Letter of the Day- Pp

Can you believe we are already up to the letter Pp? This was a hard one to pick… people, popcorn, pancakes, penguins, so many great Pp words. So what did I pick?

I would typically say… Who doesn’t love pizza? But, I know there are people who don’t. My youngest son would not even touch pizza until he was about 11 years old. But, the nice thing with pizza is everyone can make it their own. He started eating pizza without sauce, but now he loves a good slice of pizza– preferably with bacon or meatballs.

Jack Hartmann’s Pp song

Printing the letter Pp

Captial P- start at the top, straight line down, jump back to the top, curve to the right and back to the middle

lowercase p- straight line downnnn, back up on the same line (almost to the top), curve to the right and back to the middle

Today’s activities– Pizza!

Pizza Day by Melissa Iwai- A young boy and his father gather the ingredients to make a pizza! This book show the child and his father going through all the steps to make homemade pizza.

**So… make pizza! At home, I make Alton Brown’s pizza dough, this needs to be made the night before, but is soooo worth it if done correctly. But, when I made pizza with my students in class we used this recipe:

Biscuit Pizzas (makes 8 individual pizzas)

• Can of Grands buttermilk biscuits
• Pizza sauce
• Mozzarella cheese

1. Preheat oven to 375
2. Roll out biscuits until flat
3. Top with sauce and cheese
4. Bake for 10-15 minutes

This is a great activity as your child can do ALL the steps by him/herself. And, trust me they will love the process of making their own pizza. My students gobble these up.

While we talk about making pizza, here is the Pizza Party Song from Super Simple Songs. This also talks about the steps for making a pizza

**This easily leads into a simple expository writing activity… yes you read that correctly! Writing, or in the case of most preK kiddos drawing, the steps to a process is expository writing. We typically have the children demonstrate 3 or four steps at this age.

Fold the paper into quarters, your child should be able to do this with limited assistance, just remind them to “iron down the folds” so you see the lines. Have your child illustrate and label (or tell you what to label) to show the steps needed to make a pizza

Here’s one more song… this one is funny Silly Pizza Song by Signing Time. What would you put on a pizza if you can put anything on a pizza? Sing along with some crazy pizza toppings.

**Have your child draw a picture of pizza. You can either have him/her draw real toppings or crazy ones you heard in the song. Have your child count the number of each topping they used on the pizza and write it on the page.

Letter of the day– Oo

When thinking about Oo I was originally going to do octopus, but decided to go with something that will enrich your child’s vocabulary instead… opposites. Why do we teach opposites? Well for a few reasons, one as I already stated it is for enriching vocabulary and stretching those sentences. But that is not all! Many opposites are positional words which help children describe things AND follow directions. Finally… opposites is a way to compare and contrast. Compare and contrast is one of those 21st century skills that you hear teachers and schools talk about. This skill/concept is used a lot in projects, explanations, open-ended questions and so much more in school. So… today we will play with opposites

Jack Hartmann’s Oo song

Printing the letter Oo

Capital O- start like the capital C and close it up (remember teaching how to make the letter C is key to many letter writing)

lowercase o- start like lowercase c and close it up

I tell my kiddos this is one of those easy-peasy lemon squeezy letters!

Today’s activities: Opposites!

The Opposite Song from KidTV123– this song is a bit long in my opinion, but it does repeat itself at the end so you could always stop it early. Using music is a great way to introduce a skill

A Garden of Opposites by Nancy Davis — While this book uses simple pictures and single words it is a great way to review opposites. I would actually turn off the sound on this story and have your child try to determine what opposite is being shown in the picture. Some of the illustrations could be seen a multiple opposites and you might be surprised to see what words your child thinks of… but make sure to also share the word on the page!

Big Bear, Small Mouse by Karma Wilson and Jane Chapman (They write a book series including the story Bear Snores On… a popular child’s book)– This book reviews opposites, but it is written in story form. I like this to enrich language and show that you can work on opposites while speaking in full sentences. When working on opposites with your child encourage him/her to speak in full sentences — The rock is on top of the table. Now, the rock is under the table. Make sure to model this for your child… the more they hear you speaking in complete and longer sentences, the more they will do this on their own

Marta! Big & Small by Jan Arena– Marta is an ordinary girl, but she has some extraordinary friends. This story watches Marta, una niña, compare herself to the animals she meet. The story teaches: opposites, animals and some Spanish too.

Time to play!

I took some toys outside and played with opposites… here are some examples:

The mini figure is dry, then wet. But, you could also say it is in the pool and out of the pool. He is right side up, and then upside down. He is also on my hand and off my hand. See LOTS of examples just in this pair of pictures.

When looking at the monster truck, you see left/right, large/small, close/faraway and much more.

Monday Math- Memorial Day

Today is a holiday here in the US. While many people think of Memorial Day as the first day of the summer season, a day for picnics time with families and friends it is more important that we remember those who gave some and more important those who gave all.

Here is a simple song to teach (sung to Frere Jaque)

• What is red?
• What is blue?
• What is white?
• What is white?
• What has 13 stars?
• What has 13 stripe?
• It’s our flag
• It’s our flag

Have your child make an American flag.. make sure you count the stripes and the red and white stripes are in the correct pattern.

Make patterns with red, white and blue.

Practice counting all the red, white and blue items you find in your bedroom.

Can you count to 50?

So many fun math activities to use and celebrate today.

Topic Tuesday- MUD!

Since we are learning about the season of spring, I thought for today’s topic Tuesday we would do a song/poem rewrite. Song and poetry in the young child are building blocks of literacy skills. The are able to play with words, sounds and recognize the patterns and fluency of the written word.

When we teach poems and songs, it works best to teach them without the written words and then add the written words to the learning process. This works on those phonemic awareness skills first and then later when we connect the known song to the print they can make connections.

original I love mud

I shared this song on my class dojo today. I wanted this connection with my class and I wanted them to hear the words before they saw the words. I also wanted to put it in their head as a song and not just as spoken words. I found a video of Rick Charette singing this song so you can hear it here if you do want to hear I Love Mud as a song.

I Love Mud, class book page

After your child gets comfortable with the original song, the cool thing with this song is it is easy to change up and make it your own. Have your child think about what he/she is absolutely, positively wild about and then substitute that for the word mud. They could choose anything… a food, a toy, a tv show, a location, a person… who knows.

After your child has created a new version of the song, have him/her create an illustration to go along with the words. When your child is drawing, encourage them to use multiple colors, I tell my students they need to use one crayon for each year of their age (4 years olds needs at least 4 colors, 5 years olds at least 5 colors). This project can be revisited over and over changing the words each time. Create your own song book with the various versions of the songs and illustrations.

Have fun! Let me know what fun thing your child is absolutely wild about, share the pictures, most important… have fun!