Happy Holidays from your Preschool Team

We wanted to wish all of you the happiest of holidays.  We sure love your children!  Enjoy this time with family and we will see you in January 2018.

December Week 3: Caroling

This week we changed our usual Large Group Activities to go caroling.  We caroled to the front office and a few classrooms in the morning and afternoon.  On Tuesday morning, our classes were able to sing in front of the entire school!  They really sang out and the teachers were so proud.  We also read holiday books, ate holiday foods for snack time, and snuggled with stuffed animals we brought from home.  (Those children who didn't bring a stuffed animal to snuggle were able to pick one from the classroom toys to snuggle.

Since Thanksgiving Break meant therapy only took place on Monday and Tuesday in Miss Jeana's classroom, Miss Carrie stayed in Miss Jen's classrooms this week for therapy on Monday and Tuesday before Winter Break.  So no pictures during Work Time in Miss Jen's room.  Miss Carrie was able to get pictures of one of Miss Jeana's class during story time and another class during Work Time and pictures of one of Miss Jen's classes during caroling.

Reading holiday stories in Miss Jeana's classroom.

Work Time was typical as every other week.

They sang so well!

And they're cute, too!

Cocoa and cookies in Miss Jen's classrooms.

We had marshmallows and candy canes, too.

These are some of the holiday stories we read in Miss Jeana's classes.

These are the books read in Miss Jen's classes.

We sang Jingle Bells and Must Be Santa.

Each class also caroled to a few classrooms.

Miss Jen received an impromptu group hug before the kids went home.  

Work Time (AKA Favorite Toys in the Classrooms)

We've had parents asking which toys their children like to play with in the classroom.  Here are some of the popular ones:

Snapbots.  The children love snapping these together in different combinations.

Turn & Learn Magnetic Gears.  Put them together and problem solve so all the gears turn when you manipulate just one of them.  These are played with a lot.

Every day kitchen items.  Yes, the kids love the wok, pots and pans, dishes, utensils, big spoons and whisks.  Toasters, hand mixers, realistic looking plastic foods, and empty cartons of brand name items.  Those brand name items?  Those are great for logographic skills which is part of pre-literacy.

The little LED flashlights you can get for a buck or two?  Perfect size for little hands.  Great for exploring, making patterns, and playing hide and seek.  We sometimes turn the lights down to play hide and seek with them.  Kids LOVE these!

Cash registers and pretend money are great for playing store and restaurant.  We don't worry about denominations, but count the number of coins and paper money.

MotorWorks.  It comes with a screwdriver , drill, and screws to help put together cars, planes, and motorcycles.

Counting Cakes.  Each cake has a number that corresponds with the number of holes for candles.

Not only do we have fun counting, but we work on More and Less.  We also sing Happy Birthday.....A LOT!  For some reason the kids always want us to sing Happy Birthday to them so they can blow out the candles.  It never gets to be the teachers' birthdays.  For something so simple, this is played with every day.

Old cameras from secondhand stores.  Even though most people take pictures with their smart phones, the children know that these are cameras and love playing with them.  Teachers are asked to pose and "Say CHEESE!" 

Marble Runs.  This is a great STEM toy for problem solving.  The children pull it out nearly every school day.

Plain wooden blocks.  This is another toy pulled out every day.  The children build buildings, tracks, walls, and use them to delineate space.

Regular therapy ball.  The children love to bounce and roll on it, or bounce and roll it to teachers and peers.



Stay tuned for a post about favorite books!

December Week 2: Singing in The Soup Opera

phoneme: /s/

Materials: Laminated letter S, props for The Soup Opera

Concepts and Vocabulary: What-questions, loud/soft, big/little, opera, sing, waiter, menu, chef, ladle, policeman (or policewoman), badge, mayor, pen, President of the United States, prop, costume, applause, curtain

Transition Song: Must Be Santa.  This time, we're singing it without the build-a-Santa prop.  We're practicing to go caroling next week. See November Week 4 for the link to this song.

