September Pacing Guide

Oral Language & Concept Development

Morning Meeting

• Introduce children to whole group routines: gathering as a group, sitting and listening, transitioning to the next activity.
• Introduce a visual schedule.

Read Alouds

• Introduce read aloud routines of sitting and listening. Begin by encouraging children to sing along to familiar songs, fingerplays, and rhymes using hand gestures and body movements.
• Introduce simple, repetitive texts.

Vocabulary

• Model and support social language and conversation norms, i.e., Listening and taking turns.

Fine Motor, Drawing & Writing

Fine Motor

• Offer explicit presentation of fine motor activities and tools.
• Introduce pom-pom transfer, a pincer grip strengthening activity.

Mark Making

• Encourage children to engage in mark making activities. Provide mark making tools and materials for children: crayons, golf pencils, chalk, and paper.

Sensory

• Invite children to use playdough to strengthen fine motor skills: rolling, pinching, poking, squeezing, making little balls of playdough.

Expressive & Written Language

Expressive Writing

• When providing children with mark making tools and materials, encourage them to describe their mark makings and take dictation.

Environmental Print

• Support children to notice that words can be read and convey meaning and that they can be written in different languages.
• Point to text as it is read on the visual daily schedule.

Speaking & Listening

• Model and support social language and conversation norms, i.e., listening, and taking turns.
• Value different communication styles and ways of interacting, e.g. non-verbal communication, tone, and modulation.

Phonological & Phonemic Awareness

Alphabet Knowledge

• Support children in noticing that their names are made up of letters.

Phonological Awareness

• Support children in noticing that our names are made up of different sounds.
• Support children in noticing the beginning sounds in their names, e.g. /j/ /j/ Jayden!

Oral Language & Concept Development

Morning Meeting

• Encourage children to follow along while reading a simple morning message.
• Reference the visual schedule.

Read Alouds

• Continue to read simple, repetitive texts such as Say Hello by Rachel Isadora. Add 1-2 text dependent recall questions, i.e., What did Carmelita want to get at the bakery?
• Offer explicit presentation of book handling skills and caring for books.

Vocabulary

• Introduce classroom community language, i.e., Make a choice, line up.

Fine Motor, Drawing & Writing

Fine Motor

• Invite children to engage in bilateral hand-eye work – vertical surface work at the easel and/or walls.

Mark Making

• Offer explicit presentation of mark making materials and tools.
• Introduce children to the pincer grip, i.e., sing the Handwriting without Tears song “Pick Up a Crayon.”

Sensory

• Introduce the sensory table with water and provide tools for pouring and transferring.

Expressive & Written Language

Expressive Writing

• Invite children to share more about their work with prompts such as: “Tell me about your drawing/writing?” “May I add labels and words to your work?”

Environmental Print

• Point to text as it is read in the morning message.
• During read aloud, point to specific text features: book title, author.

Speaking & Listening

• Add varied greetings to the morning message and morning meeting, i.e., say Hello in different languages, with different physical actions, e.g. high-5, fist bump, fish flop.

Phonological & Phonemic Awareness

Alphabet Knowledge

• Introduce name cards, i.e., attendance system, group spots, cubbies, name card rings.
• Play with moveable alphabets, e.g. magnetic letters, letters in sensory table, letter cookie cutters in playdough.

Phonological Awareness

• Continue to support children in noticing beginning sounds of their names and their peers, e.g. /j/ – /j/ Jayden and /j/ – /j/ Janira!
• Sing a song to play with initial sounds in children’s names, e.g. Willaby Wallaby.

Oral Language & Concept Development

Morning Meeting

• Add group games and listening activities, i.e., Just Like Me!
• Continue to reference the visual schedule.

Read Alouds

• Read high-interest texts (books with characters the children can relate to, familiar concepts, and topics that are of interest).

Vocabulary

• Introduce and explicitly teach vocabulary related to the Big Idea, i.e., Me and My Friends: same, different.

Fine Motor, Drawing & Writing

Fine Motor

• Continue bilateral hand-eye work–invite children to engage in paper tearing activities.

Mark Making

• Demonstrate and discuss how to make certain marks, such as lines, curves, and shapes.
• Provide writing materials across the classroom: dry erase boards and markers, clipboards and pencils, post-it notes, and small notebooks.

Sensory

• Introduce sand and sand tools for scooping, pouring, and transfer.

