Arrow To The Sun

Miss Jeana's class has been exploring the book Arrow To The Sun in small groups.  I used to love the video when I was a child watching PBS.  So I'm posting the video here if you'd like to watch it at home.  I suggest getting the book from the library and exploring it at home.  Miss Jeana and her aides have been asking the children "What do you see?"

February Week 4: Hot Potato

Phoneme: /h/

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

Materials: 6 potatoes

Vocabulary and Basic Concepts:  hot, potato, He/She, same/different, Who-questions, I do/I don’t, “me”, move, hand, in front/behind, my turn, go/stop, plural -s, present progressing -ing, my turn, fast/slow

This week Miss Carrie brought potatoes into the classroom.  They weren't cooked and they weren't hot.  There were sweet potatoes and white potatoes.  She taught us a game called Hot Potato.  We had to pretend the potatoes were hot.  We practiced saying:

Hot potato, hot potato, hot-hot-hot!

Miss Carrie asked everyone to sit in a circle.  We practiced passing potatoes around the circle. (Note to parents:  In occupational therapy this is called crossing midline.  It's an important skill.)  We had to constantly be looking to see our friends passing us the potatoes.  We chanted "Hot potato, hot potato, hot-hot-hot!".  When Miss Carrie called out "STOP!", if we had a potato, we held it.  Miss Carrie would call out "Who has a potato?"  If we had one, we held it up and said "I do!".  Then Miss Carrie asked "Who doesn't have a potato?"  If our hands were empty, we held them both up and shook them while saying "I don't!"  We practiced over and over so everyone had a chance to hold a potato.  We passed in front of us and we passed behind us.  We passed left and right and sometimes both ways.  Learning negation (I do/I don't) is a step beyond yes/no.  We were laughing whether or not we ended up with the potato. We problem solved when we thought our friends were not passing the potato and trying to hold onto it.

DO THIS AT HOME:  play games!  Practice I do/I don't phrases, My turn/Your turn phrases, problem solve, and celebrate who has a good turn.  Narrate what is happening throughout the game.  Look for games where you sit and face each other and communicate back and forth. Rolling a a ball between you, a water fight, blowing bubbles, board game, passing items.  It is a great way to spend time with your child.

February Week 3: What Do You Hear?

phoneme: /h/

Transition Song: H-E-A-R-T by the Kiboomers.  (This week we are singing it without music, slowing it down, and working on the clap pattern.)

Materials: SoundTouch App 1 & 2

Vocabulary and Basic Concepts: hear, loud/quiet, big/little, sheep, duck, horse, frog, dog, pig, cow, chicken/rooster, bird, cat, elephant, monkey, lion, zebra, dolphin, snake, flamingo, owl, peacock, bat, turtle, hippo, bee, warthog, What/Where questions, “I want” phrases.

Pre-literacy: we skipped drawing the letter H this week to allow more time for the listening activity.

This week, Miss Carrie pulled out her iPad.  We played a game where we used our listening ears while she played a sound.  We guessed what made the sound.  Then Miss Carrie turned the iPad around so we could see the picture.  There were all kinds of animals and insects.  

SoundTouch 1 & 2 are great apps to talk about environmental sounds.  Each icon has five pictures with corresponding sounds.  Along with animals are vehicles, household, weather, and music sounds.  In class we stick with the animal and vehicle sounds.

Sometimes we guessed right and sometimes we didn't.  Sometimes we even tried to predict what it would be before we heard the sound!  We talked about what it was and where we could see it; also,  if we had one at home.  Miss Carrie has a dog at her house. She does not have a cat, or a pig , or a cow?  Where can we see elephants?  Where do dolphins live?   We had fun talking about where we can see the animals.  We were surprised at the different sounds frogs make.  And the different sounds owls make.  We listened to elephants and tried to make that sound.

This is a favorite Large Group every year.  The children often ask to do it again.

DO THIS AT HOME:  practice making different sounds together.  Listen to sounds while you're driving around or at the store.  Visit the zoo or a farm and talk about different sounds you hear there.

February Week 2: 'H' Hunt

phoneme: /h/

Transition song: H-E-A-R-T by the Kiboomers.  (Note: we clap and sing all the letters every verse and sing the verse 4 times.  The children have had fun trying to make 'hearts' with their fingers.

