January Week 1: Snowballs...But No Snow!

 Transition Song:  Colors by The Learning Station

Vocabulary and Basic Concepts: snow, cold, dad, mom, girl, boy, cat, dog, string, buttons, hats, scarves, gloves, strawberry, shell, forks, bells, strings, Who questions, What questions, "I want" phrases.

This week, Miss Carrie brought in a big bag and a book. The book was called Snowballs by Lois Ehlert.

In the book, there was a snow dad, a snow mom, a snow girl, a snow boy, a snow cat, and a snow dog.  Miss Carrie used her camera to put the pictures on the Apple TV so we could look closely at what was on the snow people.  We saw forks, seeds and nuts, berries, popcorn, sticks, and buttons.  We noticed that the birds and squirrels were eating the nuts and seeds.  At the end of the book, the snow people and the snow animals melted.

Miss Carrie had a problem.  She really wanted to make snow people.  But there was no snow outside.  Miss Carrie brought a big bag full of hats, gloves, and scarves to use.  We had to solve her problem.  Some of the kids came up with the solution to dress the teachers like snow people.  Other kids decided that they wanted to dress themselves up like snow people.  There was a lot going on.

Miss Carrie took pictures of everyone and showed them on the Apple TV.  She asked "Who is this?  What are they wearing?"  Sometimes it was hard to tell who the person was and we had to look at their clothes for clues.

DO THIS AT HOME:  Dress up!  Doesn't have to be costumes or cold weather gear.  Dress up in Mom or Dad's clothes and shoes.  Take  a lot of pictures.  Talk about what you see in them.  Send pictures to other family members and have your child tell them what they did (you can support their language but really let your child do as much as they can on their own). 

If we ever get snow - GO PLAY OUTSIDE.  Be sure to drink a lot of hot cocoa afterwards.  Miss Carrie likes whip cream in her cocoa.

October Week 3: Miss Carrie LOVES to sing!

 This week, we focused on favorite songs and introduced new ones.  Of course, we started with Five Little Ghosts.  Other songs included Jim Gill's Stick To The Glue.

Just follow along with the words.  Get stuck together.  This caused a lot of laughter and talking about WHO and WHAT was stuck together.

Another favorite was Wave Your Hands High from Preschool Action Songs:

We talked about what we were moving or shaking.  Children showed teachers and teachers attempted to copy the move.  

DO THIS AT HOME:  Follow your child's lead and sing and dance.  Talk about WHO and WHAT and WHERE.  Narrate your child's actions and make a big deal about following their lead.

March Week 2: Make A Plan

Transition Song: Wake Up Daily Routines by Dream English.

Vocabulary and Basic Concepts:  first/next/last, fast/slow, jumping, spinning, shaking, kicking, swimming, swinging, flying, push ups, sit ups, squats, ideas, plan, high/low, What questions, Who questions.

After we sang our song listed above, Miss Carrie asked:

Who got 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?

Everyone answered "Me!", "I did!".

Then Miss Carrie asked:

Who exercised this morning?

Uh-oh.  Miss Carrie forgot to exercise this morning?! We need to make a plan!  We made a plan that looked a lot like our message boards during Greeting Time.  We had to come up with an idea of what to do First, what to do Next, and What to do Last.  Miss Carrie drew the  plan on the white board.

Pssst:  Miss Carrie can't draw very well.  That is okay.  She will keep practicing. 

Can you guess what we did in this picture? 
First we did jumping jacks.  Next we flew like a bee.  Last we clapped our hands really fast.

Some classes wanted to do push ups.  A lot of push ups. Other ideas included squats, arm circles, lunging side to side, stretching side to side, stretching downward dog yoga pose, crunches, and jumping really high. We made 4, 5, and 6 plans.

DO THIS AT HOME:  make a plan and draw it down on paper.  Follow your child's lead on the plan.

