Wrapping up our Rooms of the House Theme

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

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

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!

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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In the Bathroom

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!

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"Signing Time" in the Classroom

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"

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."

 

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Shapes House!

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 !

 

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Welcome to Our House!

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!