Kindergarten Enrichment

Week of: Sept. 15-19, 2009*This month’s “Colorful Character” Focus* September Caring Color"Award Gold." rewards our hard work.

"Do Your Best" is a perfect Caring Habit for September, when the new school year really gets underway. A do-your-best and a strive-for-excellence frame of mind is the best way to start right and to make commitments that will ensure a good job at whatever you do.

Math Objective: 1. Number 1-52. The concept of big and small, short and tall3. Understand concepts of left to right, top to bottom4. Color: Red5. Shape: Star6. ABAB pattern

Chinese Language Art:1. Classroom manager and direction words2. Recognize Chinese names

Social Objective:1. Follow classroom routines2. Follow teacher’s direction3. Make new friends4. Confidence to speak Chinese in public

Center Time

Art Center: Offer supplies to make paper kites and take outside to fly.

Block Center: Build with Legos this week. Work cooperatively to build something with your friends (like a space craft, train, or home for farm animals.

House Center: Encourage students to dress up as community helpers.

Writing Center: Encourage Chinese name writing by offering tracers to trace or copy.

Quiet Center: Play with the marble works. Demonstrate how to connect the pieces to create slides for the marbles.

Monday Math/Science

Activity: Rock Collection

Materials and Preparation: KWL chart, egg cartons, baggies, or other collection devices

Procedure: 1. Make a KWL chart; what we know about rocks, what we would like to

know about rocks, and what we learned about rocks. At the circle carpet have a class discussion and fill in the first two sections of the chart. This third section will be the last part in the lesson.

2. Each child should have an egg carton. They put one rock in each hole. Go on a rock hunt and collect rocks from the playground.

3. The children will sort the rocks by size. 4. Refer to the chart and have a class discussion. Do the things we know

about rocks make sense when we look at our collection? Answer questions about what the students wanted to know about.

5. Collect all rocks for a collection and put them in the science area.6. Review with the students what they learned about rocks and fill in the last

section of the chart, “What we learned”

Extensions:

#1: Allow students to collect and sort in pairs.

#2: Let students collect their own set of rocks to sort.

Literacy

Activity: Chinese characters strokes sticks and curves

Materials and Preparation: magnetic, wooden or paper characters for each group or child.

Procedure:

Place magnetic or wooden Chinese characters strokes sticks and curves on a table and have the student classify the shapes as either stick, curved or both.

Have the child pull all of the stick letters into one group (i,竖，横，折, etc.) then select curve letters (撇，捺， 弯钩).

Now look at the letters left on the table, combinations of stick and curve

Extensions:

#1: This is a good activity for students to review the characters that they learnt in preschool

#2: Allow student to work individually.

Social Studies

Activity: Cooperation Puzzle

Materials and Preparation: Puzzles, 24 pieces or more

Procedure: 1. Pair up the children or put them in teams.2. Tel the groups they will be putting together puzzles.3. It may help to start with the children taking turns removing a puzzle piece

from the box until the pieces are have been evenly sorted among the teams.

4. When the pieces have been sorted, let the children begin putting pieces together. Tell them they can only use the pieces in their stack. They must ask the other team members to help find pieces that fit theirs.

5. This can be practiced on a regular basis by changing the teams and rotating the puzzles.

Extensions:

#1: Put the frame of the puzzle together first, making it easier to find where pieces go.

#2: Pair up students so those who have an easier time can assist those who are struggling.

Story/Snack Time

Go Away Big Green Monster with puppet

SpecialsSecond Step – fill this time by reading a Shubert book and discussing Shubert’s good behavior.

Outside TimeTake out the balls and encourage counting the number of bounces.

Music & MovementTony Chestnut

Tuesday Math/Science

Activity: Class Number Book

Materials and Preparation: Pages with one large number in the center or in the corner (attached), magazines, scissors, glue. Make enough copies for each student to complete at least on page.

Procedure: 1. Each student gets a page with a different number on it.2. Have the kids look for pictures of that many items in the catalogs. Such as

find 4 of any item you want in the magazines. For example; babies, shirts, pants, shorts, toys, men and women.

3. When all the numbers are done have the book put together and laminate it for the classroom.

4. Read the book often and have the kids tell which picture they did!

Extensions:

#1: Pick out their number for them depending on how well they do with the scissors. For instance, if they are not really good with scissors yet, give them one of the lower numbers to find pictures for.

