January Planning

In January, we're going to focus on the letter C and how it can sound like /k/ or /s/.  


Concepts for January:


1.  COLORS:  We'll be using the Color Song by The Learning Station for our transition song.  See below for the video link to the Color Song.  Have your child point out the color blue one day while out and about.  Another day, point out as many red things as you can find.  Keep going with the rest.

2.  WHO QUESTIONS:  Who is wearing Red?  Blue?  Green? Yellow? Purple?  Orange?  Pink?  Brown?  Black?  White?


3.  FOLLOWING DIRECTIONS:  The Color Song give specific instructions on what to do if you are wearing a certain color.  Here is a great way to teach 1-step directions.  "If you are wearing red, shake your head."


4.  OPPOSITES:  hot/cold, big/little, fast/slow.


5.  DESCRIPTIVE WORDS:  along with colors and opposites for descriptive words, what else can we use?  We'll be talking a lot about "Cold" and what other words we can use:  icy, frosty, chilly, frozen, and snowy.


6.  Our last week will be all about cereal and descriptive words:  soft/crunchy, big/little, sweet/savory, hot/cold.  Snack time will involve cereal and talking about colors, shapes, size, and yummy/yucky.

December Week 3: Yummy Yucky Holiday Edition

Yummy Yucky is back!  We're going to use this book as a springboard to discuss yummy holiday food (candy canes, cookies, hot chocolate with marshmallows!) and yucky nonfoods (ornaments, tinsel, ribbons, pine needles, markers, paint, glitter, candle wax).  

What foods do you like to eat or drink?  I LOVE hot chocolate.....with whipped cream, not marshmallows, thankyouverymuch.  I love the homemade caramels I make for gifts every year.  I love the traditional Swedish foods from my ancestors - saffron buns, pepparkakor (think gingerbread cookies), and rice pudding with berry sauce.  Yum!!!

What foods do you not like?  I don't like marshmallows on sweet potatoes.  I don't like peas.  I don't like peanut butter (weird, I know).  

What about things we should NEVER put in our mouths, particularly things we decorate with around the holidays?  

Now is a good time to point out foods in magazines, foods you have for family dinners, and special treats your family receives or gives.  Smell them, feel them taste them.

Be sure to ask your children to sing the Must Be Santa song (click here for the post that has the video).

For snack time I'm bringing my hot chocolate maker and we're drinking hot chocolate with marshmallows (no marshmallows in mine).

ACTIVITY:  We're going caroling to the front office.  The children have been working hard on practicing their Must Be Santa song.  I'm eager to see how well they do with an unfamiliar audience.

Don't forget to wear your pajamas.  I'm wearing pajamas and slippers, too.  

Language Calendar

Once again the Moog Center for the Deaf put out a fabulous language calendar! You can download it and print it here.

December - Week 2: MAD! (and Happy and Sad)

Phoneme: /m/

Transition Song:  Must Be Santa (Raffi)

Concept:  Emotions.  What and How questions.  Opposites.

Materials:  Laminated M.  Laminated Santa pieces (See previous post).

Book:  How Do Dinosaurs Say I'm Mad?  by Jane Yolen and Mark Teague.

Song:  If You're Happy and You Know It Clap Your Hands.

Intro song and letter recognition as listed in previous posts.

Let's talk about "MAD!".  Show me your mad face.  Look at my mad face.  How do you know I'm mad?  Can you do a happy face?  Look at my happy face.  How do you know I'm happy?  Look at my sad face.  How do you know I'm sad?

What does your voice sound like when you are mad?  Is your voice loud or quiet?  Are your feet loud or quiet?

We're reading the book  How Do Dinosaurs Say I'm Mad?  by Yolen and Teague.  I ask the children on every page "Is this a good choice?"

Read the book together.  How can you tell Dinosaur is mad?  What did his parents do?  What did Dinosaur do next?

