Egg Emotions

This week for Large Group, we talked about our new sound, the "g" sound or the frog sound.  We practiced saying the sound by itself and in words.  We also practiced saying the "g" sound in the word go when we sang the song, Go In My Car.

Teacher Heidi brought a big colored egg for us to look at.  We talked about how the word egg ends in the "g" sound and we practiced saying it.

Teacher Heidi introduced us to her egg friends and we looked at their faces and talked about how they might be feeling.  We met Emma Egg that was happy and Ethan Egg that was scared.  We meet Evelyn Egg that was tired and Eric Egg that was mad.  We practiced making different faces; happy, sad, tired, disgusted, mad, surprised and scared.

We talked about frowny and smiley faces and sang a song about them while we turned our own egg face to the frowny and smiley faces.

You can practice identifying and verbalizing feelings at home by talking about how you are feeling.  You can read stories and talk about what you see when you look at people's faces.  Talk about if you see a smile or a frown.  Ask your child if someone in a story looks happy or sad.  When your child is sad or happy, verbalize why they might be feeling that way.  An example of this would be to say, "I see you are sad because you fell and hurt your knee." or "I see you are happy because your friends are coming over to play."

The "G" Sound-The Frog Sound

For the month of March, we are working on the "g" or the Frog Sound.  This sound is made by keeping your tongue back and using your voice to say "g".  If you put your hand on your neck when you say this sound, you can feel your voice vibrating to make the sound.  

We practiced saying the "g" sound by itself and in words.  This month we are going to be singing the Go In My Car song because it helps us practice saying "g" in the word "go".  When we sing the song, we use our hands to sign the word "go" as we sing.  Ask your child to show you how to use their hands to say the word "go".

You can work on this sound as home with some of the following activities:

-Have a race between cars.  Ask your child to say "go" at the beginning of each race.

-Set up a goal and kick a ball through it.  Ask your child to say "goal" each time a goal is made.

-Play with toy cars and trucks.  Model the word "gas" by going to get "gas" in the car or truck.

-Have your child put gum balls into a container saying "gum" for each one.

-Practice the word "gone" by having your chid say "all gone" when a snack is finished or when toys get put away or when a family member leaves.

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.