If I Could Be A Doggie

This week for Large Group, we played a game called, If I Could Be A Doggie.  This game helped us work on using the "d" sound in phrases.  It also helped us work on using phrases to make choices, following directions and using verbs in phrases.  To play the game, we sang a little song to the tune of The More We Get Together.  The song goes like this....

If I could be a doggie, a doggie, a doggie.

If I could be a doggie then here's what I'd do....

We each got a turn to choose a "doggy action" from the cards pictured above or we could think of our own action.  We sat, panted, played dead, rolled over, dug, barked, begged, shook, jumped, bowed and chased our tails.

You can work on this at home by pretending to be an animal too.  You can let your child pick different actions to do and then verbalize what you are doing or what you did.  By talking about it, you are modeling using present and past tense verbs in phrases.  

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 and using the word "not". We talked about how dogs like to chew bones and how sometimes, they hide their bones.   We sat in a circle and closed our eyes while teacher Heidi hid the dog bone. The dog bone was hidden in a bag, under a blanket or in a box. When we opened our eyes, we all chanted, "Doggie, doggie where's your bone?".  We each got a turn to guess if the bone was in the box, under the blanket or in the bag.  If we guessed right, we would say "yes", the bone was in the bag.  If we guess wrong, we would say,  "no" the bone was not in the bag.   

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. 

Musical Hearts

This week in Large Group, we played Musical Hearts.  We put some hearts on the floor in a circle.  Each heart had a picture of an action.  We played some music and walked or danced around the circle.  When the music stopped, we found a heart to stand on.

  

Teacher Heidi gave us a turn to say what action was on our heart and we all did the action together.  We did jumping jacks, touched our toes, froze like statues, sang a song, hopped, pretended to shoot baskets, ran in place and marched.  It was a lot of fun to move to the music and then do some of the actions.  We talked about the actions as a way to work on using verbs in speech.

To work on this concept at home, talk about what you are doing or what you see other people doing.  Use "ing" verbs to describe what you see.

Animal Yoga

Last week for Large Group, we continued to talk about the "d" sound.  I brought my friend Tiny Tony.  Tiny Tony is a dog.  We sang a song about Tiny Tony.

We also talked about different 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 iPad app that was projected on the Apple TV to show us how to make the different animal 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" The Raindrop Sound

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.