Sing the song together.  This song is adaptable.  We're going to have fun singing it like this:

1.  If you're happy and you know it clap your hands

2.  If you're sad and you know it cry boo-hoo

3.  If you're mad and you know it stomp your feet

4.  If you're silly and you know it make a silly face

Point out emotions of people around you.  Point out emotions of your child as they happen.  Don't ask "Are you happy?"  Tell them "You are happy.  I can see you smiling."  Label the emotion.

We're also singing Jim Gill's song I'm So Mad from his Album The Sneezing Song and Other.

Voice Volume and Preschoolers (It's usually loud!)

Preschoolers have a difficult time understanding vocal modulation.  Think Outdoor Voice (yelling is okay) versus Indoor Voice.  Then you have the voice you use in the library or at the movie theater (whisper) versus and Talking Voice (how loud you need to be to be heard at the table during Group Time).  In preschool, we have started talking about what voice to use at what time.  It is a good time to introduce the concept of loud and quiet.  

Now check out Leslie's book Quiet Loud.  She gives a lot of examples of quiet and loud.  We're going to be reading this book during Greeting Time, Snack Time, and at least one Large Group Time.  

December: Week 1

Subject:  M is for MUSIC

Phoneme: /m/

Transition Song:  Must Be Santa (Raffi)

Concept:  Music and Voices.  High and low.  Fast and Slow.  Loud and Soft.

Materials:  Laminated M.  Laminated Santa pieces (See previous post).

Letter recognition and pre-literacy/writing skills for letter M:  Use your pointer finger to trace the letter M.  Show me your pointer finger!  Ready?  Put it at the bottom of the letter M just like me.  "Draw up the mountain.  Go back down.  Back up the mountain and down to the town."  Repeat 2X.  Hold up letter M and in a loud voice:  "Give me a ME!  MAY! MY! MOW!  MOO!"  (Have kids repeat after every CV word.)
What words start with the Mmmmm sound?  Merry!  Moo!  Mine!  Mouse!  ME!  Whose name starts with the Mmmm sound?

Listen to the music!  (Play music that is loud/soft, high/low and discuss the concepts.)  Can you play loud?  Use tapping sticks to try tapping loud and soft.  Now use your voices like a fire engine siren and sing on an E vowel, siren up as high as you can and down as you can.  Yell.  Whisper.  What voices do you use outside?  In school?  In the library?

December Planning

I'm excited for this month.  Our transition son is "Must Be Santa" by Raffi.  There are so many concepts reinforced with this song:

1.  WHO QUESTIONS- this is a great introduction to the concept of WHO.  The song repeats "Who......" and then answers the question.  EX:  Who's got a beard that's long and white?  Santa has a beard that's long and white."  We can further this concept with concrete questions such as "Who is wearing blue today?", "Who painted a picture today?".  Later in the month, we'll add abstract questions such as "Who do we go to when we are sick?  They take our temperature and look in our nose and ears."

2.  PARTS/WHOLE - Parts make a whole.  In this case, the separate pieces we are putting together (beard, cap, red suit, red nose, boots) make up our Santa.  The children will take turns putting it together.

3.  COLORS - red suit, red cap, white beard, black boots.

4.  SEQUENCING - The song has a specific order to build the Santa.  This is great to help the children understand "What happens next?  What do we need next?"

The song is a bit fast for some of our language learners, so I will be singing it without music playing the first two weeks in order for the children to learn at a slower pace.  Then I'll add the Raffi music while the children take turn singing and putting it together.

And here is the song

New article and Happy Thanksgiving!

Many of the preschool children on my caseload have sensory issues when it comes to food. This is a tongue-in-cheek story of what may happen at your Thanksgiving table if you have a guest with food sensory challenges. Lighten up this year and be willing to put that ketchup bottle on your beautifully decorated table.  Here is another great article from Melanie Potock, M.A., CCC-SLP.  Click on the title below to be directed to the article.

If You Give My Picky Eater Some Turkey...

Article: Planning for Holiday Meals With A Picky Eater

A great article by Melanie Potock M.A. CCC-SLP from the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association on navigating your holiday meal with a picky eater.  Click here.

