December Week 4: School Sing-a-long

Earlier this week, all the classes had the opportunity to go caroling to the front office.  Our principal and the office ladies enjoyed our singing and clapped and thanked us.  We sang Must Be Santa (Raffi) and Jingle Bells (we also shook jingle bells during this song).  It was so much fun!

Today for large group we had a special opportunity with the morning class.  We were invited to watch the school singalong.  The school singalong is just for kids (parents weren't invited) where each grade gets to perform one song and inbetween the school sings as a group.  This morning we found out that our principal wanted us to sing the song we did when we caroled at the office earlier this week.  So the morning classes stood up in front of the entire school to sing Must Be Santa.  The kids smiled and sang and did actions.  The school cheered so loud that some of our kids put their hands over their ears.  But everyone was still smiling.  We stayed for some of the program until it was time to go to busses. Some of our kids asked "Can we do that again?"

Our afternoon classes sang songs and did actions during large group.  It was an opportunity for everyone to choose their favorite songs we had done so far this year.  Everyone's favorite is still Spooky Walk, even during the holidays.

Have a great Winter Break.  Remember we won't be back until January 3rd.

Sensory Play: Guest Post from Miss Julie

Young children are very kinesthetic learners. They need to explore, engage, and experiment with their hands and movements. Sensory activities are often very meaningful experiences for young children. Sensory activities can incorporate many concepts. It is very easy to incorporate literacy, writing, communication, descriptive words, vocabulary, science, cause/effect, art, and mathematical skills. It is also an activity that many kids will engage with for an extended length of time. Engaging with these activities is very conducive to language development as well. Keep in mind they can get very messy! We use smocks at our sensory table and remind students often that items stay inside the table. You can make your own sensory box with a midsize container or use them outside where they can get messy.

Shaving Cream

Sand

Water

Gems

Rocks

Mud (Students were amazed I let them turn our sand into mud last year. I did use a specific sand that dries out and is easily sanitized.)

Beans

Corn

Rice

Paint

Glue

Playdoh

Tape and toilet/towel rolls

Spinning

Putty

Jumping (On trampoline or holding hands)

Squishy Balls (sensory, spikes, foam)

Sticky Items

Making Gak

Glue and shaving cream together

Our Speech-Language Pathologist suggests pudding, mashed potatoes, sticky items, and squishy fruits as a sensory and tactile activity with various students. 

(Note from Carrie:  LET YOUR CHILD GET MESSY!)

We add funnels, cups, spoons, scoops, shovels, building materials, shapes, people, animals, etc. These activities allow for a lot of dump and fill play and it’s a great visual activity too. You can hide magnet numbers, letters, shapes, various items, and search for them. Whatever items around your house or yard you are okay with your child exploring will work!

Special Books By Special Kids

Special Books By Special Kids is one of my favorite blogs and Facebook pages.

Mr. Chris is a former special education teacher.  He is passionate about advocating and teaching about people with special needs and showing how much alike we are. I love this video he posted about connecting with someone who is neurodiverse:

This is spot-on for our kids who have difficulty with communication.  If they do not communicate like you, then you find a way to adapt.  I love how Mr. Chris interviews people with many different abilities.

This is where I go when I want to watch something uplifting.  I hope you like it, too. You can also find his videos on Youtube.  If you are on Facebook, like his page to keep up with the latest videos.

December Week 3: Yummy Yucky

phoneme: /m/

Materials:
Laminated letter M for each child
Book: Yummy Yucky
Food/object picture for each child

Vocabulary and basic concepts:
yummy, yucky, spaghetti, worms, blueberries, crayons, soup, soap, sandwiches, sand, cookies, chocolate sauce, hot sauce, apple, pie, mud, burgers, boogers (yes, we did), eggs, earwax, fish sticks, ice cream, toilet paper, garbage, bugs, rocks, milk, broccoli, toys, scissors, fries, grapes, blocks, eggs, juice, popcorn, oranges, bananas, like/not like, middle, What questions, Who questions

Transition: Must Be Santa (by the way, we sing this MUCH SLOWER than the recording)

Pre-literacy: We're talking more about the letter M.  The children commented that it went up-down-up-down.  We noticed that the lines were long and not curved like a circle.  We talked about who had the /m/ sound in their first name.  What about their MIDDLE name?  One of the children brought it up and others asked what middle meant. Middle means between two things or in the center of something. Middle also starts with /m/ sound.  We put the letters in the middle of the rug.

We read a book titled Yummy Yucky by Leslie Patricelli.  It really is a board book for babies and very young children.  But the babies are so funny that our older kids thought it was great.  We talked about what was yummy (it has a /m/ sound in the middle!) and what was yucky.  Spaghetti? Worms?  We also talked about boogers.  Especially that we shouldn't put fingers in our noses, or we need to wash them.  We always have a few children who are surprised that putting your finger in your nose is yucky.  Hey, its preschool.

