The Gingerbread Man

This week in Large Group, we read 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.   

Ring the Jingle Bells

This week for Large Group, we sang the song Jingle Bells and then we  used the jingle bells to play a Jingle Bell Game.  We stood in a circle and we each got a turn to decide how we were going to ring the jingle bells.  We sang the following song while we rang the bells.... 

(to the tune of She'll Be Comin' Round the Mountain When She Comes)

We will ring the jingle bells (behind our back, way up high, very loud etc..)

We will ring the jingle bells (behind our back, way up high, very loud etc..)

We will ring them (behind our back, way up high, very loud), we will ring them (behind our back, way up high, very loud).

We will ring the jingle bells (behind our back, way up high, very loud etc..)

We could think of a way to ring the bells  on our own or we could use one that was on the GoTalk.

We rang our bells high, low, loud, soft, fast, slow, in front of us, behind us, in a circle, while jumping, while clapping, on our toes and back and forth!! 

We had a lot of fun doing this activity and working on understanding prepositions, answering questions, using words to express ourselves and naming actions.

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?".