#2: Allow student to complete more than one page.

Literacy

Activity: Body Words

Materials and Preparation: Students and an open space. Camera is optional.

Procedure: Have students create each character with their bodies. Students may need to get into groups to do some characters, for example 小 could use three people, and 大 may use one people. Take pictures of each letter to create a book.

Extensions:#1: Offer a visual representation of what each China character looks like and describe the parts.

Social Studies

Activity: Family Diversity

Materials and Preparation: This could be done in their journals. PaperCrayons, Markers or Pencils

Procedure: 1. Ask children/students to draw pictures (using crayons and paper) of their family.2. Have children/students share with and explain to the class who their family consists of and what family means to them.3. Talk about the different family forms (two-parent, single parent, adoptive, foster, grandparent, etc.) that exist. Share about the diverse nature of families, and what the definition of family is. 4. Encourage children/students to talk about family diversity with their family members.

Story/Snack TimePicture read with I Spy books

SpecialsArt: Art: Rainy Day pictures

Materials: white paper, crayons, sharpies markers

Procedure: Students draw themselves in raincoats, carrying umbrellas and standing in a puddle with sharpies. Color these with crayons. Then the fun begins! Draw "rain" on pictures with markers (washable markers DO NOT work well for this project). Remind students to draw small lines in one direction only. When an adequate amount of "rain" has been drawn dip the artwork in a tub of water. The marker will run, creating the effect of rain!

Outside TimeTry some relay races

Music & Movement

Days of the Week rap – Hap Palmer

1一

2二

3三

4四

5五

6六

7七

8八

9九10

十

Wednesday Math/Science

Activity: Lacing Cards

Materials and Preparation: Lacing cards for each student. If you do not have pre-made cards, use any shape (or letters) and hole punch holes for lacing.

Procedure: Students lace the cards.

Literacy

Activity: Shared Reading Lesson: If You Give a Mouse a Cookie By Laura Joffe Numeroff

The student will: understand concepts of print (such as left to right, top to bottom). participate in reading along with the teacher. enjoy sharing a predictable book. use knowledge of the book to figure out missing words. use his/her knowledge of how pictures and words work together to tell a

story to find missing words to a text.

Activity: 1. The teacher will read the title and give a book introduction.

2. The teacher will take a book walk with the children and model behaviors children might use when introducing a book to themselves.3. The teacher will read the story aloud.4. The teacher will read the story with the children one more time, this time telling the children that they will need to pay close attention to the sequence and words used, as some words will be taken away in the next reading.5. The teacher will go through the story and discreetly put Post-It notes over one word every page or so.6. The teacher will re-read the story and ask a student to identify the covered word. If the student has difficulty, tell the student to play "Detective" and ask what they can do to figure the word out (use the picture for clues).7. The teacher will pull off the Post-It over the word when the child has guessed it.8. The teacher will ask the students what they think makes a good reader.9. If not already stated by the children, the teacher will state that a good reader is a reader that uses the clues from the sentences and the pictures to figure out words that they do not know.

Assessment: Through observation, determine:1) Did the child correctly guess the covered word?2) Was the child able to figure out the covered words using the clues from the sentence as well as the clues from the pictures?3) Was the child able to identify characteristics of a good reader?

Social Studies

Activity: Helping HandsMaterials and Preparation: Poster board or chart paper cut in the shape of a hand, markers, and journals.

Procedure: 1. What are ways that we can help people? How do you feel when you help someone? (Distinguish between helping people and hurting people).

2. Create a large hand out of poster board to place on the wall and write (or draw) different things the children can help out with in the classroom each day. (Example: setting tables, line leader, making sure that centers are cleaned up, etc.)

3. Have the children create their own journal where they can draw or write about the nice and helpful things they do for their family or friends.

Extensions:

#1: Ask students yes or no questions, such as “Is putting toys away helpful?”

#2: Allow students to trace and cut their own hand then the teacher writes their idea on the hand and attaches it to the chart.

Story/Snack TimeThe Very Busy Spider by Eric Carle

SpecialsGym: Teach tag

Outside TimeSidewalk Chalk

Music & MovementMusical Alphabet Letters (like musical chairs but stand on a letter instead)

Thursday Math/Science

Activity: Shape Spies

Procedure: Review basic shapes (circle, square, triangle, and rectangle) and encourage the children to translate the shapes that they are familiar with in two dimensions (circle, square…) into three dimensions (sphere, cube…), hence the “shape spies” activity.