Expressive & Written Language

Expressive Writing

• Invite children to name and label classroom areas and materials.

Environmental Print

• Encourage children to notice environmental print around the school: Exit, office, bathroom, nurse.

Speaking & Listening

• Play games that encourage children to speak and listen. Sing call and response songs.

Phonological & Phonemic Awareness

Alphabet Knowledge

• Highlight the first letter of each child’s name on their name card.
• Introduce a posted alphabet with initial sound pictures, highlight initial letters of children’s names.

Phonological Awareness

• Support children in noticing rhymes by singing songs, e.g. Down by the Bay.

Oral Language & Concept Development

Morning Meeting

• Look and discuss group surveys, i.e., Question of the Day. “How did you get to school today?” (walk, car, bike, bus, train)
• Continue to reference the visual schedule.

Read Alouds

• Continue to read high-interest texts such as Say Hello by Rachel Isadora. Add 1-2 inferential questions, i.e., How did Carmelita’s neighbors feel when she greeted them?

Vocabulary

• Include explicit instruction of vocabulary in read alouds, i.e., Build Up/Build Back, visuals/props/ realia, acting out.

Fine Motor, Drawing & Writing

Fine Motor

• Continue bilateral hand-eye work–invite children to engage in beading work.

Mark Making

• Add high-interest word cards and name cards to classroom areas along with mark making materials.

Sensory

• Add a water wheel, funnels, and bottles to the water table for varied pouring and transferring activities.
• Add shovels and small vehicles for pushing and piling to sand.

Expressive & Written Language

Expressive Writing

• Co-create class books; invite children to make marks on a page with their name and photo.

Environmental Print

• Invite children to copy or replicate environmental print, e.g. letters, words, and images.

Speaking & Listening

• Play knock-knock games with names and photos to encourage children to practice saying the names of their classmates and engaging in discussions about their classroom community.

Phonological & Phonemic Awareness

Alphabet Knowledge

• Play games with letters and name cards, i.e., identifying and matching letters.

Phonological Awareness

• Continue singing rhyming songs, pausing to invite children to complete the rhyme, i.e., Have you ever seen a snake eating a _____?[cake]

Big Idea

• Math is numbers, shapes and patterns.
• Counting tells how many.
• Math can be explored through materials.
• Groups can be named with numbers.
• Early Math is Big: What is Math?

Objectives

• Begin to count verbally.
• Explore math in manipulatives and materials.
• Recognize and make groups of 2 or more. Organizing Toy Bears: By Color
• Quickly recognize the number of objects in small groups (subitize).

Whole Group

• Songs: This Old Man, When I Was One and other “counting forward” songs
• Building Blocks Songs and Chants
• Big Book: Where’s One?
• Books: The Very Hungry Caterpillar, etc.

Small Group

• Exploration and introduction to manipulatives for counting (p. 8)
• Assessing: Looking for counting skills
• 5-Corresponder / 6-Counter(Small Numbers) / 7-Producer (Small Numbers)

Hands On

• Exploring manipulatives From Tub to Tray
• Building
• Collections and sorting

Math Through the Year

• Counting Wand
• I See Numbers
• Attendance Routine: Number Sense

Key Daily Reflection Questions

• Why do we count?
• During activities: What did you do with the cubes?
• Where do you see numbers?

Big Idea

• Beginning counting
• Recognizing and making small groups (sorting)
• Exploring materials

Objectives

• Name the number of objects in a group up to 3.
• Verbally count groups of 2 or more with understanding.
• Recognize and make groups of one or more. One-to-One Correspondence
• Recognize the number of objects in small groups without counting (subitize).
• Produce simple rhythmic patterns.

Whole Group

• Song: When I Was One
• Games: Count and Move, Number Me Movement Counts: Counting Words
• Snapshots
• Books: The Very Hungry Caterpillar, etc.

Small Group

• Find and make groups Sets, Sorting and Classifying
• 1-Small Collection Namer / 3-Maker of Small Collections / 4-Perceptual Subitizer to 4 / 5-Perceptual Subitizer to 5

Hands On

• Exploring manipulatives
• Construction materials
• Find and make groups with different materials
• Collections and sorting

Math Through the Year

• Counting Jar
• I See Numbers

Key Daily Reflection Questions

• How many? How do you know? How do you know which has more/less?