March Week 1: First, Next, Last

Phoneme: /p/

Transition: Wake Up - Daily Routines by Dream English

This is one of the most popular songs I cover all year.  We practice patterns (tap knees, clap, tap knees, clap....) as well as fun actions.  This is a song where I sing first, then the children repeat u til the chorus.  Do this at home and let your child be in charge to teach you.)

Materials: Laminated letter P, dry erase board and marker, music

Vocabulary and basic concepts: first/last, high/low, fast/slow, jumping, spinning, shaking kicking, swimming, swinging, plan, What questions, Who questions, animal and environmental sounds.

We started learning a new song today.  It was fun to clap along and we learned to beat patterns.  When the song was done, Miss Carrie asked WHO woke up today?  WHO washed their face today?  WHO brushed their teeth today?  WHO combed their hair today?  WHO ate breakfast today?  WHO came to school today?  Everyone raised their hands and talked about their morning routine.  That routine is a plan.  We make plans every day. We make plans during Planning Time for what we're going to do for Work Time. 

Miss Carrie said it would be fun to make a plan for Large Group.  We planned how we were going to move.  We planned what we would do First, what we would do Next and what we would do Last.    Miss Carrie drew pictures on the board the same way that Miss Jen and Miss Jeana draw pictures on the board for messages during Greeting Time.  (Miss Carrie has a hard time drawing but she keeps practicing.  Sometimes her frogs look more like penguins, but that is okay. Note to Parents - sometimes children don't want to try things because they feel they won't be successful.  Watching an adult try and fail, and hear that it is okay, encourages the child to try as well.)  Everyone offered suggestions on what actions we could do.  Then Miss Carrie turned on music and we followed our plan.  We flew, kicked, tapped, spun, danced, and jumped.  After we followed the plan, we reviewed what we did First, Next, and Last. Then we made new plans.

In this plan we jumped, flew like Superman, and touched our toes.

In this plan, we pretended to eat carrots, swam like fish, and kicked our legs.

This time we jumped up and down like frogs, swam, and flew.

This plan was all about dancing, waving our hands, and flying like butterflies.

DO THIS AT HOME:  Make plan for what you do in the morning, what you need to do to set the table, or just to do actions together.  Draw pictures to show what you will do first, next, and last.  Add some fun music.  Don't forget to review the plan when you are done to see if you did everything you planned.  If your plan didn't go as scheduled, draw pictures to show what did happen.

January Week 1: Colors

Phoneme: /d/

Transition Song: Colors by The Learning Station

Once we learn this song we will sing it without music and add more color verses that we make up.


Materials: Laminated letter D, scarves

Vocabulary and Basic Concepts:  red, yellow, blue, green, orange purple, pink, black, white, gray, brown, Who questions, wave, high/low, fast/slow, go/stop, spin, twist, turn, swim, hop, jump, front/back.

Pre-Literacy:  Let's draw the letter D.  Notice that it has a curved line and a straight line.  Start at the top and draw down.  Go back to the top and draw around.  What words have the /d/ sound?  Draw, down, around, curved, dog, duck, dinosaur, dinner.  Who has a /d/ sound in their name?

This week we talked about colors!  What colors are you wearing?  We pulled out Miss Carrie's scarves and everyone got to choose their favorite colors.  We danced to music and talked about our actions and the color of scarf we were waving.

The children thought it would be fun to pile the scarves on Miss Carrie's head!

DO THIS AT HOME:  Go on a color hunt around your house. (Let's look for things that are red.  Now let's look for things that are yellow.)  What colors are you wearing?  If you have scarves, have a dance and talk about your actions as you wave your scarves.

December Week 3: Singing (and Caroling)

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.

Have a great Winter Break!  See you in 2019!

November Week 4:

Phoneme: /s/

Transition Song: Must Be Santa by Raffi

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!

Learning to bounce and catch the ball.

Take four giant steps.

Spontaneous singing during Book Time.

Knocking on the castle door.

Miss Jeana has A LOT of animals.

"Miss Carrie, I am drawing the tree."

Exploring what you can make with shapes.

Bouncing and catching the ball.

This is an important skill.

"I'm making a bracelet for my mom."

Exploring Rosie's Walk during small group.

Reading books during Work Time.

Counting.

Exploring art during Work Time.

"I have to go to the store."