October Week 4: Rex Wrecks It and Halloween Fun

 This week, in Miss Jeana's classroom, we read the book Rex Wrecks It by Ben Clanton.

In this book, Rex keeps wrecking all of his friends block creations.  (We have this problem in our preschool classrooms, too.)  Rex's friends DON'T like him wrecking their projects.  They have to problem solve together to come up with a solution.

Then we pulled out all of the blocks and started building.  We took turns asking if we could wreck it. (We learned that the word wreck  means to knock it down.)  Our friends could say yes or no.  If they said no, we had to build our own or wait. (Since this was only at the beginning of the week, we didn't have a chance to do this in Miss Kazia's classroom.  We will plan to do this in her room another week soon.

DO THIS AT HOME:  Pull out blocks or collect cardboard boxes to build with.  Build together.  Don't encourage wrecking it.  Practice asking if you can knock it down, either verbally or sign 'please'.  Sometimes the answer is no.  Sometimes the answer is yes.  Talk about feelings if someone knocks it down when you didn't want them to.

At the end of the week, miss Carrie was in Miss Kazia's room.  We had a lot of Halloween fun. We practiced Trick or Treat and knocking on doors.  We talked about our costumes or what we were wearing that day.

What did the teachers wear?

Miss Carrie was Pete The Cat with his Red Shoes

Miss Traci was dressed like Minnie Mouse

Miss Jeana was dressed like a witch

Miss Meagan was a Giraffe

Miss Kazia dressed like Auna from Frozen

Miss Misty was a pumpkin.

October Week 3: Miss Carrie LOVES to sing!

 This week, we focused on favorite songs and introduced new ones.  Of course, we started with Five Little Ghosts.  Other songs included Jim Gill's Stick To The Glue.

Just follow along with the words.  Get stuck together.  This caused a lot of laughter and talking about WHO and WHAT was stuck together.

Another favorite was Wave Your Hands High from Preschool Action Songs:

We talked about what we were moving or shaking.  Children showed teachers and teachers attempted to copy the move.  

DO THIS AT HOME:  Follow your child's lead and sing and dance.  Talk about WHO and WHAT and WHERE.  Narrate your child's actions and make a big deal about following their lead.

October Week 2: Out In The Jungle

 

Vocabulary and Basic Concepts: jungle, animal, grasshopper, bug, gopher, eagle seagull, penguin, dog, goat, goldfish, gecko, glow worm, gazelle, grouse, earwig, grisson, sea slug, wart hog, gorilla, pig, frog, flamingo, loud/quiet, Where questions, What questions, like/don't like, ocean, farm, zoo, mountain, outside, my house.

Transition Song: Five Little Ghosts by the Kiboomers.

This week we played Out In The Jungle.  Miss Carrie would call out:

Binoculars Up!  

Out in the jungle, What did I see?

I saw a.......

Now, here is the catch: we had a lot of pictures taped around the room at kid eye level.  Each picture was an animal we might be familiar with or not.  But they all had a /g/ sound at the beginning, middle, or end of the word.  Everyone moved around the room to hunt for the pictures with their pretend binoculars held up to their eyes.  Everyone had fun trying to find the animals.  Sometimes we had to ask Miss Carrie "What is that?!"  No one had seen a glow worm or a sea slug or a grisson before. The teachers would mark the sound and we practiced the words.  We talked about what is was and where we might have seen it before.

(Miss Carrie was so busy during the activity, she didn't take pictures!)

DO THIS AT HOME:  find some magazine pictures of animals and put them up around your house.  Go for a hunt to find them.  Let your child lead. If you're working on articulation, model the word slowly once and let it go. Don't make your child repeat it.  If they do repeat it, it gives you another opportunity to say  "You found a _________!" and model one more time.  If your child is working on language, label and ask What and Where questions.  If your child is working on communication, give them a chart with matching pictures so they can find it and circle or mark the picture on their chart as they go.

Miss Carrie's wore a crown and funny things kids say.....

 

Juts in case your children try to tell you about this, I wore a crown this week for my birthday.  It is so much fun to see what communication I get from a child when they see me wearing a sparkly crown or just something different from the usual.  The same concept happened when I dyed my hair red one year, when I wore new glasses after not wearing glasses at all, or even if the children spy a bandage on my finger.  

Of course, any excuse to wear a sparkly crown, right?  

Funny things children in the classrooms said this week:

____________

Miss Kazia's classroom:

Boy: (pretended that his dinosaur farted)

Girl: Hey! Don't do that!  (holds up the cow she is playing with) Only cows fart!

(girl turns to me and says) Cows really do fart.

***

Girl playing with peers and attempting to problem solve during a conflict) "He have the mom and you have the sweetie (baby).

____________

Miss Jeana's classroom: 

Miss Jeana was going over classroom rules during Greeting Time.  One of the rules is using nice words in the classroom.

Girl: *pouts* My brother doesn't say nice words.  *pouts more* My brother doesn't ever say I'm pretty.

