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.)