From Miss Cheryl’s and Miss Ginger’s SNP Class
Special Events This Week
November 17- Celebrate Families Day --Thanksgiving Feast
Please join your child at lunch time for a Thanksgiving Feast. Our Family Day is November 17. This is the day for you to join your child at lunch time. You will be eating in the cafeteria with them from 11:05 to 11:35. We will go through the cafeteria line and be seated at a special table just for you, your child and any other family members with reservations. REMEMBER YOU MUST MAKE A RESERVATION TO ATTEND- please. This is a very popular and crowded event. The children love to have their parents attend!
Before Lunch we are having a special song presentation for all those who will be attending!!!! Please arrive at our room (C-302) between 10:30 and 10:40.
November 21-25- Thanksgiving Break --- NO SCHOOL- Have a happy and safe Thanksgiving!
LAST WEEK IN OUR CLASS
The children all loved playing in the pretend grocery store and creating their own store with blocks. They re-enacted the story of using toy animals and pretend vegetables featured in “To Market, To Market”. In science they explored all different vegetables using all their senses. For our food activities last week the children peeled carrots, opened and tasted bean pods and made vegetable soup. On Friday the children cut up soft vegetables using popsicle sticks then added them to the “broth”. After a quick cook in the microwave we tasted some delicious vegetable soup. They discovered so much about vegetables during the week.
OUR FOCUS THIS WEEK
The week before Thanksgiving we are reading “I Know an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Pie” by Allison Jackson. This funny, rhyming story is about an old lady who visits a family on Thanksgiving Day and eats everything including the pot the food is cooked in. As the story progresses she becomes increasingly bigger and bigger. Finally she becomes so large she ends up flying as a parade balloon on Thanksgiving Day.
The key concepts that we are focusing on this week include rhyming words; story sequencing; Thanksgiving foods and family traditions; foods versus non-food items; functions of objects; nutrition and health; and seriation (in this story-from small to big). We will continue to play grocery store and in the kitchen to prepare for the Thanksgiving holidays as well as learn more about vegetables and fruits. We will also be making some turkeys for Thanksgiving decorations.
Our vocabulary words are:
pie cider roll squash salad turkey pot cake bread
Thanksgiving dry swallow rumble/grumble
Homework:
- Take your child grocery shopping. Find and look at the foods found in our vocabulary word list.
Higher level thinking question -- What do you eat on Thanksgiving Day?
2. Check out the different departments found in the grocery store with your child. Look at the vegetable section, the fruit section, the bread section, the meat section, and the bakery. Do not forget to look at the turkeys!
Higher level thinking question—What foods are healthy and unhealthy for you?
- Let your child help pay for the groceries or some other items. This will help them learn that money is exchanged for things you want or need.
Look at coins. Match and sort them. Make AB and ABC patterns with them. Start a pattern and let them extend it or match it if not able to extend it. See if they can create their own patterns.
Higher level thinking question-- What do you use to buy things with at the market? What can you buy at the grocery store?
- Let them watch and help in the kitchen. What items do you use to cook with? Is it safe to get near the store or oven when something is cooking? Let them measure and pour wet and dry ingredients. Use a vegetable peeler and peel some carrots or other vegetables. Please make sure an adult is watching at all times. Lay the vegetables on their sides before peeling and move the peeler away from the hand. Make sure you emphasize appropriate handwashing before cooking and eating.
Higher level thinking question—Can a person really eat a pot (or any cooking utensil) like the old lady does in the story?
5. If possible watch a Thanksgiving Day parade with your child to see the large parade balloons or view a parade with large parade balloons on Youtube.
Higher level thinking question- Can a person really turn into a balloon?
5. Nursery Rhymes and Poems
To Market, To Market
To market, to market, to buy a fat pig.
Home again, home again, jiggerty jig.
To market, to market, to buy a fat hog,
Home again, home again, jiggerty jog.
Hot Cross Buns
Hot cross buns. Hot cross buns.
One a penny. Two a penny.
Hot cross buns.
Funny Turkey
The turkey is a funny bird.
His head goes wobble, wobble.
And all he says is just one word,
Gobble, gobble, gobble.
7. Fingerplay
Five Fat Peas
Five fat peas in a pea pod pressed (hold hand in a fist)
One grew, two grew, so did all the rest. (put thumb and fingers up one by one)
They grew and grew (raise hand in the air very slowly)
And did not stop,
Until one day
The pod went POP! (clap hands together)
8. Related Literature--- Growing Vegetable Soup- Lois Ehlert; Lunch- Denise Fleming; Eating the Alphabet- Lois Ehlert; Today is Monday- Eric Carle
Pre-Academic Activities for the Full Day Students
LETTER TIME-- Letter Qq-
Remember to continue to review the previous letters as we begin to progress. Don’t forget to use the chants I sent home as you practice writing. The children enjoy saying the chants or hearing you repeat the chants as they write in sand, rice or flour using their pointer finger and on an upright chalkboard with chalk or on an attached paper with a crayon on an upright board.
