Last week of school! What are your plans for summer?

I am so looking forward to summer. I get to cross something off my bucket list - my first ocean scuba dive trip!

I plan to come back next year with a small scrapbook about it to show the kids and talk about concepts like over/under, wet/dry big/little, tall/short, dark/light, and hot/cold.  I can add some vocabulary in there:  fish, water, air, fins, mask, tank, swimming.  I also have plans to hang out quite often at the family cabin, visit the local amusement park, visit the (new to me) museums,  work in the yard, stain or paint the kitchen cabinets (not fun), visit the library, learn French, learn guitar, and read the latest research relevant to early childhood language/articulation.

Miss Julie is going to travel with friends and family, going boating and wave-running, camping, attend baseball games, studying, and sleeping. (Great idea, Julie!)

Miss Jeana is planning on swimming, camping, reading, and going on a zipline tour.

So, what are your plans for the summer?  Consider putting pictures into a small scrapbook so your child can talk about it next fall.  Practice vocabulary words like swimming, hiking, driving, flying, riding, running, sleeping, and eating.  One of our classmates went camping with her family and came back with new words like hiking, walking, and tent. She brought pictures to share with the class and tell them about her adventure.  It was very motivating for her to talk about the fun time she had with her family.

Are you going to visit family?  Practice some names along with titles like Grandma, Grandpa, Aunt, Uncle, Cousins, Friends.

Are there foods or activities that are traditional to your family?  What about culture, ethnicity, or ancestry?  There might be some new vocabulary for your child to learn.

Are you going to an amusement park?  If your kids are like mine and love roller coasters (I don't, but my kids sure do) what a great multi syllable word to practice: roll-er-coast-er.  There are others:  merry-go-round, bumper cars, and (kids favorite) cheesy nachos.

That little scrapbook will be a great motivator for your child to use new vocabulary, ask and answer What and Where questions, label emotions, answer yes/no questions ("Did you like it?"), and start (with a lot of help from you) narration skills.

If you do make a small scrapbook, bring it back to school.  I love using them during therapy.

HAPPY SUMMER!

May Week 3: Spooky Walk

Spooky Walk by John Given is one of the kids favorites and requested often.  Think Cool Bear Hunt, but Halloween themed.  Many parents have been asking about it so here it is.

This week we're reviewing favorite songs during Large Group.  They are (in no particular order):

• Spooky Walk (Jim Given)
• Cool Bear Hunt (Dr. Jean Feldman)
• The Circle Song (The Kiboomers)
• Five Little Ghosts (The Kiboomers)
• Bouncy, Bouncy, Bouncy (Rachel Arntson)
• The Silly Dance Contest (Jim Gill)
• Hands Are For Clapping (Jim Gill)

FYI: 3 Tips on Helping Kids to Eat - a blog post recommendation

Melanie Potock M.A., CCC-SLP recently wrote a blog post titled 3 Tips for Parents To Help Children With Autism To Eat.  Melanie is the guru of pediatric feeding and has her own website called My Munch Bug that is full of good information.

While this blogpost specifies Autism, I think the information is great for parents of any picky eater.  She includes information about sitting at the table, building familiarity, and exploring foods.

This is definitely worth reading for any parent.

May Language Calendar

The Moog Center for the Deaf put out their May Language Calendar.  You can download a copy to print here.  

May Week 2: Silly Sounds

Phoneme: /s/

Transition Song:  The Circle Song by the Kiboomers

Materials:  Laminated Letter S, Jim Gill's The Sound Effects Song, SoundTouch App

Vocabulary and Concepts:  Sounds, songs, silly, animal sounds, vehicle sounds, household sounds, coughing, sneezing, What-questions, listening, voices, on/off, loud/soft

Pre-literacy:  Draw the letter S.  "Start at the top.  Swooop over.  Swiiiiiirl down.  Swooop under.  And stop.

Discussion:  We're talking about Silly Sounds!  What sounds can you make?  Can you meow like a cat?  Snore?  Ring like a bell?  Roar like a motorcycle?  Our voices can make all sorts of sounds.  And many of them are SILLY.

We're singing along with Jim Gill (from the Jim Gill Makes It Noisy In Boise album).  You can also find it at the library.

We're also playing with the SoundTouch App on my iPad.  The kids are constantly asking "Can we do the animal/firetruck/lightning sounds again?"  The SoundTouch lite version is free.  I have the full version.  I also pull it out a lot when I'm meeting new children during IEP meetings.  They love the sounds and I like how it gets the two of us doing something together.

Some sounds are loud and some are soft.  Sometimes we are using our voices, and other times we are listening with our voices off.

We're moving around our bodies and picking our favorite animal to move like as we travel from Large Group to Small Group.

May Week 1: Start and Stop (and the revival of the Silly Dance Contest)

Phoneme: /s/

Materials: laminated letter /s/, Jim Gill's Silly Dance Contest

Transition song: The Circle Time Song by the Kiboomers

Concepts and Vocabulary:  numbers 1-4, Start, Stop, Swoop, Swirl, Silly, High/Low, Fast/Slow, Over/Under, Up/Down, Frozen, Freeze

Pre-Literacy:  Draw the letter S. "Start at the top. Swooop over. Swiiiiiirl down. Swooooop under.  And STOP!

There is a reason I play the Silly Dance Contest.  It is one of the favorites with the kids.  Today, during the slow motion part, one of the boys got the idea to do slow motion high-fives.  It caught on, and soon most of the class was high-fiving each other. This is a good activity for following directions, modification of movement (fast, slow, jumping, high low), and of course, making silly faces (and  labeling face parts - eyes, mouth, nose, tongue, teeth, ears).

Small Group Activity

Both classrooms have been reading The Napping House by Audrey Wood and Don Wood.

This is a charming book - the illustrations are beautiful.  The children have been looking at the book with magnifying glasses to find the characters.  If you look closely, you can see another character starting to move which will predict what is going to happen on the next page.

There is a companion book to this called The Full Moon At The Napping House.

This would be fun to act out at home with a puppet show or drawn pictures.

Find the books at the library.

May Language Calendar

Thanks to Moog Center for the Deaf for putting out a language calendar monthly.  You can go to their website and download it to print out here.