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Focus on 3s

Unit 2

World of Color

Illustration by Grace Lin from Red is a Dragon

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This is an interactive slide deck.

Go at your own pace, following the prompts in blue.

If possible, arrange a time to work virtually with a colleague.

Welcome & Logistics

Illustration by Peter H. Reynolds from Sky Color

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Review the Classroom Environment Checklist .
Think about what is on the walls of your classroom:

What evidence do we see of learning in Unit 1?

Think about classroom routines and structures that are in place and how they are working.
Make a plan:

What next step(s) might I take to support teaching and learning going forward? Reflect on your own or with a colleague.

Pause, reflect, and plan

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The Focus Curriculum is connected to all of the components of the Equitable Literacy Wheel

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Children use what they know and the language they have in order to make sense of and expand their knowledge and vocabulary.

Children read books

that they connect to and that give them new ideas about the world and their role in it.

Children learn to express their ideas in writing.

Children learn to read by learning about letters, sounds, words, and sentences.

Children read books that have meaningful ideas that are shared using powerful language.

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Unit 2: World of Color

Orient yourself to Unit 2. Read the Unit 2 Introduction and the Arc of the Unit linked in slides 7-11.

What’s familiar?

What questions do you have?

Reflect on your own or with a colleague.

Illustration by John Parra from Green is a Chile Pepper

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Fo3s Units of Study (each 6-8 weeks long)

Unit 5:

Growing and Changing

Unit 4:

Shadows and Reflections

Unit 2:

World of Color

Unit 1:

Families and Friends

Unit 3:

Wind and Water

Throughout the year: Exploring with our Senses

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Focus on PreK Alignment Across the Year

The Focus on 3s and 4s curricula start and end the year with similar Unit topics. The mid-year units differ but overlap and share some related Big Ideas. This will make it possible for teachers to use resources across the curricula if they wish; connections across will be embedded in curricula documents.

	September - October	November - December	January - February	March - April	May - June
3s	Family and Friends	World of Color	Wind and Water	Shadows and Reflections	Growing and Changing
	Across the year: Exploring with Our Senses

4s	Together in Our Community	Building Our Working City	Animals All Around	Growing and Changing
	Across the year: Observing Weather

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This is a sample and should be adapted for your program.

By Unit 2, all components of the curriculum should be happening daily

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Unit 2 Big Ideas and Guiding Questions

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Big Ideas
Color is a property of many natural and human-made things. We can all communicate about colors. There is an infinite variety of colors. Colors can be mixed to make new colors. Foundational Understandings to Access Big Ideas
Guiding Questions
What colors do we notice all around us? How can we explore and communicate ideas and feelings through colors? What happens when we mix colors together? How do colors provide information?
Project
Color Party The unit concludes with a Color Party, a celebration of learning that invites families to come celebrate this colorful unit with their children. Children make colorful and healthy soup, create colorful decorations, write invitations to their families/caregivers, and display their work from across the unit to celebrate the colors in their neighborhoods and communities.

Unit 2 lasts 6 weeks. Check out the full Unit 2 Arc here

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Read the Unit 2 introduction first, and pay special attention to the sociocultural considerations.

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To understand how a particular text works in the unit to support knowledge building, vocabulary, and language development, and writing goals, and to address standards:

Browse the books on the next slide by clicking on the images. What do you notice about them?

Book Browsing

Illustration by Vashti Harrison from Festival of Colors

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Unit 2 Texts

Explore the Unit 2 books - click on each book to preview.

Note that My Autumn Book sadly went out of print - you can still find plans to use it if you have a copy.

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Read Aloud Highlights

Review the Read Aloud plans linked to the right.
Note: In Week 2, Green is a Chile Pepper and Red is a Dragon both focus on multilingualism and color. Choose one, or read both, depending on what makes sense for your community.
Riding the MBTA is a book written by and for BPS children and teachers! Print a copy and bind it to make a book, and you can also use the linked slides to project if you prefer.
Song in the City features a main character who has low vision. If talking about this topic is new to you, be sure to read the guidance in the Read Aloud plan. The Black Book of Colors in the Library and Listening Center complements this read by inviting children to explore the concept of color through tactile pictures and braille text.
Revisit the Read Alouds introductory document for more ideas to use across the curriculum

Pause and reflect about Read Alouds:

What is the purpose of each read?

What objectives/standards are being addressed?

Thinking about the children in your class, how will you engage with these texts?

From Read Alouds Intro Doc:

Each Read Aloud text is read more than one time, according to its purpose and its complexity.

The prompts in a given lesson depend on the nature of the text and the objectives of the

particular Read Aloud experience; children are supported to consider a range of literal and

inferential questions. Generally, the first read is a fluent reading of the entire text with an emphasis on reading for what the text is mostly about. Successive Read Aloud lessons may

continue the focus on an entire text, while in others, teachers and children pause to deeply

analyze one section of a text.

Sometimes Read Alouds are centered around a certain strategy for analyzing text, like asking

and answering questions. At other times, children chime in during Read Alouds in order to

support phonological awareness. Children may also reconstruct texts, along with the teacher, by

acting them out. Character puppets are offered as an additional resource for children to act out

the stories, both during Read Aloud and in the Library and Listening Center.

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Character Puppets

Each read aloud book comes with a set of Character Puppets. Use the puppets during Read Alouds to engage children, and in the Library and Listening Center to retell stories.

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Community Meeting

Image: https://www.kidsyogastories.com/magical-creatures-yoga/

New ideas for Mindful Practices and Games each week. Remember to use the visual supports, and to integrate Problem Stories as needed.

How is your Community Meeting routine going? What will you continue, add, or change in Unit 2?