This week we will be learning letter Qq. I will emphasize the beginning sounds as in quail, quarter and quick. I will send home vocabulary words for you to practice with your child to reinforce the letter sound. Try to follow the activities and strategies listed below. Please keep in mind that each child has varying abilities. I will expose your child to the standards that are age appropriate but will adjust each lesson to their individual levels and needs.
IF your child is becoming frustrated when writing his/her first name in upper and lower case letters I have chants for the lower case letters that I can give you. Please email me if you need the chants!!
Thursday- Music( full day students)- The class is going to start participating in one weekly Specials class with a kindergarten class. (What are Specials?- Music, P.E. and Art) On Thursdays we will be going to Music. I want to thank Mr. Savage for allowing us to participate in this activity as the students are only in preschool. We will start on a trial basis first to make certain they are ready to attend and participate. This will be a very beneficial activity for them.
Friday Media Center (full day students) —On Fridays we will visit the Media Center and check out one book. Please read this book with your child daily. The book needs to be returned by following Friday or your child will not be able to check out another book. Please help your child learn to respect the books he/she has brought home. Show them the proper way to handle the books and how to put them away. We practice this at school in our classroom library and they need to know the same respect and treatment of books applies at home also.
More activities for increasing letter awareness, letter sound awareness and handwriting-
- Go on a treasure hunt around your house (inside and/or outside) to find items that begin with each letter sound. (Use the vocabulary words I have sent home to help you.)
- ALWAYS practice writing their first names in upper and lower case letters—not just upper case (capital letters). At this age children only need to learn to write the upper case letters (except in the first names). They should learn to recognize both upper and lower case letters.
- Practice writing the letters.
- Look in books, magazines, etc. to find both the upper and lower case letter of the week. Always go from left to right as you do when you read. They can even use a highlighter to mark the letters they find. This is also a great review exercise for the previous letters we have learned. For those students who can recognize the letters this is a great way to start exposing them to words. Have them find and highlight the word that has the letter in it.
- READ to your child. Read a variety of books to them. Ask questions about what you are reading- use “what” and “who” questions at first. Then move on to questions that require higher thinking- where, when, how and why. Talk about the pictures. Point to the words as you are reading. All of these things increase awareness which will help them learn to read
Handwriting Strategies To Use-
- Using a shortened normal sized crayon or pencil will encourage the correct hand position when they are writing if this is needed for your child. The shortened length requires your child to have to hold the writing instrument using a more appropriate grasp. A crayon helps the writer increase pressure when writing. Pencils tend to slip easily and may not be the best instrument to use for beginning writers. Markers should not be used until they are established writers. Once your child is an established writer use regular length crayons and begin writing with pencils.
- Writing on a slanted surface such a 3 inch binder helps to keep their hand and arm in the correct position if needed.
- Writing with chalk on an upright easel encourages correct arm and hand position PLUS it increases the need to add pressure.
- While they are writing say the chants I sent home with your child will help remember the correct way to form the letters. (These will be sent home when we begin letter formation.)
- Have your child write while laying prone (flat) on his stomach. This is another way to reinforce the correct position for the arm and hand when writing.
- Roll playdoh or other modeling clay into balls first and then snakes. Use the snakes to form the letters. Use a rectangle shape such as a picture frame with no glass as a guide to form the letters. ALWAYS form the letters starting from the top to bottom inside the rectangle shape using the edges as a guide.
- Practice writing the letter shapes with their fingers on sandpaper; in rice, sand or flour; or hair setting gel in a sealed plastic bag.
Speech and Language- Miss Allison
Check out the Speech and Language page on the left side of this blog page.
Georgia Pre-K Content Standards Link
Here is a useful link to the Ga. Preschool/ Pre-K content standards. As special needs preschool educators our lessons are planned around these standards and the individual needs of each student. You may find information on this site helpful when you are working with your child at home and in your community. This site will help you as parents become familiar with the standards your child will need know or be exposed to during their preschool/pre-k years. The standards are set up according to your child’s chronological age. IF your child is older than 4 they will still be concentrating on the 4 year old standards. To access the standards click on the top address for the preschool standards or click on the bottom address for the Pre-K standards.
Preschool Standards http://decal.ga.gov/documents/attachments/GELSSection6.pdf
Pre-K Standards http://decal.ga.gov/documents/attachments/Content_Standards_Full.pdf
