Costello Building Blocks- Weekly Happenings: December 1- 5, 2014

Description
Plan-DoReview

Small
Group
Activities

PLANNING Time, WORK Time, RECALL Time

This three-part sequence is unique to the HighScope Curriculum.
Occurring daily, it includes a 10- to 15-minute period during which
children plan what they want to do during work time (the area to visit,
materials to use, and friends to play with); a -minute work time for
children to carry out their plans (or shift to new activities that interest
them); and another 10- to 15-minute period for reviewing and
recalling with an adult and other children what they've done and
learned.
1.

Dominos:

Children were given dominos and the group had a discussion of

all the things you can do with dominos. Much of our focus was
on the dots and counting them. We matched the sides of
dominos that had the same number on them. We also added the
dots on each side to see how many total dots we could come up
with. After this, we spent time exploring the building possibilities
of dominos and of course, the best partstanding them up and
then knocking them down to create a domino effect
2. Unfix Cubes:
Children used unifix (snap) cubes to explore counting, patterning and
building.

KDIs

Approaches to Learning: initiative, planning, engagement, problem solving, use of

resources, reflection

Social/Emotional: self-identity, sense of competence, emotions, empaty,

community, building relationships, cooperative play, moral development, conflict
resolution

Physical: fine motor skills, body awareness

Language/Literacy: comprehension, speaking, vocabulary
Math: number words and symbols, counting, part-whole relationships, spatial
awareness, unit, pattern
Science: observing, classifying, experimenting, predicting, drawing conclusions,
communicating ideas
Social Studies: decision making

Physical: fine motor skills, body awareness

Language/Literacy: comprehension, speaking, vocabulary
Math: number words and symbols, counting, part-whole relationships, spatial
awareness, unit, pattern
Science: observing, classifying, experimenting, predicting, drawing conclusions,
communicating ideas
Social Studies: decision making

3. Scratch Art:
Using Scratch Art paper, children used a special scratching tool to
create a picture. When they used the tool to draw, the black
scratched off revealing lots of fun colors underneath!

Physical: fine motor

Language: comprehension, speaking, vocabulary,
Math: spatial awareness, shapes
Creative: art
Science: communicating ideas, observing, classifying, experimenting, tools
Social Studies: diversity, decision making

4. Gingerbread Man Measuring:

The children used gingerbread die-cuts to measure each other.
Children were paired up and they took down, one laid down and while
other lined up the gingerbread men and then they switched. The
children counted how many gingerbread men tall they were and
recorded it on their paper. Check out our bulletin board in the hallway
to see the results!

Physical: large & fine motor skills, body awareness

Language/Literacy: comprehension, speaking, vocabulary
Math: number words and symbols, counting, part-whole relationships, spatial
awareness, unit, data analysis, couting
Science: observing, classifying, experimenting, predicting, drawing conclusions,
communicating ideas

Costello Building Blocks- Weekly Happenings: December 1- 5, 2014

5. Gingerbread Book:
After reading several versions of the Gingerbread Boy story, we
created out own Gingerbread books. On each page, we used
gingerbread people to practice positional words (above, below, in
front of, behind, inside of, etc.).

Large
Group

Physical: fine motor,

Language: comprehension, speaking, vocabulary, concepts about print, book
knowledge, writing
Math: spatial awareness, data analysis
Creative: art
Science: observing, classifying, communicating ideas
Social Studies: diversity

Songs, Fingerplays & Activities:

Song
Birthdays
Seven Days of the Week
The Wheels on the Bus
Them ABC Bones
B-I-N-G-O
Learning Letter Sounds
Addition Pokey
Five Little Monkeys
Scamper, Scamper
Ten Bottles of Pop
Rudolph the Red Nosed
Reindeer

Approaches to Learning: engagement

Social/Emotional: sense of competence, community
Physical: gross motor skills, fine motor skills, body awareness
Language/Literacy: comprehension, speaking, vocabulary, phonological
awareness
Math: number words and symbols, counting, part-whole relationships
Creative: music, movement
Social Studies: diversity

DiscussionLetters & Their Sounds:

Every letter has a name
Each letter has its own sound
Sometimes the letters can have more than one sound
Practice with the letters and their sounds
Literature:

Book Title
Froggys Sleepover
The Bus for Us
Follow That Fish
How Much is That Doggie in the
Window?
Five Little Monkeys Reading in
Bed

Author
Jonathan London
Suzanne Bloom
Joanne Oppenheim
Bob Merrill

Ten Little Fish

Audrey & Bruce Wood

Eileen Christelow

Language & Literacy: comprehension, speaking, vocabulary, phonological

awareness, alphabetic knowledge, concepts about print, book knowledge

Costello Building Blocks- Weekly Happenings: December 1- 5, 2014

There Was an Old Lady Who
Swallowed a Bell
Winter Wonderland
The Elf on the Shelf
Owl Babies
Who Has These Feet?
The Witchs Christmas
The Gingerbread Man
The Gingerbread Baby
The Gingerbread Girl Goes
Animal Crackers

Lucille Colandro
Dick Smith
Carol V Aebersold
Martin Waddell
Laura Hulbert
Norman Bridwell
Scholastic
Jan Brett
Lisa Campbell Ernst

Sensory
Table
Paper, scissors

What
were
working
on at
school
that you
can work
on at
home

Coats, zippers, snowpants, hats, gloves boots!

Weve been working hard on becoming independent with our skills. In
addition to putting on their own coats and zipping them, the chidlren
have been working hard at becoming independent with the rest of
their outdoor clothing snowpants, hats, gloves and boots.
You can support us and your child at home by having them put on
their own outerwear when its time to go somewhere, and
encourage them to keep practicing t heir zipper on their own too!

Approaches to Learning: initiative, planning, engagement, problem solving

Social/Emotional: self-identity, sense of competence, emotions, community,
cooperative play, conflict resolution
Physical: fine motor, body awareness
Creative: pretend play
Science: experimenting, communicating ideas, natural and physical world, tools

Social/Emotional: self-identity, sense of competence

Physical: gross motor, fine motor, body awareness, personal care, healthy
behavior