Then we passed around photos of food items, toy items, and objects like rocks.  Each of the children showed their classmates the picture they were holding, labeled the picture and then discussed if it was yummy or yucky.  We discovered that some friends didn't like certain foods we did.

Find more Leslie Patricelli books at your library.  (I use the Quiet Loud and No No Yes Yes book in class later in the year. ) Talk about foods during mealtimes.  If you don't like a food, its still important to try it every so often to see if you change your mind.  Are there things around the house or outside that we shouldn't eat?  This time of year you can also discuss things like ornaments, snow, ice melt chemicals (it looks like pretty rocks or sugar crystals), and especially those laundry soap and dishwasher soap pods.

December Week 2: Fat Cat has a problem. Let's solve it!

Phoneme:/m/

Materials:
Laminated letter M for each child
Book: What Will Fat Cat Sit On
Puppet for each child

Vocabulary and basic Concepts:
On/off, not, sitting, mad, sad, worried, happy. scared, dog, cat, cow, chicken, pig, mouse (plus animal sounds), next, behind, What questions, Where questions, emotions.

Transition:  Must Be Santa - Raffi. (first three verses only)
We are going to be caroling to the people in the front office on our last day before the holiday break.  We'll be singing Jingle Bells and Must Be Santa. We'll also be shaking jingle bells from our instrument box.

Pre-literacy:  Let's talk about the letter M!  It goes up and down like mountains. Draw up the mountain and go back down.  Go up the next mountain and down to the town.  Who has a mmmmm sound in their name?  What words have the mmmm sound in them?  Mom, monster, mad, mouse, mouth, moon, family, yummy, tummy, game, name, home.

We're reading a book titled What Will Fat Cat Sit On? by Jan Thomas.  Jan has a lot of fun books.  Go find them at your library.

Fat Cat has a problem!  (Part of Highscope is learning Conflict/Resolution.  We are constantly working with the children to learn how to solve problems together.  This book was great to emphasize conflict/resolution because everyone needs to agree on the resolution before the problem is solved.)
What will Fat Cat sit on?  The animals do NOT want Fat Cat to sit on them.  We looked at the animals' faces to guess how the animals felt about it.  Some looked worried or scared.  Dog looked MAD!  The animals had to come up with a solution to the problem.  Did Fat Cat agree to the solution?

After the book, each child picked an animal puppet to use.  We went all around the room to find places for our animals to sit on.  Some were silly (sitting on the coat rack, sitting on Miss Carrie's head), and some were logical (sitting on other chairs or the rug). We also worked on negation (Not) as in "Miss Carrie does NOT want the animals to sit on her head."

For our kids who are working to develop language, we worked on 2- and 3- word phrases (EX: Sit on.  Sit on [object].) Kids with middle language skills increased the length of the phrase (EX: My [animal] is sitting on [object].)  Our advanced peers working on negation and narration (EX: My animal] is NOT sitting on the [object]. My animal is sitting on the [object].)

At the end, everyone put their puppets on the rug and sat on a letter.  (What letter/color are you sitting on?)  Then we moved like our favorite animal to the tables to get ready for Snack Time.

(Be sure that when you read this at home, stop and talk together about the facial expressions, the animals, etc.  Let your child label the animal before you.  Ask "What does the cow say?"  Be silly while you make animal sounds together. Do more than just read the words on the page. )

Small Group Activities: Counting and Measuring

Here are some fun Small Group activities that have been happening in both classrooms.  The activities provide a lot of opportunities for vocabulary expansion as well as back and forth conversation.  First up is Miss Julie's class.

From Miss Julie: This is a group that focuses on developing one-to-one correspondence. We started with pre-made dot cards and listened for observations from students such as counting, pointing and counting, noticing there are different numbers of dots on each card, etc. After our discussion we introduced noodles (or other small items) and asked the students how we can use them together. Some students covered the dots with all of the items, others covered dots with a single item, and others counted the dots and items. Students demonstrated various levels of skills counting with one-to-one correspondence. Blank cards and markers were given to students so they could make their own dot cards. Lastly, glue was introduced to allow students to add items to their own dot cards to take home. 

Next up are some activities from Miss Jeana's class.

From Miss Jeana:  This is working on measurement.  We were making color recipes - using the three primary colors to create all different hues.  

From Miss Jeana:  Fill it up!  Here we were used different sized cups to fill a larger bowl and talked about how many scoops it took to fill the bowl.

Blocks - more technical than you thought!

The National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) posted an article in 2015 titled Ten Things Children Learn From Block Play.  Among the 10 - problem solving, mathematics, creative play, and science.  Click on the article title to see the whole thing.  It is a quick read.

Parenting Science posted an article titled Toy Blocks and Construction Toys: A Guide For The Science Minded.  This one has references and tips on how to get the most out of your block play.

The American Journal Of Play (for those of you who like research articles) has an article titled Building Blocks and Cognitive Building Blocks: Playing To Know The World Mathematically.  It includes ways on how parents can support block play and learning (play with your kids!).

