Shake, Shake, Shake To the Ground

This week for Large Group we played with the parachute.  We took some pretend snowballs and dumped them on the parachute and said a rhyme while we tried to shake the snowballs to the ground.

The rhyme went like this:

Snowball, snowball cold and round.

Shake, shake, shake to the ground.

After we shook the snowballs to the ground a few times, we played another game where we counted so many shakes and then went under the parachute.

We took turns telling our friends how many times we would shake the parachute before we went under.

We had a lot of fun going under the parachute!!!

This activity helped us follow directions and use words in phrases.  We also worked on understanding the preposition under, answering yes/no questions and answering "wh" questions.

You can play parachute games at home by using a sheet or blanket.  You can ask your child how many times you should shake the blanket before you go under.  When you are under, point out that you are "under" the parachute to work on understanding the concept "under".

Snowman Games

Ring Around The Snowman

Last week for Large Group, we reviewed the "s" sound and sang songs about "snow".  We played some snowman games.  We played Ring Around the Snowman, 10 Little Snowmen and Snowman Hokey Pokey. 

To play Ring Around the Snowman,  it's just like Ring Around the Rosies except you hold hands and move in a circle around a snowman.

As we moved around the snowman, we sang; 

Ring around the snowman,

Pocket full of snow.

Snowflakes, snowflakes,

We all fall down.

After we played it a couple times, we took turns deciding if we should sing the song fast, slow, high, low, in a whisper or really loud. This activity helped us use our words in phrases.  It also helped us work on following directions and answering "wh" questions.  

We also played 10 Little Snowmen.  To play this game, we pretended to be snowmen.  We talked about how when the sun comes out, snowmen melt.  We counted how many "snowmen" we had on our rug and then said the following rhyme:

10 little snowmen having lots of fun.

The sun came out and melted some.

Now (child or children's names) is/are  all done.

When we said the part about he sun melting some, Teacher Heidi took some of our pictures off the board and if our picture disappeared that meant we melted to the ground.  After we melted we then counted how many snowmen were left and did the rhyme again.  This helped us with our math skills as we subtracted each time snowmen melted to figure out how many were still left.  We also worked on the "who" question by answering Teacher Heidi when she said, "Who melted?"

We also played Snowmen Pokey.  This game is played just like Hokey Pokey, but we would say "do the snowman pokey" at the end.  This helped us work on naming and identifying body parts and moving our bodies to a beat.  We each got a turn to say which body part we were going to put in and out of the circle.  We used our hands, arms, knees, legs, hips, heads, hair, noses, feet, elbows and even our cheeks.

You can play any of these games with your family at home.  

Snowball Snowball Cold and Round

Snowball, Snowball Cold and Round

This week in Large Group we talked about snowballs.  We pretended to make snowballs with our hands.  We held our pretend snowball up high and down low.  We held our snowball in front of us and behind us.

We played a game called "Snowball, Snowball Cold and Round".  To play this game, we all closed our eyes and Teacher Heidi hid a snowball under one of the colored mittens.  When we opened our eyes, we tapped our knees with our hands while we said...."Snowball, snowball cold and round.  Under which mitten can you be found?"  We each took a turn guessing what color mitten we thought the snowball was hiding under.  

As we played this game, we worked on identifying our colors, answering "wh" questions and using "yes and no" to answer questions.

You can easily play this game at home by cutting out a white circle for a snowball as well as some colored mittens.

"S" is for SNOW

There's A Snowflake On My.....

In Large Group last week we talked about snow.  We looked at the book  The Snowy Day by Ezra Jack Keats.  We talked about all the things that Peter did on his snowy day.  We talked about snow being cold, as well as how snow can melt.  We talked about things that we all liked to do in the snow for fun.

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 body 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....

"S" The Snake Sound

The "S" Sound

This month we will be talking, singing, playing and reading about the "s" or the snake sound.  We make this sound by putting our tongue behind our teeth.  You can play a fun game at home to work on saying the "s" sound that will also work on using words to describe objects.  You can play the "I See Something" game.  You play this game by saying "I see something that...." and then describe an object that you see and have your child guess what it is.  You can take turns and have your child describe something they see and have you guess too.