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It's amazing how quickly time is flying by.  Your kids are doing so many Amazing things each day!  Such great progress from each and every one of them!  Each unique from the other~ I am so blessed to have the opportunity to spend my days with them! 

I hope you are all seeing progess at home as well.  What happens here is only worthwhile if you are able to see it too!  Please let me know if there is Any way that I can support you other than during the school day.  I would be happy to brain storm with you and trouble shoot situations if you'd like.

We just finished up our unit on Farm Animals and are getting ready to learn all about Zoo animals. 

Please talk about animals and the sounds they make, what color they are, what they look like...Whether asking them to point to pictures in story books, or to label animals after you give them clues...ANY WAY that you can carry over what's done here at school into your home, will only benefit them!

Thanks for all that you do~

Lori

It's so good to be back at school~  It was great fun working with your kids over the summer...Yet, now it's time to get back to business!  I'm excited to be back working with my same team this year.  Shilpi, Charlene, Andrea, Deb and I work beautifully together and the kids will be sure to benefit from our shared philosophy, teaching style, need for structure yet gentleness, and comfort with each other. 

Our first unit, for the month of August, is All about me!  This week we read, From Head to Toe, by Eric Carle and focused on vocabulary related to animals and body parts.  Next week we will be reading My Five Senses, by Aliki.  This book focuses on body parts and the senses related to them.  Lastly, we will be reading, Here Are My Hands, by Bill Martin and John Archambault.  This book focuses on body parts, senses, and actions that are related to different body parts.

Talk,Talk, Talk...require your child to communicate what they know.  Whether by labeling with words or pointing to pictures or body parts...please try to generalize this information to the home setting!

Although you won't see the Art work until the end of the month, know that they are busy cooking, painting, constructing, learning....

Have a great month~

Welcome to APRIL!!! (almost) 

The boys enjoyed our last unit on transportation...there's was so much to learn, talk about, act out, play....it was surely fun!

Next is our Unit on Spring Time!  We'll be using a wide assortment of children's literature and activities to hi-light vocabulary, identification of objects and pictures based on attributes, categories,  and spacial concepts.

Please continue to ask your boys to label colors of things...preferably flowering trees, flowers, flower pots, spring things with a specific-basic colors.  I'm hoping to instill a love for Hide and Seek/I Spy - so that they are excited to look for things in the immediate environment.  They are beginning to show a consistent understanding of adjectives, color combinations, and placement/prepositions. 

Thanks for all of your support in everything that you do.  I can't believe that it's so close to the end of the year already. 

~Wow~

Lori

Wow- The year is flying by.  We've just finished up our Dinosaur unit and have jumped into "Things that Go" - transportation.  The target vocabulary is as follows:

Train     Car      Truck      Bus      Boat       Plane   Balloon   

Go        Wheels    Stop    Go        Fast         Slow    Road   

Track    Sky       Beep     Honk

We have several craft activities, cooking (following directions) activities, along with games that will teach prepositions and signs, as well as review what we've already learned!

Please encourage your boys to make vehicle sounds as they play. 

Have a great week!

Ms. Lori

We've just finished out book unit on the Napping House.  The boys really enjoyed the story and all of the art projects that went along with it!  Next, We will be reading The Gingerbread Baby, by Jan Brett and Gingerbread Boy, by Paul Galdone. 

I'm not sure why I didn't think of it earlier, yet, I am going to include a link so that you, too, can learn the signs for this unit's vocabulary.  This way you can practice with your boys at home too! 

Baby   Cat     Dog      Fast       Fox     Goat     House    Pig      Run

http://www.aslpro.com/cgi-bin/aslpro/aslpro.cgi

To get optimal involvement in this book unit too, we will be doing be simple art, music, and cooking activities.  This provides us with opportunities to practice on sequencing, prepositions, and following one step directions (just to name a few things)!

As always, I am thrilled to have more time with all of your boys...They're growing up too fast :(

Have a great week!

Hope everyone had a relaxing, family filled, Thanksgiving holiday break!  Our next story is The Napping House, by Audrey Wood.  This story not only has the repetition of language, yet beautiful illustrations that will provide visual cues for the boys when asked questions about the story. 

Some of the key vocabulary in this story is familiar to the boys and provides another opportunity to generalize words and themes that they have already learned this school year!  It lends itself to lessons about day vs. night, weather, a review of some animal signs, some new vocabulary, and continued work on verbs and prepositions.

I'm hopeful that you'll take a few minutes to read to the boys, either this book or related literature.  Some suggestions are;

Goodnight Moon

Goodnight Owl

When I'm Sleepy

Happy Birthday Moon

Mooncake

How Many Feet in the Bed

Know that I'm looking forward to another few weeks with your little people!  I am truely thankful for them - each and every day!

Take care-

Ms. Lori

We're off to a good fall season!  The boys are adjusting to the new "coat routine", the tissues coming at their noses, and the increased handwashing!  As the weather gets colder, we'll have more and more "functional opportunities" to work on dressing skills, so we should see great strides in that area too!!!

The boys continue to "Wow" us daily with all of their new abilities...whether it's a new word or sign, a whole sentence, a spontaneous request, or just following a new routine...they are all doing great things!!!

Our next thematic unit is a "thanksgiving-ish" story that I can't wait to share with the boys!!!  We'll be reading,   I Know an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Pie, by Alison Jackson. The key vocabulary of this book is food -

pie          squash       pot         cider        Thanksgiving

salad       cake          dry          roll          bread

turkey      eat           swallow    old lady      

It is an interactive story that is sure to engage them!

Hope you have a great week!

OHHHHHH.............SO SILLY............SKELETON HICCUPS is our next Book Unit...The boys will be giggling their way through the story as the Skeleton can't seem to get rid of his Hiccups...A very cute, entertaining book! 

We will be talking about Body Parts again...(the foot bones' connected to the leg bone...the leg bones' connected to the ....)  They will be going on an scavenger hunt to find "what comes next" in the book,  making funny art projects and cooking yummy snackes.  As we move closer to Halloween, we will be learning about the change in weather, apples and pumpkins, and other "fallish" things! 

THANK YOU for sharing your boys with us each day!  They are growing by leaps and bounds!!!!!

I'll keep you posted on what's coming up next!

Take care~

Ms. Lori and Ms. Shilpi