Materials:  Laminated letter H, laminated pictures of /h/ words, some physical items (hats, toy horse, toy hippo, beanbag with letter H on it)

Vocabulary and Basic Concepts: Who/What/Where questions, big/little, labeling, describing words, have, yes/no, Heart, house, hippo, horse, hand, horseshoe crab, helicopter, honey, hamburger, hotdog, harmonica, hair, hammer, hat, hammock, hanger, helmet, Humpty Dumpty.

Pre-Literacy:  Draw the Letter H. (see last week for directions)

This week we went on a hunt for /h/ sounds.  We practiced clapping and saying "I have a picture and it starts with /h/."  When we said the /h/ sound, we held our hands up in front of our mouths so we could feel our breath.  Once we had the phrase down, we got up in groups and went hunting around the room.  Every time we found a new picture we clapped and said "I have a picture and it starts with /h/."  Then we talked about What is it?  Where can we find it?  Who has one at their house, or likes it, or has seen it out in the community.  For the children who needed something more concrete, we had items like hats, toy horses, toy hippo, and a honey jar that they could hold and compare.

DO THIS AT HOME:  Draw a large capital letter on a piece of paper.  Practice the sound together.  Then go on a hunt around your home or neighborhood and look for items that have that sound.  This is also a great activity to do at the grocery store, when you have such a captive audience.

MRI shows articulation

This is a MRI of a person speaking.  Yes, it is in German.  But just listen to the sounds and watch the tongue.  The tongue tip is so delicate as it curves up to touch the ridge just behind the teeth for /t/ and /d/ sounds, long contact for /n/ sounds.  You can see the top of the tongue hit mid/back on the division between hard and soft palate for /k/ and /g/ sounds.  You can see the velopharyngeal port (that part of the soft palate that closes the nose off) open for /m/ and /n/ and close  for other consonants.  You can see the tongue minutely adjusting.  You can even see a few swallows.  No wonder articulation can be so hard!  There is so much for the tongue and lips to do. 

Hiding Phil

phoneme: /h/

Transition Song: H-E-A-R-T by The Kiboomers

(We're singing all of the letters H-E-A-R-T for every verse and clapping along instead of removing one letter each verse.  The children as also practicing making a heart shape with their hands.)

Materials:  Laminated Letter H, Book: Hiding Phil, camera and computer

Vocabulary and Basic Concepts: under, hiding, descriptive words, locations vocabulary pertaining to the classrooms, Where questions, Who questions, He/She/We/They

This week we read the book Hiding Phil by Eric Barclay.

Phil is an elephant who comes on a bus.  The children in the story find him at the bus stop and are so excited to play with him.  Then they realize that their parents may not be happy about them bringing an elephant home to stay.  The children try to hide Phil the Elephant under things.  We had so much fun seeing what would happen next.  The dog in the story was fun to find, too.

Then, Miss Carrie asked if we would like to play hide-and-seek and hide under things in the classroom.  When she found us she took our picture.  We gathered on the rug after everyone was found.  Miss Carrie put the picture on her computer and showed them to us.  She asked us "Who is that?" and "Where are they hiding?"  Everyone had a chance to answer Who and Where questions.  Everyone laughed at their picture and was excited to tell everyone where they were hiding.  We also had fun talking about our friends: "He was hiding under the chair!"  "She was hiding under the sensory table!" " They were hiding under the blanket!" Check it out:

DO THIS AT HOME:  Play hide and seek! Pull out your cameras - the children love talking about their pictures and other pictures you take of family members.  Do more than just under things. Pull extended family members into the game.  Put grandpa behind the door and grandma under a blanket. Listen for giggling - that was a good indicator in the classrooms that we were close to finding someone.

Golfer with Down syndrome Nails Par

Check out this young woman who has Down syndrome hit a 3-Par on a professional course.  My favorite parts:  She constantly chants "You can do this" to herself and says outloud to the people around her "They love me!" (referring to the crowd cheering for her!

Research Article about Down syndrome

I love research.  This one particularly hit home because my daughter has Down syndrome.  You can find this research information from the Harvard Gazette HERE.