September 8th, 2015
Overview: The beginning of the school year will be filled with excitement over exploring the
new environment, materials, and animals. We will start our school year by exploring the nature
playscape, classroom, and barnyard. We will explore the trails when the children seem
comfortable with the rules and expectations. Our focus will be on learning the new rules and
expectations while at school. This will be learned through play, teacher modeling,
communication, teacher-directed group times, activities, books, songs, etc. During this time, the
teacher will observe each class separately to see which topic will be of most interest to the
children. After observing each class, the teacher will discover where the children’s interests and
motivations are, and start our focused groups during the third week of class.
Sensory
Materials: Sand, variety of stones, drawing tools, mini rakes, water
Rationale: To give children the opportunity to have a sensory experience while furthering their
understanding of sand by exploring ways to make it move, form shapes, make and hold
impressions, make patterns, and see how water can change it.
Skills: Fine motor development, hand-eye coordination, scientific exploration, cooperative play,
social relationships building, sharing materials, observation, prediction-making, comparing and
contrasting
Math and Manipulatives
Materials: puzzles, patterning mosaic boards, loose parts (stones, pinecones, shells, etc.) with
dice, dominos, sand timer, and number cards.
Rationale: To encourage children to work with open-ended materials where they can develop
more complex skills and collaborate to support each other’s learning. To encourage cooperation
and communication between peers while highlighting concepts such as sorting, matching, and
one-to-one counting. To highlight patterning, children will use the mosaic boards to create
patterns and problem solve to fit pieces in the puzzle.
Skills: counting, one-to-one correspondence, number recognition, patterning, matching, fine
motor development, problem solving, measuring, simple time concepts
Blocks
Materials: Small wooden blocks, trains, barns, farm animals
Specifically outside block materials: stumps, sticks, larger wooden blocks
Rationale: To support children’s creativity and problem solving skills. The unit blocks will be
displayed to highlight concepts of geometrical properties as well as patterning. To allow for
social interaction opportunities as children collaborate and build together, by providing materials
that can increase interest in vehicle (specifically train) play, and construction (fort, farm, house
building) play.
Skills: Large motor development, expressive creation, symbolic representation, cooperative play,
creative problem-solving, social problem-solving, reflecting on and interpreting previous
experiences, fine motor development
Dramatic Play
Materials: Housekeeping materials (dishes, food, furniture), dress up hats and jewelry, babies,
baskets, play chicks and rabbits
Rationale: To allow for the expression of family life and to encourage social interaction while
playing with symbolic props. To support cooperative play as children work together to sustain a
pretend play session. To connect the farm animals with dramatic and social play. To support
deeper reflection on care-giving activities and animal care stimulated by the rabbits, chickens,
goats, ducks, fish, and cats on the farm.
Skills: Large and fine motor development, creative role-play, peer interaction, imagination,
social problem solving, symbolic representation, communication between peers
Expressive Art
Materials: Clay, tools to cut and mold the clay, markers, crayons, colored pencils, scissors, dry
erase markers with dry erase board, beads, pipe cleaners, paint, paper
Rationale: To explore with hands and tools to promote sensory awareness, increase fine motor
skills and hand strength, foster social relationships as children observe and work together with
their peers, engage in an in-depth investigation of the basic elements of art. To encourage the
molding of creative ideas and representational objects.
Skills: Fine motor development (strength, coordination), creativity, symbolic representation,
sensory input, color recognition, identification of texture, creative problem solving, shape
identification
Science
Materials: Bird’s nests, pretend birds, hornet’s nests, magnifying glasses, fish, fish food, rocks,
rabbits, chickens, garden, garden tools, watering cans, cooking materials
Rationale: To support children’s curiosity of the natural world around us and to encourage the
investigation of nature. To encourage children to begin using different tools to observe, inquire,
and investigate. To encourage inquiry into the concepts of growth and development by using
observation to note the changes in living things: i.e. plants, animals, etc. To encourage children
to care-take for living things, and take pride and ownership in what they do. To encourage
children to make connections between different living things.
Skills: observation, scientific investigation and inquiry, outdoor/indoor connection, making
comparisons, caretaking, documentation of observations
Language and Literacy
Materials: variety of writing utensils, paper, a book of children’s names and pictures, alphabet
chart, fiction and nonfiction texts, including those that highlight friendship, manners,
cooperation, school, and the animals found at the farm.
Rationale: To involve children in writing, encourage familiarity with letters, and enable children
to copy their own names as well as their peers. To encourage reading time with peers and
teachers, encourage exploration of fiction and nonfiction texts. To encourage the use of books as
a source of information. To use familiar texts as a means of predicting, comparing, and
contrasting different stories.
Skills: receptive language, early literacy, predicting, listening, phonological awareness,
community building, letter recognition, fine motor, tracing, communication with peers