February Week 1: Dinner - Set the Table

Phoneme: /d/

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

Concepts: What questions, Who questions, sequencing, following directions, choral recitation, rhythm

Materials: Laminated Letter D, place mat, plate settings

Preliteracy Skills:  Draw the letter D.  Start up at the top and draw down.  Go back to the top and draw around.  Does anyone have a /d/ sound in their name?  What words have a /d/ sound in them? Draw, down, dollar, do, don't, and.........

Dinner!  We're talking this week about dinner.  Before we eat dinner we have to set the table.  This activity is a repeat from before.  The kids love this.  Many of them now can act as 'voice' and lead the choral recitation.  This time we added more placemats  and settings to the session to keep the children engaged and participating.

(Take a beat on your knees similar to "Going on a Bear Hunt".  Have the class repeat each phrase after the "voice" lead.)

Time to eat?

No, not yet.

What do we need?

A (napkin, fork, plate, knife, spoon, cup)

Put it on the table.

(Repeat until everything is on the place mat.)

Time to eat?

Look....

YES!!!!

At the end of class we looked at our socks.  Depending on the color of our socks, we moved to small group by flying, stomping, jumping, spinning, or skating.

Week 4: Stick Like Glue

Date:  January Week 4

Title:  Stick Like Glue

Phoneme: /k,s/

Pre-Literacy:  Trace the Letter C.  “Put your finger at the top. Draw half a circle and then we stop.”

Materials required:  Laminated Letter C

Concepts:  high/low, fast/slow, body parts, sticky, What questions

Transition activity:  Song:  Colors by Learning Station

Discussion:  Do you know what sticky is?  What things make you sticky? One child said that when he eats pancakes, his fingers get sticky from the syrup.  Another talked about gum in his hair being sticky (sounds like the occurrence made a BIG impression!).  We also talked about glue being sticky.  Then we sang and danced to Jim Gill's Stick To The Glue *** song.  We clapped our hands and pretended they stuck together.  Then we stomped our feet until they (just pretend!) stuck to the glue we stomped in.  Then we shook hands with our friends until *GASP!* we stuck to our friends!  Our last try was hugging (side hugs in preschool) and we stuck to EVERYBODY in Large Group!  This was a lot of fun and I'm sure that the kids will want the Sticky Glue song again.

We ended with the Silly Dance Contest (always a favorite).

***Sorry, there is no link to this Jim Gill song.

Week 3: Cake, Candles, and Cookies

Large  Group Activity

Date:  January Week 3

Title:  Cake Candles, and Cookies

Phoneme: /k,s/

Pre-Literacy:  Trace the Letter C.  “Put your finger at the top. Draw half a circle and then we stop.”

Materials required:  Laminated Letter C

Song: Happy Birthday Cake and Cookies by Kids Express Train Drills on Wheels 1

Concepts:  articulation and alliteration, vocabulary, follow directions, swaying

Transition activity:  Song:  Colors by Imagination Station

Discussion:  We're talking about Happy Birthdays.  What do we have at birthdays?  Cake, candles and (sometimes) cookies!  We pretended to Cut the Cake. We cheered "HOORAY!" and practiced our /k/ sound in consonant-vowel combination and in words. We swayed side to side and waved our hands high.

During small groups in Miss Jeana's classroom for the next few weeks we will be playing a fun game called Cat in the Hat - I Can Do That.  This is a great game for practicing prepositions (on top, under, front, back, between, through, next to) as well as following 2- and 3-step directions. The children's favorite part?  Crawling under the Trick-a-ma-stick!

January Language Calendar

The Moog Center for the Deaf in St. Louis put out their calendar again.  You can download and print your own copy here.

We've done the freeze paint in ice cubes and paint activity.  The children loved that one.

