Pronoun: Everyone

Rain Day!

Today was rain day. We started the morning off by making rain clouds. The kiddos laced and stuffed gray clouds then added rain (blue crepe paper). For rain day, we made rain pictures!


Expressive Language: pronoun, everyone
Receptive Language: following directions

For the morning activity I used the same cloud picture from yesterday,  expect I copied it on gray paper. You will need 2 clouds per kiddo. I cut out the clouds and hole punched around each cloud. Then I started the lacing for the kiddos but they finished it. It took about 2 pieces of scrap paper crumpled to fill the cloud. Then I tied it shut. For the rain, I gave each kiddo a piece of blue crepe paper to cut into small stripes for the rain. I stapled the paper on the clouds at the bottom.

For language today, we made rain pictures. I found this activity on pinterest as well. The link to actual website can be found here.  The language goal today was to understand "everyone." I gave each kiddo a blank piece of white construction paper. Then I gave a direction:
T: Everyone take a red marker.
Who has a red marker?
S: Everyone has a red marker.
T: Now, draw with the red marker.

The kiddos were allowed to draw what they wanted. Then I switched colors about 5 times. Last, the rain cloud came over and rained on their pictures! I held a gray cloud from the morning activity and sprayed each picture with water. Then we set the pictures aside to dry. The pictures turned out so beautiful!

**The markers MUST be washable markers.

For afternoon language time we made clouds in a jar. I have been trying to add science to the curriculum more and found this activity on pinterest and the actual website can be found here. It looked like fun so we gave it a whirl!!

You will need the following for the activity:

mason jar for each kiddo
shaving cream
food coloring
water
small bowls or cups
eye droppers
paper towel

Spread the paper towel on the table (you will need a few layers!) Give each kiddo a jar. I made each one ask for the jar.
T: Who has a jar?
S: Everyone has a jar.

I repeated this for each item.

Fill the jars about half to 3/4 full. Put shaving cream on top of the water. (*the more shaving cream you use the longer it will take to "rain" through the cloud). Give the students the droppers and colored water. Drop water on the clouds and wait for it to rain! Keep adding color. We used all different colors and were rewarded with a pretty rainbow affect!! The kiddos loved it!

CENTERS
Rainstick-at centers today the kiddos made rainsticks from toilet paper tubes. They colored the paper on the outside and then glued (or staple) onto the tube. We added popcorn kernels about 1/4 full for a good rain sound!
The next day we used the rainsticks to make rain while listening to the song "April Showers" from the movie Bambi. It goes through the rain starting with soft rain to a storm and back to soft rain.

Paper towel Umbrellas- I cut out umbrella shapes form paper towel and glued on construction paper. The kiddos painted and added rain. Very cute! (Sorry no picture, I forgot to take one!!)

Making Predications and adjectivies

Cloud Day!

I think this was my favorite day of our spring unit (Yes, I am WAY behind on the blogging. Sorry.). For this expressive language lesson, I focused on getting the kiddos to describe an object. 

Expressive Language: adjectives, conversational language

Receptive language: understanding simple "wh" questions

To kick off the morning, the kiddos laced and stuffed white clouds. It was a great fine motor activity and held their attention during morning work time. 

Here is the link to the cloud picture I used. I enlarged and copied the cloud on to sturdy paper for the lacing activity.

Next, I read the story "Little Cloud" by Eric Carle. We used the clouds we made in morning work to act out and follow along with the story. 

 

Next, we had some fun! We made a cloud in the microwave!! I gathered everyone on the floor next to the microwave and held up a bar of Ivory soap (it MUST be ivory soap). I asked some prompting questions like: What is this? How does it feel? What does it look like? What color is it? Does it smell? I then wrote the answers to these questions on chart paper under the word SOAP. Then we made some predictions. 

T: What do you think will happen to the soap when I put it in the microwave?

 I really had to prompt this part of the lesson, but once we got going the kiddos started getting the idea. I asked each kiddo a different question: Will it change color? If yes, what color will it be? I wrote their answers on the chart paper at the bottom. 

Now, that all the pre-work is out of the way, on to the fun! Cut the bar of ivory soap in half (I did do a full bar and its not much bigger than a half bar, but it seemed to make less of a mess in the microwave when I cut it in half!). Put the soap on a microwave safe plate and turn the microwave on for 2 minutes. Watch it grow!!! Take it out and set it where everyone can see. Again, we talked about how it looked, smelled, felt. I recorded all of these answers on the chart paper under the word CLOUD. 

 

 

I was so pleased with the spontaneous language that was happening during this lesson. It was so much more than I thought possible!

CENTERS

Water colors on the soap cloud-The kiddos used eye droppers to add color to the soap cloud. I put out two medium sized Tupperware containers with part of the soap cloud in each. Then I let the kiddos drop colored water on the clouds! With each kiddo, I added some new soap to the dish. The clouds turned out so pretty!! 

 

Cotton Ball clouds-the kiddos glued cotton balls on cloud shapes. I used the same cloud pattern as before. I just copied it on blue paper.

Poke a cloud with a golf tee. 

Conjunction: "And" Pronoun: "Everyone"

Sun Day!

For the spring unit, I decided to make each day about a different vocabulary word. Today, was sun day. Sadly, this lesson never got taught as our sun day got interrupted by a tornado drill! But, I thought I would post it anyway. I did get the "and" part of the lesson in later in the week using the smartboard.


Using clipart, I had pictures of different size suns: small (little), medium and large (big). I introduced these to the kiddos. Then I gave each student two suns of different sizes.

big sun

little sun

medium sun

T: What do you have?
S: I have a big sun and a small sun. (or just "big sun and small sun.")



I went around the table a few times to give students a few chances (this is where the tornado drill interrupted our lesson). Next, I planned on giving everyone the same size sun.
T: Who has a big sun?
S: Everyone has a big sun!
For my kiddos, at this point "everyone" is taking some explaining. I have been going around the table pointing to each person and showing that everyone has the same thing. Need a few more exposures!

I had also planned to take pictures of everyone holding the big sun, small sun and medium sun to use in a chart story the next day. So to make up for this lesson, I planned a smartboard activity to cover the "and" portion of the lesson. I have no idea how to upload it, so if you would like a copy of it, email me and I will send it to you!

Centers

We made yellow string suns- make a big circle with glue. Then put yellow string on for sun. Add smaller cut string for rays (I precut my string, but if your kiddos are ready they can do the cutting).

Paper plate suns- paint the paper plate yellow and add yellow crepe paper for sun rays.

Intro to Spring Unit

It's spring time here in Michigan and we started our spring unit today. I read "Wake Up, It's Spring" by Lisa Campbell Ernst. I love this story. It has some great spring words and is simply written. Perfect for kiddos with language delays!

Today, we simply read the book. To start we talked about all the items we saw on the cover. A bunny hopping, the bunny tail, letters (I was SUPER excited someone pointed those out!!), the flowers, grass and sky (I had to assist with those last ones). Then I read the story aloud. We acted out some of the items, wiggled like the worm, grew like the seed, flew like the ladybug and bird, stretched like the cat, you get the idea! 

The last thing we did was pull out each item from the story that I had hidden in my guess bag. Each student pulled out an item, then said the name of the item and put the picture on the magnet board. Tomorrow we will read the story again and put the pictures in order at story time. The kiddos seemed to enjoy themselves and I did too!!