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!

The Fan Sound

This month we will be focusing on the "f" sound, our fan sound!

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

• in isolation practice in front of the mirror
• CV combinations (fo, fe, fi, fu, etc.) while playing with toys or games
• these sheets for initial /f/ and final /f/ at the word level
• then initial /f/ at the phrase level

All of our sheets for our fan sound are from Heather's Speech Therapy. 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.  Have fun with our "f" sound!!

Monster Trucks!

For the next two weeks we will be talking all about Monster Trucks during Large Group!  I will be in meetings on Wednesday and since we don't have preschool Thursday I will be in Miss Jeana's class on Monday and Miss Ange's classroom on Tuesday.  Then the following week I will swap (Monday, Miss Ange's and Tuesday, Miss Jeana's) since there will be Valentine festivities going on the last 2 days of that week!  Anyway, In High Scope, the curriculum our preschool uses, they really encourage lesson planning around children's interests.  Well, we have a little guy who absolutely loves everything Monster Trucks, so I was excited to plan some activities around this.  Here is our learning card:

We will talk about some fun facts related to monster trucks.  To help the children understand how loud monster trucks are, we will listen to a little of this clip from youtube.  After talking about the fun facts, we will all figure out if monster trucks are big or little, tall or short, heavy or light, and loud or soft.    

Each student will pretend to be a monster truck, name and all, as they go through our obstacle course: 

We will talk a lot about our obstacle course, with picture cues to help the children see where they will go.  Our VERY mini monster truck is in each picture to show us where to go: under the triangle table, behind the circle table, through the tunnel, over the bridge, and on the road.  

Each monster truck will be announced and when our stoplight turns green they can start their engines and take off through our obstacle course:

Our traffic signs will help each monster truck go in the right direction.  These signs will also be a great way for the students to work on environmental print:

It should be a fun, crazy day!  Because we will be working on several basic concept terms during this large group, our weekly handout is a wonderful post from SpeechGal Therapies, of course on basic concepts!