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.
