Speech, Language, Reading and Writing Milestones Resource

Hope your summer is going well! Here is a good resource for knowing what skills your child should have by the end of Kindergarten in the area of language development including speaking, listening, reading and writing. It's from the ASHA (American Speech, Language and Hearing Association).

http://www.asha.org/public/speech/development/kindergarten/

By the end of kindergarten your child should be able to do the following:

Listening

• Follow 1-2 simple directions in a sequence
• Listen to and understand age-appropriate stories read aloud
• Follow a simple conversation

Speaking

• Be understood by most people
• Answer simple "yes/no" questions
• Answer open-ended questions (e.g., "What did you have for lunch today?")
• Retell a story or talk about an event
• Participate appropriately in conversations
• Show interest in and start conversations

Reading

• Know how a book works (e.g., read from left to right and top to bottom in English)
• Understand that spoken words are made up of sounds
• Identify words that rhyme (e.g., cat and hat)
• Compare and match words based on their sounds
• Understand that letters represent speech sounds and match sounds to letters
• Identify upper- and lowercase letters
• Recognize some words by sight
• "Read" a few picture books from memory
• Imitate reading by talking about pictures in a book

Writing

• Print own first and last name
• Draw a picture that tells a story and label and write about the picture
• Write upper- and lowercase letters (may not be clearly written)

Summer Reading Program

    The summer is filled with house hunting, studying for a state exam, the beach with my little ones and staying with family so I won't be posting much this summer. I wanted to give you a link to all of the summer reading books and activities from last summer. Each post has an educational (and fun) book and activity to go with it.

Ms. Ange's Class, Summer Reading Program

Last Week Before Summer

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Birthday Large Group

Our students love having the birthday song sang to them and since one of our KDIs (from our curriculum) is knowing each other's names, this becomes a great activity for it. Pulling in name recognition (both in the curriculum and some of our IEP goals), we'll write down the name of a student on the white board and if it's their name they get to come up to the front to have the song sung to them. They get to pick what we do while we are singing the song to them (e.g. stomping, patting knees), flying like super heroes etc. Then each student that has a summer birthday gets a gift out of our birthday gift bag.

Afterwards, we will handout diplomas to students that are moving on to Kindergarten.

Hands are for Clapping

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*For students that tend to suck in when they're trying to blow,
the mixture is replaced with milk

Hands are for Clapping

We start the activity with this song:

We talk about things are hands are great for (helping, saying 'hi', getting stuff done, playing etc.) and what things we shouldn't use our hands for (pushing, hitting, etc.). We then play a rhyme game where we chant the following lyrics: 

Clap, clap, clap your hands,

Clap them just like me.

1, 2, 3, 4

Then place them

on your knees.

The students take turns picking what else we can do with our hands during the chant. Ideas include:

Wave, tap, squeeze, pat, touch, flap, swing, shake, snap

Depending on the time, we will sing the "Hands are for Clapping" song one more time.

Mixed-Up Chameleon & Space Travel

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Mixed-Up Chameleon

Reading the story Mixed-Up Chameleon by Eric Carle. This story is about a Chameleon that thought his life was boring until he discovered he could change his shape and color to look like other animals. In the end he discovered that being himself was the best. After reading the story, each student gets their own transparent Chameleon to take around the class and turn into any color or texture they would like. We then come back to the rug, talk about what we saw and emphasize that the best thing to be is oneself.

Space Travel

Remember our train obstacle course (click here)? This time it's the same type of course teaching the same concepts (Under", "Behind", "Through", "Over" and "On") but instead it's with a space theme. The students get to travel through space as they go from planet to planet in a loop around the room. The planets have numbers on them so they look for each one in numerical order before they finally come back to rest at 'Earth'.

Hide, Seek and Space Travel

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Hide and Go Seek- The Game

Now if you are thinking, "Now didn't this class just do this?", your are right. They loved it so much, and only half the kids got to be the seeker, that we made a list of who gets to go next and I promised them we would do it as soon as possible. As a reminder, here is how it goes:

We practice saying the 'Hide and Seek' chant as a class:

Lets All Play Hide and Seek

Cover Your Eyes, Please Don’t Peek!

Then We’ll Count From 1 to 10

1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10

Ready or Not, Here I Come! 

Then we choose a seeker and all the other student's hide while they say the chant including counting to 10 and saying, "Ready or not, here I come!". (The seeker's favorite part is talking into the microphone!)

The student then looks for the other students and are encouraged to use student's names as they find them. As they are found the other students come back to the rug and we talk about where they hid emphasizing prepositions including "under", "around", "in" and "behind". We also used distant words like, "closer," "nearer" and "over there". Once everyone is back, we review it once again and then start with a different seeker. We have a list that they 'sign-up' for which helps us choose our next person.

Space Travel

Remember our train obstacle course (click here)? This time it's the same type of course teaching the same concepts (Under", "Behind", "Through", "Over" and "On") but instead it's with a space theme. The students get to travel through space as they go from planet to planet in a loop around the room. The planets have numbers on them so they look for each one in numerical order before they finally come back to rest at 'Earth'.

Mrs. Shirley's Flowers

Photo/Activity Credit: http://www.notimeforflashcards.com/2014/07/alphabet-activities-kids.html 

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Photo/Activity Credit: http://www.teachpreschool.org/2013/03/o-how-we-love-to-estimate/

Shirley's Flowers Large Group

Mrs. Shirley brings in a variety of flowers for the students to smell and feel. She talks about colors, names, smells and lets everyone have a flower to count the petals as they pull them off. This year, the students will divide into three groups at the rug to share flowers for feeling the roots, stems, leaves and petals, for talking about their smells and colors and discussing what ones that they like best. She will do this on Monday and Tuesday with a slight variation so all the students will have an opportunity to do it.

