Snowball Snowball Hit the Ground

This week in 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.

Snowball, snowball hit 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".

Ring Around The Snowman

Last week for Large Group, we reviewed the "s" sound and sang songs about "snow".  We played a game called Ring Around the Snowman.  You play it 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,

He is made from 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.  

You can play this same game with your family at home.  Have your child draw a snowman on a piece of paper.  Put the snowman in the center of the floor and hold hands as you move around it singing our snowman song.  You can ask your child how they want to sing the song.

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.

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....

The Snake Sound

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.

Move Fast or Slow

This week in Large Group, we reviewed the story of The Gingerbread Man.  We then played a game where we pretended to be The Gingerbread Man and we took turns telling our friends in the class how they would move their bodies to try to catch us.

One person threw a dice to tell us if we were going to move "fast" or "slow" and then another person threw a dice that told us how we were going to move.  We jumped, hopped, clapped, wiggled, flew and twirled.  If we didn't want to use the dice, we thought of our own way to move.  Some of us suggested skipping, waving our arms, tapping our toes and marching.  

While we were doing the movement, we said "Run (or hop, march, jump, clap) as fast/slow as you can.  You can't catch me, I'm the Gingerbread Man."

This activity helped us work on understanding the concepts fast and slow and answering questions. It also helped us work on following directions and using one or more words to make comments.  

You can play the same game at home with your child by taking turns choosing how you should move.   

The Gingerbread Man

This week for Large Group, we read and talked about the story The Gingerbread Man.  We practiced using our words as we helped Teacher Heidi tell the story by repeating some of the familiar phrases from the book like, "Run, run, run as fast as you can. You can't catch me, I'm the Gingerbread Man"  We also helped by sequencing who the Gingerbread Man had run away from.  

Teacher Heidi brought a pretend oven to our class that she was baking Gingerbread Men in.  When she opened the oven, the Gingerbread Men were gone!!!!  They had run away and were hiding in our class. We had to find them and help get them back in the oven.  When we put them back in the oven, we practiced saying some words that started with "j".  

We got up and ran like the Gingerbread Man.  We got to choose if we wanted to run fast or slow or even super, super fast!!

We also sang the song Jingle Bells.  When we sang the song, we all had an instrument and we played our instrument to the beat of the song.  

You can read The Gingerbread Man at home and work on sequencing by asking your child to help you recall the people or animals that the Gingerbread Man runs away from.  You can work on answering "wh" questions by asking your child what happened in the story.  You can stand up and work on understanding concepts like fast and slow by running the like Gingerbread Man and letting your child choose if you will run fast or slow.

You can watch a reading of The Gingerbread Man by clicking on the link below.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U89dkGrsYZY