Summer is Sweet With Time

Closing the door on the school year and looking forward to some easy, breezy days ahead.

Summer is sweet with time.  The weeks will fly by.  They always do!  But for today...and tomorrow...and a few tomorrows after that...I will breathe easy and make plans.
Here's what I've got so far:

On the Home Front:

Family:  Summer gives me time to savor the moments with my husband and my boys....making memories, getting back in the groove of enjoying each other's company (as opposed to looking up from my computer to ask "What do you need?").

Extended Family:  I am blessed with many extended family gatherings in the summer...4th of July, August Family Reunion, and a host of spontaneous get togethers in between.

Play Dates:  I've got one kid who's still young enough to want to play with his Mom and a teenager who likes an occasional evening of popcorn and Netflix.  So... IT IS ON!

On the Job Front:

Brushing Up and Catching Up:  Needing to brush up on a few skills I haven't used for a while and catch up on perusing the ASHA website for new information  especially in the areas of  Sign Language, Core Vocabulary, Apraxia. Will be needing this for some incoming preschoolers and, this is how I know I'm lucky to be an SLP... I'm  really looking forward it! No joke.  I love this stuff.

Create:  It's so helpful to have a quality home component for families who want to do carryover of speech and language skills.  The research confirms it.  So....I plan to create a Home Practice resource this summer that can be individualized for a variety of skills, reasonably implemented throughout the year,  and developmentally appropriate for preschoolers.     Tall order.  But I've got some ideas.  Can't wait to get started on them.



Coursework:
Letting Go 101:  This is a self taught "crash" course brought on by a newly licensed teenager with a summer job.  (Pun intended, but he's actually a very good driver).

Mindful Communication: In my first week of eight for this online course and Loving this so far.  It is my second mindfulness course through Mindful Schools.

So That's It.  My Summer Plans!

The first order of business though is to pack up and clean up some loose ends at school...so time to stop blogging and get to work.

Category Story

Another favorite book made the rounds with my PreK SLP crew last month.  I love FIVE CREATURES by Emily Jenkins because it just begs to be interactive.  Told from the perspective of a little girl it starts "Five creatures live in my house...three humans and two cats."  From there the story  sifts and sorts the traits and preferences of pets and people in a variety of appealing ways.  

The story has a simple, accessible format which mixes basic vocabulary targeting many of my students' goals (concepts like tall, short, long, under, high) with exposure to higher level language (like creatures, humans, allergic, and knack).

The pictures by Tomek Bogacki support the text beautifully and allow preschoolers to problem solve and organize these creatures into all kinds of unique categories.   Sometimes I pull out props and manipulatives to make the sorting more concrete.

Three don't like to take baths.  (You can tell by the look on one "creature's" face).

Four can climb on high stools....only one fits under the refrigerator?

One of my favorite parts of the story is a two page spread that  shows "creatures" chasing, feeding, watching, and listening to birds in the backyard.  The little girl says "All of them like birds, but not in the same way." It's just one of many pages that lends itself to rich problem solving about who fits into the categories this little narrator comes up with.

If you are checking out this book with young learners, check out the free PDF that I created for props. The PDF is created thanks to some fun Creative Clips Clip Art by Krista Wallden.

Five Creatures Props PDF Download

Enjoy! I would love to hear about your experience with FIVE CREATURES!

  

Here Comes Mud Season - Let it Snow!

Here comes March ... and spring ... and mud season!  Time to revisit a great book!

LET IT SNOW by Maryann Cocca-Leffler

Don't get the wrong idea!  As far as I'm concerned, it can stop snowing any time now.  But if you take a peek at the last page of this book, it may become clear why I like to bring it out in March.

Yes! Spring is coming ... and now is the perfect time to review all that "prior knowledge" preschoolers have built up around winter over the past few months.  This sweet book uses short well crafted verse,  a rural setting, and colorful pictures of a young family to remind us of all the fun we've had this winter.  For example:

Lacy trees, hills of white ...
                         sledding, snowmen,
                                            snowball fight.


        ... rosy cheeks, runny nose,
                         cold, wet mittens,
                                         frozen toes.

There's shoveling and following tracks in the snow and cross country skiing.  There's hot chocolate, blankets, board games ... even a Snow Day!  And as I am flipping through the pages with preschoolers, remembering and retelling tales of winter adventures ... almost unexpectedly ... the season begins to change ....

But soon ....
      sloppy,
             slushy,
                   melting snow...

And there you have it!  Mud Season!

My preschoolers and I can do so much with this book ... recalling ... prediction ... rhyme .... and familiar everyday life (for Vermont kids).  It's all here in one book!   Well, actually it's not just one book ... it's four!  Because there's one of these great reads for each season!   Each one perfect for those final weeks before the season's change ....

I love these books!  LET US READ!

Frequent Sequencing

Sequencing -- the ability to think and talk about a related series of events. 

I've been trying some new activities to give my preschoolers more practice with sequencing.  It's a foundational skill that shows up several times in our Vermont early education assessment standards (Teaching Strategies Gold) and the Common Core.

Some Preschool Standards Related to Sequencing

• Tells about experiences in order…
• Remembers the sequence of personal routines and experiences...
• Tells stories about other times and places that have a logical order... 

Some Common Core Standards Related to Sequencing

• K: Identify characters, setting, and major events in stories...
• 5th: Report on a topic or text or present an opinion, sequencing ideas logically... 

Broadly defined, just about any event or activity lends itself to sequencing.  In our preschool program, we have many visual sequence strips to help children follow routines throughout their days.  We use visuals for the daily schedule, snack, clean up,  hand washing, making play dough, playing games, and getting ready to go outside (to name a few).  We also create sequence strips for special activities -- like making gingerbread houses or "Friendship Snack Mix. These visuals help students follow and internalize the events of the day.