November: Week 4 - Yummy, Yucky

Subject:  T is for TURKEY (discussion of food)

Phoneme: /t/

Transition song: Gobble Gobble (The Thanksgiving Song) by Nooshi

Concept:  What is food and what is not.  Good food to eat.  New food to try.

Materials:  8x10 Laminated page with large letter T, book (see below), song (see below)



Follow the previous November large group format with transition song, and pre-literacy phoneme and writing skills for letter T.



This week, we're talking about food.  Thanksgiving is a time where children may be overwhelmed due to all the new foods on the table.  All month, we've sung about turkey, stuffing, and pumpkin pie while showing pictures.  This week we're talking about what is good to eat and what is not.

Yummy Yucky is a great book to talk about what is good or not.  This is preschool - we have children who eat crayons, who put toys in their mouths, and yes, even boogers (gross!).  This book addresses the crayons and boogers as well as sand, mud and a whole host of other nonfoods.  The book also addresses what foods your child may not eat but are yummy - great for picky eaters!  Leslie Patricelli has a series of wonderful books to consider.  I particularly like that the sentences are short and allow the children to practice their pre-literacy skills in supplying the repetitive words.



Expand the yummy, yucky concept.  I'm using photos of foods and items found around the classroom that we've had problems with:  crayons, paint, playdough, etc, that some of our orally-seeking children will put in their mouths.  The group then decides to label that food (or nonfood) YUMMY or YUCKY.  There will be printed YUMMY and YUCKY on the board so the children can then attach the picture under the voted upon title.



Below is the song (technically choral speaking) we're adding to our unit of yummy foods to eat.  Rachel Arntson's recordings are targeted to encourage greater speech and language.  She includes children in her recordings, so it become an extension of the children sitting in large group at preschool.  The song is full of direct models (EX:  Banana.  Your turn.  Banana.)  The children will receive a lot of opportunities to verbalize foods they are familiar with.

Feet are NOT for Kicking!

We are reading Feet Are Not for Kicking by Elizabeth Verdick as part of Large Group today.  While we are talking about toes, since there has been a problem with kicking, I thought we could address this as well.  I love this series of book to promote good behavior.

Funny Thanksgiving Song - Gobble Gobble by Nooshi

This is the song we are learning for November!  The children love the actions we developed for the chorus.  Be sure to ask them to show you how to sing it.

Check out other songs by Nooshi.

Hands Are For Clapping

I am madly in love with Jim Gill's music for children.  This is his song Hands Are For Clapping from his album pictured below.  I'm adding it to this week's Large Group all about toes.  Listen and see why.

Feeding Therapy

This is a great article on children's fast food meals how they can affect your child.  Click on the title to link to the article.

Three Reasons Why Kids Get Hooked on “Kids’ Meals”… and How to Change That

November: Week 3 - TOES!

Subject:  T is for Toes!
Phoneme: /t/
Transition Song:  Gobble Gobble (The Thanksgiving Song) by Nooshi
Concept:  Body, Body parts, Who/Where/What questions
Materials: 8x10 laminated page with large T

Trace the letter T as explained in November Week 1 and Week 2.

Let's talk about toes!  Toe starts with the t-t-t sound.  Who has toes?  How many toes do you have?  Where are your toes?  What can your toes do?  Can you touch your toes?  Can you walk on tippy toes?

Song:  Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes
Book: Horns to Toes and in Between

Fingerplay:  Everybody Knows I Love My Toes

Everybody knows I love my toes
Everybody knows I love my toes
I love my nails, my knees
My neck and my nose
But everybody knows I love my toes!
Everybody knows I love my eyes
Everybody knows I love my thighs
I love my legs, my lips
My neck and my nose
But everybody knows I love my toes!
Everybody knows I love my feet
Everybody knows I love my seat
I love my skin, my chin
My knees and my nose
But everybody knows I love my toes!
Everybody knows I love my toes
Everybody knows I love my toes
I love my nails, my knees
My neck and my nose
But everybody knows I love my toes!

November: Week 2 - TEETH!

