May Language Calendar

The Moog Center for the Deaf put out their May Language Calendar.  You can download a copy to print here.  

May Week 2: Silly Sounds

Phoneme: /s/

Transition Song:  The Circle Song by the Kiboomers

Materials:  Laminated Letter S, Jim Gill's The Sound Effects Song, SoundTouch App

Vocabulary and Concepts:  Sounds, songs, silly, animal sounds, vehicle sounds, household sounds, coughing, sneezing, What-questions, listening, voices, on/off, loud/soft

Pre-literacy:  Draw the letter S.  "Start at the top.  Swooop over.  Swiiiiiirl down.  Swooop under.  And stop.

Discussion:  We're talking about Silly Sounds!  What sounds can you make?  Can you meow like a cat?  Snore?  Ring like a bell?  Roar like a motorcycle?  Our voices can make all sorts of sounds.  And many of them are SILLY.

We're singing along with Jim Gill (from the Jim Gill Makes It Noisy In Boise album).  You can also find it at the library.

We're also playing with the SoundTouch App on my iPad.  The kids are constantly asking "Can we do the animal/firetruck/lightning sounds again?"  The SoundTouch lite version is free.  I have the full version.  I also pull it out a lot when I'm meeting new children during IEP meetings.  They love the sounds and I like how it gets the two of us doing something together.

Some sounds are loud and some are soft.  Sometimes we are using our voices, and other times we are listening with our voices off.

We're moving around our bodies and picking our favorite animal to move like as we travel from Large Group to Small Group.

May Week 1: Start and Stop (and the revival of the Silly Dance Contest)

Phoneme: /s/

Materials: laminated letter /s/, Jim Gill's Silly Dance Contest

Transition song: The Circle Time Song by the Kiboomers

Concepts and Vocabulary:  numbers 1-4, Start, Stop, Swoop, Swirl, Silly, High/Low, Fast/Slow, Over/Under, Up/Down, Frozen, Freeze

Pre-Literacy:  Draw the letter S. "Start at the top. Swooop over. Swiiiiiirl down. Swooooop under.  And STOP!

There is a reason I play the Silly Dance Contest.  It is one of the favorites with the kids.  Today, during the slow motion part, one of the boys got the idea to do slow motion high-fives.  It caught on, and soon most of the class was high-fiving each other. This is a good activity for following directions, modification of movement (fast, slow, jumping, high low), and of course, making silly faces (and  labeling face parts - eyes, mouth, nose, tongue, teeth, ears).

Small Group Activity

Both classrooms have been reading The Napping House by Audrey Wood and Don Wood.

This is a charming book - the illustrations are beautiful.  The children have been looking at the book with magnifying glasses to find the characters.  If you look closely, you can see another character starting to move which will predict what is going to happen on the next page.

There is a companion book to this called The Full Moon At The Napping House.

This would be fun to act out at home with a puppet show or drawn pictures.

Find the books at the library.

May Language Calendar

Thanks to Moog Center for the Deaf for putting out a language calendar monthly.  You can go to their website and download it to print out here.

Wishy-Washy, Wishy-Washy, Wash-Wash-WASH!

Here is a fun activity Miss Julie's class has been doing.  I think it would be a lot of fun to do at home.

The class has been reading this:

Mrs. Wishy Washy by Joy Cowley with illustrations by Elizabeth Fuller.

The Cow and the Pig and the Duck were all muddy and needed to wash.  Mrs. Wishy Washy put them all in a big metal tub.

Then Miss Julie introduced water in the sensory table.  Farm animals were in the sudsy water along with paint brushes and washcloths so the children could wash the animals.

This was a huge hit!  Almost everyone wanted a turn washing the animals.  

This would also be fun at home in the kiddie pool, tub, or sink.  Get the book from the library and read it together.

Or watch it on Youtube.

Vocabulary: dirty, clean, wash, tub, cow, duck, pig, soap, bubbles, scrub, water

April Week 3: What Will Fat Cat Sit On?

Phoneme: /p/

Transition Song:  Silly Pizza Song 2 by Signing Time.

Vocabulary and Concepts:  NOT, ON, WHERE, animal sounds, feelings, body parts.

Pre-literacy:  Draw the letter P: Start at the top and draw down.  Go back to the top and draw a little around. What words have the /p/ sound?  Pizza, peas, potatoes, popcorn, spaghetti (all foods in our Silly Pizza Song).

This week we are reading a fun book titled What Will Fat Cat Sit On? by Jan Thomas.

What will Fat Cat sit on?  The cow?  The cat? THE DOG?

Hmmmm, none of the animals want Fat Cat to sit on them.  Some of them look scared, surprised, or mad. The mouse has a good solution to the problem.  Read the book to find out!

This book is great for negation.  "Fat Cat will NOT sit on the dog." There are a lot of opportunities to talk about what Fat Cat will NOT sit ON.

After we read the book, everyone used a puppet to talk about sitting ON.  The puppets sat on our heads, our feet, our noses, our arms, our knees. We took turns verbalizing WHERE the puppets were sitting.  Finally the puppets sat ON the floor so we could go to Small Group.

Thanks, Jan Thomas, for creating such a fun book!