Week 15 Lesson Plan for Homeschooling Preschool

Literacy

Objectives:

• Identifies uppercase and lowercase O
  
  
• Tells the main sound of /o/
  
  
• Understands that words make up a sentence

Parent instructions

Choose one activity a day with the exception of #1, which should be done a few times a week if possible.

Activities

• Say the ABCs using your chart from beginning to end once a day, pointing to each letter as you say it. After going through all the letters, ask your child to find this week’s letter—O. Look at and have them trace with their finger the upper and lowercase examples. Tell your child that O is a vowel, which is a special type of letter that can make lots of sounds. Explain that you will be learning its short sound. Say, “O says /o/ like octopus.” Try to ask your child a few times a week (during bathtime, driving in the car, etc.) to tell you the short sound of O. (Don’t forget to include some previously learned letters, especially those vowels!) If they need help or say it incorrectly, model the correct way by repeating, “O says /o/ like octopus.” Always say it with its example word. (Estimated Time: 5 minutes)
  
  
• Os are fun and simple letters to practice writing or tracing. If you have circular puzzle pieces or cookie cutters, your child may enjoy tracing and then coloring those. You can also use jar lids. Try tracing circles in a variety of sizes or tracing a stack of circles and turning it into a snowman. If your child is not comfortable holding a pencil yet, they can trace with finger paints or trace in a tray of sand. Make sure they are starting near the top and tracing in a counter-clockwise direction. (Estimated Time: 5-10 minutes)
  
  
• Complete a “Find the Letter” worksheet to locate all the upper and lowercase Os. Use a marker, highlighter, or dauber to mark all the letters they find. (Estimated Time: 5 minutes)
  
  
• Draw or trace a large circle on a piece of paper and have your child add eight legs and a friendly face to make it an octopus. This will help reinforce the short sound of O. If you’d like, you can glue on googly eyes and add pom-poms or fingerprint dots for the “suckers” on the legs. (Estimated Time: 10 minutes)
  
  
• During reading time, begin to point out to your child what makes up a sentence. Show them how it is a group of words that begins with an uppercase letter and ends with a punctuation mark. Tell them that a sentence is a group of words that expresses a complete thought. Give them examples of what a sentence sounds like in spoken language, too. “Let’s go to the grocery store.” “That is a cute dog!” Count the words in a sentence. It can be a sentence in a book, a song, or something one of you just said. Go over this several times throughout the week. (Estimated Time: 10 minutes throughout the week)

Math

Objectives:

• Continued from Week 12: Counts objects up to 100
  
  
• Creates own simple repeating patterns
  
  
• Divides an object in half

Parent instructions

We will continue practicing counting to 100 to reinforce this important skill, but, depending on your child’s interest and mastery levels, you can place this activity on the back burner in favor of working on our new objectives.

Activities

• Count all the way to 100 on the 100s chart, pointing to each number as you count. (Estimated Time: 3 minutes)
  
  
• Complete a counting to 100 worksheet. (Estimated Time: 5 minutes)
  
  
• Building on your previous playtime with repeating patterns, offer your child pattern blocks, Legos, colorful paperclips, or different types of coins, and let them experiment with making their own repeating patterns. Challenge them to create a pattern for you to extend. Demonstrate this if necessary. (Estimated Time: 10 minutes)
  
  
• Let your child practice dividing things in half. Remind them that “half” means—two equal pieces. Emphasize that, in order to be half, the pieces must be equal or the same size. When they divide something, prompt them to compare the pieces to see whether they are halves. Try:
  
  - Physical objects: cookies, crackers, a piece of bread, or a Play-Doh shape.
  - Objects in bulk or liquid form: dividing an amount of cereal pieces into two piles (beginner), or dividing a cup of juice by pouring it equally into two other cups (advanced).
  - On paper: dividing a shape or picture into two halves by drawing a line down the center. (Estimated Time: 10 minutes)

Fine Motor

Activities:

• 1 open thumb web space activity
  
  
• 1 gross (cylindrical) grasp activity
  
  
• 1 pincer grasp activity
  
  
• 1 spherical grasp activity

Parent instructions

Choose one fine motor objective each day and then select an activity that practices that objective from the list in Appendix A. Feel free to choose more than one activity or work on more than one objective a day if you like! Just remember that little hands tire easily and short, regular practice sessions are better than long, sustained ones. (Estimated Time: 5-10 minutes)

Download the Appendix A that lists all the fine-motor activities.

Social-Emotional

Objectives:

• (Relationship skills) Recognizes the existence of a social conflict.
  
  
• (Responsible decision-making) With support, discusses and identifies possible solutions for a social/ethical problem

Activities

Choose one activity a day (Monday - Thursday)

• Watch a video or read a book that illustrates a social conflict (Estimated Time: 10-15 minutes)
  
  
• Talk with your child about any one social or ethical issue that concerns them the most and then research and figure out ways to solve the problem. Prepare an action plan. (e.g. Picking up garbage in your neighborhood to help the environment or donating to a local animal shelter to help animals in need. Our weekly project this week might work as it is about recycling!) If time is a constraint, you could choose to talk about possible solutions and wait to act on them until time permits. (Estimated Time: 30 minutes to 1 hour depending on the extent of your chosen activity)

Additional resources

• Click, Clack, Moo by Doreen Cronin
  
  
• Rita and Ralph's Rotten Day by Carmen Agra Deedy
  
  
• That's NOT How You Do It! by Ariane Hofmann-Maniyar
  
  
• THE RECESS QUEEN by Alexis O'Neill and Laura Huliska-Beith
  
  
• When I Feel Angry by Cornelia Maude Spelman
  
  
• Cool Down and Work Through Anger by Cheri J. Meiners
  
  
• Videos that illustrate social conflict:
  - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gl3e-OUnavQ 
  - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tw_nQ4x19Eo