April Week 1: Caterpillar To Butterfly

phonemes: /k,s/

Transition Song: One Finger One Thumb Keep Moving. (There are a lot of versions of this on the internet.  I do a modified, much slower version with no outside music.  The first verse goes:

One finger, one thumb keep moving.
One finger, one thumb keep moving.
One finger, one thumb, keep moving
We'll all be happy today.

We add on one arm, one leg, one head, stand up-sit down on additional verses.  I'll try to post a video during one class time so you can get the idea.  Everything on the internet was too fast, different words, so not similar enough to post.)

Materials: Laminated Letter C, Book: Caterpillar to Butterfly, scarves

Vocabulary and Basic Concepts: first/next/last, little/big, molting, metamorphosis,  caterpillar, butterfly, grow, chrysalis, proboscis, head, body, wings, leaves, ground, air, fly, crawl, wriggle, wiggle, eat, egg.

Pre-Literacy: Draw the Letter C
Start at the bottom?  NO! Start at the top.
Draw half a circle and then we stop.

This week Miss Carrie brought out a BIG book called Caterpillar to Butterfly by Deborah Heiligman. (Thanks again to everyone who donated to this Donors Choose project!  The children love the giant books.) It had a lot of big new words in it.  Every time we heard the words Caterpillar or Butterfly, we would say it and clap the syllables.  Ca-ter-pil-lar.  Bu-tter-fly.  We even tried to clap the biggest word ever: Metamorphosis.  We talked about what happened first, next, and last.  We learned about chrysalis.  then we used scarves to crawl like caterpillars, wrap up like a chrysalis, and fly like butterflies.  We talked about if we had ever seen a butterfly in our own yards or at the park.

(Sorry, no pictures this week)

DO THIS AT HOME:  Check out caterpillar/butterfly books at the library to read at home.  Go on walks to look for caterpillars and butterflies.  Thanksgiving Point has a Butterfly Biosphere that would be fun to visit.

December Week 2: Silly Sally

phoneme: /s/

Transition Song: Must Be Santa by Raffi

Materials: Silly Sally by Audrey Wood, Silly Sally big book and manipulatives, laminated letter S, laminated Santa.

Vocabulary and Basic Concepts:  front/back, right side  up/upside down, up/down, high/low, fast/slow, awake/asleep, labeling animals, walk, jump, crawl, march, dance, muddy, silly, singing, tired, tickle/d, What questions, Who questions, alliteration, predicting.

Preliteracy - Draw the letter S.  What words have the /s/ sound?  soup, sneaky, snow, sweet, salty, Santa, silly, Superman, Snack Time.

This week we are using some of our brand new materials we received from our Donors Choose benefactors!  Thank you to everyone who donated towards this.  We read the book Silly Sally by Audrey Wood.

Silly Sally likes to walk backwards and upside down.  There are a lot of rhyming and repetitive words in this book which makes it a lot of fun to read together.  First we read the book.  Everyone called out UPSIDE-DOWN when we got to that part. We predicted who Sally would see next by looking down the path on which she was walking. We listened for alliteration and rhyming words.

Then we used the cards and the character bean bags and made up our own version of Silly Sally.  We danced.  We flew.  We sang.  We attempted to walk upside-down.

That is a GIANT book!  Everyone could see the pictures!

DO THIS AT HOME:  Read Silly Sally together (it's at the library!) or another book with simple words.  Point out rhyming words and alliteration.  What do the animals sound like?  Can you do that?  What do they move like?  Can you do that?  Parents, get down on the floor and do it with your child.  Ask them to show you how to do it.  Change the animals in the story to their favorite ones?  You could even draw you own pictures to make your own book.

December Week 1: Snow People

Phoneme: /s/

Transition Song:  Must be Santa by Raffi

Note: we aren't singing to the music as we sing slower in preschool.  We're singing the first three verses.  Ask your child to show you the actions as well.

Materials:  Book - Snowballs by Lois Elhert, snow people items (hats, scarves, necklaces, sunglasses, sweaters, etc), laminated Santa, laminated letter S.

Vocabulary and Basic Concepts: snow, snowmen/women/people, snow ball, boy/girl, baby, bird, popcorn, clothing items, melting, dressing, on top, next to, behind, hot/cold, What questions, Where questions.

Pre-Literacy:  Let's draw the letter S.  Start at the top.  Swoop over.  Swirl down.  Swoop under.  And stop!  What words have the /s/ sound?  Soup, sweet, salty (we talk a lot about sweet and salty at Snack Time), sound, silly, soft, Santa, snow, snowman.

This week, Miss Carrie read a book by Lois Elhert called Snowballs.

In the book there is a snow family that have a lot of different items on them.  We looked at the pictures and talked about what we saw on the snow people.  Miss Carrie asked "What do you see?"

Miss Carrie REALLY wanted to build snow people!  She brought hats, scarves, necklaces, sweaters, sunglasses, But we couldn't go outside (it was too cold).  We couldn't being snow inside (it would melt).  So we had to problem solve:  What could we use to build snow people?

We could turn the TEACHERS into snow people!  We labeled clothing items and body parts.  We discussed who would wear what item.  We decided where the hats, glasses, and scarves should go. Look at what happened next...

DO THIS AT HOME:  No snow?  No problem!  Turn family members into snow people.  Label the clothing and other items you choose to use.  Talk about hot and cold.  Label body parts.  

Then, make some hot chocolate.  (Miss Carrie LOVES hot chocolate with whip cream. She talks about it during Snack Time when we talk about things we like to eat and drink.)

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."