Friday, December 21, 2012
Friday, December 21--NO PHONOLOGY
Due to the 2 hour delay for Brownsburg Community School Corporation, Phonology Preschool scheduled for 8:15AM has been cancelled. Have a Merry Christmas!
Friday, November 30, 2012
November News
Miss Lorraine and I cannot believe how quickly November went and that tomorrow will be December 1st! WOW! This school year is just flying by!
We have certainly kept busy in Phonology Preschool the past few weeks.
Our Zoo Phonics letter-learning has taken us through letter "L" this week. While "L" is not usually developed in children's speech until about age 5 1/2 or 6, we will continue to introduce a letter of the week but still address each child's individual articulation needs. In December we will cover "M," "N," and "O."
Our November vocabulary words included "corn," "family," "turkey," "Pilgrim," "pumpkin," "feast," "Mayflower," "horn of plenty" or "cornucopia," and "Native American." The children made a group poster that we displayed in our classroom.
Thank you again for sharing your children with us each week. Have a wonderful and unseasonably warm weekend!
Best Wishes,
Ms. Sarah
We have certainly kept busy in Phonology Preschool the past few weeks.
Our Zoo Phonics letter-learning has taken us through letter "L" this week. While "L" is not usually developed in children's speech until about age 5 1/2 or 6, we will continue to introduce a letter of the week but still address each child's individual articulation needs. In December we will cover "M," "N," and "O."
Our November vocabulary words included "corn," "family," "turkey," "Pilgrim," "pumpkin," "feast," "Mayflower," "horn of plenty" or "cornucopia," and "Native American." The children made a group poster that we displayed in our classroom.
Thank you again for sharing your children with us each week. Have a wonderful and unseasonably warm weekend!
Best Wishes,
Ms. Sarah
Monday, October 8, 2012
October Fun!
So glad to see all of the kids enjoying fall and Halloween activities. We read Pumpkin Heads and then the children turned into "pumpkin heads!"
Our Zoo Phonics letters for October have been "G" and "H." After Fall Break we will introduce "I."
Last week, we read GO AWAY BIG GREEN MONSTER! The children got to pretend to be a silly monster while practicing their speech sounds.
Just a reminder that school is CLOSED the weeks of October 15 and October 22 for FALL BREAK! Phonology preschool will resume the week of October 29.
I look forward to meeting with you during Parent Teacher conferences. I will review the first IEP progress report of the year and offer suggestions for improving your child's speech at home.
Have a great October!!
Ms. Sarah and Ms. Lorraine
Tuesday, October 2, 2012
Book Orders
Dear Parents,
Book orders will be coming home. Do not feel obligated to purchase, but orders do help us purchase books for our classroom library! I prefer you play your order online using the following link https://orders.scholastic.com/J8JGB, however you may also fill out the form and write a check to Scholastic Book Clubs and send it in to class.
Have a great weekend!
Book orders will be coming home. Do not feel obligated to purchase, but orders do help us purchase books for our classroom library! I prefer you play your order online using the following link https://orders.scholastic.com/J8JGB, however you may also fill out the form and write a check to Scholastic Book Clubs and send it in to class.
Have a great weekend!
Monday, September 17, 2012
September Fun
Phonology preschool is back in full swing after having Labor Day week off to plan for the next two months!
Last week, the letter of the week was D and this week it is E. The children have learned two new sounds and motions from Zoo Phonics. This week we watched Animal Boogie at the end of class. Some groups were not able to see the whole video, so here it is!http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=25_u1GzruQM
This week a DINOSAUR snuck in (Ms. Sarah thinks she forgot to lock the door last Friday!) and left some eggs and footprints! The students had to jump from footprint to footprint and then take the item they pulled and sort by shape, all the while, practicing their target speech sounds!
Have a great week! I will be emailing soon regarding times to set up Parent-Teacher conferences. These will last 15 minutes and will be scheduled soon! I should be able to work around any conferences you have scheduled with siblings in their other schools. PT conferences will be held on October 10 and October 11 from 4:00pm with the last appt. being at 7:45pm. Look for my email!
--Ms. Sarah and Ms. Lorraine
Last week, the letter of the week was D and this week it is E. The children have learned two new sounds and motions from Zoo Phonics. This week we watched Animal Boogie at the end of class. Some groups were not able to see the whole video, so here it is!http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=25_u1GzruQM
This week a DINOSAUR snuck in (Ms. Sarah thinks she forgot to lock the door last Friday!) and left some eggs and footprints! The students had to jump from footprint to footprint and then take the item they pulled and sort by shape, all the while, practicing their target speech sounds!
