Popcorn!!

This week in Large Group, we worked on the "p" or popping sound by talking about popcorn.  We talked about how we can hear it popping as it is cooking.  We sang the song Popcorn Popping on the Apricot Tree.  We read the story Popcorn by Frank Asch.  You can watch an online version of this story if you google "popcorn frank asch".  It is a fun story about a bear who had a party and popped so much popcorn it filled up his whole house.  To clean it up, the bear and all of his friends had to eat and eat and eat the popcorn until it was all gone.  

After we read the story we played a game with the parachute and some big pieces of popcorn made out of scrunched up paper.  We all held onto the parachute and when Teacher Heidi said, "The popper is on", we all shook the parachute until we popped all of the pieces of popcorn off the top.  We had a lot of fun popping the popcorn off the parachute.  

Peas Boiling in A Pot

This week for Large Group, we talked about actions to work on saying words with "ing".  We looked at the book LMNO Peas by Keith Baker.  

We looked at the pictures and looked at all of the things the peas were doing.  We saw that they were riding bikes, building buildings, climbing, camping, swimming and eating.  

We played a game called 10 Peas Boiling in a Pot.  We worked on the actions of swimming and jumping while we were playing the game.  We worked on saying rhymes and sentences as we played the game.  When you play the game, you pretend to be peas and you say, 10 little peas boiling in a pot.  They swam around until they got hot. Then one little pea began to shout.  It's getting hot, I'm jumping out.  As each pea jumped out of the pot, we used our math skills to guess how many were left because now we had one less pea.

You can work on using words with "ing" at home by describing what you and your child are doing or by pointing out what you see others doing when you are driving, when you are at the park or when you are looking at a book.  

Will Little Pea like it???

This week for Large Group we continued to practice the "p" or popping sound.  We sang the song Sing and Eat to the Alphabeat.  We practiced saying the name of different foods that begin with the "p" sound and other sounds too.

We reviewed the story of Little Pea.  We talked about how Little Pea could only eat candy for dinner and how Little Pea hates candy.  We learned that candy is a "sweet" and we talked about other foods that are sweets.  We talked about how Little Pea loved to have spinach for dessert.  We learned that spinach is a "vegetable" and we talked about other foods that are vegetables.

We played a game called Will Little Pea Like It?

To play the game we looked at pictures of different foods.  We had to decide if the food was a sweet or a vegetable.  We had to decide if Little Pea would like it.  If the food was a vegetable, we put the food in the bag with Little Pea's smiling face because we knew that he would like it.  If the food was a sweet, we put the food in the bag with Little Pea's frowning face because we knew that Little Pea would not like it.  

This activity helped us to learn new vocabulary.  It also helped us learn to classify food into groups.  This activity also helped us work on answering yes/no questions and using and understanding the word "not".  We had a lot of fun deciding which foods Little Pea would like and which foods he would not like.  

You could work on yes/no questions and using the word "not" when you take a trip to the grocery store.  You can ask your child if they like certain food that you see.  Have them answer yes or no.  When they answer "no", you can model the use of the word "not" by saying, "I heard you say you did NOT like carrots etc."  

Little Pea

This week for Large Group, we introduced the "p" sound.  We practiced saying it and we named some things that start with the "p" sound.  We talked about different foods that we might eat and we sang a song about different foods, some of them started with the "p" sound, like pizza, popcorn and pickles.  

We read the story Little Pea.  It is about Little Pea and his family.  In the story Little Pea can only eat candy for dinner.  Little Pea hates candy.  If Little Pea eats five pieces of candy, Papa Pea and Mama Pea will let him have dessert.  Little Pea is so excited when he gets a big bowl of spinach for dessert!!  We talked about foods that are vegetables and foods that are sweets.  We worked on answering "wh" questions by asking questions about the book after we read it.  We worked on different vocabulary words like pal, vegetable and hopscotch.  We also worked on emotions by looking at Little Pea's face to help us know if Little Pea liked what he was eating or not.  

You can read this book at home by checking it out from the library or if you search it on YouTube, for a digital version you can watch.  You can ask your child to practice saying the "p" sound in the words "pea", "papa pea", "hopscotch" and "pea pal".  You can work on asking and answering questions by thinking of different foods and asking your child, "Would Little Pea like broccoli?", "Would Little Pea like chocolate?" etc.....