Another Great Article

How awesome is this?!  A person with autism has just signed a contract to play baseball.  I linked the previous sentence so you can see the article.

April Week 2: First and Last

Phoneme: /p/

Transition Song: One Finger, One Thumb

Materials:  Laminated letter P

Vocabulary and Basic Concepts: first/last, Who Questions, Where Questions, following, leader, carefully

Pre-Literacy:  Let's draw the letter P.  Who has a /p/ sound in their name?  Can you think of other words that have a /p/ sound?  Apple, Planning Time, Clean Up Time, parents, people, Papa, Pringles, paper, ponies, pizza.

This week Miss Carrie introduced a new game called Follow The Leader.  Everyone lined up and held hands.  We learned a new song:

Follow the leader.
Follow the leader.
Follow the leader.
Now we STOP!

The leader led everyone around the room, where ever the leader wanted to go.  The leader had to be responsible to go slow so everyone would be safe.  When we ended the song, everyone stopped on the word STOP.

Miss Carrie ran to the front of the line, pointed at the first person and asked the whole class "WHO is first in line?"  Some of the children yelled "ME!" thinking that Miss Carrie was asking if they wanted to be first.  Soon everyone was able to call out the name of the child who was first in line.  Then Miss Carrie ran to the back of the line, pointed at the last child, and asked WHO was last in line.  Everyone called out that child's name.  WHERE is ________? He/She is FIRST/LAST.  When that was established, the leader went to the back of the line to be LAST and there was a new leader who was FIRST.  The new leader led everyone around the room again. Everyone had a chance to be FIRST in line.  Everyone had a chance to be LAST in line. 

DO THIS AT HOME:  Everyone can play Follow The Leader.  Do it on a walk or around the house.  Talk about who is first and who is last.  You can also do this while waiting in line at the grocery store.

Some of the kids also participated in a earthquake drill.  Everyone (even the teachers!) went under the tables.  The children were laughing because it was a lot harder for teachers to fit under the low tables.  Then everyone lined up and went outside for a few minutes with the entire school until the earthquake drill was over.

April Week 1: Fat Cat, Puppets and Prepositions

Phoneme: /p/

Transition Song: One Finger, On Thumb

(Miss Carrie's version is slower and slightly different words: "One finger, one thumb, one arm, one leg, one head, stand up, sit down, turn around, keep moving. We'll all be happy today." This is a great song for working memory and sequencing.) The children think this song is a lot of fun.  When they are used to the song, we'll change the body parts and have to memorize a new sequence.

Materials: laminated letter P, What Will Fat Cat Sit On book, puppets.

Vocabulary and basic concepts: What, Where, On/Under, animals, animal sounds, worried, mad, happy, negation (Not).

Pre-literacy:  Let's draw the letter P.  Start at the top and draw down.  Go back to the top and draw a little around.  What sound does it make? /p-p-p-p-p-/.  Who has a /p/ sound in their name?  What words have that sound? This children came up with papa, puppy, purple princess parties, top, apple, map, happy. Miss Carrie said that her favorite snack was popcorn.

Miss Carrie read a book called What Will Fat Cat Sit On by Jan Thomas.  Fat Cat has a problem.  Fat Cat doesn't know WHAT to sit on?  Should he sit on The Cow?  The Pig?  The animals do NOT want Fat Cat to sit on them.  Finally The Mouse offers a solution that everyone agrees on.

Then Miss Carrie brought out a lot of animal/insect puppets: sheep, lion, elephant, zebra, chipmunk, bee, spider, dinosaurs, cat, dog, bears.  Everyone got to choose a puppet.  Miss Carrie showed how her lamb puppet could sit ON the floor.  She asked a friend if the lamb puppet could sit on their shoulder. (If a puppet wants to sit on someone, we must ask the friend if it is okay).  Everyone took their puppets all around the room and talked about sitting on the chair, under the chair, on the table, under the table, on the shelf.  We asked friends if it was okay if a puppet sat on their head.  It was okay to say no.  When it was time to come back to the rug, everyone had a chance to tell the class what their puppet sat on.

DO THIS AT HOME:  No puppets?  No problem.  Take a favorite toy and talk about the toy ON or UNDER something.  Let everyone get involved. It is pretty funny if mom or dad or grandma or grandpa get under the table.  Don't forget to go to the library and check out more Jan Thomas Books.

April Language Calendar

March Week 4: What Can You Do With A Scarf? AKA Concepts and Shapes

phoneme: /d/

Transition Song: Wake Up Daily Routines by Dream English
(We're really going to miss singing this.  It was one of the children's favorites.)

Materials: Scarves, Music

Vocabulary and Basic Concepts:  listening to directions, High/Low, Fast/Slow, jump, twist, hop, swim, wave, triangle, circle, square, trade

Pre-Literacy:  We dispensed with drawing our letter D in order to give us enough time for the main activity.