January Week 2: Opposites

Large  Group Activity

Date:  January Week 2

Title:  Opposites

Phoneme: /k,s/

Pre-Literacy:  Trace the Letter C.  “Put your finger on the top. Draw half a circle and then we stop.”  The letter C has two sounds sssssss and k-k-k.  Whose name has a C in it?  Miss Carrie has a C at the beginning of her name.  Other children have a C in the middle or at the end of their names.  What words have those sounds?  Cookie, cow, circle, circus, cracker, cup.

Materials required:  Laminated Letter C, music, book

Book: Quiet Loud by Leslie Patricelli.  Find it on Amazon (click on the title link) or click here to find it at the local library.

Concepts:  Music, Fast/Slow, high/Low, Loud/Soft, Quiet/Loud

Transition activity:  Song:  Colors by Learning Station

We're reading Quiet Loud this week and talking about OPPOSITES.  We're experimenting with humming quietly and then loudly.  Then we're dancing to Jim Gill's Silly Dance Contest and dancing fast and slow, jumping high and crouching low.

Stay tuned - more OPPOSITES next week!

January Week 1: Colors and Clothing

Date:  January Week 1

Title:  Colors and Clothing

Phonemes: /k,s/

Pre-Literacy:  Trace the Letter C.  “Put your finger at the top. Draw half a circle.  And now we stop.”  We're talking about the letter C.  It can sound like /k/ (finger at throat while making /k/ sound) or like /s/ (use pointer and middle finger to signify a 'snake' as you articulate /s/).

Materials required:  Laminated Letter C, 

Concepts: Who questions, colors, movement, pronouns

Transition activity:  Song:  Colors by The Learning Station.  This will be our song for the month of January.

Discussion:  We're talking about colors and clothing.  Everyone has colors on their clothing!

Who is wearing red?

Who is wearing yellow?

Who is wearing green?

Who is wearing blue?

Who is wearing black?

Who is wearing brown?

Who is wearing pink?

Who is wearing purple?
Who is wearing orange?

HE IS!  SHE IS!

Where is the red (or other color)?  I am wearing a blue shirt!  I have brown shoes!

This is a great activity for naming pronouns! We're also labeling clothing: shirts, pants, dresses, shoes, boots, socks, and sweaters.  We are learning the names of our classmates as we have a few new ones this week in both classrooms.

Last of all, we're learning the Rainbow Song from Signing Time.  The children are learning to sign their colors.  Multiple learning modalities!  See the Signing Time website to learn the individual colors.  And here is the song:

Week 3: Yummy Yucky Holiday Edition, Hot Chocolate, and Caroling

Date:  December Week 3

Title:  Yummy Yucky Holiday Edition

Phoneme: /m/

Pre-Literacy:  Trace the Letter M.  “Draw up the mountain. Go back down. Draw up the mountain, and down to the town.”  Talk about words that have the /m/ sound.  Merry. Moo. Mouse. Me. Does anyone have a name with the /m/ sound?

Materials required:  Laminated Letter M, Laminated Santa parts, Yummy Yucky Book, Feed the Woozle Game, food items from our preschool kitchen and nonfood items such as sequins, glue, playdough, books, and toys

Concepts: What Questions, Foods, non Foods

Transition activity:  Song:  Must Be Santa, by Raffi

Discussion:  We’re going to discuss Yummy holiday foods (candy canes, cookies, hot chocolate with marshmallows) and yucky nonfoods (ornaments, tinsel, ribbons, pine needles, markers, paint, glitter).

What foods do you like?

What foods do you not like?

What should we NEVER put in our mouths?

At snack time, I will bring my hot chocolate maker and provide hot chocolate with marshmallows!  The kids are also building marshmallow snowmen in Miss Julie's classroom.

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We're feeding the Woozle.  He likes foods that are yummy I'm adapting the game specific for today's activity).  The nonfoods will be put into a box.  The kids loved taking turns feeding the Woozle with the big blue spoon.

Activity: Caroling at the front office to sing our Must Be Santa song and Jingle Bells.  The children did so well singing and shaking their jingle bells!  The ladies in the front office and our principal thanked them for coming and singing so well.