March Week 4: What Can You Do With A Scarf? AKA Concepts and Shapes

phoneme: /d/

Transition Song: Wake Up Daily Routines by Dream English
(We're really going to miss singing this.  It was one of the children's favorites.)

Materials: Scarves, Music

Vocabulary and Basic Concepts:  listening to directions, High/Low, Fast/Slow, jump, twist, hop, swim, wave, triangle, circle, square, trade

Pre-Literacy:  We dispensed with drawing our letter D in order to give us enough time for the main activity.

This week Miss Carrie pulled out her scarves and music.  We chose colors and then listened to directions to know if we should wave, jump, hop, twist, or swim.  We had to be careful with our bodies so we did not accidentally hit anyone with our scarves. 

We found friends to ask if they would like to trade colors with us and practiced using our kind words.  Then we got into groups of three or four to see if we could connect our scarves together to make triangles (they have three sides!) or squares (they have four sides!).  We stood with everybody to make one giant circle with all of our scarves.

DO THIS AT HOME:  try this with scarves, blankets, ribbons, or other materials.  What materials are good for waving?  What materials are good for making shapes?  How many people do we need to make a triangle?  Count them.  Look for shapes around your neighborhood.

March Week 3: Did You Do Yoga This Morning?

phoneme: /d/

Transition Song: Wake Up! Daily Routines by Dream English

Materials: Laminated letter D, yoga music

Vocabulary and Basic Concepts:  "Did you..." questions, up/down, high/low, label body parts, muscles, Pronoun+auxiliary phrases, following single and multistep directions.

Pre-literacy: Again we are drawing the letter D using the laminated templates.  We're determining which way the letter D should face (upside down vs right side up), talking about the sound it makes and whose name has that sound as well as what words have that sound.

This week Miss Carrie was asking the questions: Did you wake up this morning?  Did you wash your face this morning?  Did you brush your teeth?  Did you comb your hair or did mom or dad or grandma or grandpa help you?  Did you eat breakfast this morning?  Did you come to school this morning?  

This brought out a lot of conversation, not only between the teachers and the children, but also children talking to their peers.  Everyone was excited to talk about what  they ate for breakfast, or who helped them comb their hair.  For our children who are not yet verbal or who are just emerging verbal skills, we used signs and single word phrases.

Then Miss Carrie asked a different question:

Did you do yoga this morning?

The children wanted to know What is yoga?  One child confused it with "Yoda".  We worked on the different sounds between yoGa and YoDa and how yoga is a form of exercise while Yoda is a character in Star Wars movies. Some of the children wanted to know if it was like the exercises - the push ups, sit ups, jumping, running - that we did two weeks ago.  A few children did know what yoga was and proceeded to demonstrate yoga breathing, downward dog, and other poses they were familiar with.  We followed their lead and moved on to other ideas.  

I wonder how I can stretch the muscles in my legs?  What about my arms?  What is a good way to balance on one foot?

We identified body parts, and gave directions using the concepts high/low and up/down.  As the children were showing their ideas, we asked them to describe where their hands and feet were so we could follow.  There was a lot of Look at me! and I can do that!  The children thought it was hilarious when they could do something that Miss Carrie could not.  Sometimes we used partners to hold hands with when we were trying to balance.  

DO THIS AT HOME:  Turn on some music at home and move your bodies.  Talk about what you are doing and narrate what you see you see your child doing.  Follow their lead.  Don't turn on a yoga video.  Your focus needs to be on each other, not on a screen.  Don't worry about doing proper poses, just stretch up high, down low, and communicate back and forth.

March Week 2: Do You Like.....?

phoneme: /d/

Transition Song:  Wake Up Daily Routines by Dream English.

Materials:  Laminated Letter D, laminated photos of food on white background

Vocabulary and Basic Concepts: "Do you like _____?", "I do"/"I don't".  thumbs up/thumbs down. bacon, grilled cheese sandwich, doughnut, hot dog, chips, watermelon, jello, rice, pear, macaroni and cheese, hot chocolate, strawberries, spaghetti, pancakes, soup, green beans, oatmeal, carrots, pizza, peanut butter and jelly sandwich, salad, popcorn, cake, broccoli, grapes, cookie, french fries, dry beans, tomato, orange, celery, banana, apple, corn, scrambled eggs, potato, ice cream.

Pre-literacy:  Draw the letter D.  Start at the top and draw down.  Go back to the top and draw around.  What words have the /d/ sound?  Dinosaur, dot, dinner, dance, dip, dude.

Miss Carrie showed everyone that she had A LOT of pictures of foods.  Some foods were cooked, some were raw.  Some were for snacks, breakfast, lunch, and dinner.  Everyone chose 3 pictures to show their friends.  Every friend held up a picture and asked the entire class "Do you like ________? and labeled their picture.  Everyone then answered "I do!" or "I don't!" and gave a thumbs up and thumbs down.  We remembered that Miss Carrie does NOT like peanut butter.  Not everyone liked pizza.  Everyone liked ice cream.  Some of us liked broccoli, tomatoes, and carrots.

At the end we sang Do You Like Broccoli Ice Cream?  And laughed at the silly combinations.

