The Bear Snores On

This week we focused on the word "NEXT." We read the book "The Bear Snores On." We read this book with some rhythm. The kids helped me tap out the rhythm of the book. For some kids with speech and/or language disorders rhythm can be a little tricky. It can be great to add in some rhythm with book reading and nursery rhymes to help support that skill. It's also fun : )

Amanda K helped me record our story so you could see how we used rhythm to help tell our story this week.

After the story, Ms Manda (Wed/Thur) and Ms Ramos (Tues/Wed) pretended to be the bear. It was hilarious, the kids loved it. This was our activity card for the week.

Jingle Bells

For the month of December, we are working on the "J" sound!! The "J" sound is the same as "ch" but for "J" your voice is on. In order to make this sound, keep your teeth closed and push your lips out. Sometimes we pretend that we are making a kiss face for our mom. You can also tell your child to make the sound "strong" and practice while stomping their feet. You can use a visual cue when producing this sound of a thumb on one side of the mouth and your two fingers on the other and then push them together as you make a "J" sound.

Children often do not produce this sound accurately until age 4 - 4.5. Click here to see more information regarding developmental norms for sound acquisition (it is not good to rely too much on developmental sound charts.... but nice for general reference).

This WEEK we are talking about basic concepts/opposite words, and sometimes verbs with our activity. Basic concepts and opposites can be really, really challenging for children to learn completely. Kids often demonstrate fuzzy knowledge about basic concepts and may not use them accurately, or even more likely, they often do not produce them at all when we would expect them to.

Basic concept knowledge heavily impacts a child's academic performance. Teacher's use nothing but basic concepts all day every day. For more information about basic concepts and how to work on them at home, I attached a link to a basic concept handout from Super Duper.

As always, things are funnest for kids to be exposed to (and secretly be working on, without even knowing it!) IN PLAY. If you would like me to model how to do this let me know. I would be more than happy to make a video if anyone out there would find it helpful.
Our activity card for the week: