Raindrops...

Two more work days until Thanksgiving break, and I'm looking forward to the time off.  The last two days mark the end of my unit on the book Raindrops by Sandy Gay. I bought the book at a library book sale, but you can find the book on Amazon as well.

My typical preschool language lesson runs a little like this:
1. Read a book.
2. Review  vocabulary/practice direction following.
3. Read the book again, but talk about events in the book/expand vocabulary concepts.
4. Sing  a song
5. Sentence strips.

The vocabulary I addressed was: house, window, hat,  flowers, dog, dad, umbrella and rain, as well as prepositions on top and under. To address the vocabulary I used puppets made from lessonpix.com. 

 Using these pictures, I can work on naming and identifying.  But, I also use them for following two-step directions: "Put the dog under the chair.  I use one of the cube chairs already in the classroom and my students get to practice listening for objects and prepositions.

I used the following song: (To the tune of "I'm a little teacup)

Pitter Patter Raindrops falling from the sky. (Wiggling fingers in a downward motion to make rain.)
Here is my umbrella to keep me safe and dry. (Hold the umbrella.)
When the rain is over, the sun begins to glow (Raise arms in a circle above your head to make the sun.)
Little flowers start to bud and grow grow grow.  (Bring hand down making bud raise them up for each grow.)

(Original author unknown)

I like this song because it talks about the function of an umbrella.  Many of our language delayed students may know  a vocabulary word when looking at the picture but lack the skills to describe the object or explain it's use. 


The last thing I do in this lesson is sentence strips.  Again, I used lessonpix.com  to create the pictures for our sentences.

 On one side I have the target sentence. For this book, the target sentence is "Raining on my _________."

On the back side I keep the extra vocabulary so that my students can quickly change out the word.
I find that students who struggle to formulate 3 to 5 word phrases are more successful with the visual and tactile cues of a sentence strip. Since I repeat the lesson over several week, my students have lots of opportunities to practice using longer sentences.  For some of my students, I've made it more challenging by adding a "It is..." to the beginning of the sentence. 
For my non-verbal students, I have them point to the picture as I say the word. Initially, I need to do hand over hand pointing, eventually I find they can point with out needing my help, and one of my "non-verbal students" is now attempting word approximations while pointing. 

In the desert, we don't get much rain, but we've had two rainy days since I started this lesson.  This makes me happy. 

Two more work days until Thanksgiving break, and I'm looking forward to the time off.  The last two days mark the end of my unit on the book Raindrops by Sandy Gay. I bought the book at a library book sale, but you can find the book on Amazon as well.

My typical preschool language lesson runs a little like this:
1. Read a book.
2. Review  vocabulary/practice direction following.
3. Read the book again, but talk about events in the book/expand vocabulary concepts.
4. Sing  a song
5. Sentence strips.

The vocabulary I addressed was: house, window, hat,  flowers, dog, dad, umbrella and rain, as well as prepositions on top and under. To address the vocabulary I used puppets made from lessonpix.com. 

 Using these pictures, I can work on naming and identifying.  But, I also use them for following two-step directions: "Put the dog under the chair.  I use one of the cube chairs already in the classroom and my students get to practice listening for objects and prepositions.

I used the following song: (To the tune of "I'm a little teacup)

Pitter Patter Raindrops falling from the sky. (Wiggling fingers in a downward motion to make rain.)
Here is my umbrella to keep me safe and dry. (Hold the umbrella.)
When the rain is over, the sun begins to glow (Raise arms in a circle above your head to make the sun.)
Little flowers start to bud and grow grow grow.  (Bring hand down making bud raise them up for each grow.)

(Original author unknown)

I like this song because it talks about the function of an umbrella.  Many of our language delayed students may know  a vocabulary word when looking at the picture but lack the skills to describe the object or explain it's use. 


The last thing I do in this lesson is sentence strips.  Again, I used lessonpix.com  to create the pictures for our sentences.

 On one side I have the target sentence. For this book, the target sentence is "Raining on my _________."

On the back side I keep the extra vocabulary so that my students can quickly change out the word.
I find that students who struggle to formulate 3 to 5 word phrases are more successful with the visual and tactile cues of a sentence strip. Since I repeat the lesson over several week, my students have lots of opportunities to practice using longer sentences.  For some of my students, I've made it more challenging by adding a "It is..." to the beginning of the sentence. 
For my non-verbal students, I have them point to the picture as I say the word. Initially, I need to do hand over hand pointing, eventually I find they can point with out needing my help, and one of my "non-verbal students" is now attempting word approximations while pointing. 

In the desert, we don't get much rain, but we've had two rainy days since I started this lesson.  This makes me happy.