Yoga, Preschool Style

 Transition Song: Wake Up Daily Routines by Dream English

Vocabulary and Basic Concepts: yoga, hands, feet, legs, eyes, toes, tongue, lion, frog, snack, cat, dog, butterfly, mountain, quiet/loud, high/low, hop, stretch, push.

This week we did yoga.  Miss Carrie turned on some soft yoga music and then read the book Roar Like A Lion And Other Fun Yoga Poses by Taeeun Yoo.

Everyone followed along with the book and tried to do the poses.  Then we figured out ways we could do the pose a different way.  We used quiet voices to sound like dogs, cats, frogs, snakes, and lions.  In between poses, we sat on the rug with our legs crossed, hands on knees, and practiced breathing in through our noses and out through our mouths.

Miss Carrie talked about calm bodies.  If our bodies weren't calm, if we were feeling mad, or sad, or anxious, or worried, or frustrated, we could breathe in through our noses and out through our mouths to help our bodies calm down.  We could ask a teacher to help us.  We could go to the book area in the room and work on calming our bodies there.

DO THIS AT HOME:  try some yoga.  Talk about what you are doing with your body.  Have your child take the lead and see what other pose they can come up with. 

Daily Routine - Don't Forget To Exercise

 Transition Song: Wake Up Daily Routine by Dream English

Vocabulary and Basic Concepts: Who/What questions, How many, action words (jump, run, march, stretch, touch toes, squat, spin, push up, sit up, bounce, dance, balance, hop), counting to 5, counting to 10, recognizing names, progressive -ing, past tense -ed.

First we sang the Wake Up Daily Routines (seriously, we groove to this song).  Then Miss Carrie started asking:

Who woke up this morning?

Who washed their face this morning?

Who brushed their teeth this morning?

Who combed their hair this morning?

Who ate breakfast this morning?

Who came to school this morning?

Uh-Oh!

Miss Carrie forgot to exercise this morning?  She doesn't feel good until she exercises!  What can we do to solve this problem?!  Our friends came up with the solution.  We have to help Miss Carrie exercise!  

Miss Carrie wrote our name on the board when it was our turn.  She asked "What do you want to do to exercise?" Friends chose jumping, marching, pushups, burpees (who taught their kids to do do push ups or burpees?!), and other action words.  If they needed help, Miss Carrie gave them a choice of 2 or 3 actions.  Then, Miss Carrie asked "How many? Do you want to do 5 or 10?" and held up 5 fingers and then 10 fingers.  Once our friend decided on how many, we started to exercise.  We jumped, marched, stretched, squatted, touched our toes, hopped, balanced, and danced.  Teachers asked kids to identify their own name from the group of names on the board.  We had a lot of practice counting to 5 and counting to 10.

DO THIS AT HOME:  Have an exercise session and make sure everyone knows your child is the gym coach.  Your child chooses What to do and How many to do. If your child struggles with deciding what to do, give them a choice of 2 and model the action. Label the action before and after counting EX: We are jumping.  We jumped!

Make A Plan

 Transition Song:  Wake Up Daily Routines by Dream English

This song is going to be very popular with the kids.  We're beating patterns, lots of actions, and generally grooving to the music.

Vocabulary and Basic Concepts: First/Next/Last, spinning, running, jumping, posing, open/closed, hopping, balancing, stand, sit, lay, Who questions.

Right after we sang Wake Up Daily Routines, Miss Carrie asked "Who woke up this morning?  Who washed their face this morning?  Who brushed their teeth this morning?  Who combed their hair this morning? Who ate breakfast this morning? " And then the most important question: "Who came to school this morning?"  Did you know those things are part of a plan?  Miss Carrie asked if we wanted to practice making a plan.  She drew on the white board the same way the teachers do on their message boards for Greeting Time.  (Miss Carrie can't draw well but she promised to keep practicing.) Everyone got a chance to give their ideas for what we would do

In this plan, first we did pushups.  Next we posed like superheroes. Last we turned around like ballerinas. Once the plan was put on the board, Miss Carrie asked "What do we do first?  What do we do next?  What do we do last?  Everyone read the messages.  We followed the plan.  Then we checked to make sure we did everything for First, Next, and Last.

In this plan, first we chose to pose like a tree while balancing on one foot and closing our eyes.  We made sure Miss Carrie knew to draw closed eyes on the face.  Next, we turned around and around.  Last, we jumped up and down.

Once everyone had a turn to help make the plan, and everyone followed the plan, Miss Carrie reminded us that we could do this during Planning Time. We can plan what to do first, what to do next, and what to do last. At Review Time, we could tell our teachers what we did first, what we did next, and what we did last.

DO THIS AT HOME:  This is a great way to plan your day in a way for  your child to understand.  They don't understand time, but they can learn sequence.  Draw pictures of what you're going to do on one piece of paper to take with you so your child can see what is going to happen next.  We do this at school for our daily schedule.  Another way to do this at home is the exact way we did it this week in the classroom.  Get the family together, make a plan of actions, and everyone do it together.  Put your child in charge as much as possible. Check together to see that you followed the plan, then make another.