It's only a small adjustment to use these same visuals to give children many opportunities to RETELL the stories of their daily routines. It's these expressive sequencing skills (verbal and written) that become so important in the later school years.



Opportunities for retelling are simple to create by INTENTIONALLY and FREQUENTLY:

• modeling the step by step language of our routines
• asking children to tell the next step in a routine
• asking students to describe familiar routines aloud

Additional practice can be provided during my speech and language sessions.  If I cut up copies of familiar sequence strips, we can use them to play games like

• Which step is missing?
• Which step did I move?
• Tell me how to put it back together.  

These activities give students  practice talking about sequenced experiences.  And the familiar routines and visuals offer a built in level of support that my students with language delays often need.


As an added BONUS sequenced retells simultaneously address other language skills. For example:

• sentence structure and vocabulary (Next, spread the frosting on the sides. )
• hypothesizing (What will happen if you put your coat on first?)
• recall (Remember how we set up the game last time?)
• organizing (Let's make a list of what we will do together today)

Finally, these activities typically take just a few minutes to complete, leaving valuable time for lots of other Speech and Language FUN!

Building Play Skills in the Block Area - Some Tools We Use

Here's the Block Center in our PreK classroom.   

Organized.  Inviting.  Maybe it's a lot like yours.  Just imagine the possibilities!

 Imagine this...

or this....

or .... this!?

Sometimes "chaos" best describes our experience with blocks and preschoolers.  But blocks offer so many amazing opportunities to develop social language, concept knowledge, vocabulary, problem solving, story telling, and pretend play.   So before you go looking for some sturdy boxes to pack them away, check out some of the tried and true tools we rely on in our PreK class to tame the block area.  

Guided Discovery

Just knowing the expectations is enough for some of our students.  Our classroom teacher devotes time at the beginning of the school year to lead the students through a guided discovery of each classroom center.   In the block area she talks about taking out blocks as you build, instead of clearing shelves.  She talks about the kind of language we use to invite friends to build with us, and what we might say if we want to build alone.  She talks about knocking down towers, and how to share the space.   For some of our preschoolers, this conversation is enough.

Other preschoolers need practice to meet these expectations...practice with the language, the impulse control, or the constructive and symbolic play skills.   These develop over time.  Once the foundation is in place from guided discovery, teachers and peers remind and support the children who need more time.

And we have more tools to help...

Topic Boards

Some of our students benefit from simple ideas and reminders to build on.  We've found that visuals help immensely with this! This is one of our topic boards for the block area.  (It's basically a low tech AAC board).  We have several students using these visuals to support comprehension and initiation.

I love these boards.  I have seen the lights come on for many children simply by pulling out and using topic boards.  They require teacher guidance at first,  and then children begin to use them independently.

A typical teaching prompt in the block area might sound like this:

"Hmmm...Let's build a bridge" (point).

Use three blocks to make a bridge....run a car over it....hand the car to the student.

"Try out the bridge!"

"Should we add a road or a tunnel?"  (point)...

The back of the board prompts some social language too --"Your tower was knocked down.  You can tell Joe, 'I don't like that!" (point).   

Books

There are lots of good books that address block play.  These are two of our favorites.  

These books have been spring boards to spur our preschoolers on to new levels of complexity and imagination in the block area.  They have been shared in large groups, small groups and one on one.  Children pull them down and flip through them on their own and ask teachers to read them.  Just as adults go back to a reference book again and again to extend our understanding,  our preschoolers have used these books to build their understanding of block play, layer by layer.

Building Skills

During those early weeks, and even months of school, the extra time and attention spent helping students discover their constructive, social, and symbolic play skills in the block area is well spent.  When preschoolers can navigate the block area, they will build a wealth of foundational knowledge that will support them throughout the grades and into their futures.   Whether they are engineering bridges, building houses, or constructing theoretical frameworks...they will be drawing on skills they learned in the block center.

 What challenges and successes have you faced with block play?  Got any more tools or ideas for our classroom?  Please share in the comments.  We are always looking to BUILD our knowledge.  

A New Fall Favorite in PreK - A Book About Scarecrows

As we have been exploring FUN FALL themes in preschool, it came to light that some of my students were unfamiliar with Scarecrows.  We set out to learn more and that's when our amazing librarians introduced us to ... 

The Big Snuggle-Up by Brian Patten and Nicola Bayley

This beautiful story is told by a child who invites an “old scarecrow” into the house during an early winter snowstorm.  The scarecrow asks to bring a mouse and they are followed by several more furry (or feathered) friends.   All are graciously welcomed in to "snuggle up."

On the day I read The Big Snuggle-Up with my Preschoolers we had our first snowfall of the season (in OCTOBER!)  It was the perfect match.

The book is loaded with so many things that an SLP craves in a good read with children:

• A great seasonal theme,
• A simple plot that celebrates cooperation, kindness, and friendship,
• Some higher level vocabulary anchored by easy to understand language
• Rhyming, repetition, predictability,
• And…it’s loaded with blends…especially “s” blends

I simply love this newfound book and have added it to my list of Fall/Winter favorites!    I expect I will be pulling out The Big Snuggle Up again in the months to come as the snow falls outside of our cozy PreK classroom.  Who knows,  we just might invite some furry (or feathered) friends to join us.

This book, originally published in 2011,  is currently out of print.  But I found a used one, with FREE shipping, at Abe Books.

Finding a great new book to share with my preschoolers is one of my favorite things!  
How about you?  What great books have you discovered this Fall?  What are your old standbys?

Please share them in the comments.  I would love to check them out.

Thanks for stopping by,
Becky