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Centers

Dramatic Play

Writing and Drawing

Art Studio

Blocks

Science and Engineering

Library and Listening

Math

All Centers should be open daily. Centers change weekly or bi-weekly.

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Centers - Weeks 1-3

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Centers	Week 1	Week 2	Week 3
Art Studio	Nature Arrangements	Nature Arrangements Part 2	Mixing Primary Colors
Blocks	Building Autumn Trees	Building Autumn Trees Part 2	Building Treehouses
Dramatic Play	Making Soup	Making Soup Part 2	All Are Welcome Clubhouse
Library and Listening	Exploring Fall Texts	Storytelling with Props: Strictly No Elephants	Exploring Emotions
Math	Autumn Leaves	Collecting Leaves	Bead Bracelets
Science and Engineering	Playdough Color Mixing	Class S oup	Five Senses Exploration: Color Walk
Writing and Drawing	Favorite Foods	Multilingual Color Poem or Book	Observational Drawings Color Party Invitations

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Centers - Weeks 4-6

Centers	Week 4	Week 5	Week 6
Art Studio	Skin Tone Color Mixing	Action Painting	Action Painting Part 2
Blocks	Building Treehouses Part 2	Trains	Trains Part 2
Dramatic Play	All Are Welcome Clubhouse Part 2	Trains and Buses	Trains and Buses Part 2
Library and Listening	Storytelling with Props - Dog’s Colorful Day	Black Book of Colors	Book Reviews
Math	Is it a Triangle?	Shape Memory	How Many Trains?
Science and Engineering	Making Powdered Paint Colors from Flowers Part 1	Colorful Oobleck	Making Powdered Paint Colors from Flowers Part 2
Writing and Drawing	Observational Drawings Part 2	Neighborhood Color Book	Neighborhood Color Book Part 2

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Art/Play in the Art Studio

Art/Play experiences in Weeks 1, 2, 5, and 6 of the unit include an Artist Resource. Inspire children by showing examples of contemporary artists in action.

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Math during Centers

Math experiences continue to align with Building Blocks and are integrated into Centers. All materials you need for the learning experiences are included as Color Resources.
Use your Building Blocks Teacher’s Guide to reference additional resources and more support as needed

Building Blocks Webinar

From Read Alouds Intro Doc:

Each Read Aloud text is read more than one time, according to its purpose and its complexity.

The prompts in a given lesson depend on the nature of the text and the objectives of the

particular Read Aloud experience; children are supported to consider a range of literal and

inferential questions. Generally, the first read is a fluent reading of the entire text with an emphasis on reading for what the text is mostly about. Successive Read Aloud lessons may

continue the focus on an entire text, while in others, teachers and children pause to deeply

analyze one section of a text.

Sometimes Read Alouds are centered around a certain strategy for analyzing text, like asking

and answering questions. At other times, children chime in during Read Alouds in order to

support phonological awareness. Children may also reconstruct texts, along with the teacher, by

acting them out. Character puppets are offered as an additional resource for children to act out

the stories, both during Read Aloud and in the Library and Listening Center.

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Science and Engineering during Centers

The year-long study Five Senses Exploration continues. In Week 3, children go on a walk to observe color using their eyes, or another strong sense if they are low-vision. Use the Five Senses Journal introduced in Unit 1 for children to record what they notice.

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Center Language Supports and Visuals

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There is a Center Language Support for every Center, and many visuals and adapted resources available with this unit.

Pause and reflect about Centers:

What Centers are you most excited about in Unit 2?

How will you use the Center Language Supports and Visuals?

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Adapted Resources

Adapted resources are provided for each read aloud and with many Centers. Consult with the child’s educational team to decide which to use.

Pause and reflect about Adapted Resources:

How have you used the Adapted Resources so far?

What questions do you have?

Access more Adapted Resources by clicking this link.

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Use this Observation Notes sheet to document and record children’s learning during Centers. Make copies to keep around the room, or on a clipboard to carry with you.

Have you tried using the Observation Notes yet?

What strategies are you using to document and reflect on learning?

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Foundational Literacy

Keep going with Heggerty! You should be starting Week 6 at the beginning of Unit 2.

Begin using these FL support cards during Centers to reinforce phonological awareness during play. Cut the cards apart and keep on a ring for easy access.

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Family Letters and Notes

Send home the Family Letter at the start of the unit. Family Notes go home every-other-week and include activities. Translations are available on the website.

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Thinking & Feedback

Thinking and Feedback continues as a daily routine that supports children to:

reflect on their learning
engage in conversations about their work
give and receive feedback and ideas

A routine with visuals guides Thinking and Feedback time.

For 3s, build up the process gradually, starting with the first 3 steps, then add over time.

When children are confident with the routine, they can lead Thinking and Feedback.

Teachers take notes and share back with children the following day to inspire their ongoing playful learning.

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Storytelling & Story Acting Guide

Visit this website for video examples, resources, and more!

ST/SA happens every day!

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How is teaching Foundational Literacy going for you so far? What is one thing you could extend in Unit 2?
How have families and caregivers responded to the Family Letters and Notes? How will you connect with families in Unit 2?
What successes have you had so far with Thinking and Feedback? How will you continue this practice?
What is your current routine for Storytelling and Story Acting? What has been most joyful about this practice so far? What are you wondering about?

Pause, reflect, and plan

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Illustration by Grace Lin from Red is a Dragon

We hope you enjoy exploring the World of Color with your learners. Thank you for all that you do!

Reach out to your coach or to the Department of Early Childhood with any questions.

Early Childhood contact: Megina Baker

mbaker3@bostonpublicschools.org