Fox Toy Box

We're Goin To The Zoo!

2010-05-18T19:43:00.000-07:00

How About You?

For the past couple of weeks, we have introduced the theme of zoo animals. Animals are lots of fun--the kids can practice imitating different sounds by making animal noises (I *love* snakes because it helps to teach the "SSSSS" sound to kids who have trouble!) and they can move like animals (stomping like elephants or hopping like kangaroos are fun ways to transition the students from centers and activities).

Some of the vocabulary items are also great for articulation skills! (Articulation is basically how we form our speech sounds). Many of our students leave off whole syllables in words, so "elephant" becomes "ephant," "kangaroo" becomes "kagoo." The zoo theme is an awesome time to model these multisyllabic words and to have the kids practice!! Do this by emphasizing the missing syllable-- "e-LE-phant" "kan-GA-roo" or clapping out the different syllables.

The room is all set up for the theme.

Our bulletin board is set up with vocabulary pictures

we are learning: monkey, elephant, giraffe, tiger, snake, bear, zebra, panda, lion, kangaroo, crocodile (or alligator), camel.

Our library is chock full of zoo books

Our kitchen table has a zoo animal table cloth.

We've also got some posters up around the room and lots and lots and lots of toy animals and puzzles for the students to play with.

During circle time in the first week of our zoo theme, we read one of the zoo books, "My Baby," in honor of Mother's Day :)

We also sang the song "Going to the Zoo" by Raffi, which is a fun song that talks about a couple of zoo animals, plus Mama took us to the zoo--another nod to Mother's Day!

The zoo theme brought lots of fun activities, including fun books and games, making zebras, lions and giraffes, and lots more!!

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Farm Wrap Up!

2010-05-17T19:35:00.000-07:00

It's been a busy couple of weeks and we did a lot of different farm activities. Here are a couple we did before moving on to our zoo animal theme!

Cotton Sheep:

We ripped up cotton balls (to work on our fine motor skills!), dipped them in glue and glued them to our sheep. They turned out nice and fluffy!

Match Up Hide and Seek

This is a cool book from Discovery Toys that we looked at during our small group rotations. It was great to work on our farm vocabulary, as well as to teach the concept of half/whole. The students took turns as we read the book figuring which animal was on each page and then finding each half and making it whole. One page flips out and is magnetic, adding to the magic of the book!

Our class also played some fun bingo games, we colored some farm pictures and played some fun animal sounds games.
Our next theme is zoo---"We're goin' to the zoo, zoo, zoo! How about you, you, you?"

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Spots on the Cows!

2010-05-17T19:05:00.000-07:00

Moo!
Our cows looked a little plain, so we needed to put some spots on them. We also practiced some fine motor skills by using our little muscles in our fingers to rip some paper.

Targets:
Vocabulary- cow
Colors- black
Fine Motor- ripping
Hand-Eye Coordination

First, we gathered our materials-

photocopies of cows, black paper cut into squares, glue

The students requested their cow (I want a cow) and we talked about how we needed some black spots to put on them.
Next, the students requested their black paper for the cows' black spots (I want black paper). We showed the students how to use just their finger tips to rip up the black paper into smaller pieces. Some students needed more help than others, as they tried to rip using all of their fingers.

Then, we squeezed a little bit of glue onto each black spot and the students used their fingers to put them onto their cow. This was also a chance to practice hand-eye coordination, as there were already places to put the spots; they could aim the spots for those blank spots!

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Farm Counting Book

2010-05-06T17:56:00.000-07:00

One of my goals this year is to work on pre-math skills, including counting, number recognition and simple math. During our Farm theme, we worked on some of these skills by making counting books.

Targets:
Vocabulary-farm animals
Counting to 5-Use of Touch Math
Fine Motor Skills

We gathered our materials-

copies of the farm book (I copied a picture of a barn I found on Kinderplans and then added some text and drew in the Touch Math numbers and circles for the stickers) and stickers bought at a teacher's supply store.

The students requested their books (I want a book) and we went through reviewing the numbers and counting the dots on the numbers and the circles. They requested their animal sticker (I want a pig; I want a sheep etc) and we counted as we put them on their fingers. The students then used the little muscles in their fingers to take their stickers, plus their hand-eye coordination to stick them right onto the circles.

We repeated this for all 5 pages. And, don't forget, fingers are very helpful in counting to 5!!

Please let me know what you think--I love to read your comments!
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Pigs in the Mud!

2010-05-04T21:01:00.000-07:00

One of our first projects during our farm theme were our perfectly pink pigs. They helped us reinforce the vocabulary word, as well as teach the basic concepts of clean and dirty. And they are very cute, too...just look at his face--he knows he was a naughty dirty pig!

Targets:
Vocabulary-pig, mud
Basic Concepts- clean, dirty
Requesting

We started by gathering our materials- clean, pink pigs pre-cut out (I can't remember where I found the original picture, but I blew it up to be pretty big!), brown paint, paintbrushes, green paper and glue.

The next step was to talk about the pigs as the students requested them (I want a pig) and glued them onto their green paper. We used descriptive words, like pink and, of course, clean!
We talked about what pigs like to do best (besides eating...)--rolling in the mud!

Next, they requested the brown paint (I want paint) and got to painting. As they painted, it was a great time to sneak in some body part vocabulary by having the kids paint the mud onto the pig's feet, tail, head, nose, etc. They could paint the mud on any way they wanted.
Now, our pigs weren't clean any more---they were nice and dirty!!

Please leave a comment and let me know what you think!
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Big Red Barn

2010-05-03T18:11:00.000-07:00

I love Big Red Barn by Margaret Wise Brown!

It's such a simple book jam packed with farm vocabulary. It's especially nice to listen to on tape--very soothing and keeps the kids' attention.
We listened to this book during our circle time. Then, during small groups, we made our own big red barn!

Targets:
Vocabulary
Fine Motor
Requesting

First, we gathered our materials--blank barns, pre-cut out animals, glue and crayons. We reviewed the vocabulary items with the children.

Next, the students requested their animals ("I want a pig") and glued it onto their barn any way they wanted.

When all the animals were home in their barn, the children were able to color.

Our beautiful big red barns!

Please leave a comment--I always love to know what you think!

Down On The Farm!

2010-05-03T17:56:00.000-07:00

Our theme for the last couple of weeks has been the Farm! We did lots of fun activities and our room was set up to help expose the kids to the vocabulary as much as possible.

First, we set up our vocab bulletin board with our words:

barn, farmer, tractor, dog, pig, horse, duck, sheep, cow, chicken, goat, rooster.
We reviewed the words every day.

Our library was stocked with farm books

including "Colors On The Farm."

Our kitchen area had a farm tablecloth

We also had posters around the room

At circle time, we sang songs like "Grandpa's Farm" by Raffi and our own "Cow, Cow, What Do You See."
The kids also had lots of chances to play with farm toys!

The Farm is always such a fun theme for the students! Lots of fun vocabulary, plus animal sounds to make!

Beautiful Butterflies

2010-04-19T20:26:00.000-07:00

During circle time, we talked a lot about butterflies. We looked at our bulletin board to review the vocabulary. We also used the fun and simple song "Look at the Butterflies" from Deborah Stewart's blog Little Fingers That Play. I printed up the pages from the visuals on the website and I did my best to sing the song. It's a great song to talk about the vocabulary (butterfly) and to sneak in some counting to 5!

Then, in small group rotations, we painted some beautiful butterflies!

Targets
Vocabulary-butterfly
Concepts- half/whole; same
Colors

First, we gathered our materials--

A variety of paints (we eventually put into cups), paintbrushes, butterfly patterns that were pre-cut and folded in half

Now, when I made the sample butterfly, I added the paint by squeezing straight from the bottle.

There were a few problems with that, so we brainstormed a bit and decided it would work just as well to have the students use paint brushes!

We started with the students requesting their butterfly (I want a butterfly). We talked about how they were folded in half and opened them up to show they whole butterfly. We talked about how they were only going to paint on one half. We even covered up the other half to give them help.
Then, they got to painting. They requested the paint (I want red; I want blue, etc). They could paint any way they wanted, but we did try to encourage that they copy some forms, like circles and lines and eyes.

Then, they folded the butterfly in half again and spread the paint around.

We found that they had to do this quickly because the paint dried pretty quickly and stuck the butterfly together!
We opened up the butterfly again to show the whole butterfly. We talked about how cool and magical it was that both halves looked the same!

Our butterflies came out very beautifully and we had them fly onto our windows to be displayed!

I love getting feedback, so please leave a comment!
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Ladybug Counting Book

2010-04-18T21:55:00.000-07:00

One of my professional goals this year is to have more math activities, like counting, number recognition and simple adding and subtraction. Since this is a speech and language class, I try to get creative with mixing our speech and language goals with pre-academic activities. It's gotten easier in time, though --it's a matter of taking our vocabulary themes and using them in different activities!

So, for our Springtime/Bugs theme, why not count the spots on ladybugs?

Targets
Vocabulary-ladybug
Pre-math- counting to 5; TouchMath
Fine Motor

First, we gathered our materials--

Enough counting books for the students and some red stickers (labels I got from Office Depot).
The book needed a little prep work. The original ladybug was taken from abcteach. We photocopied it 5 times and used White-Out to get rid of as many ladybug spots as we needed so that there was 1 on the first ladybug, 2 on the second and so on. I added the text and numbers.

We also used the concept of TouchMath. TouchMath is a multisensory approach to teaching math.That's why there are little dots on each number.

Each student requested their book (I want a book) and we reviewed each page, counting the dots and looking at the numbers. Then, they got to sticking!!
They requested the red dots and had many chances to practice counting--as we put the stickers on their fingers and as they put the stickers on their ladybugs, all the way from 1 to 5.

Fingers are a great way to teach counting to 5!!

I would also suggest using the Little Ladybug song from Little Fingers That Play! It's another way to talk about the vocabulary "ladybug" while counting.

Please leave a comment--I love to hear what you have to say!!
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In the Tall Tall Grass

2010-04-18T21:40:00.000-07:00

I really love the book "In the Tall Tall Grass" by Denise Flemming! -- It's a great way to talk about different kinds of bugs and other backyard creatures (although I don't think I'd like to have a snake in my backyard...), there are fun onomatopoeic* words, (my favorite being ritch ratch!) and there are lots of opportunities for the children to hear, identify and use rhyming words (the bees hum strum and drum).

The other great thing is the main creature that we follow along each page is a caterpillar, so not only do they get lots of chances to learn the vocabulary, they also get a chance to practice using multisyllabic words! A lot of our students have trouble saying all syllables in words. Caterpillar, having four syllables, can be hard to say--some kids may say "capillar" or even just "capar." Talking about the ca-ter-pill-ar many times, clapping each syllable and emphasizing each syllable will help the student say the whole word.

We used "In the Tall Tall Grass" during both circle time and small group rotations this week to help teach the students bug vocabulary!

Targets
Vocabulary- bugs, caterpillar, bee, bird
Literacy skills
Requesting (for example- I want a bee)
Phonological awareness (rhyming)
Fine motor

For starters, we read the book during circle time, following the caterpillar through the tall grass and looking at all the critters he encounters until the moon comes out. We labeled the vocabulary items and matched them to the pictures on our vocabulary bulletin board. This was also a great time to ask the complicated question "which animals are not on the board?" (like snakes, moles, bats, etc)

Then, during small groups, the students got to make their own tall tall grass scene!
We gathered our materials-

brown paper for our dirt, left over Easter grass, die cut flowers, a variety of bug stickers and stamps, glue

The students requested their grass (I want grass) and glued it on, and some flowers too. Then they requested their bugs (I want a bee, I want a spider, etc). We snuck in a counting activity by having the students hold out their fingers as we put the stickers on their fingers--1, 2, 3, 4, 5! (I love how fingers make for the perfect counting prop!!) Then they put them onto their scene, using those little muscles in their fingers.

We had a lot of fun making our own little world for bugs!

*Big kudos for you if you give me the definition of an onomatopoeia!! :)

Please leave a comment to let me know what you think! I love hearing what you have to say!!
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Planting seeds

2010-04-18T21:29:00.000-07:00

Springtime is a time of growing! So, why not plant some seeds?
We decided to plant beans because they seemed to grow so easily and quickly!

Targets
Sequencing
Vocabulary

We started with gathering our materials-

cups, soil, beans to plant, water, sequencing pictures. the pencil was used to put a hole at the bottom of the cups to let the water escape.

We reviewed our sequencing pictures to show the students how the plants would grow, and to practice our sequencing skills (first, next, then, last). First we put the seed in the dirt, next we add water, then we put it in the sun, last it starts to grow!
The kids got to add their soil to their cups, then push their finger in to make a hole for the seed. We also poured in some water. Then we waited!!

They started growing kind of quickly when we checked in

We were in for a nice surprise when we came back from Spring Break!

Parents--watch out this week because they will be sent home pretty soon!

I love reading your comments, so please let me know what you think!

Raining on our Rainbows

2010-04-11T19:41:00.000-07:00

This is a fun (and pretty) activity I borrowed from Deborah's blog. It was too cool to pass up! I figured it was a perfect activity to do during our spring theme while talking about rainbows and rain!

Targets
Fine motor--coloring with correct grasp; squeezing
Vocabulary-rainbow, rain

We gathered our materials-

paper towels, markers, spray bottle with water, tape

First, the students requested their towels (I want a paper towel) and their markers
They colored their paper towels any way they wanted, but were encouraged to draw spring time items, like rainbows, bugs, etc.

When they were done, we went outside to enjoy the beautiful springtime weather and taped the towels onto the wall

They took turns requesting the squirt bottle (I want water/I want rain) and let it rain on their paper towel.

Then they put away their pretend umbrellas and came inside!
I really love how pretty they came out!!

I love your comments, so please leave one and let me know what you think!!

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Flower Rubbings

2010-04-10T20:30:00.000-07:00

I really hope everyone has enjoyed their Spring Break vacation!! I certainly have!
Here is another activity we did during our Spring Theme.
I had originally wanted to have the students make flower prints, like we had done at the Nature Materials Workshop. However, when I tried it on my own, it didn't come out quite right.
I had some fresh flowers that still needed to be used, so we decided to do rubbings. It worked ok and some students were able to use the fresh flowers, but they were a bit bulky.
Finally, our talented classroom assistant, Lucy, designed some tag board flowers that we eventually used for our rubbings!

Targets
Vocabulary-flowers
Fine motor
Basic concepts- half/whole, middle

We gathered our materials, including our fresh flowers and some fabulous fake ones, too!

We used our tag board flowers, crayons, paper.

The students practiced requesting (I want a flower, I want a crayon)
They folded the papers in half (giving us a great opportunity to talk about half and whole).
The flower went in the middle of the paper and colored. It was neat to watch as each petal came through!

Also in the middle was a Springtime message and a chance for the students to practice reading and/or writing their names

Happy Spring!!

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Easter Egg E

2010-04-06T08:40:00.000-07:00

For our letter this theme, we chose E for those excellent eggs!

Targets:
Vocabulary-egg
Sound-symbol relationships-- E says "eh"
Requesting (I want an egg)
Fine Motor

First, we gathered our materials--

--letter Es that have been cut out, a extravaganza of eggs including stickers and cut out eggs and some glue, too. The E on the orange background is sandpaper and we let the kids explore it a bit to get a tactile way of learning the letter E.

We also talked a lot about the sound that the letter E makes---"Eh" like egg, elbow, elephant, etc.
Then, the students did lots of requesting. They requested their E (I want an E) and their eggs (I want an egg) until their letter E was no longer empty.
Here are our eccentric Es

Marble Painting Easter Eggs

2010-04-05T17:20:00.000-07:00

I love painting with lots of different and unexpected things! Paint brushes are so passe ;)
We have painted with marbles before in our class and I thought it made a pretty pattern and would be a great idea to do during Spring/Easter to decorate Easter eggs!

