Winter Snow!

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

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!

Winter Fun--Throwing Snowballs!

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"

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 Music

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

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!