The Jingle Bell Sound

For the month of December,  we are working on the "j" sound or the Jingle Bell sound.  This sound is made the same as the "ch" sound, but the "j" is voiced.  To make this sound, put your teeth together and pull the corners of your lips to the middle to make a pucker.  The tip of your tongue should rise to the top of your moth behind your front teeth as air passes through your mouth to make "j".  The visual sign for the "j" sound is made by putting your thumb at one corner of your mouth with your fingers at the other and then drawing them together to say the "j" sound.

To practice using the "j" sound in words and phrases, we are going to be singing Jingle Bells and reading and talking about Gingerbread Men.

To work on "j" at home.  You can sing Jingle Bells.  You can also read the story The Gingerbread Man.  You can also move by "jumping" and "jogging" and say "jump" and "jog" with each movement.  

Yummy Yucky

This week for Large Group, we read and talked about the Yummy Yucky story by Leslie Patricelli.  This story is about a boy who likes to eat some things, but thinks other things are yucky.  

We helped teacher Heidi read the story by giving her a "thumbs up" if the thing the boy wanted to eat was yummy and a "thumbs down" if it was yucky.  Some of the "yummy" things were spaghetti, hamburgers, eggs and sandwiches.  Some of the "yucky" things were worms, sand, earwax and boogers!!!

We helped Teacher Heidi feed some yummy food for her friend Ned.  We chose items out of her shopping bag and if they were "yummy" we fed them to Ted.  If they were "yucky" we threw them in the garbage can.

You can watch a reading of the story by searching "yummy yucky book" on YouTube.

The Popper is ON

This week for Large Group, we pretended to pop popcorn!  We played a game with the parachute where we pretended to put popcorn (scrunched up paper) in the popper and then shake the parachute until it all popped off!  We practiced using words in phrases and using the /p/ sound in words by saying the following rhyme while we shook the parachute:

"Popcorn, popcorn, hot, hot, hot.

Popcorn, popcorn, pop, pop, pop!

We worked on listening and following directions.  Teacher Heidi told us that we could not start shaking the parachute until we heard her say, "The popper is on".  When she said, "The popper is off", we could stop shaking and help her gather up all the popcorn that had popped off the parachute and put it back in the middle of the parachute.  We also played a game where we practiced counting.  We would choose a number and count to that number by shaking the parachute that many times.  When we reached the number we had chosen, we would run under the parachute.  We loved going under the parachute!!!  We laughed and jumped under the parachute.  We worked on understanding the words on, off, middle and under. 

You can work on following directions and understanding prepositions and basic concepts at home by having your child place on object on, in, off, next to, under, in front of or behind something. You can have them hold the object up high and down low.  You could also play a game where your child is a robot and they can move like a robot when you turn then "on", but then they have stop when you turn them "off".  

"P" is for POPCORN

This week for Large Group, we introduced the "P" sound.  We practiced saying the "P" sound by itself and in the beginning of words.  We tried to think of words that started with the "p" sound. We thought of penguin, pop, popcorn, pan and pencil.  We also talked about how the letter "p" makes the "p" sound.

Teacher Heidi told us a story about a boy named Buster who had a popcorn party.  The story is based on the book Popcorn by Frank Asch

This story is so funny.  It is about a boy named Buster.  He wants to have a party so he calls up all his friends and invites them over.  All of the friends that come to the party bring popcorn.  One of Buster's friends, Betty has an idea that they should go in the kitchen and pop all the popcorn.  Buster gets a big pot and fills it with all of the popcorn.  Soon, it begins to pop and it keeps popping!!!!  The popcorn spills over the side of the pot and onto the kitchen floor.  The popcorn fills up the entire kitchen then moves to the living room, soon filling the whole house.  Buster and his friends had to get rid of the popcorn so they crunched and munched and munched some more until it was all gone.  They all felt so sick!!!  Buster's friends went home and Buster went to bed.  When Buster's mom and dad got home, they told him they had brought him a treat and guess what it was????  POPCORN!!!

We loved the story and and thought it was so funny.  We talked about the story and what happened.  We talked about how Buster and his friends felt.  We talked about what we would do if that happened at our house.  

If you want to watch the popcorn story at home, you can find it by googling "frank asch popcorn flash" and then clicking on the link.

