The Deep Blue Sea

Tuesday, March 3, 2009

Today our welcoming activity was playing in the backyard. We wanted to take advantage of how nice it's been outside! After calendar time we introduced all of our fundamentals for the month of March.

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Diamond:

A diamond is a pretty sight. (hold hands up to eyes)

It can sparkle and be very bright. (open and close hands like they're flashing)

With a point at the bottom, (hold arms down with fingertips touching)

And a point on the top, (hold arms up with fingertips touching)

A point on each side, (touch one elbow and then the other)

And that's where we stop! (hold up hands to mean stop)

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Green/Yellow: We found the different colors somewhere in the room.

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8 eight: We played follow the leader. Each child had a turn wearing the number eight and choosing an action we would do eight times.

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AABC: We talked about patterns. I made an action pattern and the kids followed. For example: clap, clap, slap your knees, touch your head; clap, clap, slap your knees, touch your head; etc. After we followed the pattern for a while, I changed one action (clap, clap, slap your knees, touch your nose). I did this a few times then ended up with the original pattern.

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Then we read Way Down Deep in the Deep Blue Sea by Jan Peck. We talked about pretend stories and about all the animals that are in the ocean. One of which is an octopus which is what we made next. They turned out great!! And the kids always love having their hands painted on. :)

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After snack we sang our ABC's and reviewed some letters, then introduced Ff. We learned the sign for Ff and sang our song and colored a page for our books.

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The Letter Ff

to the tune of Frere Jacques
The letter F. The letter F. (make ASL sign for letter, showing one hand then the other)
Has a sound. Has a sound. (bring 1 hand to ear and then the other hand to the other ear)
What sound do you make? What sound do you make? (palms facing up, shrug shoulders)
/f/ /f/ /f/! /f/ /f/ /f/! (Make ASL sign for letter, move hand forward and backward for each sound)

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