February Week 3: H-H-H

Transition Song: H-E-A-R-T by the Kiboomers

Vocabulary and Basic Concepts: Who/What/Where questions, big/little, labeling, describing words, have, yes/no, Heart, house, hippo, horse, hand, horseshoe crab, helicopter, honey, hamburger, hotdog, harmonica, hair, hammer, hat, hammock, hanger, helmet, Humpty Dumpty.

This week Miss Carrie taped pictures all around the room.  All the pictures started with the /h/ sound.  We practiced on our hands so we could feel the air moving out of our mouths.  /h-h-h/. We were going on a hunt for /h/ pictures!

Everyone pretended to hold binoculars to their face and said this: "Binoculars up! I have a picture and it starts with /h/."  Then we found the pictures around the room.  What is it?  Where have I seen it before?  Who has one at their house?  Do you like it or don't like it?  Is it big or little?  If there was time, Miss Carrie gave us pictures to match with the pictures we were hunting.

We knew most of the words but we didn't know horseshoe crab or harmonica. Miss Carrie showed us a video of horseshoe crabs.  She really likes horseshoe crabs.

Then Miss Carrie showed us a video of a 6 year old kid playing the harmonica.  We noticed that he was blowing so his cheeks puffed out.  We noticed that sometimes he moved his hand to make the sound different.

DO THIS AT HOME:  Go on a hunt for pictures and objects around your house, around the park, around the store, or where ever your are. Pick a sound. What can you find?  Talk about the picture/object.  Ask What/Where/Who questions, describe it (big, yellow, small, bumpy, soft), Do you like it/don't like it. Make sure you repeat the sound over and over during play to reinforce it. Picking the first sound in your family names is a good place to start.

February Week 1: Hiding Phil

Transition Song: H-E-A-R-T by te Kiboomers

NOTE: We sing just the first verse, clap on each letter H-E-A-R-T while we singing an repeat it a second and sometimes a third time.

Vocabulary and Basic Concepts: over/under, hide/hiding, descriptive words, locations vocabulary pertaining to the classrooms, first/next/last, Where questions, Who questions, He/She/We/They

This week we read the book Hiding Phil by Eric Barclay.  

Phil is an elephant.  The kids want him to stay but they need to hide him under things.  It didn't work!  It was so much fun to see where Phil hid.  It was fun to find the dog in each picture.  Wait till you see where Phil hid last! We decided to play hide-and-seek and hid under tables, chairs, coats, blankets, and stuffed animals. Miss Carrie counted to 10 and then came to find us.  When she found us, she took our picture!  Then we looked at the pictures and talked about Who was in the picture and Where they were hiding.

DO THIS AT HOME:  play hide and seek and take pictures.  Talk about who is hiding where.  Talk about hiding under objects.  Laugh at the pictures and show them to your family.  Get everyone involved.

January Week 3: Do What I'm Doing

Transition Song: Colors by The Learning Station

Vocabulary and Basic Concepts: colors, body parts, look, watch, move, swing, sway, stomp reach, throw, blow, up/down, forward/backward, high/low, fast/slow, big/little, present progressive -ing, past tense-ed, Pronouns I/He/She/We + is/am/are, What questions, Who questions.

This week Miss Carrie brought her scarves.  There were lots of different colors.  If we didn't get the color we wanted, we could ask our friends to trade.  Then we danced and moved with our scarves.  Our teachers had to watch us and copy what we did.  We ha so much fun showing what we could do.  Scarves waved high and low.  We threw scarves in the air and caught them.  Then we threw them at our friends.We jumped, stepped, swayed, and swung our arms.  We sat on the floor to see what other ways we could move with just our upper bodies. Miss Carrie played fast music and slow music.

DO THIS AT HOME:  Pull out scarves or not.  But do put on some music an dance!  Follow your child's lead.  "What are you doing?  Oh, look, I see that you are stomping your feet.  I wonder if I can do that?  Stomp!Stomp!Stomp!"  "You are shaking your arms fast!  I can shake them fast, too!" Use your best sports broadcaster voice and give a play-by-play.  Have your child tell you what they are doing and let them correct you if you do it wrong.  Or, use single word narration to talk about what your child is doing to hep them label: "Stomp! Swing! Arms! Legs! Head! Shake! Fast!"