Block play is a great way to build language - provided you are on the floor playing with your child. There is a lot of vocabulary from concepts (big/little, long/short, etc), prepositions (front, back, top, under, next to), Wh- questions, and more. Blocks aren't vintage toys - they are STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) toys. Our preschool kids love to play with them.  Plastic, wooden, cardboard, painted or not, blocks are fun.

Language Calendar for December

The Moog Center for the Deaf has posted their language calendar for December.  Yes, some of the activities might be too advanced for preschool, but there are a lot of great ideas.  You could also modify the more advanced activities to fit your family and your needs.  Thanks Moog Center for sharing this great resource!  Go here to print off a full size copy.

All I Want For Christmas Is.....

Every year, parents ask for ideas concerning toys that promote language.  The American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA) blogged about this in an article titled:

10 (Non tech) Holiday Toys That Promote Language and Learning

  They aren't giving a list of specific toys, rather a list of types of toys to look for.  Blocks, books, costumes, kitchen play, etc are all great ideas.  iPads are fun, video games are fun, but they really don't promote a rich language environment.  But creative play will.

Get down on the floor and play with your child. Figure out his plan. Follow her lead.  Match your language to your child's and then expand that phrase by one extra word.  Introduce new vocabulary.  Read books together (or ask him to 'read' the book to you).

THE BIG QUESTION:  What are the favorite toys here at preschool?  

The toy train from IKEA that requires no batteries, but does require some time to set up a track.  Problem solve on how to make the track fit together all the way around.

Picture from the IKEA website

I must add here that all the cars, trucks, tractors, and busses get a lot of play as well.  Kids love things that go.

Magnet tiles.  Some of our budding architects really like these tiles.  Warning: these are more expensive than most toys.  But it sure if fun to use the colorful tiles, sticking them together to create buildings, space ships, robots.  Great toy for 3-dimensional play. Some will just stack them on top of each other - that is fun, too.

Marble runs.  The kids spend hours putting this together.  I have noticed that the different brands vary in quality.  I'm not sure what brand is the best (and Miss Jeana's marble run has been here a long time so no one remembers the brand). Look around and check ratings from other buyers. Again, lots of building involved.  I think it is fun to play with, too.

Picture from Target

Other favorite toys in both preschool rooms that the kids love:  building blocks (plastic, wooden, or giant cardboard 'bricks'.  We make roads, buildings, garages for cars, and forts.

Kitchen items.  Regular pots, plans, dishes, cups, and cooking utensils bought at the dollar store.  combine that with realistic looking pretend food, cardboard boxes that were saved from cereal or oatmeal, and empty spice containers.  These kids LOVE to pretend to cook.  We also have laminated place mats, shopping bags bought at the dollar section of Target, and menus.  The kids play 'restaurant' and are constantly cooking up some creative dishes.  Peanut butter eggs with syrup and strawberries, anyone?  Yum!

Puzzles.  Simple wooden puzzles or cardboard puzzles are fun.  And there is a big sense of accomplishment when the puzzle is done and the child says "I did it!"

Dress up clothes:  Regular grown up clothing items the teachers have collected, ties, dresses, medical scrubs, sparkly costumes, suit coats, scarves, silly hats.  They are worn for the most interesting play.  One child likes to wear the wizard costume and carry the doctor bag and stethoscope around.

Art supplies:  crayons, markers, play dough, paint paper, envelopes, stamps, stickers.  Some of our children love to create.  Getting messy is okay.

There you go.  So many fun toys and none that require a battery.

December Week 1: Jungle Yoga

Phoneme: /m/

Materials: laminated letter M, book

Pre-literacy: Draw the letter M.  Draw up the mountain and go back down.  Draw up the next mountain and down to the town.  What words have that m-m-m-m sound? The children came up with mom, monster, and moo.  We checked our names to see if anyone had a /m/ sound in their names.

Vocabulary and Basic Concepts: head, back, hips, hands, knees, heels, feet, tongue, palms, high/low, on top/under, in/out.

Transition Song: Itsy Bitsy Spider
Transition Song: Must Be Santa by Raffi

This week in Large Group we read You Are A Lion! (and other fun yoga poses) by Teeun Yoo.

The children loved it moving their bodies.  We looked at the pictures, tried to perform the pose, and then guess what animal it was going to be.  There was a lion, cat, dog, butterfly, frog, and a mountain ("That not animal, Miss Carrie.")  We talked about stretching muscles. Usually I play some kind of spa relaxation music, but chose not to this time simply because I wanted to make sure there was more focus on the book.  I wanted to see if the children would/could use visual cues to determine what to do.  Often I would tell them "Look at Miss Jeana.  Look at Miss Julie.  See what they are doing?" and then point out specific things such as "Her head is down."  Then we looked at more animal pictures and tried to pose like flamingos, bears, monkeys, and penguins.  This is a great way to teach children how to follow directions by looking for visual cues, whether it be pictures or watching others.