Take a walk around the school (or outside) and ask the children to quietly indicate when they found a familiar shape in an everyday object. Make notes of each student and the item they found. In the classroom, have students make a poster of the items they found, sorting items by shape (circles in one part, squares in another area etc…). The poster should be mounted in the classroom near the math center, available for the children to study and copy. Have them fill in the attached sheet.

Extensions:#1: Group the students with partners if they seem to be having trouble.#2: Allow these students to keep a clip board and draw the items they see to match each shape.

My name:

_______________________

We are shape spies!We walked around the school building

and found shapes everywhere! Here are some of the things we found: We found these 正方形:

We found these 长方形:

We found these 三角形:

We found these 圆形:

Literacy

Activity: Chinese strokes in my nameMaterials and Preparation: For each student, writ their name in large strokes on a piece of paper, using different colored markers. You can write the

characters vertically or horizontally, leaving a good space between characters. Magazines and glue (optional), and crayons.Procedure: have the children draw their friends who the same strokes in their names.

Social Studies

Activity: How Do I Feel?

Materials and Preparation: white paper/paper platemarkersa book about feelings

Procedure: Read a book about feeling to the children. Then talk about how everyone feels when different things happen in their life. For instance how would they feel if someone would not share a toy with them? Then have the children make a happy face and a sad face. Have the teacher think of different things and then have the children put up the sad face or happy face depending on how they feel. Here are some examples the teacher could say: How would you feel if...Your mom took you out for ice cream?Your grandma was sick with a cold?It is raining outside?You had pizza for lunch?

After talking about these things for awhile, then trying using this to teach something about being nice to one another. Here are some examples: How would you feel if..Your friend was sad?Your friend pushed you?Your friend would not play with you?Then talk to the class about how to use their words to express how they feel. Not by hitting or crying but by talking!!

Assessment and Extension:The teacher might also want to talk to the class about what other people can do to make people feel better when they are sad. Here are some examples of questions to get kids thinking in that direction:How would you feel if...a friend of yours was crying?a friend of yours pet died?a friend of yours was sick?

Then discuss these things with the class.This is a great way to explain to children that it is very important for them to let people know how they feel and to tell someone if something is wrong or they are upset.

Story/Snack TimeCurious George by A. Ray

Specials

Outside TimePlay Red Rover

Music & MovementDance, Dance, Dance to your favorite songs

FridayMath/Science

Activity: Unifix Patterns

Materials and Preparation: Unifix cubes

Procedure: Have students create patterns with the cubes by clicking colors together in an ABAB pattern.

Extensions:

#1: Offer visual card cues with patterns for students to copy. Provide a pattern for the student to extend.

#2: Encourage ABC patterns.

Literacy

Activity: Name Puzzles – Matching kids’ pictures with the Chinese names

Materials and Preparation:

1. Take an index card or construction paper divided into eighths. 2. Write the Chinese names on the left and the kid’s pictures on the right. 3. Cut in the middle in an odd way (zigzag, curve, etc.)

Procedure: Children can then put puzzles together.

Extensions:

#1: Use only the letters in the child’s name if they are struggling with all the letters.

#2: Allow these students to create their own matching game. They may draw their friends and the Chinese names

Social Studies

Activity: Understanding the Flag

Materials and Preparation: Paper and art supplies

Procedure:

*Write the word "symbol" on the board.*Involve students in a discussion of what a symbol is.*Brainstorm some examples of symbols (fast food restaurant logos, mascots, etc.)

*Ask students what a symbol for our country is. Ask for volunteers to define the term.*Surface the idea that a flag represents a group of people as well as individuals. Tell students the flag represents each one of them.*Ask students if they think the flag is a good symbol. Why or why not? Ask them

if they would change the flag and what it might look like.*Brainstorm ideas for a class flag.

*Students will create a flag. They may choose to create a class flag, a new American flag, or a personal flag. This could be done individually or with partners.

* Talk a little bit about Chinese Flag

CLOSURE-*Share student flags. Be sure students talk about what they included in their flag, why they included it, and why it is representative of the group or individual they chose.

Story/Snack TimeNumbers by David Moss

SpecialsComputer Lab – Practice signing in, type the words you know, or practice your name, in Word.

Outside TimeFree Choice

Music & MovementPlay Pass the Beanbag