This week we changed our usual Large Group Activities to go caroling. We caroled to the front office and a few classrooms in the morning and afternoon. On Tuesday morning, our classes were able to sing in front of the entire school! They really sang out and the teachers were so proud. We also read holiday books, ate holiday foods for snack time, and snuggled with stuffed animals we brought from home. (Those children who didn't bring a stuffed animal to snuggle were able to pick one from the classroom toys to snuggle.
Since Thanksgiving Break meant therapy only took place on Monday and Tuesday in Miss Jeana's classroom, Miss Carrie stayed in Miss Jen's classrooms this week for therapy on Monday and Tuesday before Winter Break. So no pictures during Work Time in Miss Jen's room. Miss Carrie was able to get pictures of one of Miss Jeana's class during story time and another class during Work Time and pictures of one of Miss Jen's classes during caroling.
Reading holiday stories in Miss Jeana's classroom.
Work Time was typical as every other week.
They sang so well!
And they're cute, too!
Cocoa and cookies in Miss Jen's classrooms.
We had marshmallows and candy canes, too.
These are some of the holiday stories we read in Miss Jeana's classes.
These are the books read in Miss Jen's classes.
We sang Jingle Bells and Must Be Santa.
Each class also caroled to a few classrooms.
Miss Jen received an impromptu group hug before the kids went home.
We've had parents asking which toys their children like to play with in the classroom. Here are some of the popular ones:
Snapbots. The children love snapping these together in different combinations.
Turn & Learn Magnetic Gears. Put them together and problem solve so all the gears turn when you manipulate just one of them. These are played with a lot.
Every day kitchen items. Yes, the kids love the wok, pots and pans, dishes, utensils, big spoons and whisks. Toasters, hand mixers, realistic looking plastic foods, and empty cartons of brand name items. Those brand name items? Those are great for logographic skills which is part of pre-literacy.
The little LED flashlights you can get for a buck or two? Perfect size for little hands. Great for exploring, making patterns, and playing hide and seek. We sometimes turn the lights down to play hide and seek with them. Kids LOVE these!
Cash registers and pretend money are great for playing store and restaurant. We don't worry about denominations, but count the number of coins and paper money.
MotorWorks. It comes with a screwdriver , drill, and screws to help put together cars, planes, and motorcycles.
Counting Cakes. Each cake has a number that corresponds with the number of holes for candles.
Not only do we have fun counting, but we work on More and Less. We also sing Happy Birthday.....A LOT! For some reason the kids always want us to sing Happy Birthday to them so they can blow out the candles. It never gets to be the teachers' birthdays. For something so simple, this is played with every day.
Old cameras from secondhand stores. Even though most people take pictures with their smart phones, the children know that these are cameras and love playing with them. Teachers are asked to pose and "Say CHEESE!"
Marble Runs. This is a great STEM toy for problem solving. The children pull it out nearly every school day.
Plain wooden blocks. This is another toy pulled out every day. The children build buildings, tracks, walls, and use them to delineate space.
Regular therapy ball. The children love to bounce and roll on it, or bounce and roll it to teachers and peers.
Materials: Laminated letter S, props for The Soup Opera
Concepts and Vocabulary: What-questions, loud/soft, big/little, opera, sing, waiter, menu, chef, ladle, policeman (or policewoman), badge, mayor, pen, President of the United States, prop, costume, applause, curtain
Transition Song: Must Be Santa. This time, we're singing it without the build-a-Santa prop. We're practicing to go caroling next week. See November Week 4 for the link to this song.
This week we're all about singing The Soup Opera by Jim Gill. This is a book you can find in your local library with a CD. But Jim Gill also has it on Vimeo. It has the soundtrack and the book pages. Or you can see it performed live with audience volunteers, an orchestra, and two opera singers on this video:
Back to our preschool performances. First we read the book and learned the lines we needed to sing. Then we dispersed around the preschool room to find costumes and props in order to look like our characters. What does a waiter need? What does a chef need? What is a mayor? Some of us chose puppets that looked like our characters. Some of us found costumes and props. Everyone came back to the rug and we performed it again. We talked about how on a stage there is a big curtain that goes up and down. We talked about clapping and learned the word applause. We got up to sing our parts and everyone sang if someone was shy about singing their part. For our kids who were nonverbal, we had a button for them to push that would play a recording of everyone singing the line "I can't eat my soup!" After the performance we applauded and shouted "Bravo!" which is what people shout when they like the opera.
DO THIS AT HOME: Put on an opera at home. It could be The Soup Opera practiced and performed for family members. Or make up silly lines that you can sing repetitively during every day tasks. Sing familiar songs. Singing and choral recitation (where everyone says the same line such as "Chicka Chicka Boom Boom!" in the book of the same name) is a great way for our kids struggling with language to work on articulation and phrase expansion when they don't have to plan what to say but can focus on how to articulate it or how to put all the words in the phrase together. Kids who are not struggling with language get excited about the different parts and the new vocabulary. The best part about an activity like this is that it involves families in an activity they can do together.
When we do this again next month, the children will be directing, performing, narrating, leading the music, and even considering other characters than those mentioned in the book. The children will be in charge. Will the story have a different ending? Will the music change? Wait and see.....