Targets
Vocabulary-egg
Colors
Requesting (I want a marble; I want yellow, etc)

First came the reminder that we only *roll* the marble in the box...we do not shake the box! (we are not marble painting the floor!!).
We gathered our materials

--cut out paper eggs, tempera paint, cups to hold the paint, spoons to scoop the marbles, a box (we drink *lots* of water at my house...we simply used box from the packaging of water bottles case)

Next, the students requested their egg (I want an egg) and put it into the box

Then, they chose their color (I want red, etc), scooped the marble out of the cup with the spoon and put it into the box

Then, the fun began! The kids rolled the marbles, making beautiful designs! The switched paint to add more colors.

After they were done, we even snuck in a little practice with grammar! We talked about what they did so we could try to elicit the word "painted."
And I really do think they painted beautifully!

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There Was An Old Lady Who Swallowed A Chick

2010-04-05T17:03:00.000-07:00

Growing up, one of my favorite books was "I Know An Old Lady Who Swallowed A Fly." There are so many fun, new versions of this old tale, with the lady swallowing a bat, a pie, a bell, a shell...and for Spring and Easter...she swallows a chick.

Targets
Vocabulary- spring, chick, egg, basket
Sequencing (first, next, last)
Literacy skills
Answering questions

At circle time, we read the book. Actually, it was kindly read for us on a CD :) I love books on tape/CDs because it gives me a chance to feel like I can observe the kids, it gives the kids a chance to read along and, for some reason, the students seem to pay better attention!

During our small group time, we made our own old ladies!
I borrowed this fantastic idea and great pictures from another blog...and I hate when this happens, but I've forgotten which one :( Once I look through my documents, etc, I will be sure to give credit where credit is due!!
We gathered our materials--

copies of the old lady, copies of the items she ate and some glue and crayons.
We went through the book page by page to be sure to put the items on in the correct sequence, reinforcing those important concepts (first, next, then, last).
The students requested each item and had their old ladies eat them. Then, they also glued on their bunnies and baskets. They requested crayons to color, too, if we didn't run out of time!

Such a fun activity to bring the book to life!!
Another concept to focus on, especially with older kids, is "why" questions, like "why did she swallow the candy?" answer--"to sweeten the egg!" Of course, we don't know why she swallowed the chick, but at least she didn't get sick!!
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An SLP's Easter Egg Hunt

2010-03-31T20:23:00.000-07:00

I have a theory that anything can be turned into a language activity. This holds true for an Easter Egg Hunt! Here's how:

Vocabulary
Easter Egg Hunts have lots of fun words to make sure children know. These include
Bunny/Rabbit
Egg
Basket
Action words:
Hide
Find
Pick up
Talk about the words with your children, exposing them over and over again until they can understand and use them during conversations.

Concepts- Prepositions
Have the children look in specific places, listening for the location word.
"Look under the chair"
"Look behind the ball"
"Put it in the basket"
"Walk around the tree"
"Where did you find the egg?"

Concepts-Open and Close; Half and Whole
When they have gathered the (plastic) eggs and start digging in and finding their candy and toys, talk about the eggs they will open. Afterwards, they can close them, too. When they are open, talk about how they have half of an egg and when they are open, talk about how they have a whole egg.

Answering Questions
When your child is done with their egg hunt, ask them questions
"Where did you find eggs?"
"What did you see?"
"Who has more eggs?"
"How many did you find?"
If your child has trouble answering questions, give them a choice--"did you find a blue egg or a yellow egg?" When they are answering, make sure they use complete sentences...don't let them get away with 1 or 2 words! Remind them to "use your words."

You don't have to feel like there is a need to sit down and "work" with your child to work on their language skills...just focus on some simple words and concepts during regular activities. Most of all--have FUN!!

I'm editing to add some information about how we did our egg hunt! We had the students collect paper eggs outside. When we came in the classroom, the students gave us the paper eggs; we counted them to turn it into a counting activity. We *could've* even turned it into a graphing activity by writing their names and graphing how many each student found. Most and least concepts could've been focused on! Then, we gave the students little treats inside of their eggs.

The students also made their own bags for the egg hunt by requesting stickers, etc, (e.g. "I want an egg" etc)

Spring umbrellas

2010-03-29T20:56:00.000-07:00

Umbrella is a great word!
It has 3 syllables, so it gives us a chance to practice multisyllable words by clapping each syllable and using intonation to help the kids hear the unstressed syllable.
It helps teach the concepts over and under (the umbrella is over our head; we are under the umbrella) and wet and dry. It's a great vocabulary word to know when you are in a rainy season...imagine NOT being able to ask for your umbrella--you'd get pretty wet.

To help learn all about this word, we made umbrellas! We borrowed this activity from the blog Lucky Me.

Targets
Vocabulary-umbrella, rain
Concepts-under/over, wet/dry, half/whole

We gathered our materials- paper plates, scissors, markers, glue, blue paper raindrops, brown paper handles, stapler

Before the students requested their umbrella (I want an umbrella), we took a look at the paper plates. We showed the whole plate with the pieces put together, then, we held them apart to show half of a plate.

Next, they decorated their paper plate with markers any way they wanted, requesting their markers (I want red marker" etc).
They requested their rain (I want rain) and glued them to their umbrella.
We also talked about how rain is wet.
After they requested their handle (I want a handle), they stapled thier umbrella together.

When they were done, they manipulated their umbrella and put it over their heads so that they were under it, keeping dry.
They look great on our window on a sunny day!

Spring Painting with Flowers

2010-03-29T20:34:00.000-07:00

It's springtime! The flowers are blooming and the allergies are abound!!

For our small group rotations, we painted with flowers. We used fake flowers this year, although we've used fresh flowers in the past. Fresh flowers are really neat to use because we occasionally got some petals into our paintings.

Targets
Vocabulary- flowers
Colors

We gathered our materials

Flowers, paper, different colored paints

The students requested their paper (I want paper) and then requested their paint (I want red, I want orange, etc).
We gave them the idea to just paint a couple of times with each flower, going up then down--that way, they could see the outline of their flower better. But, really, they could do it any way the wanted!
The kids had lots of fun painting with flowers!

I think they came out pretty nice!

Getting Ready for Spring!

2010-03-29T20:09:00.000-07:00

It's Spring! We've taken down the leprechauns and shamrocks and brought out our flowers, Easter bunnies and bugs.
Our vocabulary bulletin board is up, including a lot of vocabulary words

Rabbit, egg, basket, chick, rain, umbrella, rainbow, flower, butterfly, caterpillar, bee

Our library is set up with books about spring and Easter

Our kitchen has its springtime tablecloth

There are even posters and decorations

We set out some flower hats for the kids to wear

We also have bunny ears, stuffed flowers and stuffed toy Peeps.

We've got 3 weeks full of spring, Easter and bug activities. We'll also have our Spring Break!! A great time to rest!!!

Natural Materials Workshop

2010-03-25T19:40:00.000-07:00

Last weekend, Rachel and I went to a Natural Materials Workshop that was presented by Little Owl Preschool. Little Owl is a Reggio-inspired preschool that will be opening up soon. I will admit, Reggio is new to me, but I'm very excited to learn about this philosophy! It centers on the interests of the child, with the teachers as co-learner and collaborator and the environment as another teacher. Very neat!
We participated in some really cool projects, and I was excited to give Rachel the chance to interact with other students.
We got Rachel's ever-present-she-can't-live-without backpack and went exploring! They had several stations set up with different activities and projects for the kids to do.

Sensory Tubs

Three sensory tubs were set out for the kids to explore. A couple had some small seeds inside and another had soft, cool white sand. The kids could dig inside, feel around and even play with some little toy animals. There was also a bowl nearby for them to use to explore the seeds and sand.

Natural Materials Collage

At this table, the kids took a piece of a board and made a collage. I loved the way they had baby food jars full of glue and paint brushes to put the glue on! There were tons of materials to use--sand, seeds, lavendar, sea glass, acorns, dried flowers, shells, etc. It was very free flowing and child directed!

Sun Painting on Silk
The kids could choose a piece of framed silk and then painted on some colors. Next, they were able to choose objects to put onto their silk, including starfish, shapes, animal shapes, shells, buttons, etc. Then they put it in the sun to dry. Once dried, they took the objects off and it was so cool to see how the outline of the object appeared!

Flower Prints
Rachel got to put on some cool pink goggles and play with a hammer. She was set! The kids put some fresh flowers between 2 pieces of cloth and hit it with a hammer or mallet. They pretty much knocked the moisture out of the plants which left beautiful colored prints of the plants. Unfortunately, Rachel grew bored quickly and went off to the next station. I thought it was cool! So much so that I even tried to do this activity in my classroom...but it didn't work! Oh well!

Nature Baskets

They put out several baskets full of natural materials for the kids to explore, including sticks, sea glass, seeds, yarn, rocks, shells, etc. Rachel had a blast carrying around a basket...and dumping the contents all over the place.

Here are Rachel's collage and sun painting

And here are Rachel's favorite activities from the whole afternoon

Those were taken before her epic tantrum of the afternoon...

We had a really great time and I'm enjoying watching Rachel explore and learn, and I'm looking forward to learning more!!
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Eating Green!

2010-03-21T11:45:00.000-07:00

We talked a lot about colors and rainbows during our St. Patrick's Day theme, especially green. A fun science activity is showing the kids how to make green by mixing yellow and blue, and a delicious way to do this it with food! It's a pretty similar activity we did with our squish bags, but much tastier!
This is an idea that I borrowed from a great blog called Little Fingers Big Dreams!

Targets
Vocabulary- Green
Pre-science experiments
Requesting
Basic concepts- full/empty, more/same

First, we gathered our tasty ingredients-vanilla frosting, food coloring, graham crackers, plus 2 clear bowls, a spoon.

We started by putting the white frosting into the clear bowls.

We talked about all the senses--how it looked and smelled (yummy!). It was also a time to do a quick look at the concepts full/empty and more as we put frosting in one bowl and not the other (empty), then just a little in the other so that one had more and finally having the same amount in each bowl.

Next, we made some yellow frosting by putting food coloring in (we even snuck in a quick counting task by counting out 5 drops!)

and the kids got a chance to stir (and practice saying "he is stirring").

Same with making the blue frosting.

Then the students requested a plate ("I want a plate") and a graham cracker ("I want a cracker"). [And, what shape is a graham cracker?--a rectangle! sneaky way to talk about shapes ;)].

More requesting--"I want blue" "I want yellow" "I want a spoon"

Then, we all got to mixing--yellow + blue = green!

The best part--eating the green!

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Misc. St. Patrick's Day activities

2010-03-20T18:32:00.000-07:00

Well, I was out for a couple of days, abiding by our health policy where "if you're not feeling well enough to participate, it's best to stay home," so I was not able to take many pictures of some of our St. Patrick's Day activities. But, here's a quick summary of what the students did when I was out!

Squish Bags
We used Ziplock bags, shaving cream, blue food coloring and yellow food coloring.
The students had to request each item as they went along ("I want a bag," "I want yellow" etc).
First, they requested their bags
Next, they requested their shaving cream to squirt into the bag. They got to squish around the shaving cream for a bit.
Then, they choose to put in one color and squished it around, then the other
Last, they continued to squish the yellow and blue around in their shaving cream until it turned green.

Tissue Paper Rainbows
This was an activity that even our Occupational Therapist liked because it really helps increase fine motor skills! We also got a chance to work on our vocabulary words: rainbow and pot of gold.
The students requested different colors of tissue paper and ripped it up into smaller pieces. Then, they dipped them into some glue and put the tissue paper onto their rainbow.

Green Gs
We focused on the letter G for our ongoing phonemic awareness activity where we address the sound/symbol relationships. In this theme, we talked about how G says the /g/ sound, like in "green."
The students requested their G and all the green things that they could fit onto their letter as they were reminded that G says /g/!
And our only photo...

Leprechaun Hats

2010-03-20T18:15:00.000-07:00

The word "leprechaun" is a pretty hard word, whether you have difficulty with speech and language development or not! It's got a lot of syllables, it's not a word we encounter too often and it's got some harder sounds, like /l/ and /r/. So, we really made a point to bombard the students with this word during our St. Patrick's Day theme. I was really impressed with the students who got it!
One way we exposed the students to "leprechaun" was to make Leprechaun Hats!!

Targets
Vocabulary- leprechaun, green, shamrock, hat
Descriptive words
Requesting- for example "I want a hat"
Sequencing- First, Next, Last

We started out by talking about leprechauns--what they do, what they wear, what they look like, etc. We also talked about what we needed to make our leprechaun hats (a hat, a black band, a shamrock, a beard, a long black band, glue and a stapler---There is no pattern--we just drew until it looked right ;)).

First, we had students request the hat (they continued to request each piece at each step)

Next, they glued on the black band

Then, they glued on a shamrock

Next, they glued on the beard

Last, we measured their heads to staple on the long black band

When they were done, we reviewed the steps we did to make the hats and they got to look at themselves in the mirror.
I think they looked pretty cute!!

St. Patrick's Day Counting Book

2010-03-11T20:25:00.000-08:00

Leprechauns love to have gold coins in their pots of gold, and preschoolers love to count, so, why not make a St. Patrick's Day Counting Book?

Targets
Vocabulary- leprechaun, pot of gold, gold coins
Counting to 5 with 1:1 correspondence
Number recognition

First, we gathered our materials- enough books for each student, lots of gold coins, glue, a pot and a leprechaun.
We talked about each item, giving the students repeated practice with naming the vocabulary. They could hear the words over and over again and have a chance to say them.

Throughout the activity, the students needed to request items before they got them ("I want a book;" "I want a leprechaun"). The first thing we did was to decorate the cover with the leprechaun, pot and some gold coins. They could follow our pattern or put them anywhere they wanted.

Next, we went through the book, page by page to add the gold coins.

On each page, there was a number written (we use the Touch Math concept; that's why there are dots on the numbers) to work on number recognition and a circle drawn on to represent how many gold coins went on the page. This helped them with counting with 1:1 correspondence. Finally, there were written words to help encourage pre-reading skills.

As the students requested their gold coins, they had more and more practice with counting.
This activity is a nice example of how pre-academic concepts, such as math, can be incorporated into speech and language therapy! The students practiced counting as they practiced requesting and vocabulary!
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St. Patrick's Day

2010-03-11T19:40:00.000-08:00

We are getting ready for our St. Patrick's Day vocabulary theme.
Our vocabulary theme sheets are being sent out, which include the vocabulary words, pictures, some tips on talking about colors and a parent article about using all the senses to learn.

Our vocabulary bulletin board is up with our pictures. These are the same pictures sent home to families.

Our library has several St. Patrick's Day books set aside for the students to read. Lots of green and lots of leprechauns!!

Our kitchen table even has a St. Patrick's Day table cloth.

We also have some fun hats for the students to play with set aside at our experiential table.

The students have oodles of opportunities around the classroom to be bombarded with the vocabulary items. We even have bunches of shamrocks and rainbows around the room, too.

We'll be doing a lot of fun activities in the next week, including making gold coin counting books, leprechaun hats, squish bags and a rainbow. Enjoy your St. Patrick's Day and watch out for leprechauns!!

Wrapping up our Rooms of the House Theme

2010-03-10T20:38:00.000-08:00

We ended our Rooms of the House theme by putting our houses together!