To go along with our jungle theme, the students used sticker sheets to create a jungle animal and make a sentence about their picture!
Each week a duck appears in our mailbox dressed up like something that starts with our letter of the week. So far we have some very fancy ducks!
Have a great week! I will be emailing soon regarding times to set up Parent-Teacher conferences. These will last 15 minutes and will be scheduled soon! I should be able to work around any conferences you have scheduled with siblings in their other schools. PT conferences will be held on October 10 and October 11 from 4:00pm with the last appt. being at 7:45pm. Look for my email!
--Ms. Sarah and Ms. Lorraine
Tuesday, August 28, 2012
Welcome Back!
Welcome back to a new school year. 2012-13 is going to be a great year for Phonology Preschool. Miss Lorraine and I have changed up a few things and the students seem to be loving the changes. During Opening Circle we added Speech Dog to discuss the day's weather.
Each week the students will be asked a Question of the Day. This week the question was "Have You Ever Climbed a Tree?" The students then place their name stick under the appropriate column and we use our math vocabulary to talk about "more," "less," "most," "least," etc.
Each week the students are learning a letter and corresponding sound in addition to their IEP goals. We have introduced the letters A, B and C. We are using the Zoo-Phonics signals to provide a multi-sensory approach to learning letters and their sounds!
Thank you so much for sharing your children with us. We have enjoyed our first three weeks of classes. Just a reminder that Phonology Preschool will NOT meet the week of September 3. Classes will resume the week of September 10, 2012.
Have a wonderful Labor Day weekend!
Ms. Sarah and Ms. Lorraine
Each week the students will be asked a Question of the Day. This week the question was "Have You Ever Climbed a Tree?" The students then place their name stick under the appropriate column and we use our math vocabulary to talk about "more," "less," "most," "least," etc.
Each week the students are learning a letter and corresponding sound in addition to their IEP goals. We have introduced the letters A, B and C. We are using the Zoo-Phonics signals to provide a multi-sensory approach to learning letters and their sounds!
Thank you so much for sharing your children with us. We have enjoyed our first three weeks of classes. Just a reminder that Phonology Preschool will NOT meet the week of September 3. Classes will resume the week of September 10, 2012.
Have a wonderful Labor Day weekend!
Ms. Sarah and Ms. Lorraine
Wednesday, March 28, 2012
Summer Is Almost Here!
The end of the year is quickly approaching. We have enjoyed working with your children and seeing the progress they have made and will continue to make over the summer months. Be sure to incorporate language and articulation into your summer trips, running errands, and any other daily activities you can. Here is an article with ideas to practice speech with your child.
Speech and Language Enrichment = Summer Fun! http://preschoolspeech.com/wp/?p=363
School’s out, but you can support your child’s speech and language skills in typical summer activities. They provide wonderful contexts to enrich your child’s communication development and still have lots of fun! For specific guidance in skills to target, remember your child’s IEP goals and information on specific targets and strategies provided to you by your child’s SLP. If your child is still in school, communicate with his/her SLP to determine the relevancy of this content to your child and any necessary adaptations to make your child successful.
Water Balloon Towel Toss or Air filled balloon toss (good for inside rainy/hot days….players kneel instead of stand)
Divide your children (siblings, play dates, neighbors, or even you [the kid at heart]) in pairs. Provide each team with a bath towel or pillow case. Have the children grab the edges of the parachute, and place a water balloon on it. Work together to toss the balloons up and down until it falls and breaks. If someone gets wet, it’s all the more fun!
** Traditional water balloon toss is fun too in which pairs toss a water balloon back and forth until it breaks.
Remember please, natural language will occur. You’re instantly targeting working together, using social skills, and taking turns. Don’t forget, especially in the balloon toss game, you’re can use sabotage techniques by throwing your child the balloon after s/he practices
Walk around the neighborhood/park/zoo/grocery store/anywhere you venture
As always, when you’re going for a walk, talk about your environment and encourage your child to. Listen to his/her comments and talk about the same things. Add information to what s/he says. Practice short back and forth conversations about it. Take turns asking and answering questions with each other. It may help to have an older child or significant other take the role of the conversational partner, so you and your child can act as a team for you to cue/model language for your child to use.
Make special treats or even an everyday lunch with your child
Kids often love to “cook” (making pudding, chocolate milk, sandwiches, cakes from cake mixes, or decorating cookies/cupcakes, etc.). Skills such as sequencing events (a precursor to story telling.…”First, we…. Then, we…. Last, we….”), using phrases/sentences, following directions, taking turns, etc. are natural targets in cooking activities.
