Preschool Explorers Discover the Desert With Ms. Nicole! (1 Day/Ages 3-6)

Learners will demonstrate the following skills: (Aligned with the Colorado Academic Standards/Colorado Early Learning and Development Guidelines) 

SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT:
*Social Relationships: Healthy interaction with adult and peers
* Self Concept and Self Efficacy: The perception that one is capable of successfully making decisions, accomplishing tasks, and meeting goals.
ENGLISH LANGUAGE DEVELOPMENT:
* Engagement in English Literacy Activities: Understanding and responding to books, storytelling and songs presented in English.
* Expressive Language: The ability to use language.
PHYSICAL DEVELOPMENT:
* Gross Motor Skills: The control of large muscles for movement, navigation and balance.
* Fine Motor Skills: The control of small muscles (utensils, self-care, building and exploring) 
LITERACY KNOWLEDGE AND SKILLS
* Book Appreciation and Knowledge: The interest in books and their characteristics, and the ability to understand and get meaning from stories and information from books and other texts.
* Phonological Awareness: An awareness that language can be broken into words, syllable and smaller pieces of sound.
* Print Concept and Conventions: The concepts about print and early decoding.
* Symbolic Representation: The use of symbols of objects to represent something else.
* Reasoning and Problem Solving: The ability to recognize, understand, and analyze a problem and draw on knowledge or experience to seek solutions to a problem.
MATHEMATICS KNOWLEDGE AND SKILLS
* Number Concepts and Quantities: The understanding that numbers represent quantities and have ordinal properties (number words represent a rank order, particular size, or position in a list).
* Number Relationships and Operations: The use of numbers to describe relationships and solve problems.
SCIENCE KNOWLEDGE AND SKILLS
* Scientific Skills and Method: The skills to observe and collect information and use it to ask questions, predict, explain and draw conclusions.
* Conceptual Knowledge of the Natural and Physical World: The acquisition of concepts and facts related to the natural and physical world and the understanding of naturally-occurring relationships.
SOCIAL STUDIES KNOWLEDGE AND SKILLS:
* Self, Family, and Community: The understanding of one's relationship to the family and community, roles in the family and community and respect for diversity.
* People and the Environment: The understanding of the relationship between people and the environment in which they live.
CREATIVE ARTS
* Music: The use of voice and instruments to create sounds.
* Creative Movement and Dance: The use of the body to move to music and express oneself.
* Art: The use of a range of media and materials to create drawings, pictures, or other objects.
APPROACHES TO LEARNING
* Initiative and Curiosity: And interest in varied topics and activities, a desire to learn, creativity and independence in learning.
* Cooperation: An interest and engagement in group experiences.

* Bring an object to class that represents the desert for "Show and Share"!
* Wear something that is "desert" related to class!  (t shirt w/ picture of desert animal/landscape/plant, hat, etc.)
* Bring ingredients for "desert snack" to class today.  (1cracker (graham or any "brownish" cracker is preferred) in a plastic/paper/cloth bag or cup. Spoon optional but very helpful if using a cup!)
*All items are optional but are intentionally planned to support learning with all of our 5 senses in the classroom!

45 minutes per week in class, and an estimated 0 - 1 hours per week outside of class.