Read a New Book Month

I am a sucker for children's books.  If you ask my husband, he'll tell you it's kind of an addiction.  I love buying them, thumbing through them at bookstores, giving them as gifts, and reading children's books to anyone who will listen (preferably a child, because reading them to adults gets a little awkward).  So I am super excited that December is 'Read a New Book Month.'  To celebrate, we will be reading a new book (not new new, but new to our class) for Large Group.  Check out this post to find out what book we will be exploring. Here are some ways to celebrate this month:

• check out a new book from the library, either for you or your child
• add a new book to your Christmas wish list 
• surprise your child with a new book in their stocking this year
• look up story readings online of books you have never read:
• Storyline Online
• Barnes & Noble Online Storytime
• A Story Before Bed
• YouTube
• Storynory
• check out some of these wonderful lists for new books this year:
• Amazon's Best Books of 2013 (ages 3-5)
• Amazon's Best Books of 2013 (ages baby-2)
• Amazon's Best Books of 2013 (ages 6-8)
• Publisher's Weekly Best Pictures Books of 2013
• Association for Library Service to Children (ALSC) 2013 Notable Children's Books
• The New York Times Best Illustrated Children’s Books Awards for 2013
• Barnes & Nobles: Best Books of 2013... So Far
• Amazon's 2013 Best Books of the Year: The Top 100 in Print

As I was looking through these lists, there were some that I have already fallen in love with and several that I will add to my shopping list.  Some of my favorites this year have come from the BabyLit books.  They are written by Jennifer Adams who lives right here in Salt Lake City.  They are adorable board books taken from classic novels, with fun, creative illustrations that teach concepts related to counting, weather, fashion, opposites, colors, and sounds.  My favorite (although I seriously love them all) is Pride and Prejudice (which is my all time favorite book, so I am a little biased):

But check out the BabyLit website because there are some fun ones, including Romeo & Juliet, Moby-Dick, Alice in Wonderland, & A Christmas Carol, to name a few.  

Okay, another great one that came out this year is The Day the Crayons Quit by Drew Daywalt.  It is hilarious, and wonderful for talking about colors!

One that I have not read yet is Unicorn Thinks He's Pretty Great by Bob Shea.  It looks like a fun one, so it may be one of the "new books" for my daughter this month.

I also love reading classics, and I have always wanted to read Alice in Wonderland, so my new book of the month is going to be Alice's Adventures In Wonderland by Lewis Carroll. 

We'll see if I can squeeze it in with work, holiday madness, and my (almost) 1-year-old's birthday party.

Anyway, I hope you will take some time to check out some of the books talked about on the above lists, or just spend an afternoon at the library with your little one to find a new book to read during bedtime.  We have all heard it, but books are truly wonderful for children's overall development, especially in the areas of speech and language!! ;)  

The Hat

Next week for Large Group we will be reading "The Hat" by Jan Brett.  

We will be working on pointing to and labeling the animals in the book, as well as WH-questions.  There are some unusual animals and animal names, so we will be talking about those more in depth...hedgehog, gander, pony.  Here is our learning card:

We will be retelling and acting out the story after we read it together.  Jan Brett has these wonderful mask printables on her website that we will be using:

The children will wear one while they act out the story:

If you don't have the story at home, here is a reading on YouTube that you can watch with your child.  For our handout this week, The Budge SLP has a GREAT post with tons of Wh-question resources.  Check it out and choose one or two to do this week at home.  Have a wonderful Thanksgiving and break! 

TEDx

A few weeks ago, Canyons School District held their own TEDx event.  Only 100 were chosen to go, and I was one of the lucky ones.  I love TED, so I was very excited!  There were several wonderful talks given, and eventually they will all be posted here.  In the meantime, here is one of my favorite TEDTalks:

If you haven't experienced TED yet, check out their website and watch some of the shorter talks. They are honestly all wonderful.

Free App Friday

This week over at Smart Apps for Kids there are 28 apps worth $65.  Also, check out Free App Friday, which does a weekly round up of apps for children.  Have a great weekend!

Happy Thanksgiving

With next week being Thanksgiving break, there will be no learning cards.  Because children only come on Monday, Large Group time will be done by the teachers.  Once again, our weekly handout is a post from Speech and Language Kids. It gives great ideas for language activities to do during Thanksgiving time.  I hope you all have a great break and a Happy Thanksgiving! 

Apps, Apps, and more Apps

This week there are 24 free apps worth $51 over at Smart Apps for Kids.  Also, the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association is currently holding their annual convention, which usually means great deals on speech apps!  Smart Apps for Special Needs has a wonderful list of several of those apps.  They are not free, but some are discounted quite a bit.  Last, but not least, I have added new apps to my apps page, so check those out as well!  Have a wonderful weekend.  

Little Miss Muffet

Next week for Large Group we are doing "Little Miss Muffet."  We will be working on building our vocabulary and sequencing.  Below is our learning card:

We will use these cute visuals from Sparkle box to first learn the story and work on sequencing:

Then everyone will take turns being Miss Muffet or the spider while we act out the nursery rhyme.  

It's one that the children always love, so I'm excited to introduce it again this year.  Our weekly handout is on sequencing.  Happy Fall!