Read, read, and read!!!
Summer is a great time to explore new interests or one related to a fun summer event (ex: a book about the zoo or the pool before going there) through books. Books give your child the opportunity to learn new words and concepts, to use words/phrases/sentences (depending on your child’s level), to answer questions, to hold back and forth conversations about each book, to practice sequencing events (retelling the story with supports as needed) and to reinforce reading skills (like moving your finger along with the words to model left to right and top to bottom orientation).
Don’t forget your library! There’s no need to spend any money there, and you might just practice communication skills with friends your child already has or one s/he meets while visiting the library!
Also, please remember repetition is very important for children. Read the same story over and over again. Your child will learn more and more from each reading of the story. Think about how you learn new information. Things like reading and doing and seeing things over and over are how we all learn! Consider something like when you learned your job or when you learned how to drive a car. You needed to purposely think about each step like checking the mirrors and putting on your turn signal. Gradually, you practiced and it became more automatic and required less thinking. The same is true for your child in learning speech and language skills.
Blow bubbles
Pool play
Concepts like wet, dry, deep, one, both, cold, warm, hot and body parts can be reinforced by talking about them and having your child follow directions (ex: “Dry both of your arms”). Other related words are easy to model and encourage your child to use, as well (ex: swim suit, pool, water, splash, bubbles).
Play pool games like tossing a beach ball back and forth to work on interaction skills and hiding pool toys to work on directions (ex: “Find the green fish” or “Find the turtle” or “First get the turtle, then get the crab”).
Have a picnic
Whether outside on your patio or lawn, at a park, or on your living room floor, pack and have a picnic together. Consider reading one or more books about picnics with your child. Plan a menu and write a grocery list (if needed) and a packing list with your child (pictures from the internet are great for this as your child can “read” the list too). Let your child help make the food (see the bottom of page 1 for speech and language ideas). Pack for the picnic together as your child helps “read” and cross off items needed. Embed pretend play in the picnic, such as pretending to drive to a park (if you’re at home) or setting a place for and “talking to” a favorite stuffed animal, doll, or action figure. Practice conversational skills while eating. Consider having a second, third, or more picnic with other family or one or two friends to practice communication skills with peers. Remember repetition is important for children. You have to eat anyway, so why not make it more summer fun if you can!
By Mary Jane Fledderjohn, MS, CCC-SLP/L
In the next couple of months we will be talking about Easter, eggs, baseball, picnics, bugs and beach! We are looking forward to enjoying a lot of fun activities before the end of the year!
Water Balloon Towel Toss or Air filled balloon toss (good for inside rainy/hot days….players kneel instead of stand)
Divide your children (siblings, play dates, neighbors, or even you [the kid at heart]) in pairs. Provide each team with a bath towel or pillow case. Have the children grab the edges of the parachute, and place a water balloon on it. Work together to toss the balloons up and down until it falls and breaks. If someone gets wet, it’s all the more fun!
** Traditional water balloon toss is fun too in which pairs toss a water balloon back and forth until it breaks.
Remember please, natural language will occur. You’re instantly targeting working together, using social skills, and taking turns. Don’t forget, especially in the balloon toss game, you’re can use sabotage techniques by throwing your child the balloon after s/he practices
- Saying words/phrases/sentences containing words with his/her speech sounds
- Using a sentence with nonverbal skills (looking towards you, persisting when you don’t respond, gaining your attention by such means as calling you or tapping your arm) to effectively request the balloon.
- Commenting on the game or a pre-decided kid-friendly topic (ex: family vacation, visit to the pool, etc.). Remember, everyone has to make comments related to the previous comment, so that you’re encouraging back and forth conversation about the same topic.
- As you toss the balloon back and forth, play a guessing game like “I spy.” Every time a player catches the balloon, s/he either starts the game with “I spy something….” followed by a description or the player responds to the description by making a guess. The third turn will be the initial player telling whether the “guesser” is correct. Continue with guesses and responses until the object is guessed.
Walk around the neighborhood/park/zoo/grocery store/anywhere you venture
As always, when you’re going for a walk, talk about your environment and encourage your child to. Listen to his/her comments and talk about the same things. Add information to what s/he says. Practice short back and forth conversations about it. Take turns asking and answering questions with each other. It may help to have an older child or significant other take the role of the conversational partner, so you and your child can act as a team for you to cue/model language for your child to use.