Targets
Vocabulary
Requesting (I want ___)
Name recognition

Throughout the theme when we focused on particular rooms, the students were able to make their own rooms by requesting items to glue onto the room ("I want a sink"). They were finally able to put them all together and put them on their house.
They had an opportunity to find their own rooms by identifying their name.
We reviewed the vocabulary for the rooms and the students requested their room ("I want my kitchen") and glued them on.
It's true that some of the houses look a bit run down with rooms put on sideways and on top of each other.

But, this is because we want to give the students a chance to make their house their own. We do give them a model, but they are on thier own...besides, do you really want the teachers' artwork on your refrigerator? ;)

Our next theme coming up is St. Patrick's Day! Shamrocks, Leprechauns and Rainbows galore!!

Playing in the Kitchen

2010-03-10T20:37:00.000-08:00

I do want to point out one of the really cool toys we used when we talked about the kitchen during our Rooms of the House theme-- Measure-Up Pots and Spoons, which are available from Discovery Toys. (I am an Educational Consultant for Discovery Toys for fun on the side. I wouldn't talk about the toys if I didn't believe in their value!!)

Targets
Vocabulary-kitchen, spoons, pots, cooking
Play skills
Pre-math concepts
Articulation- spoon

We put the Pots and Spoons in the kitchen area for the students to play with during their free play time to expose them to the vocabulary items. They had a chance to pretend to cook delicious meals for us! While they cooked, they would typically match the colors (green spoon with green pot, blue spoon with blue pot, etc)--they did this on their own without adult prompts.

They also noticed the size differences, so we were able to practice "big" and "small" or "big, bigger, biggest."
Some of the other fun things to do with the Pots and Spoons are stacking and nesting, as they are fit perfectly! We also could have used them for teaching simple math and number identification, teaching about volume and balance and many other valuable skills.
Talking about all of the spoons also gave us a chance to encourage the use of the "S" sound---if they asked for a "poon," we had a great opportunity to model for them SSSSpoon and have them practice over and over again.

Ten in a Bed

2010-03-10T19:56:00.000-08:00

I had a wonderful SLPA (speech language pathology assistant) student in my classroom to get her hours completed. She jumped at the chance to plan an activity for our Rooms of the House theme. Her mission--an activity for the bedroom. She took the book Ten in a Bed and ran with it!!

During circle this week, we read Ten in a Bed, which is a fun book about a bunch of kids sharing a bed.

The little one didn't have enough room, so she had everyone roll over and, each time, one very conveniently rolled out. Who could blame her?! While we read the book, we had the students listen closely, and everytime we read "roll over," they rolled their arms.

In our small group rotation, our assistant, Lucy, took the book and she and the students played with the coolest activity! Our SLPA made the bed

and provided the clothes pins, and Lucy worked her magic and turned the clothes pins into kids!

Targets
Vocabulary- bedroom, bed, pillow, blanket, roll
Grammar- is verbing (he is rolling)
Math- counting to 10; simple subtraction; number identification

We went through the book, page by page and brought it to life with the clothes pin kids.

We counted the kids and then made them roll over. We got to practice the phrase is verbing (he is rolling; she is rolling)---many of my students leave off either the "is" or the "ing." We continued to go through the book, having the kids roll off.

We also got to use written numbers to teach number recognition.

We continued to go through the book, having the kids roll off. As the numbers got lower, we focused moreso on simple subtraction--we used the clothes pin kids, the written numbers and our fingers to subtract--"we had 4 kids, 1 rolled off, how many are left?" "3!"
And, finally, there was 1 in the bed

And the others were sure to get her out of bed!

The students had a lot of fun with this activity. It was a great way to bring a book to life while working on vocabulary, basic concepts and pre-math skills.

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Cooking in the Kitchen!

2010-03-06T17:25:00.000-08:00

It was a quick week this week and we focused on two rooms during our Rooms of the House theme. First up was the Kitchen.
I knew I wanted to do a cooking activity, but wasn't quite sure what I wanted to do. I got a fabulous home-made ice cream recipe from Discover and Learn Preschool, but didn't get a chance to try it out beforehand (maybe for summer school!).
Instead, we went with our old delicious stand-by, fruit salad.

We started at our circle time by singing the classic song by the Wiggles, Fruit Salad (yummy yummy!!). I printed up the lyrics, complete with pictures, for a visual for the students to look at and read. After we got Fruit Salad stuck in everyone's head, we went to one of our small group tables and got to cooking!

Targets
Vocabulary- kitchen, refrigerator, sink, table, fruit, cut
Sequencing-First, Next, Last

We got started by reviewing the steps for making our fruit salad, per The Wiggles--
The first step--Peel the banana.

We peeled the banana, and added the step of cutting it. The students each had a chance to use the (plastic) knife and cut.
We already gave everyone a plate and a spoon (after they had requested them-- "I want a spoon"), so we added the banana.
The next step--Toss in some grapes.

We took the grapes out of the refrigerator and washed them in the sink. Then, the students requested their grapes ("I want grapes") and we counted to 3 as we added the grapes.
The next step--Chop up some apples.

This was a great time to review the concept whole, as we showed the students a whole apple, pretended to cut it...and then opened up a bag of pre-cut apple slices... (sometimes we are short on time, so ya gotta improvise!)
The last step--Chop up some melons and put them on your plate.

Another great experiential activities where the students got to explore a cantaloupe by touching, smelling, tapping and picking up the melon. Again, we pretended to cut it up and opened up our pre-cut fruit to add the melon. It was also fun to check out the greenish outside of a cantaloupe versus the yummy orange insides.

Now that we made it, it was time to eat it...
We put the scraps away (in the trash),
We washed our plates and spoons (in the sink)
And we hope to do it all again real soon!
Fruit Salad, Yummy Yummy!!!

With some of the students, it was a big hit and they loved all of the fruit. Other students weren't to eager to try. There is a hierarchy to follow for kids who have food aversions, starting with touching the food with their hands, touching the food with their cheek, then their lips, then into their mouth. Eventually, you would want them to chew a few times then spit it out and eventually eat bites.

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Check Out My Guest Blog Post

2010-03-06T15:36:00.000-08:00

One of my favorite resources for all things preschool and early childhood education is Deborah J. Stewart. She shares a wealth of information about early childhood education with educators and parents alike.

I am proud to have been given the opportunity to write a guest post on her blog, Excellence in Early Childhood Education!
http://preschoolprofessional.blogspot.com/2010/03/lets-talk-about-communication.html

Please check it out and leave a comment to let me know what you think!

In the Bathroom

2010-03-01T21:57:00.000-08:00

Last week, we spent a lot of time in the bathroom. That's not quite right...
Anyway, we focused on vocabulary items for the bathroom and did a lot of fun activities!
Activities included:
Painting with Toothbrushes

I love having the students paint using a variety of materials. For our Rooms of the House theme, we painted with toothbrushes. We focused on learning colors and requesting, plus it was a great way for the kids to express themselves artistically.
Here is their work displayed on our window.

Playing with Shaving Cream
A fun fine motor/sensory activity is playing with shaving cream. Some students have a harder time touching different textures, so we introduce them more slowly for these kids. Wet and slimy shaving cream is hard for some kids to touch!

First, the students had to request their shaving cream (I want shaving cream). They only get a little at a time to give them situations where they have to ask for more. Then, they are encouraged to dig in and play! They could play however they wanted to, but we did encourage them to draw pictures, shapes or even their name.

Messy, but fun!

We also read a super cool book at circle and during small group rotations all about brushing your teeth called Ready, Set, Brush! starring some favorite Sesame Street characters. It was chock full of language targets!!

There were lots of opportunities to practice vocabulary words, like sink, towel, toothpaste, toothbrush and bathroom. The book is very interactive, so we also got to practice some action words and the grammatical form is+ verbing (i.e. he is brushing).

There are so many fun things we can do with our bathroom vocabulary theme!

Next up is kitchen and bedroom!

"Signing Time" in the Classroom

2010-03-01T21:13:00.000-08:00

I've always used sign language with my clients and students to help them communicate, especially in meeting their basic wants and needs. When my daughter, Rachel, was younger, we also started using sign with her. One of our favorite DVD series was (and still is!) Signing Time.

( 2 random bits of information-- I really think that what first drew Rachel into Signing Time was that she shares the same name with the host, Rachel Coleman, and I think it helps her relate.
Second, for the longest time, Rachel called Signing Time "Hi Hi" because of the main song in the DVD "Nice to Meet You").

During our Circle time, while doing our Rooms of the House theme, we are using the song "My House" from the Signing Time "My House" DVD.

It's a pretty catchy tune that reviews some of the basic vocabulary words for 3 rooms-Bathroom, Kitchen and Family Room.
I made a visual to go along with the the song that uses pictures and the printed lyrics to include a literacy component. The pictures are either clipart or pictures from the fabulous resource, abcteach.

Multi-modal ways of teaching words is a great way to increase vocabulary, bombarding the students with singing, signing, pictures and written word.
I was really excited to be able to use a Signing Time song in our class! The kids are still singing and signing "My House!"
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House Letter "B"

2010-02-20T21:42:00.000-08:00

It was kind of hard for me to choose what letter to pick for this theme. I try to choose letters based on our vocabulary words, so it helps when there are a lot of vocabulary words that start with the same sound! For our house theme, we looked at the letter B.

Targets
Vocabulary-- bed, bathtub, brush/brushing, broom
Letter recognition
Sound-Symbol relationship ("B" says /b/)

First, we gathered our materials. We cut out our letter B and the pictures from abcteach.com or are just clip art I found. And, of course, glue.

Next, we looked at the pictures to give the students a chance to identify and label the vocabulary items. We also emphasized the /b/ sound in each word and talked about how the "B" makes a /b/ sound.

Then, the kids requested each picture (I want a bed, etc) and glued them on!

The letter "B" was also a good choice for some of our students who aren't making many sounds yet, or who have trouble with multiple sounds. It was helpful just to give them the practice of saying "buh buh buh."

Shapes House!

2010-02-20T20:58:00.000-08:00

For starters, we are focusing on the actual house and it's parts. Then we will go inside to look around the rooms. A fun way to look at the different parts of the outside of the house, and to sneak in some practice with shapes, is to make a

Shapes House!

Targets
Requesting (I want a ___)
Vocabulary-- house, door, windows, roof
Basic shapes-- square, rectangle, triangle
Size concepts-- big, little

First, we gathered the materials--some shapes, paper to put it on and some glue.

We reviewed the house the "correct" way with the kids, pointing out that the house goes on top, the door goes on the bottom and in the middle and the windows go a certain way. However, when they get the piece in their hot little hand, they will put it wherever they want and how ever they want--this is good! It gives us an idea of how they are visually processing what they see and their ability to put things together. And, besides, would you moms and dads *really* want the art work on your refrigerator to be the teacher's? ;)

Before we really got started with all the action, we also reviewed the shapes to see if the children could identify or label them. We also talked about big vs. little with the squares.

Then, the fun began! The students always need to request items before they can have them ("I want paper," "I want a square," "I want glue," etc.). So, for each step of the way, there is always talking. The students get their gluey shape and stick 'em on! Oh, and as an added bonus, when they put on their windows, they get to practice counting to 4!

And, when they are done, their house gets put up onto the bulletin board with all of thier neighbors !

Welcome to Our House!

2010-02-20T18:09:00.000-08:00

We have started our new theme,

Rooms of the House.

We will be focusing on this theme for the next 3 weeks or so. Our classroom is all set up and ready to go!
We've got our vocabulary bulletin board set up.

There really are a lot of words to focus on! I tried to set it up by room to make it easier--in fact, we will focus on each room on different days. The vocabulary pictures are the same that were sent home with students to practice and reinforce at home. They are also the same pictures I use during my vocabulary activities (like matching games, etc.) during small group rotations.

Other posters are hung up around the room showing different houses or rooms.

Our library has books about the House set aside for the kids to read.

We've even got our House table cloth out in the kitchen area.

We've got lots of fun activities planned for this theme, including playing with dollhouse furniture, a house shapes puzzle, art activities and lots more!

Valentine's Day Sweet Hearts

2010-02-14T17:15:00.000-08:00

We are pretty aware of and take precautions with our students with allergies. So, when it came time to have our Valentine's Day party cooking activity, I was pretty cautious about what I choose. Finally, I came up with a tortilla sweet heart!

Targets
Vocabulary- Hearts
Size concepts- small, smaller, smallest; big, bigger, biggest
Fine motor skills-- pushing, pulling, squeezing
Requesting

First, I gathered our materials--

some tortillas (that we warmed up before each group's turn), sugar-free, squeezable jelly, sunflower butter (to avoid those peanut butter allergies!), Nutella (a.k.a. heaven), heart-shaped cookie cutters and napkins/knives/plates, etc.

Each child first requested thier tortilla ("I want tortilla") and we talked about it being shaped like a circle.
Next, they requested a cookie cutter--we had reviewed the sizes as our tortillas were being heated.
We helped the kids take turns pushing onto their tortillas to cut out thier heart shape.

Next, they requested what they wanted on thier tortilla ("I want chocolate," "I want [fake] peanut butter," "I want strawberry") and they helped squeeze or spread it on.

Last-we ate! I personally thought our Sweet Hearts were pretty yummy!

We ended with our little class parties where the kids brought Valentine cards and treats for their friends. It was a lot of fun!! This was a great way to end our Valentine's Day theme. Our next theme will focus on Rooms of the House.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Valentine Mice

2010-02-14T13:20:00.000-08:00

During our circle time, we are reading the book "Valentine's Mice" by Bethany Roberts.

It's a cute book about mice delivering valentine's cards to the other animals in the forest, when all of the sudden, one gets lost. There are some rhyming words and some fun words--throw! skip! slide! hop! We kept the kids' attention by acting some of the words out.

We followed up on reading the book by making our own Valentine Mice!
This activity was inspired by the Folded Heart Mouse Craft from DLTK.

Targets
Vocabulary- hearts, cards
Basic concepts- half, whole, middle; big, little
Sequencing

First, we gathered our materials- a large heart, a smaller heart, a piece for the ear, a googly eye, a pompom nose, yarn for the tail and some glue.

When the students requested their hearts ("I want a heart"), they were given a whole heart. When they folded it, it was a half of a heart. Whole/Half concepts FTW!

The other fun concepts we got to talk about were big and little, as both were needed for our mice.

Next, we put some glue onto the little heart to make the head and glued it next to the big heart, making the body.

Next, we added an ear, an eye and a nose, with the students requesting each piece as we went along ("I want an ear," "I want an eye," "I want a nose"), giving them practice with using their words.

Last, we put some glue in the middle of the big heart and added our mouse's tail.

The students could also make a pink mouse if they wanted to :)

And, once they dry, we can deliver our own Valentines and Flip! Slip! and Glide!

Happy Valentine's Day!

Valentine's Day Marble Painting!

2010-02-09T17:54:00.000-08:00

Painting with marbles or golf balls is always a fun and different way to get kids to participate in art activities! Usually, I put the marbles or golf balls in an old cardboard box top, but, for Valentine's Day, we used heart shaped boxes from candy! (Please don't ask who ate all the chocolate... ;) )

We gathered our materials--some marbles, cups with red paint, spoons to take out the marbles, heart shaped boxes from Valentine's Day candy and cut out paper hearts.

Two things of note-- 1) to make the right-sized paper hearts, we traced the paper insert they use inside the candy box to protect the (precious) chocolate, just making it slightly smaller;

2) I needed to go out to a teacher supply store because I literally did lose my marbles...
Then we got started

Targets
Vocabulary- hearts, red
Requesting- "I want a heart," "I want paint"
Articulation- /s/ blends in SPoon

First, the students requested their heart and box by using their words. The paper hearts fit perfectly!

Next, the students used the SPoon to take out the marble and put it into their heart box.

