May Week 4: Revisit The Obstacle Course

This was such as favorite that we did it again!  We redid the obstacle course.

DO THIS AT HOME:  make your own obstacle course. or head to the park playground for a ready made obstacle course.  Label your actions and use your announcer voice.

May Week 3: Traffic Signs

Transition Song: The Circle Song by the Kibommers

(no phoneme this week)

Materials:  Laminated Traffic Signs, paper plates

Vocabulary and Basic Concepts: stop/go, fast/slow, turn, one way, do not, steer, beep, negation

This week, Miss Carrie brought out traffic signs.  Many of us knew what the STOP sign was.  We practiced spelling S-T-O-P.....STOP! and G-O......GO.  She introduced arrow signs that meant turn this way (not that way).  When you see a sign that is yellow, it means caution or slow down.  Look, there is an S in SLOW and an S in STOP.  Hey, there is an O, too!  We used paper plates for steering wheels.  After a while, Miss Carrie said "Everyone STOP!".  then we could decide if we wanted to hold the signs or keeping driving.  We beeped our horns and started up again.

DO THIS AT HOME:  Make your own traffic signs and hang them around a room or rooms.  Everyone can pretend to drive.  When you're out and about, look for traffic signs.  Knowing that a sign says stop, even if your child isn't reading the word STOP yet, is reading environmental print which is a pre-literacy skill.

May Week 2: Old favorites and an art show.

This week, on Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday, we revisited favorite songs we've sung with Miss Carrie throughout the school year.  Favorites included Wake Up Daily Routines, Bouncy Bouncy Bouncy, Five Little Ghosts, H-E-A-R-T, One Finger One Thumb, and Must Be Santa.

On Wednesday, we went to the art show.  The show features art from other students in the school.  There were so many things to see and talk about!

There were a lot of themes featuring space.

Everyone LOVED this exhibit!  Not only did the art glow, so did our clothing!

We learned that the containers that hold flowers are called vases.

Miss Jeana and Miss Jen now have bugs encapsulated in little cubes to observe and explore.  All the children commented on these bugs and how they were like the little bugs in class.

Is it a city?  A neighborhood?

Some children observed that this was sunset.

So many liked the train pictures.

Some children liked the planets the best.

We tried to pose like an artist but the pictures were too tall for many of the kids.

These masks are made from jugs.

Frogs or monsters or aliens?

We practiced our /s/ sound while looking at the suns.

If you can find a kid-friendly art exhibit, it might be worthwhile to check it out.  The children loved to see the art and we had so many attempts at communication as well as expanded communication.

May Week 1: What Can I Make?

phoneme: /m/

Transition Song:  Circle Time Song by the Kiboomers

(This is one of the most popular songs I sing all year.)

Vocabulary and Basic Concepts:  on top/under/in front/in back or behind/next to, on/off, tall/short, high/low, same/different, full/empty, yes/no, make, break, build, labeling color, small/smaller/smallest, tall/taller/tallest.

Pre-Literacy: Draw the letter M:  Go up the mountain and back down.  Go up the next mountain and down to the town.  What words have a /m/ sound in them?  Who has a /m/ sound in their name?

This week, Miss Carrie brought out a lot of boxes.  Come of the boxes were small.  When we shook them, we could hear that they were full?  We opened the small boxes and there was a smaller box inside!  We shook the smaller box and could hear something inside.  It was the smallest box!  The smallest box was empty.  Miss Carrie also had bigger boxes that were empty.  Some of the boxes were covered with duck tape so we couldn't open those.  

Miss Carrie asked what could we make with all of the boxes?  We made tall towers.  Some towers were short but some were taller than we were.  The tallest tower was taller than the teachers.  If we wanted a block a friend had, we had to ask.  They could say yes or no.  If we wanted to knock down a tower, we had to ask.  Our friends could say yes or no.  We had to problem solve if a tower was knocked down or kept falling down. We discussed if the boxes looked the same or different.  We had to ask our friends to reach next to or behind them to hand us another box.

When Large Group was done, we had to put the small/smaller/smallest boxes back together.  We had to make sure the design on the lid was the same as the design on the box.  If they were different, we had to look for another box or lid.

DO THIS AT HOME:  Find some boxes that you can nestle together (they don't have to be the same shape, they just have to fit).  Or find a few boxes or bags that you can put toys or other things in.  Talk about full and empty, make a tower, or build a fort together.  Talk about full or empty as you take food out of the fridge or pantry, do laundry (empty laundry baskets, hooray!), or while your drinking or eating a favorite food (My cup is empty!).