Speech Sound and Letter of the Month: S

Hide and Go Seek and Parachute Emotions

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Hide and Go Seek- The Game

We practice saying the 'Hide and Seek' chant as a class:

Lets All Play Hide and Seek

Cover Your Eyes, Please Don’t Peek!

Then We’ll Count From 1 to 10

1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10

Ready or Not, Here I Come! 

Then we choose a seeker and all the other student's hide while they say the chant including counting to 10 and saying, "Ready or not, here I come!".

The student then looks for the other students and are encouraged to use student's names as they find them. As they are found the other students come back to the rug and we talk about where they hid emphasizing prepositions including "under", "around", "in" and "behind". We also used distant words like, "closer," "nearer" and "over there". Once everyone is back, we review it once again and then start with a different seeker. 

Parachute Emotions

We start out with "If Your Happy and You Know It". We have balloons and a permanent marker. The students tell the name of the emotion they want and shows what the face looks like. We draw on the face. When the balloons are finished, we pull out the parachute and play with it to music. As the balloons fly off, we label them. "Oh no, there goes the surprised balloon. ______ grab the surprised balloon!".

Chalk Art Small Group:

Musical Color Dots and Hide and Seek

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Musical Colors Large Group

Students each get a turn to roll the dice and see what color it lands on, music is played and when it stops, everyone has to go find that color and stand on it. The more friends on a dot, the merrier!

Color's are a bit off in the picture but no worries, they're a lot more bold and 'standard' in real life!

Hide and Go Seek- The Game:

We practice saying the 'Hide and Seek' chant as a class:

Lets All Play Hide and Seek

Cover Your Eyes, Please Don’t Peek!

Then We’ll Count From 1 to 10

1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10

Ready or Not, Here I Come! 

Then we choose a seeker and all the other student's hide while they say the chant including counting to 10 and saying, "Ready or not, here I come!".

The student then looks for the other students and are encouraged to use student's names as they find them. As they are found the other students come back to the rug and we talk about where they hid emphasizing prepositions including "under", "around", "in" and "behind". We also used distant words like, "closer," "nearer" and "over there". Once everyone is back, we review it once again and then start with a different seeker. 

A Tub and Musical Colors

Ms. Shirley is bringing donuts on Tuesday and Wednesday. Her children are bakers (since we've been talking about the roles of a butcher, baker and candlestick maker) and made them at their local bakery.

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Rub-A-Dub-Dub Large Group

Rub-a-dub-dub

Three Men in a Tub

And who do you think they be?

The Butcher, The Baker, The Candlestick Maker,

All Traveling Out to Sea.

We talk about the roles of a butcher, baker & candlestick maker.  Three to Four children at a time get to 'row' in the boat as we chant the rhyme, exchanging out the words for the correct number, gender or 'kids' and their names. For example:

Rub-a-dub-dub

Four girls in a Tub

And who do you think they be?

There's Andrea and Michelle and Mia and Dulce

All Traveling Out to Sea.

Boat and Paddles

Butcher, Baker and Candlestick Maker

Musical Colors Large Group

Students each get a turn to roll the dice and see what color it lands on, music is played and when it stops, everyone has to go find that color and stand on it. The more friends on a dot, the merrier!

Color's are a bit off in the picture but no worries, they're a lot more bold and 'standard' in real life!

Number Poems

Here are some number Poems to help your child with number recognition. We want our four-year-olds to recognize numbers 1-5 and our 5-year-olds 1-10 but three-year-olds can have fun with it too. Help them trace it with their finger while you say the rhyme and then help them trace it in shaving cream, sand, pudding etc. Give them examples and help but don't make it into a drill. We want them to love learning at this age through self-direction and discovery!

Click Here to Download the Number Poems

'P' The Popcorn Sound

Each day at greeting time we do a letter and sound to correspond with Ms. Carrie, our speech therapist's letter and sound of the week. This week it is the letter 'P'.

If you would like a link to the letter card sounds we use to download and use or view at home, here is the google doc link:

Phonemic Sound Cards

Letter Tracing Rhymes

These are the tracing rhymes we've used with the students during Carrie's large group each month. The students each have a letter card to trace with their finger as we chant the rhyme. You can use these to review them at home (but be careful not to make this a 'drill and kill' activity, just once here and there, led by your child's choice). 

B: Start at the top, draw to the bottom.  Now bounce the line once, then twice from top to bottom.

C: Start at the top, and draw down, half a circle, not a frown.

D: Start at the top, and draw down.  Go back to the top and draw around. 

G: Draw half a circle, not a frown. Draw across the middle and then down.

M: Draw up the mountain.  Go back down.  Back up the mountain and down to the town. 

P: Start at the top and draw down, go back to the top and draw a little bump down.

T: Top to bottom, now back to the top.  Left to right, and now STOP!

Red Ripe Strawberries and a Tub

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The Little Mouse, the Red Ripe Strawberry and the Big Hungry Bear Large Group

A story by Don and Audrey Wood, this little mouse has a big red ripe strawberry that he must hide from the big hungry bear. He picks it, smells it, tries to disguise it, marches around it to patrol it and ends up finding the perfect way to keep it from the bear. He ends up cutting it in half to share with the author and then they eat it up. We're going to read the story and then each student gets a 'strawberry' to re-enact the story (with addition terms like behind and under) including sharing it at the end.

Rub-A-Dub-Dub Large Group

Rub-a-dub-dub

Three Men in a Tub

And who do you think they be?

The Butcher, The Baker, The Candlestick Maker,

All Traveling Out to Sea.

Boat and Paddles

Butcher, Baker and Candlestick Maker