We really focused on having the kids use their /s/ sound, so they said "spoon," not "poon!"

Then, the fun began! They moved the box around so the paint-covered marble moved around, making really cool designs!

(We did have to give a couple of reminders to use "quiet hands" so they didn't paint the table or floor...).
Some of the things I heard were "middle" and "around," which are great concepts!

When they were done, we took them out of the boxes to dry.

I think they came out pretty cute!

Happy Painting!!

Valentine's Day Cutting Practice!

2010-02-06T09:08:00.000-08:00

Using scissors is a skill that preschoolers need to get a grasp on (pun intended!).
Some of my students are able to just grab some scissors and cut objects out on the line. Hooray for them!
Others may grasp correctly, but only snip the paper. Others grab the scissors with 2 hands and try to cut like hedge clippers.
Valentine's Day was a great time to practice our scissors skills!

Targets
Vocabulary-Card
Scissors/cutting practice
Requesting

We gathered our Valentine's Day cards (Spiderman was a big hit!) and our scissors.

The students had to request each one ("I want a card," "I want scissors") before they could have them.

Then, we got to cutting!
First, we made sure they had the correct grasp.
Next, if they were only snipping, we encouraged them to cut across the card. It got pretty messy!
We also had some Valentine's Day heart coloring pages to cut if they really went to town on thier cards!

An added bonus to cutting--we got to practice the sentence "he is cutting!" (many of my students leave off the word "is"). Lots of great modeling and practicing!

Happy cutting!

Valentine's Day Candy Counting!

2010-02-05T22:12:00.000-08:00

Even though my classroom is primarily for intensive speech and language therapy, we do do many pre-academic activities. This includes counting by rote and counting objects. Our counting activities are related to our vocabulary theme to make it more functional and more fun! It also reinforces our vocabulary items. For our Valentine's Day theme, we counted candy hearts!

Targets
Vocabulary- Hearts, Candy
Counting objects to 5, number recognition

First, we gathered our materials:

We used regular old (delicious) conversation candy hearts, a counting sheet I hand drew and some glue. The counting sheet has a couple of things of interest--First, we use the concept of Touch Math, where the numbers have dots on them that correspond with the amount the number represents ("2" has two dots on it) for the students to count. This gives a multi-sensory twist to learning. Second, I drew dots under each number to give the students extra cueing as to how many hearts to glue on and another chance to count.

We went through the counting sheet number by number and the students were encouraged to label the number and count the dots. Then they asked for candy to put on ("I want 2 hearts") and we helped them glue them on.

We continued to 5 and then they were done!

And, of course, they were allowed to eat some--as a fellow candy lover, I couldn't withhold!! ;)
I'm sure eating the candy was the students' favorite part, but I was happy they got lots of practice with counting objects and recognizing numbers!

Happy Counting!

Valentine's Day Vocabulary!

2010-02-05T18:40:00.000-08:00

I like to do a sort of pre-test/post-test with my students at the beginning and end of a theme to see how they have (or have not) learned the vocabulary words. I try to do it in a fun way whenever I can to keep the kids motivated. For Valentine's Day, we took the pictures out of a mailbox.

Targets
Vocabulary
Turn Taking
Basic concept- out

First, to get a quick baseline of the vocabulary words that they know, I do quickly go through the pictures with each child and collect data on the words they know. The, the playing begins!

The students need to take turns--turn taking is a basic conversational concept; I say something, you say something. A verbal tennis match! As they choose a picture, we talk about how they are taking the card out of the mailbox.
Then, they get a chance to label what they got! If they get it right away, we *high five,* reinforce the word by repeating it, and move on. If they get stuck, I give some cueing. For the basic words, I may just say "it's a /h/" and then pause for them to say "heart" after I told them the first sound. For harder words, or for kids who have a really hard time, I may give a choice--"Is it a dog or a cupid?" That's right--cupid! *high five!*"

We repeat the activity over and over again to reinforce those words.

I tend to see the kids who are simply late-talkers learn the vocabulary words more quickly than those who have fundamental difficulties with speech and language--just an observation ;)

Happy turn taking!

Valentine's Day Letter H

2010-02-04T16:31:00.000-08:00

Each theme, we look at the vocabulary words and take one or more that have similar beginning sounds and focus on that letter for one of our bulletin boards. We do this to both teach vocabulary, but also to introduce the concept of the sound-symbol relationship (that is to teach that the speech sound can be represented by a written letter).
For Valentine's Day, we focused on H and used it in a small group activity.

Targets:
Vocabulary- hearts
Letter Recognition - H
Requesting ("I want a heart")
Fine Motor skills

Before starting, we talked about the "H" sound. We gave a visual cue of putting our hand in front of our mouth and made the /h/ sound.
Then, we looked at the letter "H" and matched it to the sound we had been making. "H" says /hhh/!
And, do you know what starts with the /h/ sound? Hearts!

The students then requested their letter "H" and then their stamps and stickers with hearts. They used their little muscles to put their hearts on their "H."

I think they came out pretty cute!

Happy Hearts and Hugs!

Ready for Valentine's Day!

2010-02-04T13:02:00.000-08:00

This week and next, we are focusing on our Valentine's Day theme.

I've got my bulletin board all set up with our vocabulary target words.

Our words are: Heart, Red, Candy, Flowers and Cupid.
Smaller versions of these same pictures were sent home with the families so they can reinforce them at home. This theme, I also sent home an article called "Helping Your Child Listen to Learn" from a Parent Articles book along with some pictures of hearts and ideas on how to use the hearts to have the students follow commands.

Our library was set up with some books about Valentine's Day and love.

The book all the way on the right, Valentine's Day, is the book we have been reading during our circle time. It comes along with a cassette tape (what's that? it's kinda like a CD...LOL), which *really* keeps the kids' attention!! Books on tapes/CDs are really great for helping kids learn to read. We also used the book during our small group rotations and I had the kids talk about each page as we read through. I also copied some pages to use in a sequencing activity.

In our kitchen area, we have a tablecloth on the table--it's just a cheap couple of yards of fabric from JoAnne's!

I like to change the tablecloth for each theme to continuously bombard the students with the vocabulary words we are working with.

We've got lots of fun activities planned for Valentine's Day! Plus, we have two 3-day weekends coming up. Hooray!

Winter Snow!

2010-02-03T19:38:00.000-08:00

We were winter magicians during our winter theme!
During our small group rotations, we used the Blizzard in a Bucket from Be Amazing Toys for this really fun activity.

Targets:
Sequencing
Vocabulary
Sensory
Articulation- /s/ blends (sssnow, ssscoop)

We gathered the items we needed-- 2 oz. of water, a scoop of the snow, a clear cup and the bucket and mat.

We talked about snow, including who had seen it, how it felt, etc. Then, the magic began!

As we made the snow, we were sure to emphasize the steps using the concepts first, next and last.

First, we poured one scoop of the powder into the cup.

Next, we poured in the water

Then, we watched the snow form!

So cool!!

Last, we poured it into the bucket so we could touch it and play!

The students enjoyed getting their hands into the "snow" and trying to make snowmen or make letters and shapes in the snow. As they played, we reviewed the sequence we used to make the snow.

Happy snow making!

Winter Hot Cocoa

2010-02-02T17:14:00.000-08:00

It actually does get, um, well, chilly in Southern California.Growing up in Massachusetts, where 40 degrees could be a heat wave, I do find it amusing that we all bundle up here when it gets below 70. But, anyway, we have been talking about how "cold" it is during winter. What's a great way to warm up in the winter?
Drinking hot cocoa!

In preparation for making our hot chocolate, we introduced a song in circle time called "Hot Cocoa." It was borrowed from Deborah Stewart's awesome Teach Preschool blog called "Little Fingers that Play." I printed up the pictures for a visual and we sang it!

"Hot Cocoa" is a great song to reinforce the vocabulary words, to talk about the word "hot" (we all took turns touching the picture of the cup and pretending it was hot. 'Ouch!'), and to practice counting to 5. I especially love that each time you add a marshmallow, you say "yum" that amount of times (like for 3 marshmallows, we say "yum! yum! yum!"). It was a great way to listen and count words…hooray for phonological awareness!!

Next, we headed to our small groups table, gathered what we needed and made our own hot cocoa!

Targets

Sequencing- including the concepts of First and Last

Concepts "hot" "empty"

Turn Taking

Requesting

Counting to 5

First, we looked at our photo sequencing cards several times, emphasizing the concepts of "first" and "last."

Sequencing is an important skill for preschoolers to have, as it helps organize their thoughts and helps develop story retell skills.

Next, we talked about the items we needed-- an empty cup, hot cocoa powder, hot water, as spoon to stir (oooh! great time to work on /s/ blends!! not a poon--a sssspoon!) etc.

Then, we followed the sequencing cards to make the cocoa.

First, we have an empty cup

Next we pour in the chocolate,

Then we pour in the hot water,

Last we stir it!

The kids were encouraged to talk about each step of the way. They also got to participate by pouring, touching, stirring, etc.

Finally, they requested their hot cocoa! ("I want cocoa").

But, there was more!! The delicious marshmallows! We referred back to Deborah's "Hot Cocoa" song and each child counted out 5 marshmallows for them to add to their cocoa.

This was a fun activity that got all of the students fully involved and talking. And it was tasty, too!

Yum! Yum! Yum! Yum! Yum!

Keep warm!

Wordless Wednesday--

2010-01-27T18:29:00.000-08:00

My daughter loves taking pictures with my camera or iPhone!! Here is a bit of how she views the world...

Winter Fun--Throwing Snowballs!

2010-01-24T18:31:00.000-08:00

Ok, so we don't get snow in places other than in the mountains here in Southern California, and I'm not sure any of my students have even seen real snow. But, we've had a lot of pretend snow!
In the first week of our Winter theme, we dressed up in hats, scarves and mittens and threw snowball balloons. That was great for teaching the concept of turn taking as they threw the snowballs back and forth to each other. Turn taking is a basic conversational skill.

Last week, we threw cotton ball snowballs!

Targets

Language concepts- wet/dry, up high/down low
Turn taking
Articulation- /s/ blends
Fine motor- using finger tips to rip cotton balls
Hand-eye coordination- aiming for the paper

Before we got started, we gathered what we needed--just some regular cotton balls and we filled a pan full of water. (it was also funny because it was raining one of the days and when the rain had emptied out, we re-filled the pan with rain water :)). We also taped up some paper onto the wall for them to aim at.

The students took turns requesting cotton balls ("I want snow"), using their good /s/ sound in the word SSSnow to practice their sound.
They then worked on their fine motor skills by ripping the cotton into smaller pieces. (We originally left that step out, but my trusty occupational therapist who monitors my classroom suggested it).
We talked about how the "snow" felt dry.
Next, they dipped the cotton into the water pan

and talked about how wet it was

and finally, they threw the snow onto the wall!

They continued to take turns, use their words to request and aim up high or down low onto the paper!

Of course, after the activity was over, I realized we should've drawn a snowman onto the paper to help reinforce another vocabulary word and the use of the /s/ in snowman! But, the kids had a blast. Not only did they get a chance to be active and throw snowballs, but they had plenty of opportunities to use their words, take turns and work on their speech sounds!

Happy playing!

Winter Letter "S"

2010-01-23T10:00:00.000-08:00

Another activity we did this week was also inspired by No Time for Flash Cards. She has a weekly Letter of the Week craft where she takes an upper case or lower case letter and makes a craft with words that begin with that letter.
This craft inspired me to make a special bulletin board in my classroom that displays similar Letter of the Week activities. Once per theme, we choose a different letter to focus on from vocabulary words in the unit. The purpose of this activity is to increase alphabet awareness, as well as to increase sound/symbol relationship (in other words, knowing that "R" says /rrrrr/). Hooray for phonemic awareness!

For our Winter theme, I chose the letter S, using the vocabulary items snowflake, snowman, scarf and skates.

Targets:
Learning Vocabulary
Pre-academic skills- letter recognition; sound-symbol relationship
Articulation- /s/ blends

We started by reviewing the vocabulary and having the students try to label the items. We also were sure to over-emphasize the /s/ sound, as many of our students leave of the /s/ when it's with another sound in a word, like saying "no" for "snow."

Next, they needed to request a letter "S" that was already cut out of construction paper and they had to request each of the items they wanted put on their "S." They were able to put whatever pictures, stickers or stamps of the vocabulary words onto the "S" wherever they wanted to, which is also nice for developing fine motor skills, too. Throughout the activity, we talked about how "S" makes the /sss/ sound and all the words started with the /sss/ sound.

The kids enjoy looking at their "S" on the bulletin board while they eat breakfast and lunch. They especially like to find thier own letter, which helps us reinforce their ability to recognize their name.

Happy SSSStamping!

Winter Fun--Painting with Ice!

2010-01-21T18:51:00.000-08:00

Many thanks to No Time for Flashcards for this totally fun idea!

On Tuesday and Wednesday of this week, we painted with ice cubes. The kids had lots of fun with this hands-on activity. Even our occupational therapist who visits the class thought it was a neat idea for the kiddos to get a great sensory experience!

To prepare for this activity, the night before, I put a couple of drops of paint into each part of the ice tray, filled it with water and let it freeze. I bagged up each color and we were ready to go!
Targets:
Vocabulary- Ice, cold, mittens, colors
Sensory
Science- concept of ice melting into water

We started by talking about what the kids saw by asking "what do you see?" "what do you think this is?" "have you ever seen ice?" "what colors do you see" and encouraging them to talk.

Next, we talked about what the kids felt. We talked about how it is winter time and it's cold and the ice is cold, too! Then....

we got to touch it! We constantly reinforced the vocabulary word "cold."

Next, the students practiced using their words to request their paper and ice. Our goal is for the students to say complete sentences on their own, like "I want blue ice" or "I want paper." Some kids can do that, but others need help. They had to ask each time they wanted a new color, reinforcing the need to use their words.
Then, they painted!

Some of the kids really had a great time, others didn't like the cold feeling, but we encouraged them to at least try! If they really didn't like it, we let them put on mittens, giving us another great opportunity to reinforce that vocabulary word.

Our paintings came out beautifully!

They are now displayed on our window for everyone to see.

Happy painting!

Winter Music

2010-01-20T19:21:00.000-08:00

During our Circle time, we sing a lot of songs or read books related to our vocabulary theme.

During our Winter theme, we have been singing a great song called "Snowman" off of the "Rocking and Talking" CD from Kids' Express Train.
Kids' Express Train is a company that includes a speech-language pathologist named Rachel Arntson. They have lots of CDs that target specific speech and language skills. I LOVE thier CDs and use them quite often! They also have CD ROMs with pictures to accompany the songs.

The song "Snowman" is great to use for developing many speech and language skills:

Word Imitation- Imitation isn't just the sincerest form of flattery, it's also a basic way to help children communicate who don't have much spontaneous language. "Snowman" encourages children to sing along and repeat the simple phrase "snowman."

Pronoun Use- Many children still say "me" instead of "I." The song says "I'm a snowman," giving the kids lots of practice to sing along using "I."

Sequencing- As the song goes through all the items needed to make a snowman, we use the pictures and lyrics sheet from the CD ROM to follow along. Then, we take the activity sheet from the CD ROM and the students put the pieces on in the same order.

Articulation- Many students leave off the /s/ sound in words when it comes with another sound, like saying "noman" instead of "snowman." Since there are oodles and oodles of opportunities for the students to say "snowman," they get lots of practice! I also give them some visual cueing to remind them to use the /s/.

Happy snowman building (and singing!)

Winter Fun! Week 1

2010-01-18T21:53:00.000-08:00

Last week, we returned from a fun and fabulous winter break and jumped right into our winter theme. We'll be focusing on "Winter" for about 3 weeks. Here's a brief run down on what we did last week!

