This is My Dot

This week in Large Group we practiced the raindrop or /d/ sound by talking about "dots" and practicing saying the word "dot".  We played a game called "This is My Dot".  We each had a dot.  We talked about what color we had.  We put our dots on the floor and tapped our dot while saying "This is my dot, my dot, my dot".  We held our dots in front of us, over our heads, behind us etc...  We then put our dots on the floor and played music.  When the music was on, we danced and when the music stopped we found a dot to stand on with both of our feet.  We chose different actions to do while we stood on our dot and said, "This is my dot, my dot, my dot."  We jumped,  hopped, clapped our hands, touched our toes, marched and did star jumps.  We also looked around the room to see what things we could see in our room that were in the shape of a dot, we also tried to think of other things that would be in that shape.  We thought of pizza, doughnuts, balls, the sun, wheels and the clock.

You can talk about dots with your child at home by reading the book Lots of Dots by Craig Frazier.  

 When reading the book, look at the pictures and talk with your child about the objects that are in the shape of dots and then look around as you are walking or driving and ask your child to name what they see around them in the shape of dots.

Doggie, Doggie Where's Your Bone??

This week for Large Group, we played the game Doggie, Doggie Where's Your Bone?

This game helped us work on using the /d/ sound in words.  It also helped us work on asking and answering "wh" and "yes/no" questions.  We sat in a circle and one person got to be the doggie.  The doggie closed his/her eyes while Teacher Heidi gave the bone to another one of our preschool friends to hide.  When doggie opened his/her eyes, we all chanted, "Doggie, doggie where's your bone?".  Doggie had to go around asking his friends, "Do you have my bone?".  If we had the bone, we responded "yes" if we didn't have the bone, we responded "no".  We all got a turn to be doggie.  If some of our preschool friends didn't have enough words to ask "Do you have my bone?", they used the Big Mac with the phrase recorded on it.

You can play this game at home by hiding an object and using questions to get hints on where the object might me.  This will help your child work on attributes (it's under something red or big) and prepositions (it's on, next to, under, behind etc..).  This will also help your child work on asking questions and answering questions. 

Animal Yoga

This week for Large Group, we talked about animals.  We looked at pictures of animals and named them.  We also talked about how the animals look, how they move and what sounds they make. We moved our bodies different ways by doing animal yoga.  We used a fun (and free) iPad app that was projected on our Apple TV to show us how to do the different animal yoga poses.  

We moved our bodies like a dog, an elephant, a flamingo, a giraffe, a peacock, a monkey, a lizard, a butterfly, a ladybug and a snake.  

You can talk about and move like animals at home by downloading the My First Yoga app off iTunes or you can read the book You Are a Lion! byTaeen Yoo.  This book shows pictures of animals as well as yoga poses to move like the animal.  

D is the Raindrop Sound

This month we are working on the /d/ or raindrop sound. The /d/ sound is made by putting the tip of your tongue up on the bump behind your top teeth and using your voice to say /d/.  This sound is made the same way as the /t/ sound except you use your voice with /d/ and turn your voice off for /t/.  Have your child practice saying /d/ and /t/ to help them learn the difference between using their voice and turning their voice off.  The visual cue for this sound is made by tapping the index finger of your right hand into the palm of your left hand.  Ask your child to show you how to make the raindrop sound.

This month we are also going to be talking about dogs and other animals too.  One of my favorite books that targets the /d/ sound, dogs, numbers and colors is called Dog's Colorful Day by Emma Dodd.  You can check this book out from the library or by searching the title, you can watch a reading of it on YouTube.

Another great book to target the /d/ sound as well as preschool vocabulary is Lots of Dots by Craig Frazier.  As you read the book, you can talk about different dots.  You can also target using /d/ in the word "dot" by doing an art project where you make lots of dots of paper.  As you make the dots, practice saying "dot" over and over. You can make dots with crayons, paint or markers.  You can put dots together to make objects too.  

Snowmen Songs and Games

To finish up the month of January, we played some snowman games and sang some snowman songs in Large Group.

We did The Snowman Pokey and we sang Ring Around The Snowman.  We sang Ring Around The Snowman slow and fast and loud and soft.  

We read the book The Snowy Day by Ezra Jack Keats.  We looked at the pictures and talked about what we thought was happening.  We also looked at some other pictures of all the things you can do in the snow and we talked about them too.  

You can read The Snowy Day at home and talk about the pictures.  If you don't have the book, there is an online reading on YouTube if you search the title.  

To work on identifying bod parts and understanding prepositions, we played the snowflake game.

To play this game, we all had a snowflake and we would use our ears to listen to where we needed to put it.  We put the snowflake under our arms, above our heads, next to our ears, by our sides, touching our elbows, behind our backs, in front of our eyes etc....