Animal Sounds: The Cow Said Meow

 Transition Song: Bouncy Bouncy Bouncy

Vocabulary and Basic Concepts: What/Where/Who questions, animal sounds, in/out, loud/quiet, warm/cold, wet/dry, thinking, surprised, sad, happy, predicting, says, yes/no/not.

This week Miss Carrie read us a book titled The Cow Said Meow by John Himmelman.

Wait a minute?  The cow said meow?  The cow said MEOW?!  Does a cow say meow?  No!  Cows don't say meow, they say moo! (The children were very emphatic, trying to explain this to Miss Carrie). But this cow said meow to get into the warm, dry house.  The grandma let the cow in.  Then other animals decided to try it.

Miss Carrie talked about different emotions.

Thinking

More thinking

Surprise

Sad

Everyone had a chance to tell Miss Carrie what the animals were supposed to say.  At the end, we sang Old MacDonald Had A Farm and everyone got to pick an animal to sing about and show the class what the animal should say.

DO THIS AT HOME:  Pick any book with animals/animal sounds and talk about what animals say.  Try saying a wrong animal sound and see if your child corrects you. Get the whole family involved and singing Old MacDonald.  Your Old MacDonald may live at the zoo, in the jungle, or on the farm depending on the animals your child chooses.

Do You Like Popcorn?

 Transition Song:  Bouncy Bouncy Bouncy

Vocabulary and Basic Concepts: What/Where/Who, like/don't like, pop/popping/popped, jump/jumping/jumped, sprinkle/sprinkling/sprinkled, pour/pouring/poured, oil, pan, heat, sizzle, snack, 

This week we read a book about popcorn.

We learned about where it came from, what it looks like, and how it pops.  Where do you eat popcorn?  At the movies? At home? At the park?  Do you like popcorn?

Then Miss Carrie taught us the popcorn song. Its a preschool version of Energizers! Popcorn's In The Popper by Susan Roser. In the song, first the teacher sings, then the class sings.

The teachers helped Miss Carrie sing the Popcorn Song!

Pour on the oil. (repeat)

Sprinkle in the popcorn. (repeat)

Put on the lid. (repeat)

Turn up the heat. (repeat)

Sizzle, sizzle, sizzle, sizzle (get louder)

sizzle, sizzle, sizzle, sizzle (get louder)

Sizzle, sizzle, SIZZLE, SIZZLE, POP! (clap hands on pop)

Hear the popcorn. Watch it pop. (jumping)

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!

Everyone had fun singing and jumping.  They asked to do it again and again. Then, for Snack Time, we had popcorn.

DO THIS AT HOME:  Any popcorn book will do.  Read the book together, asking and answering What/Where questions.  Sing the song together and follow your child's lead.  End with a popcorn snack.

September Week 3: Will It Bounce?

 Transition Song: Bouncy Bouncy Bouncy

Vocabulary and Basic Concepts: experiment, ball, feather, dinosaur, block, pompom, bounce,/bouncing/bounced roll/rolling/rolled, flop, flopping/flopped, high/low, catch, float, Who/What/Where.

Miss Carrie brought some boxes and a really big, black bag.  We were going to do an experiment.  An experiment is when you see what happens when you try a lot of things.  We were going to ask the question Will it bounce?

We tried bouncing pompoms, feathers, blocks, dinosaurs, and bean bags.  Everyone held them up high while we counted 1-2-3-DROP!  We asked what happened, who had one that bounced, and where did it go? We discovered that feathers floated, dinosaurs and bean bags flopped, and blocks might bounce and roll but only a little bit. These things didn't bounce or didn't bounce very well.

Miss Carrie brought out a big, black bag that was full of balls.  Would these bounce?  Everyone had a ball.  We couldn't throw them in the classroom, but we could drop them and then catch them.  Everyone heled up their bowl while we counted 1-2-3-DROP!  Did they bounce?  Yes, they did! Everyone had multiple tries to drop and catch their ball.

DO THIS AT HOME:  Have a bouncing experiment.  What do you have around the house? Try soft blocks, small toys, spoons, balls.  Will it bounce? Ask what happened?  Who chose this item?  What will it do?  Where will it go?  

September Week 2: Who Is Behind The Blanket?

 Transition Song: Bouncy Bouncy Bouncy

Vocabulary and Basic Concepts: in front/behind, Who-questions, peer names, greeting peers, on top/under, counting 1-5, My turn, Yes/No, He/She, His/Hers.

This week, Miss Carrie brought a big, red blanket to Large Group.  She introduced a new game she called "Who Is Behind The Blanket".  To play it, first we had to learn the song:

Who is behind the blanket?

Who is behind the blanket?

Who is behind the blanket?

1-2-3-4-5!

Once we learned the song, Miss Carrie showed us what to do.  She got behind the blanket.  We sang the song.  

When we counted to 5, Miss Carrie dropped the blanket and asked "Who is behind the blanket?"  We answered "Miss Carrie!"   

Everyone say 'hi' to Miss Carrie.  "Hi, Miss Carrie!"

Then everyone was asked if they wanted a turn.  They could say yes or no.  They could say "My turn!"  We had fun learning peer names and saying hi to everyone.

1-2-3-4-5! Who is behind the blanket?

Everyone, say hi to my friend!

Who is it?  What is her name?

Then, Miss Carrie did a magic trick.  She asked Miss Jeana or Miss Misty if they wanted a turn.  They were sitting by the shelves so she went over, held up the blanket in front of them, and sang the song.  When Miss Carrie dropped the blanket, Miss Jeana or Miss Misty had disappeared!  Oh, no!  What happened?  Miss Carrie, what did you do?!

Then Miss Jeana or Miss Misty stood up from behind the shelves.  They had crawled away when no one could see them.  It was so funny!

DO THIS AT HOME:  Parents, you will be surprised how much fun your child has with this game.  The children in our classroom wanted turns again and again.  Some even chose to play it again during Work Time.  Get a blanket, round up family members, and have your child take the lead. Do the disappearing trick, if you can.

September Week 1: Bouncy Balloons

 Vocabulary and Basic Concepts: box, high/low, empty/full, big/bigger/biggest, predicting, blow/blowing, bounce/bouncing/bounced, sitting, standing, my turn, hands, head, pop/popped, What/Where/Who, counting, colors.

Transition Song:  Bouncy Bouncy Bouncy by Rachel Arntson

Miss Carrie filmed this song when the schools were closed down for the pandemic.  She is at her house.

This week Miss Carrie brought a box full of something.  It didn't make much noise.  She took something out of the box and hid it in her hand.  It was something small, but it was going to get bigger.  Everyone tried to guess what was in her hand.  It was an empty balloon.  What did Miss Carrie have to do to make it bigger?  She had to blow into the balloon. She blew and blew.  Everyone could tell her if it was too small or if it was big enough.  When the ballon was full, we agreed it was big enough, so she tied the balloon.

Is one balloon enough for all of our friends?  Everyone helped to count how many friends we had in the room. No, we have too many friends in the room.  Good thing Miss Carrie brought more balloons.  Teachers helped blow up a balloon for each of our friends.  We could choose what color we wanted,  Red yellow, orange, blue, green, purple pink, white.

What could we do with our balloons?  We could bounce them high with our hands.  Sometimes the balloons bounced on our heads!  Some balloons went high and some went low. When we were done, we put our balloons in bags and tied the  bags onto our backpacks to take home.

DO THIS AT HOME:  No balloons?  A ball will do.  Anything that bounces.  Talk about how high it goes.  What body part did you use?  Did you bounce it with your hand?  Did you bounce it with your head?  Narrate the activity like a sports announcer. Where did the balloon go?