May Week 4: First, Last, and Do the CONGA!

Transition Song: The Circle Song by the Kiboomers

Vocabulary and Concepts:  First, Last, Stop, Who questions

Pre-Literacy:  Due to time constraints, we skipped this part.

This week we are discussing the concept of First/Last.  We talked about a Conga line and how we put our hands on the shoulders (or back) of the person in front of us and follow the leader around the room.  Then we learned a Conga Line Song:

Doo-doo-do-the Conga!

Doo-doo-do the Conga!

Doo-doo-do-the-Conga!

Doo-doo-do the Conga!

STOP!

(Teacher calls out) Who is first? (Everyone calls out the child’s name)

(Teacher calls out) Who is last? (Everyone calls out the child’s name)

(Everyone chants) ________is first!  _______ is last!

(First child’s name), go to the back!

(child goes to the back and you start over)

Ready, set, GO!

This repeats until everyone has a chance to be first and last. The first child gets to decide where to go.  We danced our Conga Line all around the room.  Miss Carrie played African Conga Drum music while we danced.

This activity was so much fun that some kids formed a Conga line during recess and played it again.

Do this at home:  Form your own Conga line and dance around the room.  Then talk about other things that are first and last.  When you make a plan to do something (cook dinner, shop at the store, get ready for bed) talk about what you are going to do first and then what you will do last.

May Week 3: First, Next, Last

Phoneme: /s/

Transition Song: The Circle Song by the Kiboomers

Vocabulary and Basic Concepts:  First, Next, Last, action words, plan, "show me", message

Pre- Literacy: (we skipped pre-literacy this week because the next activity would need all of the time.)

Today we are talking about First, Next and Last.  Let's look at the schedule?  What comes first?  What comes next?  What comes last?  Book Time comes first.  Go Home is last.  (The schedule is the same for both teachers.)

Let's look at the message board. (This is different every single day and different between teachers.  It usually consists of 2 to 4 messages. The messages are line-drawn pictures.)  What is the first message?  What comes next?  What is the last message?

Next we made a plan of First, Next, and Last of movement that we could do to music.  Some of the children were able to come up with an idea on their own.  Other children needed a choice of 2 or 3 to decide on a movement.  We numbered them 1, 2, and 3, and then discussed what came First, Next, and Last.  I turned on some instrumental hip hop music and had the children consistently refer to the message in order to know which movement to do.  Here are some of the ideas the children came up with:

In this plan, first we clapped, next we patted our cheeks, and last we bent our knees. I chose Flight of the Bumblebee for the music so we could clap very fast.

In this plan first we rocked back and forth on our pockets (core workout!), next we did jumping jacks, and last we pretended to sleep (which was great after all that exercise).  Charlie Brown theme music didn't quite match the sleeping but worked for everything else.

In this plan, we first stomped.  Next we took giant steps.  Last we balanced on one foot.  I turned on Libertango for the music choice, which the kids surprisingly thought was fun.

Other action choices the kids came up with were running in place, jumping, superhero poses, Hulk Smash, dancing like a ballerina, touching our toes, flying like a butterfly (Miss Jeana has caterpillars in chrysalis in her room right now), and using our arms to draw big circles.

Do this at home:  Make a plan for first, next, and last while you're doing chores or getting ready for an outing.  Or even plan an outing with a first, next, and last - last being a treat.  Be sure you draw your plan out and refer to first/next/last often.

May Week 2: Sounds

Phoneme: /s/

Transition Song: Circle Time Song by the Kiboomers.

Materials: Laminated letter S, SoundTouch App

Vocabulary and Basic Concepts:  What questions, predicting, animals, vehicles, Where questions, sounds, listen.

Pre-Literacy:  Let's draw the letter S.  Start at the top.  Swoop over.  Swirl down.  Swoop under and STOP.

Today we are using our ears to listen to sounds.  I've talked about the SoundTouch App before.  The children love this activity.  We turn off our voices and turn on our ears.  We are listening to animal sounds and trying to figure out what the animal might be.  Lion, dog, cat, pig, elephant, sheep, and snake are easy.  Bear, camel, zebra, frog, and kangaroo are hard.  Owl was challenging.  Train, fire engine, motorcycle, airplane, and boat were exciting.  Bicycle was funny (because of the bell and the squeaky wheels).

When you tap on the drawing, one of four possible photographs pops up of that object with a sound.  Each photograph is different with a slightly different sound of the same object.  The children were amazed that frogs would sound so different from each other. There were other objects that were similar or different in each photograph.  We talked about listening for "Clues" to help us determine what the answer would be. One the children predicted what it would be, I turned the iPad around to show them the picture. What is the animal?  Where does it live? 

This activity gave us a lot of opportunities to practice our /s/ sound.

Do this at home:  What sounds do you hear at home?  Walking around outside?  At the zoo or a farm?  In the woods on a hike?  Can you identify what made that sound?  

• "What is that sound?"
• "I hear a.....".
• Where is it?  Can you find it?

May Is Better Speech and Hearing Month

May Week 1: Heavy and Light

Phoneme: /s/

Transition Song: Circle Time Song by the Kiboomers (FYI:  This is my favorite song of all the transitions songs I do throughout the year!  The kids really get into it, and there is a lot of smiling.)

Materials: Laminated Letter S, two scarves for each child and adult, Jim Gill Silly Dance Contest. (And this is my favorite Jim Gill Song.)

Vocabulary and Concepts:  Heavy/light, over/under, silly, stop, swoop, swirl, start, scarves, fast/slow, high/low, What questions.

Pre-literacy: Let's trace the letter S.  Start at the top. Swoooop over, swiiiiiirl down, swooooop under and stop!  What words have that /s/ sound in them? Soup, bus, snake, silly, sad, and a few of our peers have  the sound in their names!

Activity: I pulled out a box of scarves (thanks, Miss Julie!) in bright colors.  We threw them and discovered they are easy to pick up and don't fall quickly to the ground.  They are not heavy, they are light. What is heavy?  The kids named rocks.  Yes, big rocks are hard to pick up.  They are heavy.  

We danced to Jim Gill's Silly Dance Contest song.  This is a favorite with the kids and they know it well.  But this time....we added SCARVES!  We shook scarves, used them like skirts, put them over our heads (the room looks yellow/blue/red/green/orange/purple!), and waved them high and low.  We threw them into the air.  We traded scarves.  

Do this at home:  What is light around the house?  Feathers, cotton balls, socks.  What is heavy around the house?  Big pots, bricks, weights, big books........look around!

Then turn on the Silly Dance Contest.  Jim Gill is a lot of fun.

Also, look around for things that have the /s/ sound in them.