Hiding Phil

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

(Just first verse and clap all of the letters.)

Vocabulary and Basic Concepts:  hide/hiding, elephant, up/down, over/under, in front/behind, next to, big/small, bigger, biggest, bus, look, play, jump, slide, teeter-totter, bath, wet, whisper/shout, quiet/loud, paint, sneeze, suitcase, tree, Where-questions, Who-questions, He/She/We/They, His/Hers, locations around the classroom, peer names.

(This can be found at the library.  It is a kid favorite.)

This week we read the book Hiding Phil by Eric Barclay.  Phil is an elephant who is new in town.  They kids play with him. But when they worry that Mom and Dad won't love him, they try to hide him.

We talked about where Phil was hiding.  Did it work?  Where did they hide him next?  What happened?

Then we played Hide-and-Seek.  We hid around the room while Miss Carrie counted to 10.  Then, when she found us, she took our picture with her iPad.  We went back to the rug and Miss Carrie put the pictures on our Apple TV and asked "Who is it?" and "Where are they hiding?"  This game was so much fun, that we played it several times.

DO THIS AT HOME:  Easiest and most fun game!  Play hide and seek at home as a family.  When you find someone, take their picture of where they are hiding.  Then everyone get together and talk about Who it is and Where they are hiding.  Emphasize under, behind, next to, on top, in front.  Go for a few rounds and end with a fun treat.  This is one of the most popular activities we do all year.  Kids will be requesting to play hide and seek this way for the rest of the year.

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.

October Week 3: Miss Carrie LOVES to sing!

 This week, we focused on favorite songs and introduced new ones.  Of course, we started with Five Little Ghosts.  Other songs included Jim Gill's Stick To The Glue.

Just follow along with the words.  Get stuck together.  This caused a lot of laughter and talking about WHO and WHAT was stuck together.

Another favorite was Wave Your Hands High from Preschool Action Songs:

We talked about what we were moving or shaking.  Children showed teachers and teachers attempted to copy the move.  

DO THIS AT HOME:  Follow your child's lead and sing and dance.  Talk about WHO and WHAT and WHERE.  Narrate your child's actions and make a big deal about following their lead.

October Week 2: Out In The Jungle

 

Vocabulary and Basic Concepts: jungle, animal, grasshopper, bug, gopher, eagle seagull, penguin, dog, goat, goldfish, gecko, glow worm, gazelle, grouse, earwig, grisson, sea slug, wart hog, gorilla, pig, frog, flamingo, loud/quiet, Where questions, What questions, like/don't like, ocean, farm, zoo, mountain, outside, my house.

Transition Song: Five Little Ghosts by the Kiboomers.

This week we played Out In The Jungle.  Miss Carrie would call out:

Binoculars Up!  

Out in the jungle, What did I see?

I saw a.......

Now, here is the catch: we had a lot of pictures taped around the room at kid eye level.  Each picture was an animal we might be familiar with or not.  But they all had a /g/ sound at the beginning, middle, or end of the word.  Everyone moved around the room to hunt for the pictures with their pretend binoculars held up to their eyes.  Everyone had fun trying to find the animals.  Sometimes we had to ask Miss Carrie "What is that?!"  No one had seen a glow worm or a sea slug or a grisson before. The teachers would mark the sound and we practiced the words.  We talked about what is was and where we might have seen it before.

(Miss Carrie was so busy during the activity, she didn't take pictures!)

DO THIS AT HOME:  find some magazine pictures of animals and put them up around your house.  Go for a hunt to find them.  Let your child lead. If you're working on articulation, model the word slowly once and let it go. Don't make your child repeat it.  If they do repeat it, it gives you another opportunity to say  "You found a _________!" and model one more time.  If your child is working on language, label and ask What and Where questions.  If your child is working on communication, give them a chart with matching pictures so they can find it and circle or mark the picture on their chart as they go.

February Week 3: H-H-H

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

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.

This week Miss Carrie taped pictures all around the room.  All the pictures started with the /h/ sound.  We practiced on our hands so we could feel the air moving out of our mouths.  /h-h-h/. We were going on a hunt for /h/ pictures!

Everyone pretended to hold binoculars to their face and said this: "Binoculars up! I have a picture and it starts with /h/."  Then we found the pictures around the room.  What is it?  Where have I seen it before?  Who has one at their house?  Do you like it or don't like it?  Is it big or little?  If there was time, Miss Carrie gave us pictures to match with the pictures we were hunting.

We knew most of the words but we didn't know horseshoe crab or harmonica. Miss Carrie showed us a video of horseshoe crabs.  She really likes horseshoe crabs.

Then Miss Carrie showed us a video of a 6 year old kid playing the harmonica.  We noticed that he was blowing so his cheeks puffed out.  We noticed that sometimes he moved his hand to make the sound different.

DO THIS AT HOME:  Go on a hunt for pictures and objects around your house, around the park, around the store, or where ever your are. Pick a sound. What can you find?  Talk about the picture/object.  Ask What/Where/Who questions, describe it (big, yellow, small, bumpy, soft), Do you like it/don't like it. Make sure you repeat the sound over and over during play to reinforce it. Picking the first sound in your family names is a good place to start.

February Week 1: Hiding Phil

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

NOTE: We sing just the first verse, clap on each letter H-E-A-R-T while we singing an repeat it a second and sometimes a third time.

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

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

Phil is an elephant.  The kids want him to stay but they need to hide him under things.  It didn't work!  It was so much fun to see where Phil hid.  It was fun to find the dog in each picture.  Wait till you see where Phil hid last! We decided to play hide-and-seek and hid under tables, chairs, coats, blankets, and stuffed animals. Miss Carrie counted to 10 and then came to find us.  When she found us, she took our picture!  Then we looked at the pictures and talked about Who was in the picture and Where they were hiding.

DO THIS AT HOME:  play hide and seek and take pictures.  Talk about who is hiding where.  Talk about hiding under objects.  Laugh at the pictures and show them to your family.  Get everyone involved.