April Week 2: Fat Cat and Conflict Resolution

phoneme: /k/

Transition Song: One Finger One Thumb Keep Moving

Materials: What Will Fat Cat Sit On? By Jan Thomas, Laminated letter C, puppets

Vocabulary and Basic Concepts: happy, scared, worried, on/off, problem, solving, chair, cow, dog, chicken, pig, cat, mouse not, animals sounds, yes/no, "I want ________" phrases

Preliteracy: Draw the letter C.  Who has a letter C in their name?  Miss Carrie does!  Sometimes a letter C makes a /k/ sound and sometimes it makes a /s/ sound. 

This week, Miss Carrie read the book What Will Fat Cat Sit On by Jan Thomas.  (Hey, did you hear that Fat and Cat sound the same?  They rhyme!)  Fat Cat has a problem.  He doesn't know where to sit.  His friends have to help him solve the problem.  He wants to sit on all of them.  They do NOT want Fat Cat to sit on them.  Mouse has a solution to the problem that everyone can agree on.  We discovered if Fat Cat agreed to the solution, too. (Miss Carrie loves to use this book to talk about conflict resolution.  By this time, many of the children have had more than a few months to learn about conflict resolution as we solve problems in class.)  We also practiced animal sounds.  We noticed the animals feelings.  We labeled happy and mad.  Miss Carrie introduced a new feeling: worried.  The animals looked worried when Fat Cat wanted to sit on them......well, except the dog.  He was MAD! (which the children thought very funny)

Then Miss Carrie brought out puppets.  She had a lamb puppet.  The lamb liked to sit on knees or shoulders or heads.  The lamb asked us if she could sit on our knee.  We could say yes or no.  Sometimes we gave the lamb a hug.  Miss Carrie had a lot of puppets.  We could pretend to have our puppets ask if they could play or fly or sit on friends heads.  Then we could ask to trade.  Friends could say yes or no.  We also practiced conflict resolution if anyone wanted the same puppets.

Miss Carrie singing One Finger, One Thumb, One Arm, One LEG!

Pig is feeling worried! Can you make a worried face?

Fat Cat is feeling scared!  Can you make a scared face?

Dog is feeling mad!  Can you growl like Dog?

Lambie Pie asking if she can sit on his knee.  He said no.

Lambie Pie asking if she can hug the pink rabbit

Lambie Pie LOVES hugs but she always asks first.

Showing off his bee puppet.

DO THIS AT HOME:  Make puppets or use toys.  In conflict resolution, everyone has to agree to the solution.  This is also a great time for children to practice yes or no. And their puppet voices are hysterical.

April Week 1: Caterpillar To Butterfly

phonemes: /k,s/

Transition Song: One Finger One Thumb Keep Moving. (There are a lot of versions of this on the internet.  I do a modified, much slower version with no outside music.  The first verse goes:

One finger, one thumb keep moving.
One finger, one thumb keep moving.
One finger, one thumb, keep moving
We'll all be happy today.

We add on one arm, one leg, one head, stand up-sit down on additional verses.  I'll try to post a video during one class time so you can get the idea.  Everything on the internet was too fast, different words, so not similar enough to post.)

Materials: Laminated Letter C, Book: Caterpillar to Butterfly, scarves

Vocabulary and Basic Concepts: first/next/last, little/big, molting, metamorphosis,  caterpillar, butterfly, grow, chrysalis, proboscis, head, body, wings, leaves, ground, air, fly, crawl, wriggle, wiggle, eat, egg.

Pre-Literacy: Draw the Letter C
Start at the bottom?  NO! Start at the top.
Draw half a circle and then we stop.

This week Miss Carrie brought out a BIG book called Caterpillar to Butterfly by Deborah Heiligman. (Thanks again to everyone who donated to this Donors Choose project!  The children love the giant books.) It had a lot of big new words in it.  Every time we heard the words Caterpillar or Butterfly, we would say it and clap the syllables.  Ca-ter-pil-lar.  Bu-tter-fly.  We even tried to clap the biggest word ever: Metamorphosis.  We talked about what happened first, next, and last.  We learned about chrysalis.  then we used scarves to crawl like caterpillars, wrap up like a chrysalis, and fly like butterflies.  We talked about if we had ever seen a butterfly in our own yards or at the park.

