The American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA, the governing body for all SLPs), has posted on their blog a fantastic article explaining how the use of sippy cups can impede swallow patterns and facial development. The author, Melanie Potock, M.A CCC-SLP , is the guru for pediatric feeding issues. Click on the article title to go to the site. It is a great read.
Transition Song: Wake Up! Daily Routines Song by Dream English. (PS, this song is very popular with the kids.)
This song is all about hygiene and getting ready in the morning. We'll be talking about hygiene starting next week as part of our Large Group Theme for March. But this week we're talking about hot, pop, and other CVC words.
Materials: Laminated Letter H
Vocabulary and Concepts: Hygiene, help, hot, happy, hello, wake up, wash face, bush teeth, comb hair, eat breakfast, go to school, sequencing
Pre-literacy: Let's explore the letter H. It makes a h-h-h sound. I can feel my breath on my hand when I make that sound. Whose name has that sound in it? What words have that sound in it? Hello, happy, help, hot. Let's draw the letter H. Start at the top and go straight down saying ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha. Go to the right and do the same saying hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey. Now in the middle go left to right saying hee-hee-hee-hee just like me. (Okay, yes, it is cheesy. Just go with it. This is why: The kids start laughing with all the ha's, hey's, hee's, and we throw in some ho-ho-ho if they recognize the sound in that. It is funny!)
We're playing the Popcorn Game. Popcorn pops when it gets HOT. I'm posting the video from Youtube, but we modified our words and songs a bit from this original video:
Pour In the Oil
(kids repeat: Pour in the oil!)
Sprinkle in the popcorn
(kids repeat: Sprinkle in the popcorn)
Put on the lid.
(kids repeat: Put on the lid)
Turn up the heat!
(kids repeat: Turn up the heat!)
Everyone: sizzle, sizzle, sizzle, sizzle
(louder) sizzle, sizzle, sizzle, sizzle
(even louder) sizzle, sizzle, sizzle, sizzle POP!
(The children in the middle, get up and start jumping)
Hear the popcorn, watch it pop!
Hear the popcorn, watch it pop!
Hear the popcorn, watch it pop!
Hear the popcorn, watch it pop!
POP, POP, POP, POP
Now we STOP!
Everyone is either helping to "cook" the popcorn or pretending to be the popcorn popping in the middle of the circle. The children were excited to take a turn jumping.
You might be asked to play this game at home. Be sure to sing the chorus a bit slower that you think you need to, in order to make sure that your child has ample chances to articulate at least the "pop".
We did continue doing the same Large Group Activity as last week in order to make sure all the children in all four classes were able to participate. We added a few extra fun things:
1. We turned the boxes over. There were small boxes and large boxes. So we climbed inside the boxes to see if they were small boxes or big boxes. Some of the boxes broke when we climbed inside because they were too small. Other boxes were very big.
2. We compared hands with each other to see whose hands were bigger and whose hands were smaller. We also compared the size of our shoes.
3. We stood up and compared who was taller. It turns out that Miss Debbie was the tallest in Miss Julie's classroom and Miss Suzanne was the tallest in Miss Jeana's classroom.
4. We compared hair to see who had the longest hair and who had the shortest hair. Miss Julie had the longest hair in her room. Miss Jeana had the longest....wait, what? Miss Jeana cut her hair?! She doesn't have the longest hair anymore! One student in each of her classes now has the longest hair.
After the last Large Group in Miss Julie's classroom, we decided to use the boxes and make a fort. We had to plan and problem solve. What can we use to connect the boxes? Do we need windows? We need more doors - where can we put them? We broke apart boxes to build the fort and connected them with very wide masking tape. Packing tape would have worked better. But the problems often created more language opportunities. Some children crawled inside the fort and asked for tape to make the connections stronger. The children came up with idea that we needed to use the measuring tapes and measure the size of the boxes. Others determined that we needed flashlights to see inside the fort.They had to figure out how to move through the fort so there wouldn't be a traffic jam. We had a great time. This would be such a fun activity to do at home!
Transition Song: H-E-A-R-T by The Kiboomers
Materials: laminated letter D, cardboard boxes, book
Vocabulary and concepts: loud/soft, fast/slow, drum, boxes, big/little, experiment, sound, voices, breathe in/breathe out, inside/outside, mad.
Pre-Literacy: Let's explore the letter D. Who has a name with the /d/ sound? What words have the /d/ sound in them? Round, drum, loud, sound, inside, outside.
We're repeating this Large Group for two weeks since they are short weeks. I wanted to make sure that everyone had a chance to participate in this one. First we read a book about voices.
(FYI, Elizabeth does a series of Best Behavior board books, including Pacifiers Are Not Forever, Feet Are Not For Kicking, and Teeth Are Not For Biting. There are many more. She also has tips for parents at the end of the books.)
We learned about inside voices and outside voices. In the book, it talked about how to calm our voices when we are mad by breathing in and out. We practiced breathing. We learned that it is hard to understand our words if we yell. In the book we also noticed that there was a problem to solve (children fighting over a firetruck - just like preschool!) and a teacher helped to solve the problem (just like preschool!)
Then, because we can't yell in school, we found another way to practice loud and soft. I brought in A LOT of sturdy cardboard boxes. Big boxes and small boxes. We practiced drumming softly. Then I called out "Hands up!" and everyone put up their hands. Then I said "Show me LOUD!" and we drummed LOUD! Wow, that was a lot of noise! Some of the children put their hands over their ears because it was so loud.
We did an experiment. I said "I wonder if we could hear our teachers voices if we were drumming loud?" So, we drummed LOUD while I sang the ABCs. Hands up! What was Miss Carrie saying? No one knew, because we were too LOUD. Then we drummed LOUD again while Miss Jeana or Miss Julie sang something. Could we hear them? No! We were too LOUD! Can you hear Teacher when we drum softly? Yes, we can.
The children had great fun with this one. Everyone had plenty of room to drum. Some children wanted to share a big box. The ones who wanted one to themselves had a small box.
We walked through the halls with quiet, inside voices. When we went outside to play on the playground, all the teachers demonstrated LOUD outside voices. The kids then demonstrated their LOUD outside voices.
Materials: Laminated letter D, two homemade dice (one with action and one with emotions)
Vocabulary and Concepts: happy, sad, worried, mad, silly, surprised, gallop, strut, roll, stomp, hop, my turn, your turn, he is, she is, we are, following directions, descriptive words.
Preliteracy skills: Let's explore the letter D. I see that there is a long side and a curved side. What words have the /d/ sound? Doctor, dad, dinner, down, mad, sad, dump. Let's practice drawing the letter D. Start at the top and draw down. Go back to the top and draw around.
This week we are playing a game. I made two dice, one with emotions and one with actions. We took turns throwing the dice. The pictures that are on top when the dice stop are the directions that we follow.
We might waddle like a duck with a silly face.
Or roll like a happy pig.
Hop like a worried bunny.
Gallop like a surprised horse.
Strut like a mad rooster.
This took A LOT of modeling. But once the children understood the directions, they commented that it was a lot of fun. I didn't get a picture of Stomp like a cow or the sad face. There was a lot of communication between peers and adult/peers: He is funny! She is sad. We are waiting.
We practice emotions on our faces and looked at each other's faces....and laughed pretty hard, even if we were doing mad or sad faces.
Note that the dice are not anything more than taped empty boxes. Square tissue boxes work well. Many of the children asked if we could play this game again.