Subject:  T is for TEETH!
Phoneme: /t/
Transition Song:  Gobble, Gobble (The Thanksgiving Song) by Nooshi
Concept:  tongues, oral motor skills, Who/Where/What questions
Materials:  8x10 laminated page with large letter T for each child

Find your pointer finger.  Use it to trace the letter T.  "Top to bottom, now back to the top.  Left to right, and now STOP!  Practice the /t/ sound.  T-t-t-t.  Everyone practice:  Tee, Tay, Tie, Toe, Too!  Whose name starts with the t-t-t sound?  What words start with the t-t-t sound?  Some words we have come up with in class:  tickle, two, toys, turkey, tongue.

Let's talk about TEETH!  Do you have teeth?  How many teeth do you have?  Use your tongue to count your teeth.

We use teeth to chew our food.  Chewing food makes it easier to swallow food. Some foods are crunchy and need a lot of chewing.  Some foods are soft and don't need a lot of chewing.  Put together a snack and see what your teeth can do.  Look in the mirror (yes, you have permission to show your chewed food).  Talk about when you lose your teeth and more grow in.

November: Week 1 - TONGUE!

Subject:  T is for Tongues
Phoneme: /t/
Transition Song:  Gobble, Gobble (The Thanksgiving Song) by Nooshi
Concept:  tongues, oral motor skills, Who/Where/What questions
Materials:  8x10 laminated page with large letter T for each child

Find your pointer finger.  Use it to trace the letter T.  "Top to bottom, now back to the top.  Left to right, and now STOP!  Practice the /t/ sound.  T-t-t-t.  Everyone practice:  Tee, Tay, Tie, Toe, Too!  Whose name starts with the t-t-t sound?  What words start with the t-t-t sound?  Some words we have come up with in class:  tickle, two, toys, turkey, tongue.

Who has a tongue?  We do!  What can you do with your tongue?  We can taste with our tongue.  "Taste" starts with /t/! We can move our tongues. Put your tongue on the left corner of your lips, now right, now back and forth.  Can you lick your lips with your tongue?  Pretend your tongue is a vacuum, and vacuum the bottom of your mouth, the inside of your cheeks, and the top of your mouth.

What do you like to taste?  (Let your child/children name foods).  Look at pictures of foods you like to serve for Thanksgiving.  What tastes good?  Do you like turkey?  Stuffing?  Sweet potatoes?  Mashed potatoes?  Rolls? Pie?

Can you roll your tongue like a hotdog?  Look in the mirror to see.

Pick out the letter T in the book you choose to read tonight.

November Planning

Sound of the month:  /t/
Song of the month:  Gobble, Gobble (The Thanksgiving Song)
Book of the month:  Yummy, Yucky by Leslie Patricelli

This month we are talking about the sound of the letter T.  The children have loved practicing letter and sound recognition, tracing the letter, and discovering who has the letter T at the start of their name.

The song for the month of November is Gobble, Gobble (The Thanksgiving Song) by Nooshi.  You can find it on iTunes.  This song includes some of the traditional Thanksgiving foods and traditions, so it has been great to talk about what foods are yummy.

The letter T rhyme for tracing:  "Top to bottom.  Back to the top.  Left to right and now we STOP!"

Our book of the month, Yummy Yucky, is a great book to reinforce what is good food, and what we don't eat.  Spaghetti is yummy.  Dirt is yucky.  The children love this book and I'm excited to present it to the class this year. This is also a great way to introduce new or different foods at Thanksgiving.  Talk about what is yummy.  I'll blog more of this activity the week of Thanksgiving.

Catching up: October

Sound:  /g/
Transition Song:  Five Little Ghosts (The Kiboomers)

Letter recognition: 8x10 laminated sheet with large bold capital letter G.  Ask children to show their pointer fingers.  Indicate where to put their pointer finger to start the tracing.  Trace the G while reciting the rhyme:  "Draw half a circle, not a frown.  Draw across the middle and then down".  Hold the G high while chanting "Give me a Gee! (Be sure to use /g/ and /j/ initial sound).  Gay!  Guy!  Go!  Goo!"  Discuss words that start with the g-g-g sound, including names of family and friends.