This week we're all about singing The Soup Opera by Jim Gill.  This is a book you can find in your local library with a CD.  But Jim Gill also has it on Vimeo.  It has the soundtrack and the book pages. Or you can see it performed live with audience volunteers, an orchestra, and two opera singers on this video:

Back to our preschool performances.  First we read the book and learned the lines we needed to sing.  Then we dispersed around the preschool room to find costumes and props in order to look like our characters.  What does a waiter need?  What does a chef need?  What is a mayor?  Some of us chose puppets that looked like our characters.  Some of us found costumes and props.  Everyone came back to the rug and we performed it again. We talked about how on a stage there is a big curtain that goes up and down.  We talked about clapping and learned the word applause.  We got up to sing our parts and everyone sang if someone was shy about singing their part.  For our kids who were nonverbal, we had a button for them to push that would play a recording of everyone singing the line "I can't eat my soup!"  After the performance we applauded and shouted "Bravo!" which is what people shout when they like the opera.

DO THIS AT HOME:  Put on an opera at home.  It could be The Soup Opera practiced and performed for family members.  Or make up silly lines that you can sing repetitively during every day tasks.  Sing familiar songs.  Singing and choral recitation (where everyone says the same line such as "Chicka Chicka Boom Boom!" in the book of the same name) is a great way for our kids struggling with language to work on articulation and phrase expansion when they don't have to plan what to say but can focus on how to articulate it or how to put all the words in the phrase together.  Kids who are not struggling with language get excited about the different parts and the new vocabulary.  The best part about an activity like this is that it involves families in an activity they can do together.  

When we do this again next month, the children will be directing, performing, narrating, leading the music, and even considering other characters than those mentioned in the book.  The children will be in charge.  Will the story have a different ending?  Will the music change? Wait and see.....

December Week 1: Snow People

Phoneme: /s/

Transition Song:  Must Be Santa

Materials:  Laminated Letter S, Laminated Santa parts, bag of items to dress a snowman

Vocabulary and Basic Concepts: What questions, cold/hot, snowball, snow man, boy, girl, baby, bird, popcorn, berry, string, clothing items, melting.

This week we've continued learning Must Be Santa and Jingle Bells in prep for our caroling activity in two weeks.  See the previous post for the music and information.

Pre-Literacy:  Let's draw the Letter S.  Start at the top.  Swoop over.  Swirl down.  Swoop under.  And stop!  What words have that /s/ sound?  Snow, same, sing, soup, baseball, kiss.  Remember to hide your tongue and keep your teeth together.

Book.  This week we are reading Snowballs by Lois Elhert.  (Remember her?  She wrote Leaf Man which we read in October). We are big fans of Lois Elhert!

Look at this snowman.  Someone gave him a strawberry nose!  What else do you see?

There was a snow dad and a snow mom and a snow boy and a snow girl and snow pets!  That snow mom has peanuts in her purse.  Miss Carrie does not carry peanuts in her purse. She carries chocolate in her purse.

This book also has lots of pictures of real snow people.

Miss Carrie wanted to build snowmen but there is no snow outside.  We wondered how we could solve this problem?  We decided to turn some of the teachers into snow teachers.  Good thing Miss Carrie brought some things from home.

Who is it?

Miss Pam is a snow teacher.

Now it's Miss Jeana's turn to be a snow teacher.

Miss Jen's class opted to turn all the teachers into snow teachers.

Miss Debbie is a snow teacher.

Working on Miss Jen.

We also sang Once There Was A Snow Man.

Tall-Tall-TALL!

We had so much fun making snow teachers!

DO THIS AT HOME:  If you have snow, great!  Go build a snowman.  But if there is no snow, turn one of your family members into a snow person.  What do you have around your house to make a snow person?  You could also cut out shapes and magazine pictures to make snowmen pictures.  Talk about your activity and narrate your actions.

In case your children have been trying to tell you, Miss Carrie has new glasses for the first time.  The glasses make her face look very different.  A lot of the kids were commenting about them in both classes.