Stop & Go and Neighborhood Helpers

Our large groups this week are two we have done previously but with the students that come different days. To see what they are, click on the links below:

Stop and Go Large Group

*Neighborhood Helpers Large Group

*I've been referring to it on our lesson plans and blog as 'community helpers' but with the students we have been saying 'neighborhood helpers' because it makes more sense to them about what they are.

Our Large Group and Small Group lesson plans:

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Transitions: This is a new element we have added to our greeting time of the day. Greeting Time looks like this: We sing our welcome song, have a student count the kids, go over our white board with activities and reminders for the day and read our nursery rhyme. After that, everyone gets to go to their tables for small group. I have sticks with different items on them with directions like, "If you first name starts with this sound", "If your name starts with this letter", "If you are wearing this color", "Move like this kind of animal" etc. We draw one out and that is how everyone get's to leave for their table.

April Fools: April Fools day will be next week on Tuesday. In honor of it, (and the only trick we'll play as to not confuse our students too much), we will be turning our milk blue. We have individual cartons that they usually pour into cups or drink out of with a straw. I'll probably get them all out in the morning, pour them into a pitcher, mix in the food coloring and re-fill them. Hopefully it's strange (and exciting enough) that they will share with you what happened!

"How Many Strawberries?" small group activity

Trains, Stop & Go and Minecraft

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Trains: For our train large group activity, we are going to use the same format that Melissa did for her 'Monster Truck' activity. This will help emphasis and review the concepts the students were learning about the prepositions "Under", "Behind", "Through", "Over" and "On". The students will all have a train car to wear with a number on it. We will line up numerically helping the students figure out which car comes next.

We then will go under the table, behind the mountain, through the tunnel, over the bridge and on the tracks as we make it back to circle time. We then will switch up the numbers and let someone else be the engine and caboose as we get to do it again.

"On the Tracks"

"Behind the Mountain"

Stop and Go: We've had a lot of discussion in our class lately between peers doing something we don't want them to do, their friends saying stop and them not stoping so we're going to have a large group activity on it to practice. Starting with the teacher, we're going to take turns deciding which way to move our bodies (eg. clapping hands, stomping feet, flying like Iron Man). When the "stop" sign is showing, we stop quickly and when the "go" sign is showing we can move again. Then we will talk about how if our friends ask us to stop we need to stop. If we need a friend to stop, we can stay "stop" and if they don't listen, we can go to an adult instead of hitting or pushing them back.

Minecraft: For the Large Group activity, see Miss Melissa's Blog:  http://missmelissasspeech.blogspot.com/2014/03/minecraft.html

Our "Minecraft Collage" Small Group Activity. We found the sheets to cut up here: 

http://www.frugalfamilytimes.com/2013/08/minecraft-birthday-party-printables.html

Fire Extinguishers, Small Group Activity Update from this Week

It took some troubleshooting but our small group fire extinguisher activity proved to be a success:

It ended up just being baking soda in the bowls and vinegar in the spray bottles (we tried some dish detergent too but it just made everything bubbly). All in all, the students had a lot of fun and our room smelled very strongly of vinegar. At the end we added food coloring to make it even more fun.

We got the flames from this site: http://homeschoolcreations.com/FiremenPrintables.html

Neighborhood Helpers and "Let it Go"

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For our Tuesday Large Group See this Link: (Let it Go Large Group)

For our Monday Large Group we have a dice with different neighborhood helpers on it. Each student gets a turn rolling the dice. They then tell us what that person does and we sing our song. For example, if Fireman or Policeman is rolled, the song may be sung this way: (sung to the tune of If Your Happy and You Know It).

If you're a fireman and you know it, spray the hose,
If you're a fireman and you know it, spray the hose,
If you're a fireman and you know it, then you've got to really show it.
If you're a fireman and you know it, spray the hose.

If you're a policeman and you know it, stop fast cars,
If you're a policeman and you know it, stop fast cars,
If you're a policeman and you know it, then you've got to really show it.
If you're a policeman and you know it, stop fast cars.

Other Neighborhood Helpers we have are:
Crossing Guard
Construction worker
Farmer
(Forest) Ranger
Cook (Chef)
Businessman/Businesswoman
Life Guard
Doctor
Nurse
Mail Man
Teacher
Waitress/Waiter
Veterinarian
Mechanic

Small Group 'Post Office Letter Writing'

Fire Extinguisher Video

How Does Your Engine Run and "Let it Go"

Updated on the previous blog post for this week.

Our occupational therapist came in today to run a "How Does Your Engine Run" large group with the students. She will be doing the same group with our Thursday class as well. For a quick summary of what this program is, see the handout on Ms. Melissa's blog (click here). For the large group, Shannon had the students move "slow", "medium" and "fast". She had a chart that the student's could then stick a character on depending what they were most like. Tigger went on the 'fast' section, Eyore on the 'slow' section and Pooh on the 'medium' section. She also had character's like 'Mater' from Cars and Lightning McQueen. They students were asked to think about what area they fall in during the day (whether in a routine, sleepy at night, medium at small group, fast on the playground). We can use this concept to help them regulate themselves during the day as needed. Oh you are fast like lightning McQween, let's slow down and be like Sally Carrera.

Fast

Slow

Medium

We've switched around our Large Group for Wednesday. Our student's LOVE the "Let it Go" song from Disney's Frozen. Per request of a student today, we showed the music video and the entire class was surrounding us and most of them singing to it, even some of the students who normally choose not to sing. We will watch a short clip of this video:

Then we will pass out instruments and let the student's play along to it with us. We'll move our instruments high, low, in the middle, fast, slow and 'just right'. Afterwards we will get out the scarfs and let them dance and sing to the video (the one we watched today):

If there's still extra time, we will probably dance to a few more songs, encouraging singing and making a variety of dance patterns.

How Does Your Engine Run & Community Roles

Hello, being parent-teacher conferences this week, this will be short and sweet but I will try and add more information next week. Our occupational therapist has been working with us to create a large group on the program "How does your engine run". She will be doing this with Melissa and the help of her UofU intern. I'll post more on it next week. Hope you enjoy the weekend and thank you for all your kind words and support during our meetings and visits the last couple days. We are lucky to have such wonderful and supportive parents and amazing students.

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Printable Menu from:
http://amyjdelightful.blogspot.com/2011/07/printable-menus-for-playing-restaurant.html