This week in Miss Jeana's classroom, she is reading the book Arrow To The Sun by Gerald McDermott with the small groups.
This was one of my favorite books as a child and started and life long fascination with American Indians. Part of that reason was the short film that used to air on PBS when I was a child. It was so different from anything I had watched before. I was hooked.
DO THIS AT HOME: The book can be found at your local library. It is a great way to read together, ask Where questions, ask What is happening and try to determine from the pictures, and look for the "Spark" on nearly every page.
Materials: Laminated Letter H, pictures of /h/ words.
Vocabulary and basic concepts: hunt, hat, honey, heart, hippo, hair, hotdog, hug, horse, harmonica, hanger, fish hooks, hands, hammer, happy, Halloween, hummingbird, Humpty Dumpty, hero, house, horn, helicopter, hamburger, hide, Mr. Potato Head, What questions, Who questions, Where questions, First, Next, Last, prepositions.
Pre-literacy: This week we handed out our letter H and the children took over telling the teachers about it. They thought up of /h/ words, talked about how to draw the letter H using first, next, and last. We put the letters behind us, in front of us, on top of us, and under our knees.
This week Miss Carrie taped 24 /h/ word pictures around the room. First we went on a hunt to find the words. Everyone brought back two or three words. Miss Carrie taught us a new phrase. We pat our knees and clapped in a pattern while we said it. Pat-clap-pat-clap-pat-clap.
I have a picture
and it starts with /h-h-h-h-/.
When we said /h/, we blew into our hands so we could feel our breath as we said it.
Then each friend held up a picture and told the class what it was. Miss Carrie asked us what it was, who had one or had seen one before, and where could we find it (home, outside, park, etc). Then we put the picture on the wall. We said the phrase again while we pat-clap-pat-clap and the next friend would get to tell us about their picture. Some of us had not seen a hummingbird before. Miss Jen held one before and had a picture to show us.
No one knew what a harmonica was so Miss Carrie showed a video of someone playing a harmonica.
We talked about dressing up like a super hero, if we had ridden a horse before, who had a hat at their house or in their backpack, and who saw the hippos at the zoo. We had a lot of exposure to practicing our /h/ sound as well as new vocabulary words.
DO THIS AT HOME: Look around for things at home or during errands that have the /h/ sound. practice the /h/ sound by holding your hand in front of your mouth as you exaggerate the sound so you can feel your breath. Practice the sound in front of the bathroom mirror and let your breath fog up the mirror.
Vocabulary and Basic Concepts: quiet/loud, up/down, across, pop, hear, pour, sprinkle, put on, turn, sizzle, jump, stop
Pre-literacy: week looked at the letter H and talked about up/down and across. What words have the /h/ sound? Hear, head, hair, hands, house, hot, hop, hide.
The Popcorn Game: We played a preschool version of this game. I simplified the vocabulary from the original. First let's look at the original:
We simplified the words a bit so our children would be able to verbalize as many of the words as possible Two people crouch down in the middle to pretend to be popcorn. Start it out very soft.
Pour on the oil. (the children that make up the circle pretend to pour oil)
Sprinkle in the popcorn. (everyone sprinkles the popcorn)
Put on the lid. (mimic putting on the lid)
Turn up the heat. (mimic turning up the heat)
(now everyone rubs their hands together.....)
Sizzle, sizzle, sizzle, sizzle
sizzle, sizzle, sizzle, sizzle
Sizzle, Sizzle, SIZZLE, SIZZLE
POP! (clap hands for the remainder)
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!
Now here are two examples of how we do it in preschool:
Play the Popcorn Game at home. When children know the next words coming, they can focus less on what they are going to say and more on articulation. Having actions allows even our nonverbal children the ability to get in on the fun. Plus, jumping is hilarious, especially if grownups are jumping, too!
Other things that happened in school this week:
Technically this was last week, but I forgot to post it. The children and I made a LOOOONG chain during Work Time. Then the kids wanted to measure it against other things to see which was longer. We measured tables, we measured the space between our door and the next hallway, we measured lunch tables. I bombarded long/longer and short/shorter throughout the activity.
Miss Jeana's classroom has been reading Goodnight Gorilla by Peggy Rathmann. This time they were looking for something they didn't see before. They especially loved looking for the mouse with the banana or the floating balloon on every page.
Miss Jen's classes have been reading Please, Mr. Panda by Steve Antony. Miss Jen then brought doughnuts for Snack Time and the children practiced using KIND words to ask for doughnuts.
CBS Sunday Morning did a great piece on the changes happening in the workplace. More people with autism are being sought out and hired by major companies. Check this out! I am beyond excited to see this. As doors open for this population it means that these businesses (and hopefully all places of work) will start to see potential in all abilities. Well done CBS and all the workplaces featured in this piece.
For the song, it is sung like B-I-N-G-O. In preschool we are singing and clapping the H-E-A-R-T every single verse. We don't eliminate any of the letters.
Materials: Laminated Letter H, large baker potatoes and sweet potatoes
Vocabulary and Basic Concepts: hot/cold, fast/slow, I do/I don't, pass, look, stop, negation, Who questions, problem solving.
Pre-literacy: Let's draw the letter H.
Start at the top and draw 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, left to right, saying Hee-Hee-Hee-Hee just like me.
What words can you think of that have the /h/ sound? Happy, help, hop, hot, hat.
Miss Carrie brought a bag to Large Group. In the bag were three BIG potatoes. Two of them were white potatoes and one was a sweet potato. We all had a chance to say if we liked potatoes and if we had ever tried sweet potatoes.
Then Miss Carrie taught us how to play the Hot Potato game. We sat in a circle and passed potatoes while we said: Hot Potato, Hot Potato, Hot, Hot, Hot! Hot Potato, Hot Potato, Hot, Hot, Hot! Hot Potato, Hot Potato, Hot, Hot, Hot!
After a while, Miss Carrie would call out AAAAANNND STOP! We all stopped passing potatoes. Then Miss Carrie asked "Who has a potato?" Everyone holding a potato called out "I do!"
Miss Carrie asked "Who doesn't have a potato?" Everyone who didn't have a potato raised both hands in the air and shook them while calling out "I don't!"
We played this again and again. We chose if we were going to pass to the left or to the right. We figured out different ways to pass the potatoes: behind our backs, behind our heads, in front of our eyes in slow motion, or we turned around and faced away from the circle so we couldn't see who had the potatoes until we stopped. We problem solved when we noticed that all the potatoes were ending up in one person's lap.
DO THIS AT HOME: play a passing game, and stop to see who has the item. Look around the house for items that have the /h/ sound in their name.
Here is the February Language Calendar. Feel free to modify as you need. I am sending an email with the calendar to all preschool parents. Email me if you didn't receive it.
Pre-literacy Skills: Draw the letter D. Now the children are helping Miss Carrie figure out how to draw the letter D. What words have the /d/ sound in them? Dessert, drink, pudding, seed, lemonade, toad.
This week Miss Carrie brought in a lot of boxes. We drummed on the boxes. We explored drumming fast and slow as well as loud and quiet. Can we drum fast and quiet? What about loud and slow? Everyone agreed they liked drumming fast and loud best. Miss Carrie would call out HANDS UP! Everyone knew to put their hands up so the room would be quiet enough to hear Miss Carrie. We discovered that when we were drumming we couldn't hear her talking! One of our classroom rules is to have quiet mouths and eyes on teacher when teacher is talking.
We took turns following each other. One child would be asked "It's your turn. Show us a new way to drum". Everyone got a chance to be the leader. Some chose to drum with their knuckles, or backs of their hands, or their forehead, or their fingers, or their chin. Others chose to drum fast and loud or slow and loud, or slow and quiet. We all followed along and it was funny!
We experimented. Which is louder - drumming on boxes or the floor? Drumming on the sensory table or boxes? Drumming on boxes or pillows? What about drumming on the snack tables or the boxes? Boxes were louder, but the sensory table was the loudest.
Miss Carrie didn't get pictures of everyone because we were so busy drumming.
We also explored short and tall and built a very tall tower during Work Time.
The weather was so nice to place outside!
HANDS UP!!!
Is the tower taller than me?
Is it taller than me, Miss Carrie?
We had a great time sliding.
Miss Jen wanted to slide, too!
DO THIS AT HOME: Do some experiments drumming loud/quiet and fast/slow. Drum on different surfaces and talk about what you hear. Build some tall towers with blocks, pillows, or boxes. How tall can you make it?