We introduced our winter vocabulary. All throughout the theme, we have pictures of our vocabulary words, along with the written word, up on our main bulletin board.These are the same pictures that are sent home with families for practice at home. Our winter words include snowman, snowflake, hat, ice skates, scarf, mittens, boots and jacket. Hot cocoa, penguin and cold are some other fun words to talk about!

I try to have a lot of fun activities that we do when we are really focusing on teaching vocabulary. One way I try to bombard the students with vocabulary during this theme is by having them "feed" the pictures to our well-loved, yet hungry, penguin.Students take turns (I want my turn) picking a picture and labeling it. We also talk about the object--for example "where do you put a hat?" "on your head!" *high five* Then, the child feeds the penguin (and gets to practice the sentence "he is eating!").

Our penguin friend also got a chance to eat when we fed him snowmen with articulation cards on them so students could practice their /s/ sound (SSSnowman) and saying Consonant-Vowel-Consonant (CVC) words like cat, bat or boat.

This is what our library looks like:We have several books about winter for our students to read!

For each theme, we also incorporate math activities. As the students learn pre-math skills, they are also continuing to focus on the new vocabulary words. The also have to request everything they want!
We had one activity that focused on size concepts of big, bigger and biggest.
Students sorted according to snowball size and talked about the sizes. Did ya notice that a snowman has a big snowball, then a bigger one and the biggest at the bottom?
Students also made a counting book counting buttons they put on their snowman.

We use the concept of Touch Math to reinforce counting.

There are so many more activities for us to do! I'll fill you in on some more activities as the weeks move on. Until then, I hope you enjoyed your Martin Luther King, Jr. holiday. It's a wet week in Southern California, so stay dry!

Benefits of Games in the Classroom

2010-01-17T20:04:00.000-08:00

I love it when people *get it!* School is not always easy (or fun...) for all kids. Each person has a different learning style, too.
The other day, I received my e-mail from the National Education Association (NEA) and loved what I saw! The title was "Experts Tout Educational Benefits of Board Games" and there were two articles (Washington Post and mlive from Michigan) talking about these benefits.

Discovery Toys has some great games that can be used by teachers (and even speech pathologists ;) ). Here is some info about some of my favorites:

Number Hunt:
Recommended for ages 4+, children are motivated to learn math skills, like number recognition, counting and addition.
PS...it's on sale right now until February 6!

Labyrinth:
I have to admit that this is one of my favorites! I've even played it by myself, even though I'm much older than 7... It's a great game for teaching turn taking skills and for following directions, but it really takes some critical thinking and planning ahead to play, which is so important for children in school. On their turn, the player moves board pieces to clear a path to the object they need to collect. Lots of fun!

Zingo:
I've actually already expressed my love for this game here ;)

Other great games include Wiz Kids, Friendship Island, Play to Be Safe, Word Flip, and A to Z Jr.

We're always playing different kinds of games in my classroom during our small groups time. It's great for teaching turn taking, vocabulary, sentence use, and we've even played some Bingo games for specific speech sounds!

Happy playing!

Our Day In Preschool!!

2010-01-17T17:07:00.000-08:00

In my program, we have 3 different classes. On Mondays/Wednesdays/Fridays, 2 sets of students come--they are my 3 year olds, one morning class and one afternoon class. On Tuesdays/Thursdays, my 4 year olds come just in the morning. Each class is 2 1/2 hours and we have a lot to do each day!
Here is a brief description of our day and why we do what we do:

Arrival and Free Play:
Once our kids get off the bus or dropped off by their family, we head to the classroom and the playing begins! From a teacher's point of view, this is our chance to take attendance and look through backbacks, etc.
From the students' points of view, it's free time! They get to do their main job in life--PLAY! It's a child-directed time where they can explore, read a book, build blocks, do a puzzle, cut and color...the possibilities are endless!
How is this speech and language therapy? Well, the 3 adults in the classroom (me and my 2 assistants) use this time to model correct productions. We get to play, too! As we push cars, we talk about it. As the children pretend to cook, we talk about it. If there is a battle over a toy, we talk about it and give the students the correct words. The adults in the classroom are always talking with them about what they are doing (“oh, the car is going fast!”) or have them follow directions (for example “pick up the red block and put it on top of the table”).

Opening Circle:
Here, we are basically teaching the children to be students, including how to sit and pay attention for 10-15 minutes. That can be a long time for a preschooler! We also work on name recognition, spelling their names and simple math, like counting and simple addition.
How is this speech and language therapy? We work on answering questions (who is this? what is your name? who is not here?), saying short sentences (my name is ___) and we help the kids with their pronunciation (if she says "I am a dirl," we give her lots of help to say that /g/ sound and say "girl").

Meal Time:
Who doesn't like to eat? It's a pretty motivating time in our day! Yum! Not only do we work on talking, we also introduce some literacy skills--we have placemats with drawings of all the things we need, plus the written words.
How is this speech and language therapy? My students don't get anything without making an attempt to communicate! Some kids can say "I want pancakes," other kids will use American Sign Language signs for "more" and "milk" to get their drink. It's also a great time for me to make sure their feeding skills are fine and they can move their mouths correctly.

Circle:
At the second circle of the day, we focus on the vocabulary theme we are working on. We talk about the words and look at the pictures on the bulletin board. Then we will sing a couple of songs or read a book related to the theme.
How is this speech and language therapy? One of the most common goals that my students have are to learn more vocabulary words. The constant repetition of the vocabulary words, especially in song, help them learn the words so they are able to point to the word and then say it. Books are also a fantastic way to learn vocabulary and to teach storytelling.

Small Group Rotations:
During small groups, the students spend about 8-10 minutes at each of our 3 activities. The activities they do here typically change each class, although we may repeat some. Here, we have teacher-directed activities where we focus on pre-math, pre-literacy, fine motor and articulation and language skills.
How is this speech and language therapy? First, each activity is related to the vocabulary theme that we are working on, so they have more practice with these words. Second, the students need to request everything! They can't even get a crayon without saying "I want a crayon!" Finally, this is the time where I really get some direct time with them to work on their specific speech and language goals, including vocabulary, grammar, following directions and articulation.

Outside Play:
Here, we really let the kids run free! They can ride tricycles, run around, play games, and sometimes go to the bigger kid playground and slide and swing. It's fabulous for gross motor skills!
How is this speech and language therapy? Well, we have the kids in their favorite environment, so they are very motivated to get what they want. This makes it easier for us to get them to request. They also learn to use correct words to get what they want and to share--the bikes are popular, but there just aren't enough! It's also a time for us to simply model correct speech and language, like "he is riding," "she is running," "the ball is under the slide" or the /s/ sound in "Swing."

Closing Circle:
At the end of the day, we finish up by singing goodbye, reviewing the day and lining up to head out to the waiting bus or mommy and daddy.
How is this speech and language therapy? When we review the day, we have pictures representing each activity, so we are teaching them to sequence. This included important words like "first, next, last." Also, the students need to say "I want my backpack" before they can go, reinforcing the fact that they need to use their words.

Our day goes by fast, but, as you can see, it's full of lots of speech and language opportunities!
Until next time, "Good bye friends, we're sad to see you go, boom boom!"

A Day at the Pretend City Children's Museum

2009-11-22T15:04:00.000-08:00

So, I do love my Discovery Toys business, and I love being a speech-language pathologist, but, in all honesty, my favorite thing in life is spending time with my awesome and adorable 2 year old daughter, Rachel.

We needed something to do today while Daddy worked a double shift so we decided to go to the Pretend City Children's Museum in Irvine, CA. Now, I know, I know, I've neglected my blog lately. But, when I have something totally cool that I've seen, I need share!

This is not your typical museum where you look, admire and then move on. Oh NO!! At Pretend City, your kid can touch anything and everything--and they are encouraged to do so! By the way, did you know that Speech Language Pathologists also look at PLAY skills during evaluations for young kids? It's true! Play, including pretend play, is related to speech and language development!

Rachel and I started our adventure at the grocery store. Rachel piled and piled (and piled) pretend food into her shopping basket. It was kind of funny to watch her realize she could (and should) play with everything! We skipped the check out line because Rachel saw the fruit and vegetables to be picked and planted in the next room--The Farm. She also checked out the not-so-pretend baby chicks!
Here she is planting and riding the tractor:

Rachel then caught a ride in a car and we traveled to her favorite part of Pretend City--the amphitheater! She hopped on stage and grabbed some instruments but didn't quite to know at first. That's the beauty of getting our kids involved with other kids--she figured out she was supposed to be rocking out by watching the other kids. Then, the test came!! Another kid wanted her instrument!! A lesson in sharing occurred with no bumps or blood. Phew!

I confused Rachel a little, telling her I wanted to go home--I meant to Pretend City's house! We wandered through the house, looking in cabinets, closets and drawers and cooked a little bit in the kitchen.

Next, we played at the beach, but a cool car caught Rachel's eye, so we moved on over past the gas station and to the Beach where she played in the sand. We passed right by the Park, Police Station and Fire Station over to the Marina. Rachel played in the water and discovered that fake fish float! So, she enjoyed holding it down under the water defying rules of flotation.

The doctor's office waiting room beckoned next, probably because of the cool books. When she went into the doctor's office, I think she took great pleasure in giving the baby doll a shot. Sweet revenge!! She must've been hungry, because we ended up at the little cafe serving pretend Vietnamese cuisine. She was distracted by the mop, however, and did a great job cleaning.

Although I had a great time NOT feeling the need to be overprotective-mama and let her run and lead the way, there was one place that I wanted to visit--the Art Studio! Ribbons, glue, markers and sequence galore!! Rachel made a beautiful princess crown. Such a fabulous room! I was amazed that Rachel sat and put markers away when she was done!! (now, how do I teacher her to do that at home???).

Rachel took one last run around Pretend City and ended up at her favorite place-the Amphitheater! More stomping, playing and singing. She had such a blast up on stage! She even tried to share her mic with another kid. :) Here is my star on-stage:

Pretend City is totally the type of museum I would've loved as a kid!! I know Rachel had a blast, too. We will definitely be back!! I think you should go too ;)
It's fun, inexpensive and (shhh...) educational!

Snappy Ducks From Discovery Toys

2009-09-27T20:32:00.000-07:00

Rachel, my 2 year old little girl, has a new favorite toy! It's Snappy Ducks from Discovery Toys!

Snappy Ducks are available now from Discovery Toys and are perfect for your toddler! You will get a set of 24 sturdy ducks in a variety of colors that snap together super easily. Take them any where you want to play--they can even be used in the bath, which is good because Bathtime Bugs weren't helping us have a cry-free bath anymore (that's ok! they still rock...everyone needs variety!). Snappy Ducks come in a long box, but I prefer keeping them in a storage box for easy access.

There are so many things you can learn with your Snappy Ducks!
Pre-math skills-
Count your ducks!! Your child may be able to count to 100, but it's also important to count with 1:1 correspondence. (I expect my 3 year old students to count with 1:1 correspondence to 5 and my 4 year old students to 10).

Sort your ducks!! Put the blue ducks together, your orange ducks together, your yellow ducks together and your green ducks together. Sorting is an important skill for your toddler and preschooler--you need to sort objects before you can add them (you know--2 green ducks plus 1 orange duck equals 3 ducks!)

Make patterns with your ducks!! AB patterning is a precursor skill to learning math as well as a pre-reading skill. So, find your pattern--blue-red-blue-red.

Fine Motor Skills
Your Snappy Ducks are great for developing little hands. At first, it took a while for Rachel to be able to grasp the ducks appropriately to be able to get those ducks to snap. But, she's finally got it! The ducks also help with hand-eye coordination because it takes some precise movements to snap the ducks together.

Speech and Language Skills
Descriptive concepts, like long and short. Encourage your child to make some long rows and some short rows. Make sure to talk about the different sizes, including big, bigger, biggest.

Spatial concepts- Different concepts you can help teach are first, last, middle. When you snap the ducks together, have your child point out the first duck, last duck, etc. These concepts are also precursors to story telling...just remember, when you're putting pictures together for stories, go from left to right!

Articulation- Do you know any kids who leave of the /s/ sound? Well, when you are playing wiht your child, make sure you over emphasize the /s/ and say /ssssssssssnap/ as you snap your ducks together. Start out by modeling the sound, then see if your child can make it. Don't worry if she can't at first and says "nap"--just keep trying!

Some of the fun sentences I've heard Rachel say include:
"let's put the ducks together," "where's mommy duck?," "I have 2 ducks."

It's also just really fun to watch her think and learn!Now, in the photo, you can also see that she's put her duck in her Hammer Away! I don't recommend that...

Be sure to contact me if you have any questions about Snappy Ducks or any other Discovery Toys product!!

Happy Snapping!!
~Marcy

Ahoy There, Me Hearties!!

2009-09-18T18:55:00.000-07:00

ARRR!! Saturday, September 19th be International Talk Like A Pirate Day!! Arrr!

Well, shiver me timbers! What better way to celebrate than with a fun Discovery Toys product! Let's take a look at

Ahoy, Pirate Pete!

Ahoy, Pirate Pete is a fun, interactive change-the-story book where kids can choose different elements of the story to have the adventures unfold different ways each time.

How do you do this?
Well, when you first receive your book, you will punch out little pictures and place them in the correct place in the book. This is your first learning task!! Visual discrimination and matching, plus work on fine motor skills to stick in the little tabs!!

As you read the book with your child, you are given options for how you want the story to unfold. Do you want Pete to have a pet dragon or a pet bird? Do you want Pete to look in the sky and see a bird or a spaceship? Once you choose, take the picture and place it in the story. The stories are endless!!

How can you use Ahoy, Pirate Pete to increase your child's speech and language skills?
Use this versatile book to help your child in:

Responding to Questions About Stories: After you read the book, ask your child questions. Who is on the ship? What did Pete see? Where was the octopus? Since the story changes every time, it's an extra challenge for your child! You're really helping his listening skills!

Retelling Stories: The ability to re-tell information is vital in your child's school success. He needs to be able to listen and attend, remember details, organize information and then tell the information in grammatically correct sentences with appropriate vocabulary. That's a lot!! Help your child by reading the book a couple of times and then having him tell the story--first with the book, then see if he can do it without.

Learning Vocabulary: You can even use Ahoy, Pirate Pete as a sneaky way to teach vocabulary! Categorizing (or putting similar words together) is a fantastic way to teach vocabulary. So, take all the pieces out of the book and have your child categorize! Put all the food together, all the ocean creatures together, all the things that fly together, etc, etc. Have your child label each item and tell you what the groups have in common. Lots of fun while learning!

Practicing Articulation Skills: Ok, as a speech-language pathologist, I love pirates!! Why? They have truly mastered the R sound!!! AARRRR matey! First, you should know that the /r/ sound isn't expected to be mastered until after age 6-7 or so. You should also know it's a really hard sound to learn!! But, pretending to be a pirate is a really fun way to practice the /r/ sound! So, on each page when your child sees Pete, have him make the "Pirate Sound" of /r/!! Just don't forget to tense up that tongue and raise the back.

Well, Shiver Me Timbers!! That's a lot of fine things you can do with this book! It is surely some great booty to your treasure chest of Discovery Toys swag! Smartly head on over to me website and get yer lads and lassies Ahoy, Pirate Pete!

Fair Winds and Happy Sailing to you, Matey!!
~Marcy
FoxToyBox

What's Happening in my Classroom?

