All About Friends

We've started another great week at the Speech Garden.  This week we are learning all about our friends.  Who are our friends?  What do we do with our friends? Where do our friends live?  What kind of friends can you have?  Why do we have friends?  So many questions to answer about our friends!

At the touch and feel pool, Bristol and Ryan began their morning playing with Bendaroos (also called Wiki Sticks).  These sticky, bendable sticks of many different colors can be shaped into all sorts of fun decorations.  We made a rainbow and also wrapped them to make a tiny little snail.

We then went to our cozy classroom for centers and morning circle before heading out to the playground.   Upon entering our room, Bristol and Ryan seemed particularly interested in the books in the book basket today.  So in keeping with the importance of following the lead of the child, I read all three books that they wanted to read instead of going straight to our morning circle.  We read (and sang), Wheels on the Bus, The Very Hungry Caterpillar, and Where's Baby's Belly Button? (which is a peek-a-boo type book).  In order for them to see what was under the flap, Bristol and Ryan had to use the sign for "open" or say "open please."

During centers, we continued to use Bristol and Ryan's favorite ball run and a shape sorter that makes a silly noise when you place the shape in the correct spot.  Bristol and Ryan were required to use expanded sentences and the signs for "go" and "more."

We had super big smiles on the playground today!  We all played chase together.  Bristol had a blast throwing a big yellow ball over the play equipment with me, and I got some really great laughs from Ryan when we played peek-a-boo through the plastic windows on the jungle gym.

For our Language Circle today we read the book, Where is My Friend?, a hide and peek book by Simms Taback.  In this book, a variety of different animals walk through various settings asking, "Where is my friend?"  Once Bristol or Ryan flipped the flap on the page, they would see another hiding animal friend and say, "I see my ostrich friend", etc.

Following the book, we used our fine motor skills to make a friendship garden by tracing and gluing our handprints to flower stems on our paper.  I also brought different types of scissors that Bristol and Ryan could use to practice cutting different edges.  

After we finished with our story and our art project, we had just enough time to watch a short YouTube video and song about friends.  Then we headed off to have lunch with the rest of our friends!