Pete the Cat and His Shoes

This week in Large Group, we met Pete the Cat.  We read and talked about the story, Pete the Cat I Love My White Shoes by Eric Litwin.  In the story, Pete loves his white shoes, but as he walks along, he steps in different things like strawberries and blueberries that turn his shoes different colors.  

When we saw the things that Pete stepped in, we made a prediction about what color we thought his shoes would be.  We also used our words to help sing Pete's song about how much he loved his shoes.  

We talked about our shoes.  We talked about how some of us had on boots, some had on sandals and some had on tennis shoes.  We talked about what colors we saw in our shoes too.

We played a game where Pete the Cat told us to do different things.  We got to take turns holding Pete while he whispered to us what we should do.  We practiced saying, "SHHH listen to Pete the Cat.  Turn around, 3 times just like that."  Pete had us turn around, fly like birds, do jumping jacks, touch our toes, clap our hands, jump and march.  

You can read Pete the Cat at home and sing Pete's song about his shoes too.  Click below for a reading of Pete the Cat I Love My White Shoes.

Pete the Cat I Love My White Shoes

Little Kitties Tucked in Tight

Last week for Large Group, we reviewed the "k" sound and practiced saying it while sining the song, Happy Birthday Cake and Cookies.  We then played a game where someone was the Mama Cat and we were all baby kitties.  We counted how many kitties we had and then we pretended to sleep and the Mama Cat would wake us up.

We would say together "12 little kitties tucked in so tight.  Sleeping so soundly all through the night.  Til the Mama Cat says wake up right now and up jumped the kitties with a big MEOW."

We played the game where we all jumped up and said "MEOW" and then we changed some things and the Mama Cat got to choose what action the babies were going to do when they woke up.  The little kitties said hooray, stomped, jumped, turned around, waved their arms and touched their toes.  

This activity helped us work on counting skills, using words in phrases, following commands and making choices.

Little Cat

This week for Large Group, we continued to practice saying the /k/ sound by talking about things that start with the /k/ sound.  We also sang the Happy Birthday Cake and Cookies Song.  We are getting really good at saying happy birthday and hooray with our hands.  

We also met my friend Pete the Cat.  We talked about some of the things that Pete likes to do.  One of the things he likes to do is hide. 

We played a game called "Little Cat" where we hid our eyes while Teacher Heidi hid a cat under one of the colored hats on the floor.  When we opened our eyes, we took turns guessing which hat we thought the cat might be under.  We used our words to guess which color hat and we also used our words to ask Little Cat if he was under that hat.  We tapped our knees while we said, "Little Cat, Little Cat are you under the yellow hat?"

Teacher Heidi then moved the hat and we answered "yes" he's under the hat or "no", he's "NOT" under the hat.  This activity helped us use our color words.  It also helped us work on asking and answering questions and following directions. 

The Stomping Dinosaur Sound

                                  

This month we will be working on the "k" or the stomping dinosaur sound.  We make this sound in the back of our mouths with our tongue down in the front, but up in the back.  As we say the /k/ sound, we tap our palms on our knees like our hands are dinosaur feet stomping across the ground.  

During large group, we practiced saying the stomping dinosaur sound.  We looked at objects that started with the /k/ sound and practiced saying them.  We also tried to think if we could think of anything that started with the /k/ sound.  

We sang a song that gave us a lot of opportunities to practice saying /k/ in words and syllables.  The song we sang was Happy Birthday Cake and Cookies.  We learned how to say happy birthday using our hands, in sign language.  Ask your child to show you how they can say happy birthday with their hands.  

To work on the /k/ sound at home,  you can do the following activities:

-Play with a farm set that includes a cow, a cat and a rooster.  Have your child say "cow", "cat" or "cock-a doodle-do" each time they play with the  cow, cat or rooster. 

-Let your child play with various keys in various locks.  Have your child say "key" with each one that they try.

-Play cars on the floor.  Model using the word car as you are playing.  Encourage your child to use the word car as they play too.

-Play ball and have your child say "catch" each time they catch the ball or "kick" each time they kick it.

-Have cookies for a snack and have your child request using the word "cookie".

-Play house and pretend to "cook" a meal.  Model the word cook and encourage your child to use the word too.  You can also do this with the words "cup", "cut", "can" and "cake".

Emotion Musical Walk

Emotion Musical Walk

This week in large group, we reviewed the story of Emo Egg and talked about the emotions he felt on the day he went to preschool.  We practiced showing each emotion our faces.  We then played a game where we danced to the music and when it stopped, we found an Emo Egg face to stand on.  We told the person next to us what emotion was showing on that face and then made it ourselves.  This activity helped us work on the preposition, next to, as well as using words to express thoughts and actions and recognizing emotions.  

Egg Hunt

Last week in Large Group, we talked about eggs.  We talked about what animals lay eggs. We looked at a big book that had pictures of many different eggs.   We talked about each egg; the big ones, small ones, pointy ones, round ones, oval shaped ones, white ones, colored ones and speckled ones.

We then played a game where we stood up in a circle and took turns talking an egg from Teacher Heidi's basket.  Each egg had a different amount of dots on it.  We counted the dots and then got to choose what movement we we do that many times.  We jumped, we clapped, we did jumping jacks, we hopped, we turned in a circle, we ran in place, we touched our toes and we even flew like birds.  

This activity helped us practice counting and it also helped us work on answering "wh" questions, as well as, using 1-4 words to make comments.  We also worked on using verbs as we described what action we were doing....jumping, clapping, running, hopping or flying.