***

Boy (turns to me during Greeting Time)  I want to go home.  My mommy miss me.

_____________

October Week 1: Falling Leaves

 Vocabulary and Basic Concepts: high/low, fast/slow, same/different, big/little, in front/behind, next to, throw, roll, leaves, autumn, fall, trees, labeling colors, What/Where/Who, abstract conversation (talking about things and people outside of the classroom), -ing, plural -s.

It's October!  Miss Carrie introduced a new song that is always a favorite before the end of the year.  It's called Five Little Ghosts by The Kiboomers.

We practiced counting backwards from 5 to 0. Then we practiced counting forwards from 1 to 5.

We read a book called Leaf Man by Lois Ehlert.

Leaf Man was made from a pile of leaves.  He blew away and saw a lot of animals.  We practiced all sorts of animal sounds. We made guesses on what picture the leaves made.

Miss Carrie has a lot of trees at her house.  But the leaves haven't turned colors yet, so she brought fake leaves to class.  We talked about what they looked like when they fell from the trees.  Did they fall fast or slow? Who has trees at their house?  Where are the trees?  What do you like to do with the leaves?

Miss Carrie brought leaves to class! They were real leaves.  There were a lot of different colors.  Miss Carrie talked about how the leaves fell slowly from the trees at her house.  She has so many trees, she has to use a tractor to suck up all the leaves.  She likes to throw the leaves. Her dog likes to jump in the leaves.

Look at what we did with the leaves.

DO THIS AT HOME:  Go for a walk to look for leaves.  Talk about colors, size, and more or less.  Talk about where you are going, who found a leaf, which leaves look the same or different.  Take some leaves home and how the leaves to other family members while you talk about your walk.  Let your child take the lead and support language or articulation as needed.  Remember - model once and let it go.

September Week 5: Bounce and Jump and Wave and Twist and....

 Vocabulary and Basic Concepts:  bounce, jumping, hopping, shaking, twisting, swimming, clapping, snapping, tapping, brushing, freeze, stop/go, high/low, fast/slow.

This is our last week Miss Carrie is singing the Bouncy Bouncy Bouncy song as we come to large group.  

Miss Carrie sang this last year when school first closed for the pandemic.

This week, we sang and danced to some songs and moved our whole body.  The first is the Silly Dance Contest by Jim Gill.  In the song we would dance and then freeze.  Don't move!  It was so fun to freeze in filly poses.  We could dance fast and then slow.  We jumped.  We ended up on the ground, laying down.

Jim Gill has a great introduction about the importance of parents being involved in play with their child.  Then it goes into the Silly Dance Contest.

Next, we sat on the floor.  Miss Carrie played Jim Gill's Hands Are For Clapping song.  We showed our teachers all the different ways we could think of to clap, tap, snap, and brush.  Our teachers tried to copy our actions.

Last, we stood up and danced to Wave Your Hands Up High from Preschool Action Songs.  Again, teachers would try to copy our movements.  It was so much fun to dance and move.  We were laughing and trying to do what our friends were doing.

DO THIS AT HOME:  When was the last time you had a dance party?  It's time.  Put on some kid friendly music and follow your child's lead.  Narrate everything your child does.  Use an announcer voice or a silly voice.  EX: You are jumping!  I want to jump, too!

Look what we did this week:

Greeting Time always includes a message board.  Message #1 talks about what happens when we have a fire drill.  Message #2 shows that Miss Carrie will be teaching us during Large Group Time.  

September Week 4: Will It Bounce?

Vocabulary and Basic Concepts:  experiment, bounce + ing/ed, roll +ing/ed, yes/no, does/doesn't, high/low, fast/slow, Me/Mine/My, He/She, Hers/His, Who/What/Where, my turn, drop, roll, float, flop, soft, squishy, round.

This week in Large Group we learned the word experiment. We clapped it out ex-per-i-ment.  An experiment is what we do when we see what will happen to something.  Our experiment was to see if certain items would bounce.

First we tried feathers.  We held them up high and said "Ready....Set.....GO!" Did they bounce?  No!  They floated.  They fell to the ground slowly. We tried it again.  No bouncing.

Next we tried beanbag frogs and turtles and ladybugs.  We held them up high and said "Ready....Set...GO!" and let them go.  did they bounce?  No!  They flopped.  They rolled.  They did not bounce. We tried it again.  No bouncing.

Then Miss Carrie brought out a bag.  We tried to guess what was in the bag.  It was balls!  Red balls and green balls and blue balls.  So many balls!  Everyone picked a ball.  We held them up high and said "Ready....Set.....GO!" Did they bounce?  YES!  They bounced!  We practiced bouncing and catching.  We discovered the balls could also roll.  Some of us rolled to friends or played catch with teachers and friends. We discovered that these balls were squishy.  We could squish them flat and then they would go back to a round shape.

DO THIS AT HOME:  Have your own experiment.  Will it bounce?  Will it roll?  Will it float or flop?  Gather some common items around your house.  Talk about the results.  Try again to make sure.