(Sorry, no pictures this week)

DO THIS AT HOME:  Check out caterpillar/butterfly books at the library to read at home.  Go on walks to look for caterpillars and butterflies.  Thanksgiving Point has a Butterfly Biosphere that would be fun to visit.

March Week 4: Can You.....?

Phoneme: /p/

Transition Song: Wake Up Daily Routines

Materials: 2 tents, 2 tunnels, 3 hula hoops, 6 chairs, stairs, Let's Get Moving Activity Mats (These are all items that were paid for through my latest Donors Choose project!)

Vocabulary and Basic Concepts: hop, jump, touch toes, circle arms, balance, squat, jumping jacks, crawl, step, over/under, through, yes/no

Pre-Literacy: (We skipped this step in favor of more time for the remainder of the activity.

Everyone noticed this week that there were hula hoops placed over chairs to be horizontal to the ground.  They also noticed that there were stairs and exercise mats.  Then Miss Carrie explained that we were going to exercise.  We could go over the stairs with walking feet (no jumping).  We could step over the hula hoops or crawl under the hula hoops.  Then Miss Carrie pulled out another package.  Inside, everything was flat.  When she pulled it open, they were two tents and tunnels!  She tied the tunnels to the tents and everyone could crawl through them!  The exercise mats told everyone through pictures to hop, balance on one foot, stretch, jump, do jumping jacks, tiptoe, circle their arms, or squat. (What the kids didn't know was that, along with providing a lot of opportunities to express action words, concepts, pronouns, -ing endings, -ed endings, and yes/no, we were also looking at milestones such as balancing on one foot, jumping, and walking alternate feet on stairs.)

When were were all done, everyone had a chance to tell the class what was their favorite section.  Some kids chose the hula hoops, some the tents and tunnels, and some the stairs.

DO THIS AT HOME:  Make up your own obstacle course.  Draw pictures of exercises, provide items to crawl over and under safely.  The whole family can participate in this.  Use boxes for tunnels, or create blanket forts. Let your child show you how to crawl over/under, step up/down, and perform exercises.  Follow their lead.  Narrate all of your actions.

March Week 3: Plan an Number

Phoneme: /p/

Transition Song: Wake Up - Daily Routines

Materials:  Laminated Letter P, Exercise Music

Vocabulary and Basic Concepts: counting 1-10, up/down, arms, legs, head, hands, shoulders, knees, feet, stomach, back/front, hard/easy, push up, sit up, muscles.

Pre-Literacy:  Draw the letter P like a dinosaur ('stomping' with your feet) and painting (swish finger 'brushes')

Last week Miss Carrie talked about doing yoga.  This week she talked about the exercises she does at the gym: planks, push ups, sit ups, squats, crunches, biking, walking, and rowing.  We decided to come up with our own exercises.  This time we had to make a plan on how many of each exercise we would do or how long to hold the pose.  Everyone had a chance to think up (or make up!) an exercise.  The whole class decided how many.  Then everyone counted out loud while we exercised.  We did planks, crunches, toe taps, arm circles, push ups (one child chose 10 push ups!), lunges, and squats. When we finished each exercise we checked to make sure we followed the plan.  We decided if the exercise movement was hard or easy.  Check out the pictures for our Large Group and a few other moments during classes and Outside Time.

Shape hunting, listening to Small Group directions, exploring Snack while we talked about more and less, and tried on new Community Helper costumes.

We saw a large aerator tractor during Outside Time.  We twisted, planked, and balanced during Large Group.  Those side planks were hard!

March Week 2: Plan A Pose

Phoneme: /p/

Transition Song: Wake up - Daily Routines by Dream English

(We're learning how to beat patterns - knees clap, knees clap.  We've also been learning  fun actions while we sing about their plan in the morning to get ready for the day. The best part of that plan is coming to school!)

Materials: Laminated letter P, You Are A Lion book, yoga music

Vocabulary and Basic Concepts:  Poses, lion, heels, hands, knees, roar, feet, toes, legs, butterfly, wings, stand, bend, touch, dog, stretch, stomach, shoulders, push, snake, hiss, squat, hop, frog, kneel, head, back, cat, palms, high/low, quiet, mountain.

