Wednesday, January 16, 2008

Shapes Lesson

Materials: Blue’s Felt Friends, Angela C. Santomero, Baby Einstein See & Spy Shapes, question of the day sentence (What is your favorite shape) and pictures of each shape, books for reading corner, shape cut-outs, household shapes in a box (about 8-10 items, ie: mac n’cheese, cd, toy block, etc.), small blanket or rope for the “Shape Hunt”, Snacks, music, Materials for centers: scissors, shape punches, scrap paper, shape cut outs (die cuts or just cut out with scissors ahead of time), computer, DLTK worksheets for letter of the week, and shapes.

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 shape?”. 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

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) Hokey Pokey: With each child standing and holding a rectangle, sing "Hokey Pokey" -- "Put your rectangle in, take your rectangle out, put your rectangle in, and shake it all around.........." Obviously, this can be done with other shapes too.

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- Use counting throughout the day. Count children, books, days of the week, fingers, eyes, etc.

10:30-10:40 Wash hands/Snack- Read Blue’s Felt Friends. Dismiss to the table. Shape snacks- see what you can make with your shapes. Circle crackers, square cheese, etc.

10:40- 11:05 - Lesson/Activity/Craft- Read See & Spy Shape’s.

Household shapes: Put several different shapes objects (triangle napkins, round coasters, etc) in a box. Here is a box. What do you think is inside this box? Should we see? Pull out an item and ask if the children can tell you what shape it is. As you pull them out, sort them into piles by shape.

Shape Exercise: Cut out several different shapes (square, triangle, circle, etc) and tell your children that each one represents a different exercise (jumping jacks, twist, jump up and down, run in place) and when you hold it up they should do that exercise. This is great fun

Shape Hunt: Go for a “shape hunt” around the house- Hold rope or blanket (I had the kids each hold a corner of the blanket as we walked), point out shapes they see around the house. “Who can find a rectangle?” “Do you see a circle?”

11:05-11:25 – Centers or Structured Play (group game, puzzles, learning activity, learning centers, etc.)

Some ideas for learning centers could be:
-Cutting- Scissors and scrap paper children can just cut into pieces- add shape punches, children can glue shapes onto paper and make different things. (I also had some shapes pre-cut for the children to use)

-Computer- Starfall shapes (Gingerbread man) or letter K/ letter sounds

-Letter K worksheet/ Tracing the letter K, shape worksheet (From DLTK’s)

-Sorting shapes- Use the box of items you used above as a center: cd’s, plates, napkins, paper, blocks, mac & cheese, lids, etc.

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

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