March Week 1: Healthy Exercise

Phoneme: /h/

Transition song: Wake Up! Daily Routines by Dream English Kids

Vocabulary and Concepts: animals, animal sounds, body parts, following directions, stretch, fold, straight, down, top, draw, left, right, same, middle

Materials: Laminated Letter H, book, Pandora's Spa Radio

Preliteracy: Draw the Letter H:

Start at the top and draw straight down

Ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha

Go to the right and draw the same

Hey-hey-hey-hey-hey-hey-hey

Now to the middle, draw left to right

Hee-hee-hee-hee-hee-hee-hee

You can draw the letter H

Just like me.

(Note:  It just hit me that I should be going over colors for every letter as well.  We started that last month since the letter D was on purple paper.)

Discussion:  We're learning how to be healthy this month.  Our first week is about healthy, strong bodies.  We exercise to make our bodies strong.  This week we're reading a book called "You Are A Lion and Other Fun Yoga Poses.  The book as directions to follow in order to pose like the animals. Then we get to make the animal sounds.

Book: You Are A Lion And Other Fun Yoga Poses by Taeeun Yoo  (Check out the illustrations in this and other Taeeun Yoo books.  They are absolutely charming!)

While we practice yoga poses, we also listened to Miss Carrie's computer while she played spa music on Pandora.  We practiced using soft voices and making soft animal sounds.

The children really enjoyed moving their bodies.  We're excited to go outside this week and exercise our bodies by running all over the playground.  The children are very happy that the weather is nice enough to play outside!

February Week 4: Feelings

Phoneme: /d/

Transition Song: H-E-A-R-T

Concepts: feelings, face

Materials: Laminated Letter D

Pre-Literacy Skills:  Draw the letter D. "Start at the top and draw down.  Go back to the top and draw around".  What sound does letter D make?  Who has that sound in their name?  What other words have a D sound? Dinosaur. Dinner. Diaper. Dot.

How do we know how someone feels?  We can tell by looking at their face.  We explored happy, sad, scared, mad, chilly, surprised, and silly.  We sang along with Jim Gill's I'm so Mad and Your Face Will Surely Show It.

Then we finished with every child showing how they were feeling (a lot of them were feeling silly) while the rest of us guessed how they felt.  

Some great books at the library to go with this activity:

Lots of Feelings by Shelley Rotner

Happy Hippo, Angry Duck by Sandra Boynton

Today I Feel Silly by Jamie Lee Curtis (yes, THAT Jamie Lee Curtis)

February Week 3: Visit from Occupational Therapy - Draw A Map

This week we had Miss Shannon our OT.  She had us lay on our Tummies and draw on a huge map of our community.  The roads were already on the paper.  We talked about what was in our community.  We drew trains, schools, houses, flowers, stop signs, and lots of restaurants.

February Week 2: Up and Down and All Around

Phoneme: /d/

Transition Song: H-E-A-R-T

Concepts: down, up, high, low, fast, slow, stop go

Materials: Laminated Letter D

Pre-Literacy Skills:  Draw the letter D. "Start at the top and draw down.  Go back to the top and draw around".  What sound does letter D make?  Who has that sound in their name?  What other words have a D sound? Dinosaur. Dinner. Dog. DOUGHNUT!!!! (the kids were excited about this idea).

Let's move our bodies up and down.  We played music that allowed us to dance fast and slow.  We jumped up and down.  We would freeze STOP and then GO!

Do this with any type of music.  We used movie sound tracks and Jim Gill music.

Cool Bear Hunt

This is by far the favorite song/choral recitation of the preschool kids.  Some parents have requested to know which version we use.  Here it is Cool Bear Hunt from Dr. Jean.

Check out Dr. Jean's website for more great ideas to use at home. You can print out a fun book of Dr. Jean's Cool Bear Hunt here.

FYI:  The H-E-A-R-T song by the Kiboomers that I posted for the month of February is also a huge it.  The children have been practicing how to make a heart shape with their hands.  We don't skip any of the letters, but sing all of them.

February Week 1: Dinner - Set the Table

Phoneme: /d/

Transition Song: H E A R T Valentine Song by the Kiboomers

Concepts: What questions, Who questions, sequencing, following directions, choral recitation, rhythm

Materials: Laminated Letter D, place mat, plate settings

Preliteracy Skills:  Draw the letter D.  Start up at the top and draw down.  Go back to the top and draw around.  Does anyone have a /d/ sound in their name?  What words have a /d/ sound in them? Draw, down, dollar, do, don't, and.........

Dinner!  We're talking this week about dinner.  Before we eat dinner we have to set the table.  This activity is a repeat from before.  The kids love this.  Many of them now can act as 'voice' and lead the choral recitation.  This time we added more placemats  and settings to the session to keep the children engaged and participating.

(Take a beat on your knees similar to "Going on a Bear Hunt".  Have the class repeat each phrase after the "voice" lead.)

Time to eat?

No, not yet.

What do we need?

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

Put it on the table.

(Repeat until everything is on the place mat.)

Time to eat?

Look....

YES!!!!

At the end of class we looked at our socks.  Depending on the color of our socks, we moved to small group by flying, stomping, jumping, spinning, or skating.