March Week 1: HYGIENE, HOT, HAPPY, HELP

Phoneme: /h/

Transition Song:  Wake Up! Daily Routines Song by Dream English.  (PS, this song is very popular with the kids.)

This song is all about hygiene and getting ready in the morning.  We'll be talking about hygiene starting next week as part of our Large Group Theme for March.  But this week we're talking about hot, pop, and other CVC words.

Materials: Laminated Letter H

Vocabulary and Concepts:  Hygiene, help, hot, happy, hello, wake up, wash face, bush teeth, comb hair, eat breakfast, go to school, sequencing

Pre-literacy:  Let's explore the letter H.  It makes a h-h-h sound.  I can feel my breath on my hand when I make that sound.  Whose name has that sound in it?  What words have that sound in it?  Hello, happy, help, hot.  Let's draw the letter H.  Start at the top and go straight down saying ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha.  Go to the right and do the same saying hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey.  Now in the middle go left to right saying hee-hee-hee-hee just like me.  (Okay, yes, it is cheesy.  Just go with it.  This is why:  The kids start laughing with all the ha's, hey's, hee's, and we throw in some ho-ho-ho if they recognize the sound in that.  It is funny!)

We're playing the Popcorn Game.  Popcorn pops when it gets HOT.  I'm posting the video from Youtube, but we modified our words and songs a bit from this original video:

Pour In the Oil

(kids repeat: Pour in the oil!)

Sprinkle in the popcorn

(kids repeat: Sprinkle in the popcorn)

Put on the lid.

(kids repeat: Put on the lid)

Turn up the heat!

(kids repeat: Turn up the heat!)

Everyone: sizzle, sizzle, sizzle, sizzle

(louder) sizzle, sizzle, sizzle, sizzle

(even louder) sizzle, sizzle, sizzle, sizzle POP!

(The children in the middle, get up and start jumping)

Hear the popcorn, watch it pop!

Hear the popcorn, watch it pop!

Hear the popcorn, watch it pop!

Hear the popcorn, watch it pop!

POP, POP, POP, POP

Now we STOP!

Everyone is either helping to "cook" the popcorn or pretending to be the popcorn popping in the middle of the circle.  The children were excited to take a turn jumping.

You might be asked to play this game at home.  Be sure to sing the chorus a bit slower that you think you need to, in order to make sure that your child has ample chances to articulate at least the "pop".

August/September Week 2: Germs

Phoneme: /b/

Materials:  Laminated Letter B, glitter, lotion, sheet to catch the mess.

Transition song:  Bouncy, Bouncy, Bouncy by Rachel Arntson

Vocabulary and Concepts:  Soap, water, germs, wash, inbetween, hands, fingers, thumbs, bubbles, sneeze, cough, elbow

Preliteracy:  practice tracing the letter B.  "Start at the top and draw down.  Go back to the top and bounce around."  Practice sound and CVC and CVCV words that have that sound.

Today we learned about germs.  Germs land on our hands when we cough or sneeze into our hands or if we put our fingers in our mouths or noses.  We can keep our hands clean by sneezing and coughing into our elbows.  We practiced sneezing and coughing the right way.

We can take germs off our hands by washing them with soap.  We can not put soap bubbles on our hands and then immediately put them into the water.  We have to rub our hands all over for a little while so the soap bubbles can work.  We learned to sing this song (to the tune of Frere Jaques):

Tops and bottoms, tops and bottoms (wash tops and bottoms of hands)
In between.  In between (lace fingers together)
Wash your thumbs.  Wash your thumbs (wash each thumb)
Now you're clean.  Now you're clean. (Final rub all over hands)

NOW we can rinse those soap bubbles off.

Miss Carrie, Miss Jeana, and Miss Julie do NOT want to get sick so we wash our hands A LOT!

We pretended that glitter was germs.  Miss Carrie rubbed a little lotion on her hands so the glitter would stick.  Then she pour some glitter in her hands and pretended to sneeze into her hands.  Look at her hands!  WHAT A MESS!  Miss Carrie high-fived the teachers and they got glitter on their hands!  Then Miss Carrie high-fived all the children who wanted to try and they got glitter on their hands!  Everyone went to the sink and practiced singing the song while they washed glitter off of their hands.

November Week 3: TOES!

