April 22 - April 28 Lesson Plans
April 22 - April 28 Lesson Plans
Preschool/Pre-K 2024
Week of April 22 - April 28, 2024
Prayer/Pledge/Devotional (Monday-Friday)
Science (Monday-Friday):
Weather Board: We talk about the season, the temperature (measurement), and the weather.
Nature Observations: These are any observations we see in our day-to-day activities. We may end up talking about bees, ants, chickens, trees, the sun, or anything else that catches the kiddos’ eyes.
Math (Monday-Friday):
Numbers: We are working hard at learning numbers 0-20. Each day, I count 0-20 with both kids. Then, throughout the day, we count as many things as possible. (rote counting).
Geometry: I let each kid pick a shape from our Shape Wall, and we repeat the name of the shape and count the sides, obtuse angles, acute angles, and vertices. *When teaching angles, I do not go into details of degrees. The purpose is to get them familiar with math language. I have them mimic the angle with their arms and say the name. It would sound something like this: “This angle is wide apart (stretching my arms apart). It’s obtuse! This angle is close together (moving my arms closer together). It’s acute! A cute little angle!” I explain that vertices are corners. My phrasing sounds something like this: “How many vertices, or corners, does this shape have?”
Skills:
Monday: Fractions— We did a very basic graham cracker fraction lesson today. One of their favorite books is about fractions, so this is not a new topic for them. We talked about whole, half, and quarter. I have no expectation of them retaining all of this information right now. They enjoyed it because it was similar to their book, and it was good for them to begin getting familiar with the math language and concepts of fractions. (parts and wholes, counting, math language)
Tuesday: Coin Sort— I had a jar of coins that I needed sorted for other math activities this week, so I had the kids sort them for me. L(5) did fantastic with this! N(3) struggled with nickels and dimes and did not stay interested for long. We did observe the differences in size, thickness, and ridges/lack of ridges between nickels and dimes. (observing, comparing, sets/classifying, money)
Wednesday: Coin Match— I put Post-it notes with 1, 5, 10, and 25 written on them. I gave each kid four coins: a penny, nickel, dime, and quarter. They then sorted them onto the Post-it note with the proper amount. We observed again the differences between nickels and dimes. (observation, one-to-one correspondence, money)
Thursday: Item Sort (Playdate)— We had a playdate today, and I wasn’t sure where they were in their math journey, so I chose a simple sorting activity. Using vehicle manipulatives, I had the kids sort the vehicles according to type. (sets and classifying)
Friday: Coin Least to Greatest— We were back to money today. I gave each kid a set of the four coins and a starting place. They then placed them in order from biggest to smallest, and then smallest to biggest. Both were according to size, not value. (ordering, money)
Language Arts (Monday-Friday):
Letter of the Week: This week’s letter is G. G has two main sounds: Hard G as in goat, and soft g as in ginger.
Monday: Letter Art— I created bubble letters that I printed off on cardstock so that the kids could glue items onto them that go with the letter this week. For G, they glued on glitter and used stickers in the shape of gingerbread.
Tuesday: Letter Hurdles— I placed small hurdles on the floor with an item that starts with G next to each hurdle. I used a toy giraffe, nerf gun, ginger, grapes, toy goat, and toy gem. I had the kids jump over the hurdle, say the name of the item, and tell me whether it was a soft or hard G sound at the beginning. We kept track of the sounds on a whiteboard.
Wednesday: Playdough Letter Mat— I created these letter mats to be used with playdough, stickers, dot markers, or a variety of other manipulatives and art supplies. Playdough has been our personal favorite.
Thursday: Letter Search— I am working on creating a larger resource for this activity, including a page for every letter. For this week’s letter, I picked four pictures for each sound. Then, the paper is taped to the bottom of a glass casserole dish and covered with oats. The kids then take turns using a dry paintbrush to search for the pictures. When they discover one, we say the word and whether it is a soft or hard G sound.
Friday: Tracing Sheet— I made these supersized tracing sheets for the kids as they’re still learning to write.
Phonemic and Phonological Practice: We have added this back into our school rotation. We work on chopping syllables. They use one hand as a cutting board and the other hand as their chopper, and then we count how many chops or syllables each word has. We are also working on segmenting and blending sounds with the use of a whiteboard. I will write a short word, and then put a dot under each sound. We make each sound, and then we blend the sounds together to say the word.
Reading: We always read at least two books, but I’ll read for as long as they want or for as much time as we can. For some books, I’ll just read (interactive reading) while for others, I will ask questions as we go (dialogic reading) or point out our sound of the week. I try to do a mix of reading for fun and reading for learning during this time. You can click the link at the top of the page to view our reading log for some great book suggestions.
Poems/Nursery Rhymes/Classics: We are bouncing back and forth between poems and nursery rhymes from several different books. (Nursery Rhymes, poems, classic stories, and songs teach a whole slew of skills. Here is an excellent article for a broad idea of the educational impact these can have.)
Rhyme: (-eat words) We began the week by reviewing last week’s rhyming words. Then, I introduced our new word family. We added two words to complete a rhyme. Then, we reviewed them. Throughout the day, I tried to catch words from our word family that were said and point them out to the kids. Each day for the rest of the week, we will add one new word to our word family and review the entire list. (phonological awareness)
Music (Monday-Friday):
Songs: This week, we sang Mary Had A Little Lamb. Throughout the week, we sing it, listen to it, and watch videos online. And yes, you will find yourself constantly humming the tune. (Nursery Rhymes, poems, and songs teach a whole slew of skills. Here is an excellent article for a broad idea of the educational impact these can have.)
Fine Motor Skills (Monday-Friday):
Monday: Gluing/Crafting
Tuesday: Coin Sorting — This is a great “alligator fingers” activity. (pinching fingers, which is the movement they need for proper pencil holding)
Wednesday: Playdough
Thursday: Sidewalk Chalk
Friday: Draw/Color/Write
Outings/Activities
Monday: Playground
Tuesday: Swimming, Sibling sport practice
Wednesday: Outside Chores
Thursday: Swimming, Playdate
Friday: Playground
Saturday: Outside Chores
Sunday: Church
If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to ask! If you have comments or suggestions, feel free to share those as well! You can also contact me at amanda.clark@amandaclarkbooks.com.