Cow Crafts

To go along with The Cow The Went Oink book, the APPLE class made these cute crafts. We talked about Cows since it starts with the /k/ sound.

We made a hand print cow (this is one of my student's):

We also made a "C Cow" or a "/k/ Cow" to remind us to make a good /k/ sound:

 

Here is the template for the C Cow head, tail and body:

The Cow That Went OINK! Activity

*You are encouraged to get the books we read in class and read them at home. The library is a great place to get the books if you don't have them already! Please print off and do any home activities that are posted throughout the year. This is a great way to keep your child progressing on their goals! If you ever need a paper copy of the activities, just let me know and I will send one in your child's backpack. Another great way to use this page is to talk to your child about what we did in class. You can show them the pictures and ask them "tell me about..." to get some good language and descriptions. Give them support where needed so they always feel successful in their speech and language skills!*

In Class:
This week we are still working on the /k/ sound. We are reading The Cow That Went OINK!

During circle time, we are working on minimal pairs. This means that we are practicing sounds that are produced very similarly except for the place in the mouth. For example, the /k/ sound is in the back of the mouth while the /t/ sound is in the front of the mouth. Both are voiceless "stops", and the tongue is going up for each one. For the /k/ the back of the tongue goes up, and the /t/ the front of the tongue goes up. Many children at this age produce the /t/ instead of the /k/ sound. We are working on discriminating and producing the different sounds correctly. We do this by working on words like "car" and "tar" where the only difference is that initial sound. 

We are using the Lakeshore Learning sound bags during centers. Each bag is full of items that children have to find that start with each target sound. We will be focusing on the /k/ sound.

Home Activity:

Print these two pages. Glue a word to the back of each tail, have your child color the cards. To play, hide the tail cards all over the room. When your child finds one, they say the word on the back 5 times, then stick the tail on the cow. To make it more fun, you can blindfold your child so they have to "pin the tail on the cow"! After they find and "pin" all the words on the cow, take them down, and let your child hide the words for you to find. 

From Head to Toe Activity

*You are encouraged to get the books we read and read them at home (the library is a great place!). Please print off and do any home activities that are posted throughout the year. This is a great way to keep your child progressing on their goals! If you ever need a paper copy of the activities sent home to you, just let me know and I can send one in your child's backpack. Another great way to use this page is to talk to your child about what they did in class. You can always show them these pictures and ask them "tell me about..." to get some good language and descriptions! Give them support where needed.*

IN CLASS:
This week we are reading From Head to Toe:

We are focusing on the /k/ sound as well as following one step directions. At circle time after reading our book and practicing the initial /k/ words, we played a game. Children took turns picking cards to see what action they got to do from the book. The whole class acted out each action and said "I can.. (kick my legs)"

During centers, children took turns working with me and discovering what was in our /k/ sensory bin! We practiced each target word at least 3 times.

Home Activity:
Cut out two copies of the dice page, so that you can have two dice. Print out the animals page and color them. Glue one animal on each square of the two dice. Assemble the dice by gluing or taping the tabs.

To play: Choose one of the dice and roll it on your turn. If you roll the penguin, say "I can (turn my head)" and do the action with your child. Make sure the child is saying their good /k/ sound! Take turns continuing play until you are ready to be done. Help your child say all of the words and not leave any out of their sentence.

Deep in the Desert

For more desert ideas, check out my friend Annie's Deep in the Desert theme!

"Deep in the Desert"

The third theme I chose for my son was the desert. Here are the activities we did throughout the week. You don't do them all in one day, you space them out so throughout the week you are talking about your theme here and there, a little at a time.

Field Trips:

1. I got a Culture Pass to the Phoenix Zoo from the library! If you don't know what a Culture Pass is, check it out here. Free trip to the Zoo? Yes please!! We went and saw all the animals, but paid special attention to the desert critters. It was fun to see rattlesnakes, road runners, owls, coyotes, peccary, big horn sheep, skinks, scorpions and many other desert animals we learned about in our unit.

Not a desert animal, but too funny not to post :)

2. We were planning on going to the Desert Botanical Garden (you can get a culture pass for this too!), but ended up with company in town and no time to go. It would be a great place to explore as well!

3. This would be a good week to stop by Coyote Oaties for a treat- just because of the name, and because any excuse to visit is definitely warranted.

 Activities:

1. Cactus sponge. Cut a cheap sponge into the shape of a cactus. Put a little water in a dish and let the sponge soak it up, just like a cactus soaks up water from the ground! We did it with regular water, then dyed it with food coloring so we could see it soaking into the sponge better.

2. Turn a cucumber into a cactus using toothpicks! This actually held his attention for quite awhile.

3. Desert sand sensory bin. I bought some decorator sand and desert animals at Hobby Lobby. This has been a favorite activity this week!

Food:

There is a lot on Pinterest, we did a few basic activities. For one, we ate the cucumber that we turned into a cactus! We also tried some nopales (prickly pear leaf). You can sometimes find them at local grocery stores. Use a veggie peeler to peel off the remaining pricker, and then we just cut it up and ate it raw! I've heard it tastes better cooked, but my son LOVED it raw. He thought it was cool that it was so slimy. And its cool to "eat a cactus" too :)

Songs:

Check out these websites for some desert song ideas!
Desert Songs
More Desert Songs

Books:

Go to your local library and check out all the desert books they have. Some are stories and some are more education. Dig, Wait, Listen, Cactus Hotel and The Seed and the Giant Saguaro were the biggest hits this week, but they were all great!

 

   

  

     

     

Movies:

We didn't watch it, but The Lion King would be great for this unit. We did watch Planet Earth- there is a whole episode on Deserts. We watched just the part similar to the Sonoran Desert. Paul was so excited to see "the bat is drinking nectar from the saguaro flower!" after reading about it in our books.


This was such a fun way to talk about our state, and how we live in a desert. It was fun for me to learn more "desert" culture, as I didn't grow up around here! I never knew so much about saguaros, javalina, and road runners!!! Hope you have a blast!