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!  

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! 

Happy Halloween!

Next week with Halloween, parties, meetings, and a short week I will not be leading Large Group in either classroom. I usually float on these days and let the teachers do their own Large Groups if time permits.  Because of that there is no learning card this week.  Here is a fun song from Speaking of Speech that we have been singing this month. All the children love it!  We sing a few verses and then encourage the children to think of things that could be in our Halloween House, then they tell us what the object/item does.  (The skeleton goes rattle, rattle, rattle). This works on actions and wh-questions and is a fun way to work on language at home!  Have a Happy Halloween! 

Shape Story

This week during Large Group we also read the following Shape Story adapted from the story "Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?" By Bill Martin Jr.  The children are encouraged to help read along with the story and after each shape we look around the room for things shaped like that shape.  Here are the very simple visuals I used for the story! The children have done great with it!  

Red square, red square, what do you see?

I see a green circle looking at me. 

Green circle, green circle, what do you see? 

I see an orange triangle looking at me.

Orange triangle, orange triangle what do you see?

I see a blue rectangle looking at me.

Blue rectangle, blue rectangle what do you see?

I see a purple heart looking at me.

Purple heart, purple heart what do you see?

I see a yellow star looking at me.

Yellow star, yellow star what do you see?

I see a black diamond looking at me. 

Black diamond, black diamond what do you see?

I see a pink oval looking at me.

Pink oval, pink oval what do you see?

I see _______(child's name) looking at me!

It looks like some of the pictures are coming out pretty dark for some reason. If you would like a pdf copy of the visuals send me an email and I will be happy to share!  Happy shape hunting.

Looking Through the Window

Next week for Large Group we are going to be doing fun things with shapes, while working on pointing to and labeling objects throughout the room.  We will also be working on what-questions and practicing our "w" sound a lot!  Here is our learning card:

Since we have been focusing a lot on vocabulary these last few weeks, our weekly handout is another one from Super Duper.  It gives some great information on vocabulary development and ways to help increase your child's own vocabulary.  They recommend reading and as you read, have your child point out pictures or actions you name.  This will help with receptive language skills as well!

Germs!

Next week for Large Group we are talking about a very important topic...GERMS!   If you have young children, you know that germs seem to spread like wildfire once school starts.  So I wanted to focus on wh-questions when talking all about those dirty little things and how to stop them from spreading!  We danced to some fun songs about Henry the Hand as well.  

We also talked about this poster from The Lung Association and then hung it up in each classroom to help remind the children about the steps to washing your hands.  

Because we focused on wh-questions, our weekly handout is again from Super Duper and focuses on ways to work on wh-questions with your child at home.  It includes some fun activities or ideas to target all types of wh-questions.  

"I Can Day" at Preschool

During our first week of preschool, we will focus on answering What-Questions, naming and imitating action terms, and the initial "k" sound while saying, "I Can!" during  Large Group.  In addition, we will be talking about the concepts small, medium, and large.  Because of that our weekly hand out is a great Super Duper Handout that talks about what basic concepts are, lists of few of them, and gives some ideas for how to work on them with your own children.  Also, here is our Learning Card for the week: