November Week 4: Thanksgiving Foods

Large  Group Activity

Date:  November Week 4

Title:  Thanksgiving

Phoneme: /t/

Pre-Literacy:  Trace the Letter T.  “Top to Bottom.  Now Back to the Top.  Left to Right and now we STOP.”  Talk about words that have the /t/ sound.  Tongue, Teeth, Toes, Turkey, Tomato. Tickle, Two. Does anyone have a name with the /t/ sound?

Materials required:  Laminated Letter T, Gobble Gobble picture binder

Book:  Yummy Yucky by Leslie Patricelli

Concepts:  What is food and what is not food.  What is good to eat.  Trying new foods

Transition activity:  Song:  Gobble Gobble (What Does The Turkey Say) by Nooshi.

Discussion:  Thanksgiving is a time where we eat a special meal.

Let’s talk about what is yummy and what we shouldn’t eat.  We're reading the book Yummy Yucky by Leslie Patricelli and talking about what is good to eat and what we shouldn't eat.  Then we will segue to Thanksgiving foods and find out what the children like to eat and what they don't like.  Thumbs up if you like the food - thumbs down if you don't.  Guess what? Miss Heather doesn't like potatoes of any kind (she gave a thumbs down)!  Miss Suzanne likes sweet potatoes with marshmallows on top (thumbs up!).  Miss Carrie doesn't like marshmallows on her sweet potatoes (thumbs down!)

We looked at pictures of turkey, mashed potatoes and gravy, stuffing/dressing, cranberry sauce, grapes, hot rolls, sweet potatoes, green beans with almonds, pumpkin pie, cherry pie, and a plate loaded with all of these foods for Thanksgiving.

Ask the children what they are excited to eat at Thanksgiving.

View From A Child's Perspective

So this week we've been talking about toes.  I was running through the Large Group activity with Miss Jeana's class.  When it came to their turn, each child would pick a body part to add to the verse.  We ended each verse with "Everybody knows I LOVE MY TOES!" (See activity in previous post).

The kids were having great fun and trying not to shout in their excitement.  After a few verses, I started the final line "Everybody knows I LOVE MY..." and then paused, waiting for the children to finish the phrase "....TOES!"  One child, who is usually reserved and quiet, called out:

"MYSELF!"

This was well received by the children so we started to end each verse with "Everybody knows I LOVE MYSELF!"

How many of us would say this as an adult?  How many of us could say this out loud?  This was one of those moments (and they happen more often than you would expect) where the roles of teacher and student were reversed. We, the teachers, marveled.  What a fantastic response - completely innocent, trusting, and natural.

Now, when I'm starting to feel self-critical, I find myself chanting "I love myself" although not as loud as we did during Large Group.

But I'm learning.

November Week 3: TOES!

Large  Group Activity

Date:  November Week 3

Title:  Toes

Phoneme: /t/

Pre-Literacy:  Trace the Letter T.  “Top to Bottom.  Now Back to the Top.  Left to Right and now we STOP.”  Talk about words that have the /t/ sound.  Tongue, Teeth, Toes, Turkey, Tomato. Tickle, Two. Does anyone have a name with the /t/ sound?

Materials required:  Laminated Letter T, mirror, Gobble Gobble Picture Binder

Concepts:  Toes, Who/What/Where questions, Rhyming, Counting, body parts, predicting, alliteration

Transition activity:  Song:  Gobble Gobble (What Does The Turkey Say) by Nooshi.

Discussion: Let’s talk about Toes!  Who has toes? Let’s count them.  Take off your socks and shoes and we’ll count.  Where are your toes?  What can your toes do?  Can your wiggle them?  Can you walk on tippy toes?

Song:  Head and Shoulders, Knees and Toes.

Fingerplay:  Everybody Knows I Love My Toes

(This is one of my favorite large group activities!  Be sure to wear the craziest socks you can find, especially if they have the toes knitted separately so you can really wiggle them.  Or just take off your shoes and socks.  I like to have the kids all take off their shoes - but make sure you leave enough time to put all of those shoes back on.  Oy!  I like to treat this as a rap with some choral recitation thrown in. EX:  Everybody knows I LOVE my toes! {have children repeat this phrase}.  Recite the first verse as written.  On the remaining version, have children suggest body parts and add them in.  Be sure to use great inflection and enthusiasm.  Clap a beat on your toes.  Point out the body parts.  Point out the rhyming words.  This is a lot of fun!)

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.

Every body 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!

What about your eyelashes?  Wrists? Shins? Belly/Stomach? Cheeks? EARLOBES?! (We learned that one a few weeks ago and all the kids thought it was a hilarious body part.  Go figure.)

November Week 2: Teeth

Large  Group Activity

Date:  November Week 2

Title:  Teeth

Phoneme: /t/

Pre-Literacy:  Trace the Letter T.  “Top to Bottom.  Now Back to the Top.  Left to Right and now we STOP.”  Talk about words that have the /t/ sound.  Tongue, Teeth, Toes, Turkey, Tomato. Tickle, Two. Does anyone have a name with the /t/ sound?