Materials: Laminated Letter S, Laminated Santa parts, bag of items to dress a snowman
Vocabulary and Basic Concepts: What questions, cold/hot, snowball, snow man, boy, girl, baby, bird, popcorn, berry, string, clothing items, melting.
This week we've continued learning Must Be Santa and Jingle Bells in prep for our caroling activity in two weeks. See the previous post for the music and information.
Pre-Literacy: Let's draw the Letter S. Start at the top. Swoop over. Swirl down. Swoop under. And stop! What words have that /s/ sound? Snow, same, sing, soup, baseball, kiss. Remember to hide your tongue and keep your teeth together.
Book. This week we are reading Snowballs by Lois Elhert. (Remember her? She wrote Leaf Man which we read in October). We are big fans of Lois Elhert!
Look at this snowman. Someone gave him a strawberry nose! What else do you see?
There was a snow dad and a snow mom and a snow boy and a snow girl and snow pets! That snow mom has peanuts in her purse. Miss Carrie does not carry peanuts in her purse. She carries chocolate in her purse.
This book also has lots of pictures of real snow people.
Miss Carrie wanted to build snowmen but there is no snow outside. We wondered how we could solve this problem? We decided to turn some of the teachers into snow teachers. Good thing Miss Carrie brought some things from home.
Who is it?
Miss Pam is a snow teacher.
Now it's Miss Jeana's turn to be a snow teacher.
Miss Jen's class opted to turn all the teachers into snow teachers.
Miss Debbie is a snow teacher.
Working on Miss Jen.
We also sang Once There Was A Snow Man.
Tall-Tall-TALL!
We had so much fun making snow teachers!
DO THIS AT HOME: If you have snow, great! Go build a snowman. But if there is no snow, turn one of your family members into a snow person. What do you have around your house to make a snow person? You could also cut out shapes and magazine pictures to make snowmen pictures. Talk about your activity and narrate your actions.
In case your children have been trying to tell you, Miss Carrie has new glasses for the first time. The glasses make her face look very different. A lot of the kids were commenting about them in both classes.
For the end of November and all of December we're learning the song Must Be Santa (first three verses only). We're going to go caroling to some classrooms and to the staff in the front office. We'll be singing Must Be Santa and Jingle Bells. I'm including a youtube video with music and lyrics. Be warned, the music goes too fast for most of our kids. So we sing it without the audio music in order to sing it slower. We have a Santa that I made for the children to put together to highlight the different parts of the song.
Miss Carrie sings the first part - the Who question. "Who has a beard that's long and white?" The children all sing the answer. (Psssst - the answer is ALWAYS Santa!) "Santa has a beard that's long and white." We're talking about how the answer uses the same words as the question. We're pointing to the parts while we sing. During the chorus we clap:
clap-clap "Must be Santa!"
clap-clap "Must be Santa!"
clap-clap "Must be Santa Santa Claus!"
Be sure to sing it slower at home than what is on the video. I will upload a video later to give you an idea of how we do it in class.
Pre-literacy: Let's work on letter S. What sound does it make? When Miss Carrie makes the /s/ sound, she hides her tongue behind her teeth so no one can see it. It sounds like a snake! Does anyone have an S in their name? What words have that sound? Bus, yes, Snack Time, Small Group, soda, soft. Let's draw the letter S.
"Start at the top. Swooop over. Swiiiirl down. Swooop under. And STOP!"
Did you hear all of those S sounds? Miss Carrie pinches her pointer and thumb together to show that your teeth need to be closed and hide your tongue while she makes the /s/ sound. We noticed that the letter S looks the same upside down and right side up!
Stretch your pointer fingers up high to show you are ready to start!
Miss Carrie points to her mouth to show that her teeth are closed to hide her tongue.
This week, Miss Carrie turned on relaxing spa music and we did yoga. We read this book:
You Are A Lion! And Other Fun Yoga Poses by Taeeun Yoo. The children were instructed to look at the teachers if they didn't know what to do. (Looking for clues to understand how to behave or what to do is an important skill. This was a great way to introduce it.) Miss Carrie read the book and everyone followed directions or looked at a teacher to help them understand.
Afterwards we sat with our legs criss-cross, hands on our knees with palms up and fingers touching. We closed our eyes, breathed in through our noses and blew out through our mouths. Miss Carrie said that she did breathing like this when she needed to calm her body. After breathing a few times more, we walked with very calm bodies to our tables for Small Group (Miss Jen), or to the sink to wash hands for snack (Miss Jeana).
Guess what else happened in the classrooms this week?
Miss Jen had a rock concert. I kid you not, one of the kids asked for Electric Light Orchestra's Don't Bring Me Down. We played music instruments along with it.
In Miss Jeana's class, it became very popular to give Miss Carrie a checkup and LOTS OF SHOTS! OW! Miss Carrie tried to be brave. When she was little and went to preschool, she used to scream when the doctor gave her shots. All the kids in Miss Jeana's room told her that they were brave and didn't cry when they had to get shots.
DO THIS AT HOME: put on some soft music and try some yoga together. Let your child come up with their own poses for the family to try. Work on the phrase "Look at me!"
Since we are in the classroom 2 days this week, we're just reviewing favorite songs and dancing with scarves. We're also What (What do you like to eat?) and Who (Who are you going to see at Thanksgiving) all day.