Make special treats or even an everyday lunch with your child
Kids often love to “cook” (making pudding, chocolate milk, sandwiches, cakes from cake mixes, or decorating cookies/cupcakes, etc.). Skills such as sequencing events (a precursor to story telling.…”First, we…. Then, we…. Last, we….”), using phrases/sentences, following directions, taking turns, etc. are natural targets in cooking activities.
Read, read, and read!!!
Summer is a great time to explore new interests or one related to a fun summer event (ex: a book about the zoo or the pool before going there) through books. Books give your child the opportunity to learn new words and concepts, to use words/phrases/sentences (depending on your child’s level), to answer questions, to hold back and forth conversations about each book, to practice sequencing events (retelling the story with supports as needed) and to reinforce reading skills (like moving your finger along with the words to model left to right and top to bottom orientation).
Don’t forget your library! There’s no need to spend any money there, and you might just practice communication skills with friends your child already has or one s/he meets while visiting the library!
Also, please remember repetition is very important for children. Read the same story over and over again. Your child will learn more and more from each reading of the story. Think about how you learn new information. Things like reading and doing and seeing things over and over are how we all learn! Consider something like when you learned your job or when you learned how to drive a car. You needed to purposely think about each step like checking the mirrors and putting on your turn signal. Gradually, you practiced and it became more automatic and required less thinking. The same is true for your child in learning speech and language skills.
Blow bubbles
Pool play
Concepts like wet, dry, deep, one, both, cold, warm, hot and body parts can be reinforced by talking about them and having your child follow directions (ex: “Dry both of your arms”). Other related words are easy to model and encourage your child to use, as well (ex: swim suit, pool, water, splash, bubbles).
Play pool games like tossing a beach ball back and forth to work on interaction skills and hiding pool toys to work on directions (ex: “Find the green fish” or “Find the turtle” or “First get the turtle, then get the crab”).
Have a picnic
Whether outside on your patio or lawn, at a park, or on your living room floor, pack and have a picnic together. Consider reading one or more books about picnics with your child. Plan a menu and write a grocery list (if needed) and a packing list with your child (pictures from the internet are great for this as your child can “read” the list too). Let your child help make the food (see the bottom of page 1 for speech and language ideas). Pack for the picnic together as your child helps “read” and cross off items needed. Embed pretend play in the picnic, such as pretending to drive to a park (if you’re at home) or setting a place for and “talking to” a favorite stuffed animal, doll, or action figure. Practice conversational skills while eating. Consider having a second, third, or more picnic with other family or one or two friends to practice communication skills with peers. Remember repetition is important for children. You have to eat anyway, so why not make it more summer fun if you can!
By Mary Jane Fledderjohn, MS, CCC-SLP/L
In the next couple of months we will be talking about Easter, eggs, baseball, picnics, bugs and beach! We are looking forward to enjoying a lot of fun activities before the end of the year!
Friday, January 13, 2012
Cold Weather is HERE!
Miss Lorraine and I are really slacking in updating the blog. I've resolved this new year to try to update at least monthly! Now if I'd just remember my camera to take some pictures!
We hope you enjoyed the snowmen ornaments the children made for you. They were very excited to share them with you.
We started back with lots of re-assessments of PreK Foundational skills. The skills on the Purple Report Card are not related to IEP goals. These are skills the preschool team here in Brownsburg have determined to be "Core" foundations to learn prior to entering kindergarten. We integrate these skills each week with our articulation and language therapy. All of the kids seem to be right on track! We look for at least 90% of the skills to be "mastered" by their last semester before entering kindergarten, so the 3 year olds have quite a while to master those skills!
January has brought us PENGUINS and SNOW themed vocabulary, stories, and songs! Try to stay warm! We are!
Don't forget we will not meet the week of January 16!
--Miss Sarah and Miss Lorraine!
We hope you enjoyed the snowmen ornaments the children made for you. They were very excited to share them with you.
We started back with lots of re-assessments of PreK Foundational skills. The skills on the Purple Report Card are not related to IEP goals. These are skills the preschool team here in Brownsburg have determined to be "Core" foundations to learn prior to entering kindergarten. We integrate these skills each week with our articulation and language therapy. All of the kids seem to be right on track! We look for at least 90% of the skills to be "mastered" by their last semester before entering kindergarten, so the 3 year olds have quite a while to master those skills!
January has brought us PENGUINS and SNOW themed vocabulary, stories, and songs! Try to stay warm! We are!
Don't forget we will not meet the week of January 16!
--Miss Sarah and Miss Lorraine!
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