Materials required:  Laminated Letter T,  Gobble Gobble Picture Binder

Concepts:  tongues, oral motor skills, mirror, Who/What/Where questions

Transition activity:  Song:  Gobble Gobble (What Does The Turkey Say) by Nooshi.

Discussion: Let’s talk about Teeth!  Who has teeth?  How many teeth do you have?  Use your tongue to count your teeth.  Can you put your tongue in front of your teeth?  Can you put your tongue in back of your teeth?  That is where we make the t-t-t sound.

We use teeth to chew our food.  Chewing food makes food easier to swallow.  Some foods are crunchy and need a lot of chewing.  Some foods are soft and don’t need a lot of chewing. 

Look in the mirror at your teeth.  What color are they?  Let’s practice brushing our teeth.  Pretend with your finger. What color is your toothbrush?  Who brushed their teeth this morning?

Song:  Signing Time’s Brushing Teeth. Raffi's Brushing Teeth.  Jim Gill's Hands Are For Clapping (it has a verse "Teeth are for brushing....".

FYI: New Growth Charts for Children with Down Syndrome

The American Academy of Pediatrics has released new growth charts for children with Down syndrome.  Due to advances in health care overall, our children with Down syndrome are gaining more weight and growing taller, which is reflected in the new growth charts. The new study included 637 children with Down syndrome up to the age of 20.

I plan on printing the article and making sure that my family doctor has a copy.

You can find a news article on the subject here.  http://www.aappublications.org/news/2015/10/30/GrowthCharts103015

You can find the research article and growth charts here.
http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/content/136/5/e1204

I'm grateful for all of the researchers who continue to ask questions and seek answers concerning the Down syndrome population.  I don't think you hear it often enough.  So, from this mother and SLP, thank you.

November Week 1: Tongues, Taste, and Set The Table

It's a new month which means new songs, new sounds, and new activities!

Large  Group Activity

Date:  November Week 1

Title:  Tongues

Phoneme: /t/

Pre-Literacy:  Trace the Letter T.  “Top to Bottom.  Now Back to the Top.  Left to Right and now we STOP.”  Talk about words that have the /t/ sound.  Tongue, Teeth, Toes, Turkey, Tomato. Tickle, Two. Does anyone have a name with the /t/ sound?

Materials required:  Laminated Letter t, Pictures of foods typically served at Thanksgiving, Gobble Gobble Picture Binder, laminated place mat, fork, knife, spoon, cup, plate, napkin, rhythm, choral recitation, sequencing.

Concepts:  yummy/yucky, tongues, oral motor skills, Who/What/Where questions

Transition activity:  Song:  Gobble Gobble (What Does The Turkey Say) by Nooshi.

(This song is a great warm up to talking about new foods and familiar foods at your Thanksgiving table.  Stuffing, pumpkin pie, mashed potatoes, rolls).  It's also a great start to talk about gratitude (I'm thankful for my family and all my friends, our freedom, and our country).

Discussion:  Who has a tongue?  What can you do with your tongue?  Can you do this?  We can taste with our tongue.  “Taste starts and ends with the /t/ sound!  We can move our tongues.  Put your tongue on the left corner of your lips, now right, now back and forth.  Can you like 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.  Let’s walk the vacuum upstairs and do it again.

What do you like to taste?  Let the children name foods.  Look at pictures of foods typically served at Thanksgiving.  What tastes good?  Do you like turkey?  Stuffing?  Sweet potatoes?  Mashed potatoes?  Rolls? Pie?

Can you roll your tongue like a hot dog bun?  Look in the mirror to see. 

Let’s set the table.  (Choral recitation with repetition).  Give each child a part of the place setting.  Put the place mat in the middle. Parents Magazine has a great printable place mat that let's your child see exactly where to set each piece.  I printed them and laminated them to use for this Large Group segment and then put the extras in the kitchen area for the kids to play with during Work Time.  You can print your own place mat from Parents Magazine here.

Get a beat on your knees for this.

Time to eat? (repeat)

No, not yet. (repeat)

What do we need? (repeat)

A ________(fork, knife, spoon, plate, napkin, cup)

Put it on the table (child holding specified place setting puts item on the place mat)

(repeat until all items are on the place mat)

Time to eat? (repeat)

Look! (point to place mat)

Yes! (everybody cheers)

(Can speed up or slow down as needed.  Allow child to take over as lead voice when ready.)

Halloween Party

We had a fun Halloween party in all four classes.  Everyone wore costumes (I forgot to take a photo of me in my costume. Drat!)

We decorated Trick or Treat bags.

We participated in Ghost Bowling.

The ghosts were howling at the indignity of it all.

The teachers got into the fun, too.

We read Halloween books.  

There were lots of books to choose from.

We played pin the nose on the jack-o-lantern.

 After the fun we went trick or treating to the front office and two classrooms.  Then we went into two more classrooms just to show off our costumes.  Huge thanks to the 5th graders and their teachers who cheered for our costumes.  The older students were absolutely wonderful with our preschoolers.

We had a great time.  Our teachers put a lot of time and effort into this party.  Thanks, teachers!