Pre-literacy: Draw the letter P.  This week we pretended to be race cars and then dinosaurs as we drew the letter P.

Miss Carrie asked again (referring to the Wake Up-Daily Routines song) WHO woke up this morning, WHO washed their face, WHO brushed their teeth, WHO ate breakfast, WHO came to school.  We talked about how this was part of our morning plan.

Miss Carrie's morning plan includes exercise.  Usually, she goes to Orange Theory, but sometimes she does yoga.  We read a book called Roar Like A Lion and Other Fun Yoga Poses by Taeeun Yoo.  (Her illustrations are wonderful!) Miss Carrie turned on soft yoga music and we did yoga.

In the book we did yoga poses that looked like lions, cats, dogs, frogs, snakes, and mountains. Some poses were easier than others.  Miss Carrie asked "What does a lion say?" We roared (but quietly) like lions.  We hissed like snakes, making sure our teeth were together and hiding our tongues.  We meowed and woofed and ribbited. Butterflies don't  make sounds but we fluttered our legs like butterfly wings. We tried to predict what animal would be on the next page.

DO THIS AT HOME:  Do yoga together.  No special equipment, just go for it.  You can find children's yoga videos on Youtube or find this book at the library.

Other happenings:

We played outside this week!

March Week 1: First, Next, Last

Phoneme: /p/

Transition: Wake Up - Daily Routines by Dream English

This is one of the most popular songs I cover all year.  We practice patterns (tap knees, clap, tap knees, clap....) as well as fun actions.  This is a song where I sing first, then the children repeat u til the chorus.  Do this at home and let your child be in charge to teach you.)

Materials: Laminated letter P, dry erase board and marker, music

Vocabulary and basic concepts: first/last, high/low, fast/slow, jumping, spinning, shaking kicking, swimming, swinging, plan, What questions, Who questions, animal and environmental sounds.

We started learning a new song today.  It was fun to clap along and we learned to beat patterns.  When the song was done, Miss Carrie asked WHO woke up today?  WHO washed their face today?  WHO brushed their teeth today?  WHO combed their hair today?  WHO ate breakfast today?  WHO came to school today?  Everyone raised their hands and talked about their morning routine.  That routine is a plan.  We make plans every day. We make plans during Planning Time for what we're going to do for Work Time. 

Miss Carrie said it would be fun to make a plan for Large Group.  We planned how we were going to move.  We planned what we would do First, what we would do Next and what we would do Last.    Miss Carrie drew pictures on the board the same way that Miss Jen and Miss Jeana draw pictures on the board for messages during Greeting Time.  (Miss Carrie has a hard time drawing but she keeps practicing.  Sometimes her frogs look more like penguins, but that is okay. Note to Parents - sometimes children don't want to try things because they feel they won't be successful.  Watching an adult try and fail, and hear that it is okay, encourages the child to try as well.)  Everyone offered suggestions on what actions we could do.  Then Miss Carrie turned on music and we followed our plan.  We flew, kicked, tapped, spun, danced, and jumped.  After we followed the plan, we reviewed what we did First, Next, and Last. Then we made new plans.

In this plan we jumped, flew like Superman, and touched our toes.

In this plan, we pretended to eat carrots, swam like fish, and kicked our legs.

This time we jumped up and down like frogs, swam, and flew.

This plan was all about dancing, waving our hands, and flying like butterflies.

DO THIS AT HOME:  Make plan for what you do in the morning, what you need to do to set the table, or just to do actions together.  Draw pictures to show what you will do first, next, and last.  Add some fun music.  Don't forget to review the plan when you are done to see if you did everything you planned.  If your plan didn't go as scheduled, draw pictures to show what did happen.

Arrow To The Sun

Miss Jeana's class has been exploring the book Arrow To The Sun in small groups.  I used to love the video when I was a child watching PBS.  So I'm posting the video here if you'd like to watch it at home.  I suggest getting the book from the library and exploring it at home.  Miss Jeana and her aides have been asking the children "What do you see?"