May Week 4: First, Last, and Do the CONGA!

Transition Song: The Circle Song by the Kiboomers

Vocabulary and Concepts:  First, Last, Stop, Who questions

Pre-Literacy:  Due to time constraints, we skipped this part.

This week we are discussing the concept of First/Last.  We talked about a Conga line and how we put our hands on the shoulders (or back) of the person in front of us and follow the leader around the room.  Then we learned a Conga Line Song:

Doo-doo-do-the Conga!

Doo-doo-do the Conga!

Doo-doo-do-the-Conga!

Doo-doo-do the Conga!

STOP!

(Teacher calls out) Who is first? (Everyone calls out the child’s name)

(Teacher calls out) Who is last? (Everyone calls out the child’s name)

(Everyone chants) ________is first!  _______ is last!

(First child’s name), go to the back!

(child goes to the back and you start over)

Ready, set, GO!

This repeats until everyone has a chance to be first and last. The first child gets to decide where to go.  We danced our Conga Line all around the room.  Miss Carrie played African Conga Drum music while we danced.

This activity was so much fun that some kids formed a Conga line during recess and played it again.

Do this at home:  Form your own Conga line and dance around the room.  Then talk about other things that are first and last.  When you make a plan to do something (cook dinner, shop at the store, get ready for bed) talk about what you are going to do first and then what you will do last.

February Week 1: Dinner - Set the Table

Phoneme: /d/

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

Concepts: What questions, Who questions, sequencing, following directions, choral recitation, rhythm

Materials: Laminated Letter D, place mat, plate settings

Preliteracy Skills:  Draw the letter D.  Start up at the top and draw down.  Go back to the top and draw around.  Does anyone have a /d/ sound in their name?  What words have a /d/ sound in them? Draw, down, dollar, do, don't, and.........

Dinner!  We're talking this week about dinner.  Before we eat dinner we have to set the table.  This activity is a repeat from before.  The kids love this.  Many of them now can act as 'voice' and lead the choral recitation.  This time we added more placemats  and settings to the session to keep the children engaged and participating.

(Take a beat on your knees similar to "Going on a Bear Hunt".  Have the class repeat each phrase after the "voice" lead.)

Time to eat?

No, not yet.

What do we need?

A (napkin, fork, plate, knife, spoon, cup)

Put it on the table.

(Repeat until everything is on the place mat.)

Time to eat?

Look....

YES!!!!

At the end of class we looked at our socks.  Depending on the color of our socks, we moved to small group by flying, stomping, jumping, spinning, or skating.

November Week 1: Tongues, Taste, and Set The Table

It's a new month which means new songs, new sounds, and new activities!

Large  Group Activity

Date:  November Week 1

Title:  Tongues

Phoneme: /t/

Pre-Literacy:  Trace the Letter T.  “Top to Bottom.  Now Back to the Top.  Left to Right and now we STOP.”  Talk about words that have the /t/ sound.  Tongue, Teeth, Toes, Turkey, Tomato. Tickle, Two. Does anyone have a name with the /t/ sound?

Materials required:  Laminated Letter t, Pictures of foods typically served at Thanksgiving, Gobble Gobble Picture Binder, laminated place mat, fork, knife, spoon, cup, plate, napkin, rhythm, choral recitation, sequencing.

Concepts:  yummy/yucky, tongues, oral motor skills, Who/What/Where questions

Transition activity:  Song:  Gobble Gobble (What Does The Turkey Say) by Nooshi.

(This song is a great warm up to talking about new foods and familiar foods at your Thanksgiving table.  Stuffing, pumpkin pie, mashed potatoes, rolls).  It's also a great start to talk about gratitude (I'm thankful for my family and all my friends, our freedom, and our country).

Discussion:  Who has a tongue?  What can you do with your tongue?  Can you do this?  We can taste with our tongue.  “Taste starts and ends with the /t/ sound!  We can move our tongues.  Put your tongue on the left corner of your lips, now right, now back and forth.  Can you like your lips with your tongue?  Pretend your tongue is a vacuum and vacuum the bottom of your mouth, the inside of your cheeks, and the top of your mouth.  Let’s walk the vacuum upstairs and do it again.

What do you like to taste?  Let the children name foods.  Look at pictures of foods typically served at Thanksgiving.  What tastes good?  Do you like turkey?  Stuffing?  Sweet potatoes?  Mashed potatoes?  Rolls? Pie?

Can you roll your tongue like a hot dog bun?  Look in the mirror to see. 

