

·  ask your child to tell you the dinosaur pattern on the calendar

2.       Journal – Have your child find their journal and show you how we draw pictures together from the white board and then copy the word.  Encourage them to take their time and try their best.

·  They should be getting the idea that words go from left to right and top to bottom.  Notice the big improvement from the beginning of the year!

·  If they miss a part ask them, encourage them to figure out “What is missing?”

3.       Math Tables

·  Number Baskets – Have your child put the right number of dinosaurs in each basket.

·  Patterns – Ask your child to finish the patterns on the table

-         Can your child make a new pattern for you?

·  Ask your child to choose a box for sorting

4.       Science – Ask your child to show you the fossils we’ve been digging in our tent.  Ask your child how fossils are formed.  They may even want to show you what we’ve learned from books about fossils.

5.       Dinosaurs–

· General Knowledge - Ask your child to show you some of the dinosaurs in the bin and tell you about them.

- do they know any of their names?

- what they eat?

- describe their special features – what they look like? - are any of them not dinosaurs?

·  Ask your child to take you to the RED pocket chart to sort the carnivores and herbivores.

·  Ask your child to show you the dinosaur booklet we’ve been working on.  Don’t forget to take it home when you are finished today.

6.       Dinosaur graph – Ask your child to show you our dinosaur graph and ask them these questions (they can tell you if they remember the name or they can point and show you the answer)

-  Which dinosaur did the most children like?

-  Which dinosaur did the least children like?

-  Which dinosaur was more popular, the stegosaurus or the T-Rex?

-  Which dinosaur was your favourite?

                    - Others you can think of…

7.      Reading

·  Ask your child to read you the story “Who Can?”

·  Ask your child to show you their class’s “Alphabet Name” book.  They can read you the names of some of their friends.

·  There is a dinosaur chant on the blue pocket chart which your child will read to you using the star pointer. 

- Ask your child to find for you all the letter “ Dd ‘s and “Ll’s”.  (If necessary, show them the first one)

- Can your child recognize and find all the words that say “dinosaur?”

 8.       Religion

·  Can your child show you the footprints we’ve made to help us prepare for the coming of Easter and tell you about the promise they have made for Lent.

9.      Teacher Talk

        Please feel free to come and talk to me if you have any specific questions or concerns.

 

Wednesday, March 21st

Read Aloud Stories:  

  • Dinosaur Dreams 

  • Countasaurus

Journal:  

  • The children and I thought we could show our parents something we could draw for our journal tomorrow.  We decided yesterday that we hadn’t learned how to draw a Pteranodon.  The children helped me draw it on the white board and sounded out the name.  We put it up in a place where we could see it to copy in our journals on DOL day.

  • Notes:  I had activities set up for our DOL tomorrow and we took the children (split in two groups) around using the booklet showing them where things will be and what they will show.  Some things I wasn’t too specific about so they could show how they could figure it out on their own.

Dinosaur booklet:  

  • We’ve finished all the pages for drawing and writing, so the children were given time today to do some fun pages at the back (dot-to-dot dinosaurs, search pages, matching activities, mazes).  Together we went through all the pages and talked about what we learned about each.  The children picked a place to put them all so they could show their parents tomorrow.

Other activities:  

  • Over the last couple days, I’ve had a center where the children can come over and sort dinosaurs.  They are lick em’ stick em’ dinosaur shapes.  The children sorted them in circles drawn on a piece of paper and them explained why they sorted them that way.  I scribed labelling each set.

 

Tuesday, March 20th

Read Aloud Stories:  

  • I’m Tyrannosaurus – A book of Dinosaur rhymes 

  • The Care and Feeding of Dinosaurs (a great book of fun facts!)

Notes:  

  • Many of the things we did today included things we will be showing our parents for Demonstration of Learning Day on Thursday.  I showed the children the booklet so they knew what to expect and as we did things I chose a child to come up and show how they will do it for their parents.

Shared Reading

  • Charts: Dinosaur Bones (practice for DOL – reading and preparing them for questions their parents will ask)

  • Predictable Books:  Who Can? ( practice reading for DOL – how to read with their parents)

  • Songs:  Of course we can’t miss a day without singing all our dinosaur songs!  We learned one last one about Stegosaurus.  The children really want the words to take home (because they forget sometimes) so I am working on typing them up so they can by the end of tomorrow.