Title:  G Sound, Week 1

Materials required:  Good Night Gorilla, flashlight, animal pictures

Additional concepts:  Predicting, Wh-questions.

Transition activity:  Five Little Ghosts Song

Goodnight Gorilla:

Discussion:  Read the book.

-       Ask What is going to happen next?

-       What are the names of the animals?

-       Who is the man with the flashlight?

-       What time of day is it?  Day or Night?

-       Where are the animals going when they get out of their cages?

-       Why are there two pages all black with surprised eyes?

-       Who takes the animals back to the zoo?

-       Who ate the banana?  The gorilla or the mouse?

-       What is inside the animal’s cage?

Theater:  Shine a flashlight.  Use finger puppets or popsicle stick puppets so everyone gets a chance to help tell the story as you read along.

Title:  G Sound, Week 2

Materials required: 

Additional concepts: 

Transition activity:  Five Little Ghosts

Discussion:  We’re learning more about the /g/ sound. Remember it is in your throat.  Let’s practice. Put your fingers on your neck. G-G-G.

Now let’s trace our letters. Use your pointer fingers.

“Draw half a circle, not a frown.

Across the middle and then down.”

Target sound and recognition:  Gee, Gay, Guy, Go, Goo

What else starts with the G-G-G sound?  Girl, Go, Going, Gorilla, Ghost, Guitar, Grasshopper, Grapes

Show pictures of Grapes.  “What is this??  Grapes has a /g/ sound.  G-G-Grapes.

What color are they?  Green Grapes.  Green also has a /g/ sound.  G-G- Green.  Green Grapes.  Green Grapes are Good to Eat.  Green Beans are good to eat.  Gravy is good to eat. 

Song: Good to eat. (Tune: Frere Jacques.  Adapt the song to what they like to eat)

EXAMPLES:

GRAPES:  Green and juicy, Green and juicy. Nice and sweet, nice and sweet. Dripping on your fingers, dripping on your fingers. Good to eat, good to eat"

CARROTS:  Orange and crunchy, orange and crunch, nice and sweet, nice and sweet. Crunch so loud, crunch so loud.  Good to eat.  Good to eat.

PIZZA:  Hot and cheesy, hot and cheesy, Pepperoni, Pepperoni. Cheese is melty, cheese is melty.  Good to eat.  Good to eat.

Title:  G Sound, Week 4

Materials required:  Laminated G

Additional concepts: 

Transition activity:  Five Little Ghosts

Discussion:  We’re learning more about the /g/ sound. Remember it is in your throat.  Let’s practice. Put your fingers on your neck. G-G-G.

Now let’s trace our letters. Use your pointer fingers.

“Draw half a circle, not a frown.

Across the middle and then down.”

Target sound and wel recognition:  Gee, Gay, Guy, Go, Goo

What else starts with the G-G-G sound?  Girl, Go, Going, Gorilla, Ghost, Guitar, Grasshopper, Grapes

Show picture of ghost.  What is this?  Ghost has a /g/ sound in it!  G-G-Ghost.

Finger play: 

I saw a ghost (fingers circle eyes)
He saw me too (point to yourself)
I waved at him (wave your hand)
But he said, “Boo!” (try to scare the person next to you)

Song: (To the tune of The Ants Go Marching 10x10)

The ghosts go flying 10x10

oo-oo, oo-oo

The ghosts go flying 10x10

oo-oo, oo-oo

The Ghosts go flying 10x10

The little one stops to scare a hen

And they all go flying down to the town

For some fun Halloween

oo-oo-oo-

9x9 – check the time

8x8 – say “we’re late!”

7x7 – look at heaven

6x6 – do some tricks

5x5 – take a dive

4x4- fly through the door

3x3 – to say “Wheeeeee!”

2x2 – to sneeze “Achoo!”

1x1 – to say “I’m done!”