2009-09-02T20:16:00.001-07:00

Today was the first day of school for some of my students! I have 3 classes--Mon/Wed/Fri in the am and pm (my 3 year olds) and Tues/Thurs am (my 4 year olds). So far, they seem like they'll be a lot of fun! *fingers crossed*

I base my class activities on vocabulary themes because I believe that teaching vocabulary in categories is the best way for children to learn new words. Themes/categories help kiddos put new words they encounter into little "filing cabinets" of similar words to expand their vocab.

What's the current theme? Back to School!
We've got vocab words like school, bus, teacher, book, pencil, crayons, friends, backpack, toys, blocks, etc.

How are we teaching these words?
Well, today, we played a game where students took turns opening the backpack and taking out a vocabulary item. They had to label items and maybe even say a sentence (like "I have a backpack").
We also worked on their listening skills by having them point to items or follow directions (like "point to the book," "point to something we use to cut" or "pick up the apple and put it in the blue backpack"). If they can't do any of these right away, we give them cues, like pointing or modeling for them.

We also did a coloring page (with crayons and a bus) to give them a chance to practice their crayon/pencil grasp--- My trick for getting the correct grasp?--breaking crayons in half! (by the way, this is a coloring, experiential activity, NOT a worksheet activity--blech!)

Finally, we used our Discovery Toys EZ Blocks!
EZ Blocks are great first building blocks because they have a grooved top and bottom to make sure that little ones' hands don't accidentally knock the blocks over. They are also a nice size for the little hands, too. Give your EZ Blocks a little shake--they make noise!! How fun and inviting is that? They are also inviting to the eye because they have some basic colors and shapes.

So, how can you use EZ Blocks in a speech and language development class?
Well, first off, "blocks" is one of our vocabulary words for this theme since blocks and toys are key items in a preschool classroom.
We also worked on requesting-- my kids are taught the phrase "I want ___" It's a pretty powerful phrase, if you think about it! A great way to meet your wants and needs! We only give the students 1 or 2 at a time so they will always have something to ask for. We're sneaky that way!
Some basic concepts were also targeted, like colors and shapes, but also concepts like "tall" and "short" or "loud" and "quiet." Who made the tallest tower?

Some of the phrases and sentences I heard used with my students were "I make a castle," "shake blue," and "it fall down!" When we heard these utterances, we modeled and expanded so the students could hear the correct sentence use ("oh, I am making a castle," "I am shaking the blue block" and "it is falling down!").

There is so much more that can be done with EZ Blocks from Discovery Toys! The kids are learning and having fun, too!! They are available here at my website.
Also, check out the new fall catalog to check out an EZ Blocks addition--
EZ Blocks Wheels & More!
Here's to a great school year with lots of learning and playing!

Happy building!
~Marcy

It's September!! A DT teacher's special for you!

2009-09-01T21:09:00.000-07:00

September---
The month that brings chills to children everywhere and makes moms and dads give a sigh of relief.

Then, there's teachers. So many things to do!! Put the classroom back together. Clean out the spiders (yuck. but, true.). Meet new parents. Find class lists. Write lesson plans. Wonder what kind of group you'll have.

It was a great summer, but now it's time for a great new school year. To help my fellow school staff members out, I'd like to offer a special 10% savings off of any Discovery Toys order!

Forever!

That's right! If you work in a school to help improve the life of children, I would like to offer you 10% savings any time you order from me (only orders made through e-mail, though!).

Why? Well, because being a teacher/classroom assistant/health clerk/principal etc. etc. is really a thankless job. Also one of the most difficult jobs out there. And, with budget cuts abound (at least in California), these folks need a break.
Why else? Because I believe in Discovery Toys educational products 100% and know they will enhance any classroom.

So, e-mail me anytime with your order and enjoy your 10% savings!

Happy shopping!
~Marcy
foxtoybox@gmail.com

P.S. Have you seen the new Fall catalog?? What are you waiting for?!?

Discovery Toys Back To School Sale!

2009-08-13T10:47:00.001-07:00

Did ya hear?-
There's a Discovery Toys Sale going on!!

Four totally fun products are on sale right now until they sell out! Once they're gone, they are GONE!

1. Juggle Toss-

On Sale!! Was $18.50 NOW--$10.00!

This is a great product to get moving with! It develops hand-eye coordination as your child tosses the bean bag up and tries to catch it in the cup. Juggle Toss also is a great product to work on social skills, like turn taking, as 2 children can play together and toss the bean bag to each other.

2. I'm Going Green CD-

On Sale!! Was $12.50 NOW-- $6.50!

Music is such a fantastic way to teach new concepts!! This CD is full of very catchy tunes that teach your child (and YOU too ;)) about nature and keeping the Earth clean. Check out previews of some of the songs here. Go green with me!

3. Gearopolis-
On Sale!! Was $37.50 NOW-- $22.50!

Build your own little world with this easy to assemble gear system! Take this 80 piece set and get your creative juices flowing to put this together as you increase your fine motor skills. use your problem solving skills to put the gears in the right places and watch them turn and turn!

4. Out of My Head--

On Sale!! Was $29.99 NOW--$10.00!

I love, love, LOVE this tactile game! Work on turn taking as each player picks a card and then feels inside the alien's head to use only their sense of touch (no peeking, folks!!) to get the same object. You can even work on using descriptive language by talking about what each item is, what it looks and feels like and what you do with it.

Get yours now, before they are sold out! You can check all the items out here at my website! Have you seen the new website? It's pretty!!!
E-mail me if you have any questions!

Happy Sale-Shopping!
~Marcy

Bathtime Fun with Discovery Toys!

2009-08-03T20:13:00.000-07:00

Bath time in the Fox household used to consist of lots and lots of screaming. And splashing. And crying.
Well, it still contains all that, but, fortunately, it occurs at the END of the bath, not at the beginning and middle. She does not want to come out. Why, you ask? I think it has something to do with

Bathtime Bugs

Bathtime Bugs is a 4 piece set made of sturdy, washable plastic. Each piece is a different bug (a butterfly, bumblebee, worm/bug and flower {yeah, I know! A flower isn't a bug...work with me here...}) so you can work on springtime and bug vocabulary!

Here's what the Discovery Toys (fancy, schmancy new) website says about Bathtime Bugs {with my commentary, too!}...and, have you seen the awesome new Discovery Toys Parent Guides?
KEY BENEFITS:

Brightly colored and textured pieces encourage child to investigate early science concepts {Rachel had fun manipulating each piece and exploring. She also was figuring out the concept of water displacement as the worm kept popping out of the flower. It was kinda fun to push it down and squirt the water out!}
Thinking skills are reinforced through cause and effect principles {Rachel had a blast trying to figure out how to keep all 4 bugs under the water at the same time. She also was learning that she had to keep the yellow butterfly under the water for a longer time to get it to full up so she could dump it on herself}
Assists with bath time while aiding motor skill development {Rachel had to use her (cute little) fingers to spin, push, scoop and sprinkle}.
Provides the opportunity to expand vocabulary by introducing new words and concepts and demonstrating their meaning.{Beautiful!! Read below for my speech-language point of view!}
Versatile pieces are also perfect for backyard water or garden play. {we will TOTALLY have to try that!}

And, here it is...the after bath...

So, what kind of cool speech and language things can you do with the Bathtime Bugs?
Early Sound Development- "B" is one of the earliest sounds that develop in children. So, if you are using Bathtime Bugs with your little baby or with your non-verbal child, you can encourage him/her to use their /b/ sound---you've got bath, bug, butterfly, bumblebee, and even bubbles. You can put the pieces by your mouth to help your child focus on your lips. Then, /b/ away to your heart's content! "B-B-B-bubbles! B-B-B-Bee!!" Eventually, your child will join you!

Vocabulary- Remember, teaching words within a theme is one of the best ways to make sure your child is learning the vocabulary. The theme here is "Bugs." Have your child point to each bug as you name them. Then, have your child label each piece as he/she puts them in the tub.
Action vocabulary words--as your child is playing, talk about what she is doing. "Splash," "pour," "swim" and "push" are great words to learn!
Descriptive vocabulary words (a.k.a. adjectives)-- "Wet"

Using Simple Sentences-Some of the things I heard Rachel say included "I taking a bath!," "I got water," "bug go down," "I wet" and, not to mention "no all done!!!" Most of her sentences include a subject, verb and a complement (the basic 3 word sentence), which is pretty typical for a 2 or 3 year old. When she said only "I wet," I could have helped her expand her sentence by saying "yes, you are wet" "you said 'I am wet!"

Bathtime Bugs has been a great addition to our bathtime!! They are available at my website as a set of 4 sturdy pieces for $20. (But, don't forget!! If you order any product through my e-mail by August 11, you can enjoy 10% off your purchase!!).

Keep clean ;)
~Marcy

A blog that I absolutely LOVE!!

2009-08-01T18:28:00.000-07:00

So, I was wandering around Blog-ville and Twitter-land and No Time For Flashcards came up a couple of times. Since no-flashcards!-naturalistic-stuff-only! (or as much as possible...) is a philosophy of mine with my speech-language therapy, I thought I'd check it out.

I was blown away!

Step by step, theme related, nifty-neato activities galore!! How cool is that?!?! She even has photographs of the materials needed and of the step by step directions. (Puts my most recent blog post to shame!! :/ ) And, with me being a visual learner, I LOVE the photos even more. Oh, did I mention her photos star her super cute son? Yup!

OH!! and there's more!! With each coolio activity, she recommends books to go along with them! AND, Allie even sings for us! She really knows her stuff because she's got an extensive background in early childhood education (oh, and she's creative and has her own little one!).

Sorry, I'm drooling here a little. I've totally just found inspiration for my classroom for next year. Yipee!!

I should end this now before Allie thinks she's gonna find me in her front yard or something...
Please check her website out at http://www.notimeforflashcards.com

I'm off to explore her activities some more!...

~Marcy

Fun ocean activity!

2009-07-31T11:29:00.000-07:00

Here is great activity that we used in my classroom to accompany playing AB Seas during our Ocean vocabulary theme...it's A Blue Fishy Drink!

Here's what you'll need: a pitcher (see-through is best!), a spoon, blue powdered drink mix (maybe Kool Aid®), sugar, gummy fish candy and cups.
Since this is a great sequencing activity for students with speech-language delays, having sequencing pictures are very useful. You can do line drawings, cut out pictures or even use photographs. This is an example of what we used in my classroom, made with Microsoft Paint:The sequence is: Pour in the mix, pour in the sugar, pour in the water, put in the fish, stir and watch the fish swim, put it in a cup and drink.

The speech and language targets in this activity included:
sequencing-- we cut up the above pictures and reviewed them first a couple of times. Then, as we made our fishy drink, at each step, we had the kids pick the picture that came next. We were also teaching them the temporal concepts of first, next, then and last.

vocabulary--our vocabulary theme was ocean, so we talked a lot about water and fish. We also taught the action words of pour, put, stir, swim and drink.

turn taking--talking and conversation involve verbal turn taking, like a tennis match. Turn taking is also a basic skill preschoolers need to learn. So, when it came time to stir the fishy drink, the kids were guided to turn to their friend and say "it's my turn."

sentence expansion--my 3- and 4-year olds are typically still communicating using gestures, single words or very short sentences. My job is to get them to use longer sentences. So, as we were making the fishy drink, the students were encouraged to "use your words." We also do this through modeling and expanding-- in our own talking, we use the sentences we expect them to use (for example "I am stirring" or "The water is blue"). Then, when they say something using single words, we help them expand it into a complete sentence (for example, if they say "more," we model "I want more. Yes! You said 'I want more'").

and
articulation--I'm kind of sneaky with my articulation* therapy! (*articulation= how we form our speech sounds). Most of my students are leaving off sounds or changing sounds around, so we need to give them lots and lots of chances to say the words correctly. I chose to focus on the /f/ for Fish, and /s/ for STir. So, as we made our fishy drink, we over emphasized these sounds and encouraged the students to make these sounds. I also like to *show* the kids how to make the sounds by pointing to my mouth to make it obvious how the sound is made.

We also focused on pre-academic skills. (I love working in a preschool setting--we can work on so many things!). These included
counting--we counted the fish as we put them in

colors--we talked about the colors of the fish as we put them it. It also turned out to be a cool science activity as the clear water turned blue when it hit the powder. Magic!!

The students had a lot of fun with this hands-on activity! And, I was happy because there were so many things I could focus on in just one cool activity.
Leave a comment below to let me know if you've tried it!!

Happy swimming!!

What's Happening in My Classroom?

2009-07-14T21:48:00.001-07:00

Well, it's Summer School time, which means a longer day for students in my class, but less kids. So, we have more time to give the students the attention they need and more time to do FUN stuff!!

The vocabulary theme (remember--one of the best ways to teach vocabulary is within vocabulary units to help them categorize new words they use as they put the words in their little "filing cabinets!") for the next few weeks is: Ocean Life!!

What's the best game to play with my preschoolers?

It's ABSeas!!

For starters, AB Seas is a fantastic way to help your little one learn the alphabet. As they go fishing, they catch sea creatures who have upper case letters written on them. They can say the name of the letter and then match it to their game board. Make it a bit more challenging and have your child match the upper case letter to the lower case letter.

And! There's a bonus!! The fishing poles are magnetic which lead to an awesome science experiment! My students had fun going around the room seeing what items the magnet stuck to (the chair leg! the white board! the filing cabinet!) as well as what it did not stick to (the cardboard box, the pocket chart, the water table). It was pretty fun watching them get so excited.

Now, how can AB Seas be used to teach speech and language skills?...
Vocabulary development: As they fish for letters, they will be encountering several sea creatures, including fish, sea horses, octopus and sharks. The box is also decorated with ocean items, like sea weed, coral, water, shells and bubbles. All of these are great for developing labels and descriptive language.

Basic concepts: While your child is playing, they are taking the sea creatures out and putting them on their game board.

Turn Taking: Often, students with speech ang language difficulties have problems with pragmatic language (that's the social use of language; how people interact with others). One key area of pragmatics is turn taking. A sneaky way to work on turn taking is through game playing--especially when you are super sneaky and only give the kids ONE fishing pole!! They need to know that each kid gets a turn and they can use phrases like "it's my turn," or "I want the fishing pole."

More pragmatic language!: Encourage your kids to ask each other "Do you have the letter B" to see if they can play together to find all of the letters.

My speech and language preschoolers are having a lot of fun with AB Seas! I hope you do, too! It's available here on my website!

Happy fishing!
~Marcy

A Discovery Toys Review!

2009-07-12T15:55:00.001-07:00

I absolutely *LOVE* hearing what folks who have attended a party or who have purchased items think of the products they have gotten!!
Teresa was kind enough to e-mail me this review, along with some photos (and even a great video of her son, J.J.!), to let me know how her whole family loves the Discovery Toys products.

Hey Marcy;

I just wanted to let you know, I love discovery toys!! My 6 month old J.J. is fascinated by his teething toy Super Yummy. He loves the different textures, and it's bold red color is eye catching to him. He actually will pick it up and turn it to whatever texture he prefers at that moment. Also, the Rainfall Rattle is his favorite. He is aware of cause and effect now, he knows if he throws it, it makes sound, and mommy or daddy pick it back up and give it to him again. The sound that the beads make going through the holes is fascinating to him. THANK YOU for turning me and my son on to Discovery Toys. I am a faithful follower now because I see how my infant son is in awe over these educational toys.

Sincerely,

Teresa Saavedra

And, here is an adorable picture of J.J. with his Super Yummy and Rainfall Rattle!

Thanks, again, to Teresa for coming to the party and for sharing her experiences!

Happy playing,
~Marcy

A Special Discovery Toys Offer from FoxToyBox!

2009-07-06T21:08:00.000-07:00

It's been such a crazy few weeks! The regular school year has wound down and summer school has started. Plus, I've been getting ready for my daughter, Rachel's 2nd birthday. Today is her day!! I can't believe my little preemie is 2!!

