This week, Miss Carrie introduced Must Be Santa song and Jingle Bells. She brought jingle bells for everyone to shake.
Then Miss Carrie pulled our her scarves. There were a lot of different colors: dark pink, light pink, yellow, red, blue, purple, orange, green. We each got to choose a color. We had to think of a second color choice if our first choice was already gone. Miss Carrie turned on the music and we showed the teachers what we could do. The teachers followed us, and sometimes would provide vocabulary words or expand phrases if we needed help. We listened to Yo-Yo Ma play tango on his cello, Steve Martin play banjo with the Steep Canyon Rangers, and the London Philharmonic Orchestra perform Flight Of The Bumblebee. We guessed if the music was fast or slow, loud or quiet.
DO THIS AT HOME: scarves, paper, socks, small towels, or little blankets. Turn on some music, get your dance moves on, and have your child show you what to do. Help them narrate their actions. Get the entire family involved.
This week we took a little field trip to the office. We went caroling! Caroling is where you sing holiday songs to your family and friends. We went to the front office to sing to the principal and the office staff. We've been practicing Must Be Santa and Jingle Bells. We shook jingle bells. Check this out:
DO THIS AT HOME: Sing the songs that we learned in preschool with your child. Perform them for family. See if your child will teach your family the songs. Singing does so much for language. You don't need to be a good singer, just willing to sing.
NOTE: The song is too fast for our pre-K kids so we sing this without the music. We are learning the first three verses.
Materials: Laminated Santa parts, Laminated letter S, Scarves, music
Vocabulary and Basic Concepts: Santa, body parts, clothing parts, fast/slow, loud/soft, scarves, swoop, swirl, sway, sit, stand, dance, jump, float, bend, throw, see, watch, look, colors, pronouns, What questions, Who questions.
We are starting our holiday songs early in order to have time to learn it. This week we started practicing Must Be Santa.
We have a Santa we put together. We talked about the parts: boots, hat/cap, shirt, pants, nose, beard, night, and HO-HO-HO. We are also learning simple actions.
Preliteracy: Santa has a /s/ sound. To make that sound we close our teeth and hid our tongue. Then we hiss /s-s-s-s-s-s/ like a snake. To draw the letter S we
Start at the top.
Swooooop over.
Swiiiiiiiirl down.
Swooooop under.
And STOP!
That was a lot of /s/ sounds! What other words have an /s/ sound? Snow, snack, small group, sing, sit, stand, SUPERMAN!
Miss Carrie pulled out a box that had something else with /s/ sounds. Scarves! We chose the color we wanted. We learned that if we didn't get the color we wanted, we could ask our friends to trade (problem solving!). We listened to a lot of music and decided if it was fast or slow. Then we danced to that music with our scarves.
There was classical music, hip hop, movie soundtracks, bluegrass, disco, rock, country, and jazz music. Some of the music started slow and then went fast. Sometimes it was quiet and then it was loud.
DO THIS AT HOME: Put on your favorite music. Talk about what you like and don't like. Wave scarves, blankets, pillowcases, or hand towels. Or, just dance. Copy the dance moves of your child. Ask them to show you how to do certain moves. Put them in charge.
See what else happened in class this week:
Elephants invaded the house!
Practicing cutting skills with the playdough.
Playing The Cat In The Hat-I Can Do That. This game is great for learning prepositions and following directions.
One of our friends had a birthday and brought blue cupcakes!
