Patterns/Sequencing Lesson

Materials: The Very Hungry Caterpillar, Eric Carle, Mommy Bird, The Gingerbread Man (last two printed from DLTK’s website) , print out storyboard pictures for each of the previous stories from DLTK’s website, question of the day sentence (What is your favorite fruit) and pictures of three fruits, books for reading corner, colored linking blocks, pattern block paper, snacks (M&M’s, chex mix, juice, fruit), flannel board, making cookies photos for a story board, Materials for centers: cookie dough, flannel board and storyboard photos from above, and blocks.

10:00-10:05– Question of the Day/Reading Corner
As children enter, have them find their name card and put it on the “question of the day” chart- “What is your favorite fruit?”. Direct them to the reading area to look at books until all the children arrive. You could also sing a song or do a movement activity (Simon Says, Do as I’m Doing, Wheels on the Bus, etc.).

10:05-10:30- Circle Time

Welcome and Introduction- Have children sit on “carpets” and sing a welcome song (Here We Are Together, Hello Hello- You can sing several songs and use fun activity songs as well)
Discuss “Question of the Day”- count and share
Review Rules- Have children model what it looks like to listen, be happy, etc.
Helping Hands- Rotate class jobs and remind children what their job is
Teacher- Assists the teacher (hold books, pass things out, etc.)
Weatherman- Look outside and chooses one or two weather pictures to put on the chart of today’s weather.
Calendar- Helps put the dates on the calendar
Snack Helper- Helps pass out snacks
Calendar- Have calendar helper put dates on the calendar. Sing a “Days of the Week” song. Talk about what day it was yesterday, today and what day it will be tomorrow. Look at the pattern and discuss the shapes.
Weather- With the help of the weatherman, look outside and put up the weather for today on the weather chart. You could also discuss what kind of clothing is the best to wear today.
Movement activity- (sometime during circle time to break it up a bit) Freeze Dance
Alphabet- Sing the alphabet sound song. Introduce the letter of the week, Kk. Discuss what the lowercase and uppercase letter looks like, sound like and words that start with it. Do action words that start with the letter Kk- Kick, karate chop, kiss, fly a kite.
Numbers and Colors- Patterns: Use linking blocks to make a simple pattern (ie: red, blue, red, blue..). Show the children your pattern. Practice taking turns putting one color on at a time to make a pattern all together. Put children in partners, give each child one color and let them make a pattern together by putting every other one on.

Use the pattern block paper to make a pattern (from DLTK’s). Use M&M’s or other snacks to make a pattern on the paper. Let the children make their own pattern with the snacks at snack time.

10:30-10:40 Wash hands/Snack- Dismiss to the table. Give each child a pattern block paper, some M&M’s and other snacks to eat/play with.

10:40- 11:05 - Lesson/Activity/Craft-
Read “Mommy Bird.” Put the story in order using the flannel board. Talk about what happened first, second, next, and last.

Now read the “Gingerbread man”. Have the children help you put the story pieces in order on the flannel board. Would anyone like to put the pieces up while I read the story again? Afterwards, talk about what happened first, second, etc.

Read “The Very Hungry Caterpillar”. Give each child a set of story pieces and let them put the story in order from first, second, next, and last.

Ask the children if they have ever made cookies. What do you do first, next, etc. Show the four photos and have them help you put them in order (1-mix the ingredients, 2-put them on the pan, 3-cook in the oven, and 4-eat the cookies!- I just printed some Google images for this one).

Ask the children if they would like to help you do the steps to make cookies. Then use it as a centers activity having them come help you one at a time. I had the cookie dough already made, and just had them help mix it a bit.

11:05-11:25 – Centers or Structured Play (group game, puzzles, learning activity, learning centers, etc.)
Some ideas for learning centers could be:
-Cookies- Call the children over to help you mix, shape, cook, and eat!
-Flannel Board story boards- use the ones you did with the class
-Blocks

11:25-11:30 - Clean up and Close- Sing the clean up song and cleanup.