Now, I'd like you to celebrate her birthday with me with a special deal only available from *me* :). (oh, if you get my newsletter, you would already know this ;)).

For the month of July
up until the anniversary of the day
Rachel came home from the hospital (August 11),
send me an e-mail (foxtoybox@gmail.com)
with the subject line "Rachel's Special"
that includes your order,
payment information,
mailing address
and phone number and you will enjoy a
10% savings.

***Please note: this offer is ONLY available via e-mail and will NOT be available on my website. Please use the website ONLY to choose your items!!**

Let me know if you have any questions and enjoy your savings! :)

~Marcy

The Big Red...what?!??!

2009-06-22T15:58:00.000-07:00

Ok, I have to admit...
When I saw The Big Red Shovel on our Summer Sale Days flier, I was pretty skeptical. What is an educational products company doing selling a *shovel?*

But then I thought about it.

Learning isn't all in our brains. Learning also comes from figuring out how our bodies work. We also need to develop gross motor skills! A ha!! That makes more sense!

Now, it's summer time when we are taking our kids outside more often to play at the park and to the beach. Really, I can't think of a better sand toy that I would want more than the Big Red Shovel. Why?
This thing is STURDY! It's one of those items that you really have to handle to realize just how well made and long lasting it is. In fact, it's so sturdy that I've heard of folks who live in snowy areas buying one to keep in their trunk in the winter in case they get stuck in the snow somewhere. It's NOT going to break.
And, it's far more compact than a regular snow shovel.

Yes! that's another selling point--the SIZE. It's small enough for little ones, but big enough for older kids. Really, it's just right! ;)

And, while your kid is playing with The Big Red Shovel, don't forget the concepts you can work on teaching them while you play with them...
Colors-- that's pretty obvious--it's red ;)
Size concepts-- Are you digging a big hole or a small hole? Is your pile tall or short?
Action words-- Digging, making, holding,
Social Concepts--Sharing and turn taking are hard for little ones! But, if they work together while they are working and take turns doing jobs, it just might work! Try to have one child digging while the other fills a bucket; then they can switch.

The Big Red Shovel is only available for short time and, once they're gone, they're gone! It's on sale for $7.50 (regular price is $9.99!).
Feel free to check out my website or e-mail me with questions!

Happy digging!
Marcy

Would you like to know my favorite use for The Big Red Shovel? Digging out the packing peanuts from all of my Discovery Toys delivery boxes!!

Inside Out Puzzle from Discovery Toys

2009-06-10T18:36:00.000-07:00

Ok, this is the COOLEST puzzle ever!! It's not your usual puzzle.

It's the Inside Out Puzzle!

At first glance, it looks like a plain old puzzle in the shape of a house. But, when you take a closer look, you see the puzzle pieces are strangely shaped! That's because, when you take them out and flip them over, they are in the shapes of household items!!

The pieces (which include family members, a car, a clock, a bookshelf, a car, etc, etc!) can then be used in imaginary play as the family wanders around their house. Yes...when the pieces are removed, they reveal the inside rooms of the house! So cool!

How can you use this puzzle to increase language skills?
Well, first, it's a great way to teach vocabulary. What I do is put the puzzle pieces in a bag and have my students take them out one at a time and label what they see. Again, teaching words in categories is one of the best ways to teach vocabulary.

It's also a nice way to work on talking about the functions of objects. I have found that young kids who have a hard time talking about the functions of objects (for example, "tell me what you do with a clock") are kids who may continue to have trouble with listening and talking later on. So, as you are playing with your child, you can say things like "I am getting a book. I read a book. What do you do with a car?" and see if they can answer.

You can also work on conversational skills as you and your child are pretending. Have the mommy talk to the child and encourage your little one to do the same. Model good grammar skills and long sentences.

The Inside Out Puzzle is recommended for kiddos age 4 and up, but even my friends (who are MUCH older than 4...ahem...) enjoyed the challenge of this puzzle...even putting it together with the household items side up. We could have re-named it the Upside Down Puzzle...;)

The best thing?!? It's on SALE for the amazing price of $12.50. But, act FAST because once they are gone, they're GONE!!
Check out the Inside Out Puzzle here at my website or contact me with questions.

Keep on creating!
~Marcy

More school carnivals with Discovery Toys!

2009-06-07T17:43:00.000-07:00

Elia and I had a fantastic time at another carnival put on by one of the schools in my district!! We met some great kids and chatted with other community members.

What product were people most interested in? Zingo!!

I LOVE Zingo!! Yeah, it's kinda like another game that rhymes with Zingo but starts with a B, so you pretty much get the idea!

Zingo comes with 8 double sided cards so many people can play at once. It also comes with a nifty-neato tile dispenser that makes this game FUN! Instead of just flipping cards over, kids get to work this cool contraption to get thier pictures--they slide the dispenser and, presto! 2 picture tiles come out!! Inside the dispenser are 72 heavy duty tiles that have pictures. As the kids take turns, they see if the tiles match pictures they have on their card.

How can I use this to enhance my child's speech and language skills? Excellent question!!

Vocabulary Development- Make sure your child labels the items as they come out the dispenser. If they aren't sure what the word is, give them a clue. For example, if they don't know "clock," make the "C" sound to see if that helps them find the word.

Increase descriptive language- Have your child tell you 2 or things about each picture tile. If they pick "dog," have them say "a dog has four legs and barks." Encourage them to use full sentences and help them if they need it. "what else" or "tell me more" are great ways to get him to say more!

Using grammatically correct sentences- As the tiles come out, have your child tell you a sentence using both words. For example, if they get "bird" and "tree," encourage them to tell you about them. They could say "the bird lives in a tree" or "the bird is flying to the tree." If they miss a word or use the wrong word, simply model for them the correct sentence by emphasizing the missing word. For example, if he says "cat running," you can say "yes! the cat IS running! He IS! He IS running." You feel like you're repeating yourself? That's a GOOD thing! The more we hear something said correctly, the faster we will learn!

Articulation-Ok, I admit, this takes a bit of planning. And, you need to be very aware of the sound your child is working on and if they are able to produce it at all. Ok, so, let's pretend you know that he's working on the "k" and "g" sounds and he can say it in words. Great! Now, go through the tiles and find words with "k" and "g" in them... cat, clock, frog, dog, etc, etc. and put them on the bottom of the piles so you are sure they will get them. Sneaky artic practice! I love it!

Oh, and here's a bonus-- all of the pictures include printed words! Hooray for literacy practice!!

Have a great time playing Zingo with your whole family! If you would like more information about Zingo or other games and products, contact me or visit my website.

Happy playing!

~Marcy

Discovery Toys Summer Sale

2009-06-07T13:17:00.000-07:00

Ok, as promised, here is some information that was sent out in my newsletter this month. It's all about our amazing summer sale that has already started. Check back often to see some reviews of these products and how to use them in a variety of ways with any of the kids in your life!

Check out these amazing discounts!!

SUMMER DAYS SALE!!!
Check out the Sales brouchure here!

From June 1-July 15, we will be having our amazing Summer Days Sale! Some oldies have been brought back and some current products will be available for a deep discount!!
Let's take a look at the savings:

Out of My Head-- At $10, you save $19.99!

Sticker Art Deluxe-- At $8.50, you save $4!

Hoppity Pop Sprinkler At $10, you save $20!

Geoville-- At $9, you save $20.99!

Inside Out Puzzle-- At $12.50, you save $6!

Jungle Tower-- At $10, you save $10!

Alphabet Train-- At $6, you save $3.99!

Roll-a-Rama-- At $7, you save $5.99!

Score Center-- At $15.00, you save $14.99!

Super Marbleworks Raceway Accessory
Set-- At $8.50, you save $7.49!

Hello! Hola! Learning Phone-- At 8.50, you
save $9.49!

Robotic Rover Science Kit-- At $6.50, you
save $3.50!

I'm Going Green CD-- At $6.50,

Quick Call-- At $8.50, you save $4.49!

Big Red Shovel-- At $7.50, you save $2.49!

The Brain Game-- At $15, you save $10!

Pretty amazing savings, if I do say so myself.
Oh, and act quick!! Once these items are gone, they are GONE!!

Contact me ASAP to order or to ask any questions you may have!

~Marcy

Newsletter!!

2009-05-31T18:48:00.001-07:00

I just sent out my latest Discovery Toys newsletter!!
If you would like to be on my mailing list, please contact me!!

Here's a taste of what this month's newsletter talks about:

Summer Days Sale
From June 1-July 15, we will be having our amazing Summer Days Sale! Some oldies have been brought back and some current products will be available for a deep discount!!
Let's take a look at the savings....

Summertime Traveling Fun
I'm sure you're planning lots of summertime fun and activities as well as some vacations for you and your family. Discovery Toys offers several products that will help you in your travels to help keep your kids occupied while also using their brain power!!

Here are a few ideas for you and your children of all ages...

Oh...I feel like such a tease with those ellipses**!! ;)

Don't forget to contact me to get on my newsletter mailing list and to book your party NOW to get in on our summer sale!!

**Aww, don't worry---you know I'll share the info here too! :)

Thanks, everyone!
~Marcy

Carnival season!!

2009-05-31T00:04:00.000-07:00

Well, my elementary school had it's annual Carnival yesterday and we had a cool Discovery Toys booth. It was a lot of fun and there were so many kids with awesome face paintings--our 2nd grade and preschool teachers rock!!

My friends Myra and Elia helped me set up and Elia stayed to help me run the booth. I learned very quickly that Elia is *fantastic* at meeting people and she learned about the toys to help share the information with the parents so quickly!! And--she had so much fun, she's decided to join my team and become an Educational Consultant. Welcome!! I'm very excited!!

So, what did people look at? Well, My First Fairy Tales and Goldilocks were the first to go, and the Tooth Fairy Set sold out!! Zingo is always a hit, as was the Hello Hola phone (which goes on sale MONDAY during our amazing Summer Days Sale!!).

And, I reached a personal milestone!! The carnival helped me reach the second level of Success Start and that means I get my kit for FREE!! Feel free to ask me how you can too!

Next Friday, Elia and I are gonna do it all again at the carnival for another school in my district!

Ode to a discontinued product: Mini Motors

2009-05-27T20:22:00.000-07:00

One thing I'm learning about selling cool stuff is that, sometimes, awesome products come and go. Some are just put out to retire. So is the fate of Mini Motors :(

It may be discontinued, but, I'm using it in my classroom anyway!!
This month's theme is Transportation, so I'm using Mini Motors in a variety of ways:

Teaching Vocabulary
There are 6 different vehicle types, including cars, buses, trains, boats and airplanes. Playing with them and talking about them help young kids learn the labels.

Teaching Play Skills
Play skills don't come naturally to all kids, believe it or not! We model how to make the planes fly in the air, pretend kids are getting on the bus or how the boats splash and speed through the water.

Learning Colors
The vehicles come in a variety of colors, so we label the colors as we play.

Pre-Math Skills
Patterning yellow-blue-yellow-blue; train-bus-train-bus-train-bus These simple patterns help with developing pre-math skills by preparing children to observe patterns in the environment, including with numbers. Oh!! Reading involves patterns too!!
Sorting The kids can put all the planes together, all the blue vehicles together or all the vehicles that go on land together! Once they start seeing the the characteristics of the items, they can even start simple mathematics!!
Simple mathematics! 2 planes plus 1 car equal 3 vehicles! Cool!

Now, if you miss these amazing manipulatives for pre-math, fear not!! Busy Bugs is another manipulatives set that even comes with cards to show the kids how to pattern and do simple math!

And, to continue on the Transportation vocabulary theme, we also offer the Working Trio Dump Trucks, the Rough and Tough book set, the aptly named Plane Train and Automobile, Motor Works and even Hammer Away!

Happy motoring!!

~Marcy

Saturday's Small Talk Six!

2009-05-23T10:23:00.000-07:00

I'm really a blogging newbie and I've found some totally fun things as I've made my way through the blogosphere!! (Many of the blogs are ones I've found through MomDot's Blog Link A-Thon!).

One fun meme I've found is the "Small Talk Six," which is a fun getting-to-know-you meme where you can respond to each weekly topic with a list of 6 words, 6 phrases, 6 sentences, 6 paragraphs, or 6 photos.

So here goes my

"6 things you love or hate about the ocean"

1. Me and my honey in Hawaii!! I think this was before I accidentally kicked the manta ray...

2. Sunsets over the ocean are so very beautiful!!

3. Watching the waves crashing is so peaceful. I love driving up the coast and just watching the waves.

4. I've always lived on a coast, near the ocean, and somehow, I can sense the directions (east or west) when I know where the ocean is.

5. Ok, there are some things I don't like--the icky stuff that gets on you and makes you all sticky! Maybe I should'nt have taken the marine biology class---I know a bit more if what makes you sticky...

6. The ocean is very intimidating! There are so many things we don't know about it and it just goes on forever. It makes me a bit nervous.

It's the Fabulous Blog Link A Thon!!

2009-05-22T10:53:00.000-07:00

Thanks so much to MomDot for putting this together!!
Please check out these amazing blogs!! Ok, I'm off to explore them, too!

