Developmental Disabilities Awareness Month

This month is Developmental Disabilities Awareness Month and this year's theme is "Ability at Work."  Twenty-seven years ago, in 1987, President Ronald Reagan chose this month to encourage Americans to put away their stereotypes and provide opportunities for individuals with disabilities to reach their fullest potential.  So this month especially, we are encouraged to recognize people with disabilities as valuable, contributing members of our communities.  As a way to participate and raise awareness, The Arc has planned for a National day out.  You can read more about it here.  They simply want to encourage people to go out and enjoy something fun on March 29th.

A few facts about Developmental Disabilities:

• approximately 4.6 million Americans live with developmental disabilities
• developmental disabilities are severe & long term 
• can affect cognitive ability, physical functioning, or both
• some may be purely physical (e.g. blindness from birth)
• appear before age 22 & are likely to be life-long 
• some developmental disabilities include: cerebral palsy, epilepsy, autism, & other neurological conditions
• there are many causes, but a few include:
• Genetic or chromosomal abnormalities (e.g. Down syndrome and Rett syndrome)
• Prenatal exposure to substances (e.g. fetal alcohol syndrome)
• Certain viral infections during pregnancy
• Preterm birth

So this month, get active, and spread the word about Developmental Disabilities Month!

The Vacuum Sound

This month we will be working on our vacuum sound, the "v" sound.

Use the following ideas/worksheets to target our "v" sound this month:

• in isolation practice in front of the mirror or with a computer video
• CV combinations (vo, ve, vi, vu, etc.) while playing with toys or games
• these sheets for initial /v/ and final /v/ at the word level
• use the above sheets to focus on initial /v/  and final /v/ at the sentence level

All of our sheets for our vacuum sound are from Mommy Speech Therapy!  There is also a wonderful article on teaching /f/ and /v/ to your children, so if this is a sound we are working on at school, this article may help with practice at home.  During drill work you can cue your child to "bite your lip" for correct placement, as this is what we will be talking about during group.  But keep this minimal during daily routines.  Also, to talk about the difference between /f/ and /v/, we will be feeling our throats/vocal folds while producing each sound.  We will talk about how we "turn on" our voice for the /v/ sound.  When we turn on our voice, we should be able to feel the vibrations in our throat.  You can practice this at home as well.  Keep in mind, this sound may be a later developing sound for some of the students; /f/ is usually mastered by age 4, where /v/ is later, between 5 and 6 years of age.  

The Cat in the Hat

Happy Birthday Dr. Seuss!!! March 2nd is Dr. Seuss's Birthday, so to celebrate we are having a very Seussical Large Group next week.  Below is our learning card:

We are going to read the first part only of "The Cat in the Hat."  In case you don't have it at home, you can get a video reading here.

After reading it, we will each get to pick an item out of this box:

Once we have our item we will label it and then figure out different ways to balance with it, just like in the book.  We will have this fun music to move to as well:

Last we are going to toss our "Thing 1" and "Thing 2" dolls around the circle:

Whoever catches the "Things" will have to show us their object and tell us what it is.  It should be as fun as a ham-ikka-schnim-ikka-schnam-ikka-schnopp!  Our weekly handout is from Speech and Language Kids.  It gives some great ideas for working on vocabulary at home. If the file she provides includes pictures your child already knows, cut pictures out of a magazine with more advanced objects to work on.  

Free App Friday

Wow, it's been a while since I have had time to post about free app Friday!! There are 27 free apps listed over at Smart Apps For Kids, so check it out.  Also, Best Apps For Kids has a list of free apps as well as App Friday.  Enjoy and have a wonderful weekend.

Whole Body Learning Conference

Our Preschool Ball

It is probably no surprise that in several of our classes we have many, many girls who are all about princesses.  Each day they play with the princess dolls, dress up like princesses, draw or color princesses… etc. etc..  So to support that interest, and celebrate the fact that we have so many girls in the preschool this year (YAY!), we are doing a very girlie Large Group next week.  It will be everything pronouns as well!  Here is our learning card:

We will first talk about what a "Royal Ball" is and then watch a few seconds of this video from YouTube:

Next, we will each get a prince or princess mask to wear during our Ball.  We will focus on the pronouns "he" and "she" to announce each prince or princess:

While dancing with partners, we will focus on the pronoun "they."  We will dance to this collection of Disney Classics:

And if there is time, of course, some 'Frozen':

Last, we will play "Bibbidy, Bobbity, Boo."  Using our magic wand, everyone will take turns turing the group into something.  While pretending to be different things, we will focus on the pronoun, "we."

Since we will focus so much on pronouns, our weekly handout is another simple, but great one on teaching pronouns to little ones.  It is from Speak Listen Play.  Also, check out this post from a past Large Group that also has a wonderful handout on teaching pronouns!

Ffffffeather Dancing

Next week for Large Group we will be doing Feather Dancing! Here is our learning card:

We will be dancing to some fun songs about our fan-sound as well.  Since we are focusing on articulation, our weekly handout is one from Super Duper on creative practice at home!