When we finished with the story, we played a game where we pretended like we were popcorn popping in a pot.   We crouched down on the rug and with Teacher Heidi we said....

Popcorn, popcorn popping in a pot.

(someone's name) got hot and he/she went pop!

 We had to turn our ears on and listen for our name because when Teacher Heidi said our name we got to jump up like we were popping.  This game helped us work on  using the "p" sound in words and phrases, following directions, recognizing our name and using correct pronouns in phrases.

November Words of the Month

The core vocabulary words that we will be emphasizing for the month of November are want and more.  You can emphasize the word want throughout the day as your child makes requests for toys or food.  You can emphasize the word more in play or at meal and snack times.  As your child requests more things to eat you can emphasize the word more.  You can also emphasize the word more in play while building with blocks, playing with legos or doing an activity that your child will want to continue.  You can emphasize this by asking, "Do you want more?".

"P" The Popping Sound

This month we are working on the "P" or the popping sound.  To make the "p" sound you bring your lips together and releasing air to say "p".  The visual cue for the "p" sound is made by bringing your fingers together to make a fist and releasing them out when you say "p".

Listed below are some activities you can do to work on the "p" sound in words:

-Blow bubbles in the room.  Have your child pop the bubbles saying "pop" for each one.
-Make popcorn.  Have your child say "pop" for each piece they eat.
-Pretend to make soup or stew.  Have your child repeat the phrase "in the pot" for each item you put in the pot.
-Play with stuffed animals and have your child repeat the word "pet" as they pet their animal.
-Play with toy cars or trucks and have your child repeat the word "push" each time they "push" the vehicle.
-Play store with your child.  Have them say the word "pay" for each item they want to buy.

Some good books to read that help work on the "p" sound are:
If You Give a Pig A Pancake by Laura Numeroff
Little Pea by Amy Krouse Rosenthal
Little Green Peas by Keith Baker
1-2-3 Peas by Keith Baker
Hop on Pop by Dr. Seuss
ANY Pete the Cat BOOK by James Dean

Monster Games

Who's Behind the Monster???

We have been busy the past two weeks.  Here are the large group activities we have done this week and last week.  Two weeks for Large Group, we talked about prepositions.  We practiced putting our hands next to us, above us, behind us, under us and in front of us.  We played a game with Big Green Monster where someone was hiding behind him and we had to guess who was behind Big Green Monster.  

We closed our eyes while someone hid behind Big Green Monster and when we opened our eyes,  we sang a little song that goes like this....(to the tune of Farmer in the Dell)

"Who's behind the Monster?  Who's behind the Monster?  Who's behind the Monster? Who's behind the Monster?

We took turns guessing who was behind Big Green Monster.  If we guessed right, the person hiding behind Big Green Monster would say "YES".  If we guessed wrong, the person that we guessed would say "NO", I'm NOT behind Big Green Monster.  

We had a lot of fun hiding behind Big Green Monster.  We worked on answering "wh" questions, understanding prepositions, answering "yes/no" questions and using the word "NOT" in sentences.

If you want to work on these concepts at home, you can play the game with your family.  You can use a blanket or a box and hide under or behind it.  You can use "wh" and "yes/no" questions to figure out who is behind/under the blanket. 

This past week in Large Group, we played the game Monster in the Middle.  We talked about what the word "middle" means.  We stood on the edge of the rug and in the middle of the rug.  We also talked about what it meant to "follow" someone.  Teacher Heidi showed us a monster hat that she brought to class.  We took turns wearing the monster hat and being the "monster in the middle" of the rug.  When it was our turn to be the "monster in the middle",  we could choose how we wanted to move and the other kids in the class followed our actions.  

We sang a song while we did our actions.  The song goes like this...

There's a monster in the middle, just because we're gonna do what the little monster does.

Follow monster, follow monster, follow monster.

The monster in the middle takes a bow, there's a new little monster gonna show us how.

Follow monster, follow monster, follow monster.

We did some fun things.  We hopped, jumped, swung our arms, shrugged our shoulders, touched our toes, did jumping jacks, spun around, moved our knees and kicked our feet.

You can do this same activity at home by playing following the leader.  You can play with a group of friends or with family.  Choose a leader, let the leader choose what action they want to do and have everyone follow.