Unit 9: Wonderful Water

Sing the greeting song. Signal a child to say his or her name and have others acknowledge the child with a cheer. Repeat until every child is included.

Introduce evaporation. Have children think about their experiences with evaporation.   

Children paint with ice cubes and trace puddles with chalk to observe the water evaporate.

Play the PEEP and the Big Wide World live-action video “Painting with Water.” Discuss the explorations in the video clip with children.

Play the Between the Lions video “Mrs. McNosh Hangs Up Her Wash.” Discuss how the water in the clothes evaporates.

Read the poem “Silly, Silly Mrs. McNosh.” Invite children to recite it with you.

Read a favorite story or concept book about water. Make connections to children’s explorations with water.

Use the Target Letter and Word Routine to introduce children to the letter “Uu” and the word up.

Tell children to clap when they hear a word that begins with the short /u/ sound.

Use the Sandpaper Writing Routine to help children being to “write” the letter “Uu.”

Send a Family Connection letter home with children.

Sing the greeting song. Hold up a name card and have child recognize and say his or her name. Repeat for every child.

Review using an eyedropper and discuss how the water comes out of it.

Have children explore squirting or dripping to make drops. Encourage them to notice how drops flow, drop size, shape, and how many.

Read the story and have children listen to all the silly things Mrs. McNosh washes and hangs up to dry.

Have children identify clothing articles that absorb water and dictate or write a caption about it.

Play the Between the Lions video “I Like It When It’s Mizzly.” Focus children on the weather in the poem.

Children play the Peep and the Big Wide World interactive game “Fish Swish” and count how many balloons Quack needs for his friends.

Use the “Silly, Sill Mrs. McNosh” poem chart to help children hear, recognize, and identify rhyming words.

Help children practice writing the letter “Uu.”

Sing the greeting song. Hold up a name card and have that child clap the syllables in his or her name. Repeat until every child is included.

Have children think about where they have seen water drops form.

Search outdoors for water flowing down or dripping off surfaces. Have children explore dripping water with their hands.

Have children use eyedroppers to squirt and drip water drops on a smooth, vertical surface and compare how the drops flow.

Gather children around a faucet and follow the water activity as the text describes.

Play the Between the Lions video “Doo Wop (short u).” Clarify that the singers use the letter sound /u/ to make music.  

Help children pair the rhyming picture cards and hang them on a clothesline.  

Use the Letters in Our Names Routine to help children recognize the letter “Uu” in their names.

Sing the greeting song. Hold up a photo of a child and have child clap out the syllables in his or her name. Repeat for every child.

Gather children around the faucet and have them describe how the drops form as water drips from the faucet.

Have children explore how water drops behave on different surfaces.   

Have children continue to explore how water drops stick together, and how water drops behave on different surfaces.

Play the Between the Lions video “Mrs. McNosh Hangs Up Her Wash” again. Explain the word wring.

Reread the story. Ask children to recall events and tell what the main idea of the story is.

Have children find hats that go in the laundry and absorb water. Allow them to toss the hats into a laundry basket.

Play the Between the Lions video “Vowelles and Johnny Consonanti: ‘u’ from ‘up.’” Discuss how singers use the sound of the word up to make music.

Give children hints to play a guessing game about words from this unit about water.

Help children practice writing the word up.

Sing the greeting song. Hold up a name card and have children stomp the syllables in the name. Repeat until each child has been acknowledged.  

Review with children the “What Absorbs Water?” chart they completed on Day 2.

Add new materials to explore with and have children continue to explore how water drops behave on different surfaces.

Read the story and have children look for all the different ways water moves in the story.

Sing the song and act out the motions with children. Then invite them to add additional verses.

Chant the poem and do the hand motions with children.

Hide the letters from “Aa” to “Zz” for children to find. Have each child present his or her letter(s) and match them to the alphabet chart.   

Call out words from the week and have children jump once for each syllable in a word.

Read alliterative phrases from the book All the Water in the World. Ask children to identify the beginning sounds.

Guide children to write the word up several times on their own.

Revisit the charts, objects, and pictures from the week.  Review absorb, evaporation, water drops and drips, “Uu,” /u/, and up.

Send a Family Connection letter home with children.