DO THIS AT HOME:  at mealtimes talk about what foods you like and foods you don't like.  You can't say "I don't like it" unless you try it.  Miss Carrie tries foods she thinks she doesn't like once in a while to see if she changed her mind.  Talk about favorite foods of other family members or friends.  If Grandpa really likes cookies, take him a plate of cookies.  Practice asking "Do you like..." and "I do/I don't".

MIT Research titled How You Talk To Your Child Changes Their Brain.

Those of you who know me well know I love research.  Here is a FANTASTIC article about MIT's current research on child language acquisition.  It turns out that back and forth conversation with your child does more to increase language skills than using flashcards or electronic games. 

My two favorite takeaways:  

“The really novel thing about our paper is that it provides the first evidence that family conversation at home is associated with brain development in children. It’s almost magical how parental conversation appears to influence the biological growth of the brain,” says John Gabrieli, a professor of brain and cognitive sciences at MIT and the senior author of the study.

AND.....

"Babies tend to learn by watching and copying the adults they are most attached to, which is why singing and cuddling are much more effective than high-tech educational tools when it comes to development. "

Here is the link:

https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2018/02/how-you-talk-to-your-child-changes-their-brain/

March Week 1: Did you........?

phoneme: /d/

Transition Song: Wake Up Daily Routines by Dream English

(FYI: this is one of my favorite preschool songs I use!)

Materials:  Laminated letter D, exercise music

Vocabulary and basic concepts:  up/down, fast, slow, exercise, Did you/Do you questions, Who questions, squat, jump, run, push, sit, stand.

Pre-literacy:  Let's draw the letter D.  Start at the top and draw down.  Go back to the top and draw around.  Who has a /d/ sound in their name?  What other words have the /d/ sound?  Draw, dream, dinner, dessert, around, dog, down, dad.

First, Miss Carrie showed us how to beat a pattern: slap knees and then clap hands.  Knees, clap, knees, clap, knees, clap.  Whenever the chorus of our transition song came on, we would beat a pattern while we sang.  This was a song where Miss Carrie sang first and then everyone sang the same thing. (Miss Carrie's actions are different than the video.)

When the song was over, Miss Carrie asked "Did you....." questions.  Did you wake up this morning?  Did you wash your face this morning?  Did you brush your teeth this morning?  Did you comb your hair this morning?  Did you eat breakfast this morning?  DID YOU COME TO SCHOOL TODAY?  YES!  Everyone was excited to tell what they did today.  Then Miss Carrie asked a different question:

Did you exercise this morning?

No one had exercised this morning, although we found out that many moms and dads did.

Miss Carrie tries to exercise 4 days a week.  She showed us her favorite exercise: the squat.  We stood with our feet apart and bent our knees to squat down-down-down and then back up.  Down, up, down, up, down up.  Then every friend got to show an exercise for the class to do.  We did push ups, crunches, leg raises, arm circles, running in place, jumping jacks, jump twists, downward dog, touching toes, and stretching side to side.  It was fun to try it all.

At the end, Miss Carrie led the class through stretching and breathing to cool down.

(Miss Carrie discovered it was much easier to do all of this in her gym shoes rather than the usual professional work clothes she usually wears.)

DO THIS AT HOME:  Exercise together and talk about your actions.  Later, at the dinner table, ask "Did you....." questions.  Prompt your child with a choice of two options if they need help.  EX:  "Did you play outside or did you read a book?"

March Language Calendar

Here is the new language calendar for March.  I will be emailing this home to all of the families.

February Week 4: Out in the Jungle, What Do You HEAR?

phoneme: /h/

Transition Song: H-E-A-R-T by the Kiboomers.

Materials: Laminated Letter H.  Soundtouch and Soundtouch2 Apps.

Vocabulary and basic Concepts:  Hear, quiet/loud, high/low, jump, crawl, slither, animal sounds, What questions, Where questions.

Pre-literacy:  This was our last time for the letter H.  We are now able to find them around the room and think up words with the /h/ sound.

Activity:  We LOVE playing Out In The Jungle based on the Safari Song from Preschool of Rock - Everything Makes A Sound. Miss Carrie used her SoundTouch App and changed the words of the song:

Binoculars up!
Out in the jungle
What do I HEAR?
I....hear....a....


Then Miss Carrie played an animal sound.  We would guess the sound and then figure out to move and sound like the animal.  WHERE does the animal live? (farm, jungle, zoo, mountains, ocean).  WHAT does the animal sound like?  WHAT does the animal look like?  We discussed if the animal had legs, wings, or fins.  It was so much fun to move like monkeys, snakes, pigs, dogs, cats, lions, elephants, seals, zebras, dolphins, peacocks, owls, and bats. We jumped, walked, crawled, slithered, flew, and tried to hang upside down.

DO THIS AT HOME.  Get down on the floor with your child.  Let them pick the animal.  (if your child is nonverbal or needs extra help, have them point to pictures of animals they want to choose).  then everyone pretends to be that animal.  Follow your child's lead and do what they do. Visit the zoo or local farm and talk about the animals you see.  Check out library books about different animals to read together.