Let’s set the table.  (Choral recitation with repetition).  Give each child a part of the place setting.  Put the place mat in the middle. Parents Magazine has a great printable place mat that let's your child see exactly where to set each piece.  I printed them and laminated them to use for this Large Group segment and then put the extras in the kitchen area for the kids to play with during Work Time.  You can print your own place mat from Parents Magazine here.

Get a beat on your knees for this.

Time to eat? (repeat)

No, not yet. (repeat)

What do we need? (repeat)

A ________(fork, knife, spoon, plate, napkin, cup)

Put it on the table (child holding specified place setting puts item on the place mat)

(repeat until all items are on the place mat)

Time to eat? (repeat)

Look! (point to place mat)

Yes! (everybody cheers)

(Can speed up or slow down as needed.  Allow child to take over as lead voice when ready.)

Working on VERBS this summer

Chapel Hill Snippets is a fantastic speech/language blog with a bunch of free resources.  Check out her latest - a summer book on verbs which you can find here.  Print it out and read it with your kids.  Then make your own with things you want to do this summer.  Make another at the end of summer with pictures from all of your fun activities.  Not only will you be working on verbs, but pronouns, present tense, and past tense.  Even sequencing (First we went _________, and then we went ____________.

If you do this, have your kids bring their books to school next fall.  I plan on doing this with my summer vacation plans.

Week 4

Since we only had one day (and because the children loved it) we repeated the Popcorn activity with the children choosing whether to be Leader or Popcorn.  I was surprised how many of the "Leaders" used full voice and inflection as they lead the class.  We also worked on directions.  EX:  If you have the color red on your shoes, tiptoe to your backpack." 

Coming up for May:  the sound /s/ and Summer, Silly Dance Contests, Guess the Sounds, and I Spy.  Stay tuned!

February Weeks 1-2

Phoneme:  /d/

Transition Song:  Skidamarink-a-dink-a-dink

Concepts:  Who Questions, sequencing, following directions, choral recitation, rhythm

Materials:  Laminated letter D, Laminated placemat

Pre-Literacy Skills:  To draw the letter D:  Start at the top, and d-d-draw d-d-down.  Go back to the top and d-d-draw around.

Today we're talking about the letter D and Dinner!  Who has a name with the letter D? Who eats dinner?  What do we do before we eat dinner?  We set the table.  (I've worked out a choral recitation for setting the table that is similar to Going On A Bear Hunt.  The leader starts and the group repeats each line.  We beat out a 4-count rhythm on our knees (this really encourages the kids to sit criss cross applesauce just so they can keep the beat).

Time to eat?
No, not yet.
What do we need?
A napkin/fork/plate/knife/spoon/cup!
Put it on the table!

(Repeat until each item is placed on the table.)

Final verse:
Time to eat?
Look! (point to finished table setting)
YES!!! (throw hands in air)

Change it up.  The kids love it when we speed it up (because we are SUPER HUNGRY!)  Sometimes I will point to a child to tell me what comes next.  Other times I will appoint a child to be the choral leader and they start the recitation.  Children with more challenges with verbal skills will find it easier to participate because they know what comes next.  This activity is great because choral recitation allows children with all levels of communication skills to participate and have fun.

We're practicing with these great placemat printouts.  I laminated three printouts for each classroom.  The kids really get into this and are excited to have a turn helping to set the table.  Print out the placemat and let them do it at home.  You can find it here.

December Planning

I'm excited for this month.  Our transition son is "Must Be Santa" by Raffi.  There are so many concepts reinforced with this song:

1.  WHO QUESTIONS- this is a great introduction to the concept of WHO.  The song repeats "Who......" and then answers the question.  EX:  Who's got a beard that's long and white?  Santa has a beard that's long and white."  We can further this concept with concrete questions such as "Who is wearing blue today?", "Who painted a picture today?".  Later in the month, we'll add abstract questions such as "Who do we go to when we are sick?  They take our temperature and look in our nose and ears."

2.  PARTS/WHOLE - Parts make a whole.  In this case, the separate pieces we are putting together (beard, cap, red suit, red nose, boots) make up our Santa.  The children will take turns putting it together.

3.  COLORS - red suit, red cap, white beard, black boots.

4.  SEQUENCING - The song has a specific order to build the Santa.  This is great to help the children understand "What happens next?  What do we need next?"

The song is a bit fast for some of our language learners, so I will be singing it without music playing the first two weeks in order for the children to learn at a slower pace.  Then I'll add the Raffi music while the children take turn singing and putting it together.

And here is the song