Pre-Kindergarten Teaching Center
Theme-based learning for preschoolers
Here is everything you need to teach each week's issue.
 Week 1
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 Week 2
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 Week 3
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 Week 4
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Get children excited about going to school.
National Standard
Social Studies (NCSS)
Individuals, groups, and institutions
Goal
Students will learn about many activities they might engage in at school.
Objective
Students will be able to identify smaller pictures within a larger scene.
Link
Find activities and lessons geared toward preschool-aged children.
Literature Connection
• Cornelius P. Mud, Are You Ready for School? by Barney Saltzberg
• Maisy Goes to Preschool, by Lucy Cousins
• Mouse’s first day of School, by Lauren Thompson
• My Preschool, by Anne Rockwell
• Will You Come Back for Me? by Ann Tompert
A Poem to Share
At School Today
What will we do at school today?
Write some words, go out to play?
Maybe then we’ll sing and draw
Or talk about a bug we saw.
We’ll have a snack and story time
Then write our numbers in a line.
Each thing we do helps us know
We’re learning so much as we grow!
—Susan LaBella
Before Reading
Make Connections: Invite children to list things that they already know about school. Ask: What would you like to learn? How do you feel about starting
a new year at school?
Background Information
• Invite children to preview the issue by looking at the photos. Ask them to look at the headline. Then read the headline aloud, reminding children to follow along, moving from left to right.
• Help students establish a purpose when reading by asking questions such as: Why is looking carefully at the pictures important? Why is listening when being read to important?
• Encourage children to take a “picture walk”—to look at and think about each picture before reading or being read to.
• Encourage small groups of children to discuss what they think the issue is about.
• Prepare children for the issue by discussing how they travel to school. Make a list of the various ways (car, bus, and so on). Then invite students to describe things they see every day as they travel to and from school.
During Reading
Practice Letter Recognition: Introduce or reinforce letter and sight word recognition. Encourage children to look for and identify letters or words in the text that they recognize. For students who may have trouble identifying letters, invite them to find two letters in the text that are the same.
After Reading
Get Moving: Take children on a tour of the building. If your program is in a school, visit other classrooms.
Language Arts/Art Extension: Write the students’ names on individual paper grocery bags. You may want to have students write their names themselves,
offering help if needed. Provide assorted art and collage materials, paint, and construction paper for children to decorate the bags. Have each child take his or her bag home, put a few special things inside, and bring it back to school. Give each child time to show the things in his or her bag to the other children.
Vocabulary Extension: Gather color sample strips from a paint store. Cut them into separate color blocks. Store the colors in a box. Invite children to sort shades of the same color into containers. Discuss the shades. Guide students to compare shades, using words such as light, dark, bright, and dull.
Adaptation: Help children develop print awareness by guiding them in learning to recognize their own names in print (and the individual letters that make up their names). Children who are able to recognize their names in print quickly learn to make connections between the letters in their names and the letters in other words. Write each child’s name on sentence strips. Laminate the pieces, and place them in a pocket chart. Invite children to sort them based on the same first letter or other similarities.
Engage children in a lesson on apples.
National Standard
Science (NSES)
Life cycle of organisms
Goal
Children will learn about apples and where they come from.
Objective
Children will be able to identify the picture in each row that differs from the others.
Link
Find more apple-related activities.
Literature Connection
• A Apple Pie, by Kate Greenaway
• Apple Pie ABC, by Alison Murray
• Five Little Apples, by Yusuke Yonezu
• Four Red Apples, by David McKee
• Pepo and Lolo and the Red Apple, by Ana Martin Larrañaga
A Poem to Share
Apple Play
Apples, apples, one, two, three
(hold up fingers, one at a time)
High up in the apple tree.
(stretch arms overhead)
I shook the tree and down fell two,
(pretend to shake tree, hold up two fingers)
Just enough for me and you!
(point to self, point to friend)
—Marie E. Cecchini
Before Reading
Make Predictions: Hold up an apple. Invite children to discuss what they know about apples. Display the cover of the issue. Ask students what they think
they will be reading about.
Background Information
• An apple is a type of fruit. All fruits have seeds.
• Apples grow on apple trees. An orchard is a place where apple trees grow.
• An apple tree usually starts bearing fruit when it is 4 or 5 years old. Apple trees can grow as tall as 40 feet. They need plenty of sunlight and water.
• Every apple tree grows buds. A bud blooms into a flower. After the petals of the flower fall off, an apple appears.
• Apples grow during the summer. When apples are ripe, they are ready to be picked. People pick apples in the fall. That is called the harvest.
• An apple contains about five seeds.
• On average, each American eats about 19 pounds of apples each year.
• Apples can be used to make many different types of foods, such as apple pie, applesauce, apple juice, apple cobbler, and apple butter.
During Reading
Discuss Details: Invite children to discuss what is going on in each photo. Begin by pointing to the first photo. Ask: Where do apples grow? How do you know? Continue with the other photos.
After Reading
Draw Conclusions: Invite children to think about the photos in the issue and about what they know about apples. Encourage them to name different ways that they can get apples.
Science: Cut up slices of several different varieties of apples. Set a bowl of each variety at a different table. Encourage children to try a slice at each table. Then invite each child to sit at the table with his or her favorite variety of apple. As a class, count how many children are at each table. Then ask questions such as How many children like the apples at table 1? Which kind of apple is the most popular? Note: Be aware of food allergies.
Language Arts Extension: Introduce sensory words through a five-senses apple activity. Gather two or three different kinds of apples. Pass around the apples for children to feel and inspect. Invite them to describe the apples. On an easel pad, record children’s responses. Then cut the apples, and encourage children to sample them. Discuss the sound, smell, and taste of the apples. Again, record children’s responses on an easel pad. Note: Be aware of food allergies.
