Friday Fun Day- Cooking up Speech- "Pete's a Pizza"

Cooking up Speech with Pete's a Pizza 

(by, William Steig)

 ♪♫♪♫♪"When the moon hits your eye like a big pizza pie, that's amore!"♪♫♪♫♪

 

About a year ago, my then three year old and I read the book, Pete's a Pizza, by William Steig.  This led us to partake in my son's first pizza making experience.  

 

Even making pizza can help children with sequencing, following directions, attention, vocabulary, articulation, etc.  Just remember that they might add a couple of steps to the equation.  For example, my son decided to eat some cheese.

 

While you wait for the pizza to bake you can...

1) Read Pete's a Pizza, by Steig

2) Make a Pizza Craft-

 Give your child a circle made of cardboard, tag-board or paper.  Provide glue, sequins, gems tissue paper, and so on to decorate the pizza.

3)  Partake in Pretend Play-

One child lays down and pretends to be the dough of the pizza.  The other children or parents put toppings on the "pizza."  Toppings can consist of fabric scraps, light cars, paper, and so on.  Set a timer for about 30 seconds.  The "pizza" can rise (pop up) when the pizza is done.  

4)  Make a Pizza out of Play Dough

 

 

Friday Fun Day- Cooking up Speech- "If You Give a Pig a Pancake"

Cooking Up Speech-PANCAKES

1) Read If You Give a Pig a Pancake, by Laura Numeroff.

 

2) Make and eat pancakes!

3. Do a coloring and following directions activity. 

I obtained the image for the following directions activity at the link below.

http://www.harpercollinschildrens.com/harperchildrensImages/Printable/7539.pdf

 

4. Play a game.  We chose to play Memory using cards from a sequencing activity.  Our "follow-up" activity will be to use the cards to sequence the events in the book.

 

You can find the Sequencing Activity at the following link:

https://docs.google.com/file/d/0BxjylOkfka4eQU9uak5JZzY0dWc/edit




 *These activities focus on following directions, sequencing, vocabulary, social skills, articulation, fluency, labeling, and grammar.*

 

Map it Monday

Map it Monday!

My four year old and I are enjoying the "Larry Gets Lost" series, as we explore the USA.  Tonight, we listened to "Larry Gets Lost in San Francisco." It was fun to hear about "home"  from a children's book.

There is also a "Good Night" series that travels thr states.

He is learning about sequencing, main idea, detail, and other reading comprehension concepts with  these book series.  You can ask where Larry will go next by looking at a map with your child.  Questions related to how he gets lost and where he goes in each city are beneficial, as well.

My son is also gaining an understanding of other places. Geography, culture and language are intertwined in this ongoing lesson in our home.  

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4uQS7f_nigc

More, Less, Equal

Language and math skills interact. One skill that crosses that bridge is the ability to determine more than, less than and equal.

To assist in reminding my son of this concept we played a modified version of the card game, War, and played with Legos.

We took out the face cards for the War game. We left cards numbered 1 to 10. We split the remaining cards into two piles. The game was played like a typical card game of War, where the person who had the highest numbered card won the hand.  We were able to use the numbers, and items on the card, to decide who had more, less or if we had the same amount.  My son counted the cards that each of us won. He was able to tell me who had more cards, and therefore who won the game.

After the cards were put away, we stacked Legos to see how "tall"our amounts would be. This gave a visual and tangible representation of more, less and equal.

The idea of this game was prompted by my four year old. He grabbed the stack of cards, and asked to play a game.  He wanted to play with Legos at the end of the card game. It was a great opportunity to have him compare amounts, rote count and count items/one to one correspondence.