Literacy Activity:  

  • We once again did a little activity talking about plant and meat eaters.  I used the same dinosaur pictures from before and had the children help me sort them on a pocket chart. 

  • I also asked the children individual questions about our dinosaur graph as I took attendance.  They were more/less than questions (checking for understanding and preparing them for DOL)

Dinosaur Booklet:  

  • On two separate pages we drew food for a plant eater and a meat eater.  

Monday, March 19th

Read Aloud Stories:  

  • The Dinosaur That Lived In My Backyard and What Happened To The Dinosaurs?

Shared Reading:

  • Charts:
    • Reviewed Dinosaur Bones on the pocket chart – had two children come up and read it with pointer.
  • Predictable Books:
    • Who Can?- we read a couple of times and then picked out the words that are common throughout the book to put up on the word wall (who, can, I, my, cat, on, in, up)
  • Songs:
    • we sang all our dinosaur songs (with actions) and learned two new ones- “Little Dinosaurs” and “Compsagnathus” 

Daily Routines Involving Literacy: 

  • During attendance, each of the children used a card with their name written on it to help make a class graph showing our favorite dinosaurs.  After it was made, we looked at which was the most/least popular and asked some comparison and other interpreting questions.

Dinosaur booklets:  

  • We found the page where we could draw one of the smallest dinosaurs.  We brainstormed the ones we know and then decided Compsagnathus was the smallest one we know about.  We talked about how to draw it and sounded out the spelling of its name.

  • We looked back through all the pages in our books and reviewed what each page was about.  The children wanted to show this book to their parents for Demonstration of Learning Day on Thursday.

Writing Activity:  

  • Each of the children chose their favorite dinosaur to sketch at one of the tables in the classroom (I had a picture of each which I drew that the children could use as a model).  Above the picture they would write the dinosaur’s name and we put it up on a bulletin board.

Language Experience:  

  • One of the children brought in an Ostrich egg to show the class.  Lots of questions were asked and each child got to touch it.  We remembered seeing one at the Museum – it was the largest bird egg.  We figured some dinosaur eggs would be about the same size.

 

Friday, March 9th

Read Aloud Stories:  

  • The Story Of Easter from the Children’s Bible

  • No Dinosaurs in the Park 

  • another chapter from The Best Book of Dinosaurs (the children are loving this book!) about dinosaurs who hunt in packs.

Shared Reading:

  • Charts:  

    • We read the rhyme Dinosaur Bones (the children are reading it on their own now).  

    • From chart paper we followed along with a new song about dinosaurs (different verses to The Wheels On The Bus).  The children actually were excited before we read it to find words in it that they knew and could read.  I helped them sound out words they wanted to try.  We ended up making up some of our own verses to the song…

The Tyrannosaurus Rex had big sharp teeth…
The Apatosaurus had a very long neck…
The diplodocus had nostrils on his head…
The Saltopus was as small as a cat…

  • Predictable Books:  Who Can? – the same routines as before, but taking notice of the words that stay the same on each page and the ones that change and making sure we READ the word to know what it says. (Each page has a different preposition in the sentence – in, on, up).

  • Poems/ Rhymes:

Carnivore, Carnivore, what do you eat?
I am a hunter, I only eat meat.
Herbivore, herbivore, what do you munch?
I like plants and leaves for lunch.
Omnivore, omnivore, how about you?
I like meat and plants to chew.

Songs: 

We sang a song about dinosaur sounds from the cassette Wee Sing Dinosaurs.  And of course they wanted to sing it again, so we did it twice.

Daily Routines Involving Literacy:

  • During attendance we played a little game, by showing each child a picture of a dinosaur (great details ones), and they would guess whether it was a plant-eater or a meat-eater and than explain why they thought so.  We discussed first what clues to look for in a meat-eater (sharp teeth and claws).  They did fantastic, so much so that I taught them the words carnivore and herbivore instead, and there were even a couple that were plant and meat