This week Miss Carrie pulled out her scarves and music.  We chose colors and then listened to directions to know if we should wave, jump, hop, twist, or swim.  We had to be careful with our bodies so we did not accidentally hit anyone with our scarves. 

We found friends to ask if they would like to trade colors with us and practiced using our kind words.  Then we got into groups of three or four to see if we could connect our scarves together to make triangles (they have three sides!) or squares (they have four sides!).  We stood with everybody to make one giant circle with all of our scarves.

DO THIS AT HOME:  try this with scarves, blankets, ribbons, or other materials.  What materials are good for waving?  What materials are good for making shapes?  How many people do we need to make a triangle?  Count them.  Look for shapes around your neighborhood.

March Week 3: Did You Do Yoga This Morning?

phoneme: /d/

Transition Song: Wake Up! Daily Routines by Dream English

Materials: Laminated letter D, yoga music

Vocabulary and Basic Concepts:  "Did you..." questions, up/down, high/low, label body parts, muscles, Pronoun+auxiliary phrases, following single and multistep directions.

Pre-literacy: Again we are drawing the letter D using the laminated templates.  We're determining which way the letter D should face (upside down vs right side up), talking about the sound it makes and whose name has that sound as well as what words have that sound.

This week Miss Carrie was asking the questions: Did you wake up this morning?  Did you wash your face this morning?  Did you brush your teeth?  Did you comb your hair or did mom or dad or grandma or grandpa help you?  Did you eat breakfast this morning?  Did you come to school this morning?  

This brought out a lot of conversation, not only between the teachers and the children, but also children talking to their peers.  Everyone was excited to talk about what  they ate for breakfast, or who helped them comb their hair.  For our children who are not yet verbal or who are just emerging verbal skills, we used signs and single word phrases.

Then Miss Carrie asked a different question:

Did you do yoga this morning?

The children wanted to know What is yoga?  One child confused it with "Yoda".  We worked on the different sounds between yoGa and YoDa and how yoga is a form of exercise while Yoda is a character in Star Wars movies. Some of the children wanted to know if it was like the exercises - the push ups, sit ups, jumping, running - that we did two weeks ago.  A few children did know what yoga was and proceeded to demonstrate yoga breathing, downward dog, and other poses they were familiar with.  We followed their lead and moved on to other ideas.  

I wonder how I can stretch the muscles in my legs?  What about my arms?  What is a good way to balance on one foot?

We identified body parts, and gave directions using the concepts high/low and up/down.  As the children were showing their ideas, we asked them to describe where their hands and feet were so we could follow.  There was a lot of Look at me! and I can do that!  The children thought it was hilarious when they could do something that Miss Carrie could not.  Sometimes we used partners to hold hands with when we were trying to balance.  

DO THIS AT HOME:  Turn on some music at home and move your bodies.  Talk about what you are doing and narrate what you see you see your child doing.  Follow their lead.  Don't turn on a yoga video.  Your focus needs to be on each other, not on a screen.  Don't worry about doing proper poses, just stretch up high, down low, and communicate back and forth.

March Week 2: Do You Like.....?

phoneme: /d/

Transition Song:  Wake Up Daily Routines by Dream English.

Materials:  Laminated Letter D, laminated photos of food on white background

Vocabulary and Basic Concepts: "Do you like _____?", "I do"/"I don't".  thumbs up/thumbs down. bacon, grilled cheese sandwich, doughnut, hot dog, chips, watermelon, jello, rice, pear, macaroni and cheese, hot chocolate, strawberries, spaghetti, pancakes, soup, green beans, oatmeal, carrots, pizza, peanut butter and jelly sandwich, salad, popcorn, cake, broccoli, grapes, cookie, french fries, dry beans, tomato, orange, celery, banana, apple, corn, scrambled eggs, potato, ice cream.

Pre-literacy:  Draw the letter D.  Start at the top and draw down.  Go back to the top and draw around.  What words have the /d/ sound?  Dinosaur, dot, dinner, dance, dip, dude.

Miss Carrie showed everyone that she had A LOT of pictures of foods.  Some foods were cooked, some were raw.  Some were for snacks, breakfast, lunch, and dinner.  Everyone chose 3 pictures to show their friends.  Every friend held up a picture and asked the entire class "Do you like ________? and labeled their picture.  Everyone then answered "I do!" or "I don't!" and gave a thumbs up and thumbs down.  We remembered that Miss Carrie does NOT like peanut butter.  Not everyone liked pizza.  Everyone liked ice cream.  Some of us liked broccoli, tomatoes, and carrots.

At the end we sang Do You Like Broccoli Ice Cream?  And laughed at the silly combinations.

DO THIS AT HOME:  at mealtimes talk about what foods you like and foods you don't like.  You can't say "I don't like it" unless you try it.  Miss Carrie tries foods she thinks she doesn't like once in a while to see if she changed her mind.  Talk about favorite foods of other family members or friends.  If Grandpa really likes cookies, take him a plate of cookies.  Practice asking "Do you like..." and "I do/I don't".