1. Lori@Not Always Charming

2. Fairy Blog Mother

3. Crazy Adventures in Parenting

4. Engineer a Debt Free Life

5. Sweet ‘n’ Sassy Girls

6. Good Golly Miss Blondie

7. SavvySuzie

8. For The Love of Baby!

9. Tammy@lovemy2dogs

10. Blessings Abound

11. Coupons, Deals and More

12. Hairstyles For Girls

13. Stacie @ The Divine Miss Mommy

14. A latte in the morning

15. KiddiesCorner Deals

16. 3 Kids and Us | Mom Blog

17. The Ohana Mama

18. Coupon Queens of Laurel Run

19. Today’s Journey

20. Eve @ Confessions of a Housewife

21. My Charmed Life

22. Laurie@DoubleBugs

23. Lisa @ Final Score boys3 girls2

24. New Sue Review

25. Suzanne Calling

26. Just For Me…and You

27. Time Slides By

28. Babes and Kids

29. Declutter a Little Each Day

30. Grocery Savings for Real Families

31. Life Starring Ellie and Eve

32. So Cute Crafts

33. Brea’s Mommy

34. Are Muffins Just Ugly Cupcakes

35. It’s A Beauty Filled Life

36. The crazy suburban mom

37. Donna’s World

38. Momma’s Gone Over the Wall

39. Mommy’s Quiet Time

40. Joyce (Saving My Cents)

41. My Trendy Tykes

42. The Not-So-Blog

43. Confessions From HouseholdSix

44. SiPPyCuPSand FiNGerPriNTS

45. Jennifer@CouponMommie

46. Shasta @ Crackers&Chaos

47. Giftfully Simple

48. Just For Fun

49. Digital Mommy

50. Me And Craig

51. Parenting Princesses

52. Shan@Last Shreds Of Sanity

53. Inside My Head

54. Petit

55. My Love Lucy

56. FreckleBox personalized gift

57. Baby Lulu Dress

58. Blog 4 Mom

59. 3 Garnets & 2 Sapphires

60. Jolly Mom

61. My Life My Journey

62. Maman And Gourmand

63. Jess - Life @ 30

64. The POSHpreneur

65. A Blog of Goodies

66. Christy aka The Write Gal

67. LookWhatMomFound

68. Peanut Butter & Smelly’s Dad

69. Lucy

70. Angry Julie Monday

71. The Mogul Mom Blog

72. Angela

73. Deal-ectible Mommies

74. Christy’s Creations

75. Lisa

76. Courtney@Booksnboys

77. Wannabe Supermom

78. Thre Craft Momma

79. Internet Toddler

80. Jennifer@Life is a Sandcastle

81. Kristen of La Dolce Vita

82. Cranberry Fries

83. Toni @ The Mud Bug

84. The Mom Buzz

85. Tricia @Nightowl Mama

86. Frugal Mommy of 2 Girls

87. Mommy Cracked

88. EclecticBird

89. Mama Mentor

90. Moomettesgram’s Musings

91. Moomette’s Magnificents Reviews

92. Moomettesgram’s Favorite Recipes

93. Diaries of a Domestic Goddess

94. Go Graham Go!

95. NerdFamily Things

96. NerdFamily Blog

97. Making Money Keeping Money

98. NerdFamily Food

99. Flying Giggles & Lollipops

100. Gena @ Morris Bunch

101. Crystal @ Simply Being Mommy

102. A Kindred Spirit’s Thoughts

103. Two Of A Kind, Working On A Full House

104. D-Lo’s Lounge

105. Free Sample Freak

106. What Mommies Need

107. Mom of 2 Boys, Wife of 1

108. icefairy’s Treasure Chest

109. Cheaper Than Therapy

110. Therapeutic Reviews & Giveaways

111. Lily Bean Designs

112. Dirty Diaper Laundry

113. Dance Momma

114. JamericanSpice

115. Mombalance

116. A Pocket Full Of Buttons

117. Ordinary and Awesome

118. Reviews and Giveaways

119. Subjective Beauty

120. Tales From A Shopaholic Mommy

121. Mommiemayhem

122. IE Mommy

123. Nikki @ Blasian Baby Notes

124. Amber Woodward

125. Grammy Janet’s Place

126. Outnumbered 3 to 1

127. ShimmerMeBlue

128. Dev’s Favorite Giveaways

129. Joyful Money Saving

130. 1stopmom

131. A Modern Mama

132. PourSomeSugarOnMe

133. Fancast

134. Lollipop Baby

135. Lola & Ben

136. idoby2celebrants

137. Sue Jackson

138. Cackleberry Kids

139. Gifts By The Stars

140. Jemma

141. Handmade Kids

142. Ollie Rose

143. Babasfarmlife

144. Banquet Manager

145. Monkey’s Momma

146. This Mom Can Shop

147. EcoLabel Fundraising

148. Divine Chaos

149. baby kakes ink alphabet onesie

150. tee from recycle me

151. Elizabeth @ Suzy Q Homemaker

152. marla mandell bread (5/17)

153. ozone socks 5/15

154. Belly Bumps to Baby Hugs

155. Hip T

156. ThenComes Baby

157. Homemade Gourmet

158. Fresh Pure and Simple

159. MomDot Mom Blogs

160. MomDot Mom Reviews

161. Bloggers Give Charity

162. Organic Baby Resource

163. Potamus Prefers

164. The Army Wife

165. Through Hazel Eyes

166. Frugal Rhode Island Mama

167. Just Jingle

168. And Twins make 5!

169. Frugal Plus

170. Christie

171. What Happened To My House?

172. Miracles on Mama Street

173. Heck Of A Bunch

174. Blog Designs by Susan

175. mommy23monkeys

176. Hanna

177. Got Kids Need Valium

178. Womb At The INNSANE

179. Katie & Kimble Blog

180. Kim @ Adventures SAHM

181. The Frugalicious Mommy

182. Penny Pinching Diva

183. Another day. Another thought or two

184. Beauty4Moms

185. Nikki @evilflu.com

186. Little Miss Julia

187. Mrs Zeee

188. Cheryl

189. Frazzle Dazzle SuperMom

190. Florida Mealtime Savers

191. Inspiration Station

192. Mommy’s Kitchen

193. Saving with MamaNordy

194. Saving SAHM Sanity

195. A Little Piece Of Perfect

196. Nodin’s Nest

197. Lil Miss Eco

198. Laryn Strickland

199. HeatherMama

200. The Gerber Babies Blog

201. WhateverSuccess

202. Women Who Win

203. Kat @ The Burb Blog

204. Happy Healthy Families

205. Sweeps4Bloggers

206. dramaqueensmum

207. The Mom Trap

208. Multitasking Mama

209. Mama Michies Musings

210. Little People Wealth

211. Belly Beyond

212. Kim Kihega

213. Mom Fuse

214. Juanita

215. Adopt a Do

216. On the Refriderator Door

217. Christine

218. Little Diva

219. My Household Junk

220. I’m Here….Really

221. Brittany@The Greer 5

222. mary

223. Nicole @ Nicole’s Nickels

224. Lori Newman

225. Kris @ NSQSA

226. Debb

227. Shawn Ann’s World

228. Peke Moe -NZ made baby sleep sacks

229. A Simple Kinda LIfe

230. Sweet Serendipity

231. Bouncing Off The Walls

232. Jane Loedding

233. Msbuildingupdabenjamins

234. Msbuildingupdabenjamins

235. Msbuildingupdabenjamins

236. Musings from Me

237. Veronnica

238. The Adventures of Miss V

239. Mudd Kids

240. Mom Most Traveled family travel

241. Relishing the Dirt

242. Good, True and Beautiful

243. Deb @ Frugal Living and Having Fun

244. The Last Blog on Earth

245. A Wrestling Addicted Mommy

246. Rae

247. kimert@diaries of a coach’s wife

248. Dore’s Diaries

249. Blog by Donna

250. Lisette

251. Pillaging With Buffie

252. Mom of Faith

253. GODSOWN

254. flutterbyechronicles

255. shelley

256. Life In A House Of Blue

257. kristen

258. Alex the Fey Thriller Series

259. MamaCheaps!

260. Donalacasa

261. A Jewish Journey

262. Anissa @ Our Chaotic Life

263. BethinNC

264. Stuttering Shell

265. Don’t Blink

266. Life is Sweet

267. Lisa

268. Sue@Stay At Home Mom

269. m.e (cathie)

270. Run DMT

271. Princess Ratbag

272. Michelle G

273. CF Mama @ Nathan’s Fight

274. Moody Mama Says

275. Laurie Ann

276. Cooking During Stolen Moments

277. A Simple Walk

278. Vanessa

279. middleagedmom

280. Ramblings Of A Wannabe Writer

281. Oh My Baby

282. Fordcast Sunny

283. Lisa Miller

284. Stacie @ The Divine Miss Mommy

285. Bibs & Cribs {very cute stuff}

286. My Lil’ Budget Book

287. Misadventures in Baby Raising

288. My Mommy Said

289. Milk & Honey Mommy

290. Milk and Honey Mommy

291. Amy O’Neal

292. Parenting Children

293. A Girl And Her Life

294. MarieLynn Boutique Blog

295. Born Fabulous Boutique Blog

296. The Pitter Patter Boutique

297. Stephanie Deese

298. Brea’s Baby Boutique Blog

299. digiscrapping.net - Heather Manning

300. Kids Activities Blog

301. Two Little Whales Cloth Diapers & More

302. 3 boys & a dog

303. Karen ~Georgia Angel

304. JenniferB @ my not so hurried life

305. Shannon Blogs Here

306. A Virtuous Woman

307. Secrets of a Southern Kitchen

308. Dreamer

309. Lollipop Book Club

310. Mommie Daze Virtual Baby Shower

311. Heck Of A Bunch

312. MomSaves4U

313. Barely Domestic Mama

314. Emilie @ Baby Loving Mama

315. Professional Family Manager

316. Kathleen

317. Coaching The Family

318. Frugal Creativity

319. Easy Being Green

320. Dandelion Bubbles

321. Shelly aka The Attic Girl

322. Foxtoybox-Discovery Toys

323. Ashley @ Beauty4Moms

324. Colleen - Mommy Always Wins

325. Playground for Parents

326. World of Discovery

327. Kati @ Country Girl City Life

329. A Little Bit Nutty

330. Mahayla’s Mommy

331. Mommy Goggles

332. The Shopping Mama

333. If I Could Escape . . .

And check out #322!! Woohoo!!

What's happening in my classroom?

2009-05-21T20:10:00.000-07:00

This month's theme in my classroom has been Zoo Animals. We've had a lot of fun singing cool songs about "Going to the Zoo" (yay Raffi!!), playing with our zoo animals, making lots of animal sounds and working on cute projects.

One week was dedicated to pre-math concepts. That week, we counted animals, made AB patterns with zebra stripes and read the fabulous Discovery Toys product:

Counting with Animals!

This one little book is jam PACKED with educational concepts! Let's take a look:
Introduction to numbers- on the left side of each page, the numbers 1-5 are shown (one at a time as you turn the pages!). The coolest thing about this is the numbers look like Touch Math**! There are a number of dots on the numbers that correspond with the amount the number represents, which really helps those kinesthetic learners as they move their fingers to count. **disclaimer--it's not TouchMath--it just reminds me of this fabulous way of teaching numbers and math.

Introduction to shapes and colors- on the right side of each page, there are peek through holes that are in some of the basic shapes, like squares, circles, triangles. Oh!! And, the amount of holes corresponds to the number shown! And, guess what?! The peek-a-boo shapes show off colors that are on the secret "Lift and Learn" flap!

Lots and lots of opportunities for counting-inside the flaps, there are oodles of animals to count and, you guessed it, the amount of each animal corresponds to the featured number on the previous page!

Lots and lots of opportunities to see the numbers- while you and your child are reading, the book asks your child to find certain animals. This gives your child many chances to see the number in print.

Language and speech concepts!!
Vocabulary-I know I've mentioned it before, but, presenting new words within categories is the best way to teach vocabulary and add words to that "filing cabinet" in the right place.

Articulation- Hooray for a multitude of multisyllabic words!! Many of my students leave off those pesky unstressed syllables when they are talking (so, "elephant" becomes "ephant"). Well, Counting with Animals has oodles and oodles of animals with lots of syllables!!
Elephants, butterflies, caterpillars, oh my!

And, as a person who works with preschoolers, I certainly appreciate the quality of Counting with Animals!! The book is very sturdy and strong to resist those busy hands who might get a little rough and accidentally rip the book. Also, the pages are laminated, which is so fabulous because, well, 3- and 4-year olds get kinda snotty!! Little sneezing kiddos are no problem with Counting with Animals!!-- Wipes off so easily!

Oh, and did I mention how affordable it is? $13.50 is a great price for such a high quality book!! Please checkout my website and get your own copy of Counting with Animals!!

Check this one out, too!

2009-05-18T19:06:00.001-07:00

Even more love!! :D

Spreading the love!!

2009-05-18T16:56:00.000-07:00

I wanted to introduce you all to a cool website that shares everything MOM and KID!! Check it out!

Castle Marbleworks!

2009-05-12T19:02:00.000-07:00

Y'know, you don't really know exactly what a child can learn from a toy until you watch them play with it, or until you see it for yourself. Rachel and I just spent quite a while playing with her brand new CASTLE MARBLEWORKS (with brief interruptions for kisses and dancing with Salt N Pepa--VH1 was in the background).

By the way, I got the CASTLE MARBLEWORKS for 50% off, just like any other customer can during the month of May. Ask me how!!

Here are some cool things I heard while playing with Rachel's CASTLE MARBLEWORKS :
"More balls"
"Mama find it"
"Woah, balls!"
"Watch the balls"
"Top"
"Round and round"
"Thank you"

Top? Wow--I didn't know she knew that!

So, some cool concepts that can be taught using CASTLE MARBLEWORKS:
in, out, down, open, close (the door moves!), top, bottom, colors, counting to 3

Rachel also showed me how it is a problem solving activity when she tried and tried to make it so the balls wouldn't come out. It's also a motor activity when she moved her body all around trying to get the balls back out!
And, you know, even the jingly balls are fun to listen to as they move down the tracks, for some great auditory stimulation. :D

So, don't forget--during the month of May, you too can get a CASTLE MARBLEWORKS for 50% off! Ask me how.

Happy playing!
Marcy
www.discoverytoyslink.com/foxtoybox
foxtoybox@gmail.com

Happy Mother's Day!!

2009-05-10T14:51:00.000-07:00

Life completely changes when you become a mother! Motherhood is one of the most challenging, yet rewarding jobs there is. Like the Army--the toughest job you'll ever love :)

When Rachel was just born and still in the NICU (she was a preemie), this song just struck me so much that I dedicated it to her. It brings me back to my headbanging teenage years, too :). I can't dedicate a song to myself on Mother's Day, so I'll share Rachel's song with you!!

What You Give by Tesla

Who's the one that makes you happy?
Or maybe, who's the one always on your mind?
And who is the reason you're livin' for?
Who's the reason for your smile?

I feel so lonely, yet I know I'm not the only one
To ever feel this way.
I love ya so much that I think I'm goin' insane.
I'm goin' crazy, outta my head.
Goin' crazy, outta my head.
Can't think about nothin' but your good, good love,
And what you give.

Now, ev'ry one needs somebody.
And you know, ev'rybody needs someone.
Well, and a-yes it's true!
Ev'rybody needs a special kind of love,
And you're the only one I'm thinkin' of.
You mean the world to me.
You are my only!

(chorus)

It's not whatcha got, it's a-what you give.
It ain't the life you choose, it's the life you live.
It's not what you got, only what you give, only what you give,
It's not whatcha got, a-but the life you live.
It's the life you live.

You're the one that makes me happy. Oh yeah baby.
And you're the one always on my mind. And a-yes it's true.
You are my reason, my one and only that I've been livin' for
Why can't forever be forever and nothin' more. (To Chorus)

It's not whatcha got, it's a-what you give.
It ain't the life you choose, it's the life you live.
No, no, no, no, no!
It's not whatcha got, it's a-what you give.
And it ain't what it's not, but a-what it is!

Enjoy your day, Mommies!!

Marcy
foxtoybox@gmail.com
www.discoverytoyslink.com/foxtoybox

What are people buying?

2009-05-08T21:15:00.000-07:00

Lately, several people have purchased the THINK-IT-THROUGH Tiles System.

This is a self-correcting learning system that really sparks kids' visual perception and cognitive skills as they are playing*.
(*They're really LEARNING--but don't tell them that!! They're having too much fun!)

There are several academic areas that the THINK-IT-THROUGH system focuses on, including math, language arts and science concepts and logic, reasoning and visual perception skills. There are a total of 20 books in the system, which can be purchased separately or as comprehensive sets. Each set is geared toward different age levels, too---but, if your child needs a bit of extra help, you can get the lower level books or you can get the higher level books for later! Activities in each book get progressively harder as your child learns the basic skills.

The Tiles Case is the magic of the system, though!! As your child answers the problem, they match the tile to the problem's correct answer and put it in the correct place on the case's corresponding letter. When they are done, they flip the case over and discover a pattern. If the pattern matches the one in the book, they've got it!! If not, they can see which problem they missed and go back and fix it on their own. How empowering!

And, because it's self-correcting, it really enhances your child's independent learning, which is a skill that he or she will need throughout their school years.

So, who has bought THINK-IT-THROUGH?
Moms! Moms who wanted a fun way for their kids to practice academic skills in a fun way! Moms who understand the importance of repeated practice of skills to make sure their child has *really* learned what was taught. Moms who realize that kids need to keep their minds sharp during summer vacation.

Teachers!! My friend at my school purchased the Complete Set with extra Tile Cases to use during her independent center times in her classroom. She looked through the books and saw the value in the extra practice this system will give her students. Her students will use THINK-IT-THROUGH both independently to boost their test-taking confidence, and with partners to work on their cooperative learning. Oh, and an added bonus of helping with standardized assessments and increasing test scores!! Awesome!

Check it out here and let me know if you have any questions by e-mailing me at foxtoybox@gmail.com

Happy learning!
~Marcy
www.discoverytoyslink.com/foxtoybox