January Week 2: Dinosaur, Dinosaur

Transition Song: The Color Song by The Learning Station

Vocabulary and Basic Concepts: same/different, big/little, loud/quiet, long/short, smooth/spiny, stomp, walk, fly, run, swim, eat, identify parts of a whole (EX: The head of the dinosaur), head, back, feet, Who questions, What questions, Where questions.

This week we read a book together called Dinosaur, Dinosaur by Byron Barton.

Every time Miss Carrie said the word dinosaur we clapped it and said it with her.  The word is divided up into three parts called syllables. We practiced the word over and over.  We said dinosaur with fierce voices, with hungry voices, with tired voices, with tiny voices,  and with big voices.

Then Miss Carrie brought out toy dinosaurs. They looked just like the ones in the book!  We traded with friends if we wanted to.  Then Miss Carrie told us to look at the head of the dinosaur.  We found the head.  Miss Carrie showed us pictures and asked if our dinosaur looked like the picture.  We looked at the back of the dinosaur and the tail of the dinosaurs.  Everyone had dinosaurs that looked different. We talked about which dinosaurs walked on two feet and which ones walked on four feet.

DO THIS AT HOME:  pick out some favorite toys and compare and contrast.  What looks the same and what looks different?  Point out the parts of the toy.  Be sure to get down on the floor and play with the toys with your child.  Let your child lead on what to do.

December Week 2: Over, Under Around, and Through!

Vocabulary and Basic Concepts: over/under, up/down, around, through, walk, step, crawl, reach, stretch, squat, balance, jump, march, hop, obstacle course, What, Who, He/She.

This week Miss Carrie brought out a lot of things! There were stairs to go over, hula hoops to step over or crawl under, exercise mats to follow (Jumping Jacks! Squats! Sit And Reach! Stretch! Touch Toes! Balance! March! Hop!), and there were tunnels and tents.  Miss Carrie called it an obstacle course.

We went every where.  We tried everything. If we weren't sure what to do, we could ask a teacher. We made sure to use walking feet.  Miss Carrie took pictures of everyone.  Then we all sat down and watched the big screen.  Miss Carrie put our pictures on the big screen.  She asked "Who is that?"  "What is he/she doing?" 

DO THIS AT HOME:  what do you have around your house to make an obstacle course?  Kids think it is great fun to watch a grown up crawl under things.  If not at your house, pick a sunny day and head to the park.  Talk about what you can do.  Make  your child the leader and get ready to follow.

November Week 1: I Like My Shoes!

Transition song:  Gobble Gobble (The Thanksgiving Song) by Nooshi

Vocabulary and Basic Concepts: big/little, same/different, wet/dry, on/off, heavy/light, What/Where/Who/When, colors, shoe laces, Velcro, buckle, cry, wear

This week Miss Carrie read a book called Pete The Cat I Love My White Shoes by Erik Litwin and James Dean.  (Miss Carrie dressed up as Pete The Cat for Halloween.)

In the book, Pete The Cat LOOOOOOVES his white shoes.  He even sings about it. Pete kept stepping in things that changed the colors of his shoes.  Did Pete cry?  GOODNESS, NO! The kids loved singing the song with Miss Carrie. It was groovy and awesome.  There was a lot of discussion going on.

Next, Miss Carrie brought out two bags of shoes.  There were shoes that were the same and shoes that were different.  There were big shoes and little shoes.  There were lots of different colors!  We matched shoes and compared them to the shoes we were wearing. We compared weight, shoe fasteners.  We talked about if we had shoes like this at home.

DO THIS AT HOME: Read the book!  There are some great repetitive phrases as well as opportunities for kids to predict what will happen next.  Go on a shoe hunt around the house and compare shoes.  Talk about size, color, and fasteners.