August/September Week 2: Bouncy Big Balloon

phoneme: /b/

Transition Song: Bouncy Bouncy Bouncy

Materials: laminated letter B, small box, balloons

Vocabulary and Basic Concepts:  high/low, empty/full, descriptive words big/bigger/biggest, predicting, blow/blowing, bounce/bouncing/bounced, sitting, standing, turn-taking, hands, heads, elbows, “My turn”, pop, more

First we drew the Letter B.  "Start at the top and draw down.  Go back to the top and bounce around." What words have the /b/ sound in them?  The children came up with baby, bus, bumblebee, and bump.

Miss Carrie showed us a box.  It was a little box but it had something inside.  Something small that would get bigger. 

Wow!  It was a lot of balloons!  Red, yellow, green, light blue, dark blue, pink, orange, and purple.  What did Miss Carrie need to do to make the balloon get bigger?  The children suggested she blow into the balloon.

That balloon grew big and then bigger!  Miss Carrie tied the balloon and then asked "What should we do with the balloon?  Children suggested bouncing it.  Or hitting it with their hands. Or bumping it with their head.  There were a lot of balloons, enough for everyone to have one to play with.  So the teachers helped blow up more balloons.  And then this happened:

We talked about What our balloons were doing, Where they went, and Who we could ask to send them back.  Did they go high or low when we hit them? Were they heavy or light?  We talked about colors and compared sizes: "My balloon is bigger/smaller."  Sometimes we just expressed "My balloon" when we wanted it back.

DO THIS AT HOME:  have fun playing with balloons.  Get the entire family involved and talk about what you are doing, where the balloon goes, and who has it.  If it pops, talk about the loud noise and what you can do so it doesn't pop again.

August/September Week 4: Bouncy Big Balloons

Theme: Bouncy Big Balloons
Phoneme: /b/

Materials: 3-4 balloons (not blown up).  I used red, yellow, and blue 15" balloons.

Vocabulary and Concepts:  high/low, empty/full, big/bigger/biggest, blow, bounce, hands, head, finger, hard, soft, "My turn", predicting, sitting, standing, turn-taking, stop/go

Beginning: Transition song - Bouncy, Bouncy, Bouncy

Today I told the kids I had something in my back pocket that was little but would get bigger.  I took it out and held it in my closed hand.  What is it?  The children made guesses before I showed them a balloon.

Miss Carrie:  What color is the balloon?

Children: (red, yellow, blue)

Miss Carrie: What do I need to do to make it bigger?

Children: Blow in it. (One answered "Put water in it!"  Hmmmmm, not today.)

Miss Carrie:   How many times should I blow it in to make it big?

Children: (predicted that I would need to blow 3 times, 10 times, A LOT times.)

I started to blow and the children counted how many times I had to blow in the balloon to make it big.  The first time it took 7 breaths.  I pulled another balloon out of my back pocket and repeated the process.  Then I pulled out a third balloon and repeated the process.

Miss Carrie:  How many balloons do we have?  (3)  What can we do with these balloons?  (pop them, play with them, hit them in the air)

We stood up and bounced or hit the three balloons to each other.  The kids were laughing and having a great time.  After 5 minutes I asked for the balloons and we sat down.  This time I gave instructions that we would remain sitting on our pockets with legs crisscross or out in front, and hit or bounce the three balloons to our friends.

The adults in the room would model the vocabulary, concepts, and description of the balloons during the activity.  If a balloon popped, we would laugh very loud before throwing the broken balloon away.  When it was time to move onto the next part of our schedule, I told the children that the balloons would be on my chair and that they could choose to play with the balloons during Work Time.

August/September Week 2: Large Group

Phoneme: /b/

Song: Bouncy, Bouncy, Bouncy (just to get attention this time.  We bounced our hands, our shoulders, and our eyebrows.)

Phonemic Awareness and Pre-Literacy:  Go over tracing the B as in Week 1 post.  We use our pointer fingers to trace capital B while reciting "Start at the top and draw down.  Go back to the top and bounce around."

Concepts for Large Group:  high/low, small/big, big/bigger, predicting, blowing, bouncing, sitting, standing, turn-taking, head, elbows, hands, eyebrows, shoulders, and My Turn.

(Hold empty balloon in hands so children cannot see it).  I have something in my hands.  It is small, but it will get bigger.  What do you think it is?  (Let children guess. Show them the empty balloon.)  What do I need to do to make it bigger?  Blow in it?  (Blow one breath.)  Is it big enough?  No?  Let me try again. (Repeat until three breaths and then tie off balloon).

What should we do with the balloon?  (Let children make suggestions.)
Sing the song:

Oh, I wish I had a bouncy, big balloon.
Oh, I wish I had a bouncy, big balloon.
I would bouncy it in the air.
I would bounce without a care.
Oh, I wish I had a bouncy, big balloon.

Bounce the balloon in the air and let all the children take turns bouncing it around to each other.  Can you bounce it with your elbows?  With your head? Is it harder to bounce the balloon without your hands?

This is a VERY popular activity this week.  The teachers are reminding the children to "sit on their pockets" in a circle around the rug rather than standing or running to catch the balloon. We had a lot of verbal "My turn!"  Ask your child what color was the balloon (we used blue, green, and red balloons depending on the class).