Large  Group Activity

Date:  November Week 3

Title:  Toes

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, mirror, Gobble Gobble Picture Binder

Concepts:  Toes, Who/What/Where questions, Rhyming, Counting, body parts, predicting, alliteration

Transition activity:  Song:  Gobble Gobble (What Does The Turkey Say) by Nooshi.

Discussion: Let’s talk about Toes!  Who has toes? Let’s count them.  Take off your socks and shoes and we’ll count.  Where are your toes?  What can your toes do?  Can your wiggle them?  Can you walk on tippy toes?

Song:  Head and Shoulders, Knees and Toes.

Fingerplay:  Everybody Knows I Love My Toes

(This is one of my favorite large group activities!  Be sure to wear the craziest socks you can find, especially if they have the toes knitted separately so you can really wiggle them.  Or just take off your shoes and socks.  I like to have the kids all take off their shoes - but make sure you leave enough time to put all of those shoes back on.  Oy!  I like to treat this as a rap with some choral recitation thrown in. EX:  Everybody knows I LOVE my toes! {have children repeat this phrase}.  Recite the first verse as written.  On the remaining version, have children suggest body parts and add them in.  Be sure to use great inflection and enthusiasm.  Clap a beat on your toes.  Point out the body parts.  Point out the rhyming words.  This is a lot of fun!)

Everybody knows I love my toes.

Everybody knows I love my toes.

I love my nails, my knees,

My neck and my nose.

But everybody knows I love my toes!

Everybody knows I love my eyes.

Everybody knows I love my thighs.

I love my legs, my lips, my neck, and my nose.

But everybody knows I love my toes.

Everybody knows I love my feet.

Everybody knows I love my seat.

I love my skin, my chin,

My knees and my nose.

But Everybody knows I love my toes.

Every body knows I love my toes.

Everybody knows I love my toes.

I love my nails, my knees,

My neck, and my nose.

But everybody knows I love my toes!

What about your eyelashes?  Wrists? Shins? Belly/Stomach? Cheeks? EARLOBES?! (We learned that one a few weeks ago and all the kids thought it was a hilarious body part.  Go figure.)

October Week 3: Good To Eat

Phoneme: /g/

Gathering Song:  Five Little Ghosts

Concepts:  high/low, yummy/yucky.

Pre literacy:  trace the letter G.  Draw half a circle, not a frown.  Go across the middle and then down.

Today we are looking at pictures of foods and giving a thumbs up for what we like or a thumbs down for what we  don't like.  We are looking at pictures of green grapes, spaghetti, crackers, tomatoes, peas, peanut butter, watermelon, apples, popcorn, broccoli, and bananas.  It is okay if we like foods that someone else does not.  It is okay if we don't like certain foods and someone else does.  Miss Carrie LOVES tomatoes, broccoli, watermelon, and popcorn.  Miss Carrie does not like peas or peanut butter.

Our next part of the activity was practicing simple Consonant-Vowel combination words and learning sign for those words.  We used Rachel Arntson's Let's Eat from Kids Can Talk.

At the end we go around the circle and ask every child what they like to eat.  Answers included Mac an Cheese, pizza, chicken nuggets and fries, cereal, jam (this kid seriously liked jam), and chicken noodle soup.  At home, try a variety of different foods, especially fruits and vegetables.  Let your child play with the food - it is part of exploring. Talk about concepts such as crunchy/soft, sweet/salty, big/little. You can learn ASL signs for different foods at Signing Time's Dictionary.

Week 2

Phoneme: /p/


Transition Song:  Silly Pizza Song 2 

(The kids are really getting into this now.  They are talking about what other silly foods we can put on pizza.)


Concepts:  on top, putting on, pouring, sprinkling, turn up, hearing, watching.

Pre-literacy skills:  Draw the letter P.  What words have the p-p-p sound in them?  We say p=p=p with our voices turned off. 

We're pretending to pop popcorn! The children are really getting into this song.  Try it out at home.  We did change the words a little:

First your pour on the oil.
Sprinkle in the popcorn.
Put on the lid.
Turn up the heat.

Sizzle, sizzle, sizzle, sizzle (3X) 
Pop!

Hear the popcorn!
Watch it pop!
Hear the popcorn!
Watch it pop!
Hear the popcorn!
Watch it pop!
Hear the popcorn!
Watch it pop!

Pop pop pop pop!
Now let's stop!