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.  

Potatoes, Potatoes, and More Potatoes!

Somewhere, on some site, in some article I saw that January 28th was Potato Day so I got very excited about planning some fun activities around this.  Well, National Potato Day is August 19th and the only thing I could find (again) for the 28th, was Potato Day in England or something.  But being a potato farmer's daughter (and sister, and granddaughter, and niece, and great granddaughter…okay, you get the point) I decided to still celebrate Potato Day by doing all things potatoes for Large Group next week!  
Here is the learning card:

And some pictures of our BIG dice:

Last, our giant Mr. Potato Head:

We will be working on answering yes/no questions and labeling body parts.  Our weekly handout is a wonderful one from Speech and Language Kids about working on yes/no questions with children!  Enjoy.

Pete the Cat

This week for Large Group we will be reading "Pete the Cat and His Four Groovy Buttons" by Eric Litwin.  

We will be focusing on counting, as well as some important language concepts.  Here is our learning card:

Our weekly handout is a great article that lists a few activities that you can do with your little ones to work on body parts!  I hope you all had a safe and happy break!  

September is National Yoga Month

Next week during Large Group we will be focusing on yoga to celebrate National Yoga Month!  We will be reading the book "You are a Lion!: And Other fun Yoga Poses" by Taeeun Yoo (can also be viewed in my Shelfari on the right).  It is a great book for following directions and imitating actions. 

We will also be trying some of the poses from "The Kids' Yoga Deck: 50 Poses and Games.”  While working on following directions and imitating actions, we will be talking about all kinds of body parts as well! It will be a fun Large Group filled with all things yoga and because of that our weekly handout is, of course, on yoga!  It's a great Super Duper Handout again, that talks about the benefits of yoga and how to incorporate it into your daily routines and activities!