Adaptation: Place several different varieties of apples in a basket. Invite children to count them, sort them by color, or place them in size order. Remind children not to eat these apples, because they have been handled by many people.
Teach students about colors in a classroom setting.
National Standard
Social Studies (NCSS)
People, places, and environments
Goal
Children will learn or review the names of different colors.
Objective
Children will be able to match an item of a particular color with the color word.
Link
Let children play an interactive color-sorting game.
Literature Connection
• The Color Kittens, by Margaret Wise Brown
• Little Quack Loves Colors, by Lauren Thompson
• Mouse Paint, by Ellen Stoll Walsh
• Skippyjon Jones: Color Crazy, by Judy Schachner
• White Rabbit’s Color Book, by Alan Baker
A Poem to Share
Colors and Creatures
Camels and beavers are brown.
Deer and raccoons are brown too.
Flamingos are pink; elephants are gray.
Bluejays and bluebirds are blue.
Frogs are green, and seals are black;
Polar bears are white as snow.
Can you think of some different colors
Of other creatures you know?
—Vivian Gouled
Before Reading
Set the Stage: Place a basket and several plastic cups in a learning center. Fill the basket with different colored pom-poms, blocks, balls, or other items. Invite children to take the items out of the basket one by one and to sort them into the cups by color. Encourage children to say the colors of the objects as they place them in the cups. You may choose to encourage each child to find other items in the room that are the same color as the item he or she is holding.
Background Information
• Learning about colors and their names helps children understand the world around them. For example, when a child repeatedly observes that the car he or she rides in stops at a red light, he or she will learn that the color red means “stop.”
• According to the National Association for the Education of Young Children, children should be given the opportunity to touch objects of different colors, sizes, and patterns.
• Children should be able to categorize items by color or other attributes.
During Reading
Identify Sight Words: Encourage children to point to the color words in the text. Guide them in finding the words by letting them know that each color word appears in the color it names.
After Reading
Explore Color Further: Divide the class into small groups, and give each group paper, paintbrushes, and small cups of red, blue, and yellow paint. Invite them to experiment with mixing different colors.
Language Arts Extension: Create a color wheel on sturdy paper or poster board. Cut out the wheel, and display it where children can reach. Label
clothespins with the names of each of the colors on the wheel. Invite children to work together in small groups to attach the clothespins to the appropriate wedges on the color wheel. To scaffold this activity, write the color words on the clothespins using colored ink that corresponds to the color name.
Kinesthetic Extension: Invite children to go on a scavenger hunt in the classroom to find items of a specific color. For example, say: “Please find something green.” Let all children get up. Encourage each child to find a different item that is green.
Adaptation: Invite each child to choose a piece of colored construction paper. Pass out magazines, and ask the children to cut out photos of items whose
color matches their papers. Ask them to glue the pictures onto the papers to make colorful collages. Invite each child to share the color and names of the items he or she chose.
Engage children in a lesson about forest animals.
National Standard
Science (NSES)
Organisms and environments
Goal
Children will learn about animals that live in the forest.
Objective
Children will be able to identify the animals in a forest scene.
Link
Show children an animated movie about forest animals.
Literature Connection
• At the Edge of the Woods: A Counting Book, by Cynthia Cotten
• Creatures of the Woods, by Toni Eugene
• Forest Friends’ Five Senses, by Cristina Garelli
• Noisy Forest, by Harriet Ziefert
• Who’s in the Forest? by Phillis Gershator
A Poem to Share
Squirrel Hunts
Squirrel hunts for nuts
To save each day
In his treetop
Hideaway.
When winter comes
And autumn ends
He shares his food
With his furry friends.
—Carol Quinn
Before Reading
Set the Stage: Explain that the class will be learning about the forest. Ask: What do you know about forests? What do you know about the animals that live in the forest? Make a list or use a graphic organizer to record the information.
Background Information
• Squirrels have front teeth that never stop growing. That allows them to gnaw on things without their teeth wearing down completely.
• Raccoons often dunk their food in water before eating it. That gives the appearance that they are washing the food.
• Northern cardinals are redbirds with crests on their heads. The male is a brighter red than the female. A female is shown on page 3 of the student edition.
• Brown bears use their long, sharp claws to dig dens where they hibernate during the winter.
• Red foxes eat small rodents and other animals, as well as fruits and vegetables.
• Male deer are called bucks. Each year, bucks grow antlers that fall off during the winter. Female deer are called does, and young deer are called fawns.
During Reading
Make Predictions: Invite children to discuss what they think each of the animals in the issue might do to prepare for the colder months. List their responses.
After Reading
Compare and Contrast: Encourage children to think about the previous season of summer. Invite them to make comparisons between the two seasons.
Mathematics Extension: Make flash cards with pictures of different forest animals. Invite children to sort the animals by type of animal, number of legs,
or body covering.
Science Extension: Explain that squirrels and other animals often collect items such as acorns and bury them for future use. Supply children with acorns or something to represent acorns. Encourage them to dig holes in the sand at the sand table to hide the acorns. Later that day, invite them to try to remember where they hid the acorns and to dig them up.
Language Arts Extension: Invite children to think of other things that might happen during the fall. Write each suggestion on the bottom of a sheet of paper. Invite children to draw illustrations for each sentence. Use the pages to create a class book about fall.
Adaptation: Obtain several stuffed animals, such as bears, foxes, and squirrels. Make a “cave” out of a blanket or create another arrangement for children
to pretend that they are in an animal’s den in the forest. You may choose to let children take turns sleeping with the animals during nap time.
Pre-Kindergarten Teaching Centers, 2011-12
Print your November Teacher's Guide PDF here.
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Print your October Teacher's Guide PDF here.
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Print your September Teacher's Guide PDF here.
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