Animals Theme

  • MONDAY

    TUESDAY

    WEDNESDAY

    THURSDAY

    FRIDAY

    Read the story Oh, the pets You Can Get!  by Tish Rabe or another story that has to do with our Pet Shop  theme.

    Practice saying the words dog, cat, bird, bunny/rabbit, fish. Use pictures from a book or cards and show them to your child as you model correct speech production.  Encourage your child and praise any attempts to repeat the words.

    Pretend to feed and take care of a stuffed animal or toy animal with your child.  Talk about what you need to do to take care of the pet and/or ask your child what you need to do to take care of his/her pet.

    Have your child cut out pictures of animals that would make good pets from a magazine, newspaper, clipart and/or draw pictures of pets.  Talk to your child about his/her picture.  Name the items and ask them to name the items as well.

    Take a trip to PetsMart or another pet store.  Look at the animals in the store together.  Name the animals and talk about them with your child.

    Read the story Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? by Eric Carle or another story that has to do with our Pet Shop theme.

    Practice saying the words duck, horse, frog, bird, dog, cat.  Use pictures from a book or cards and show them to your child as you model correct speech production.  Encourage your child and praise any attempts to repeat the words.

    Set up a pretend pet store with your child.  Take turns purchasing a pet and various pet supplies and being the pet store owner.  Use scripts; such as, “May I help you today?  What kind of pet do you want? What would you like to feed your pet?”, etc. )

    Play with play dough together.  Form the letter “F” and say the sound for “F” and/or make shapes of things that start with the letter “F” (i.e., frog, fish).  Add other letters; such as “B” for bird, “D” for duck and dog, etc.

    Gather 1-3 stuffed or toy animals.  Play a game of hide and seek.  Take turns  hiding with an animal, or hide the animals and go on an animal hunt together.  

    Read the story The Very Busy Spider by Eric Carle or another story that has to do with our Pet Store theme.

    Practice saying the words goat, cow, pig, spider, sheep .  Use pictures from a book or cards and show them to your child as you model correct speech production.  Encourage your child and praise any attempts to repeat the words.

    Sing the song The Itsy Bitsy Spider together.  Make big exaggerated motions and then sing it again with really small motions in a quiet voice.  Be silly and have fun together.

    Draw and/or color pictures of animals.  Talk about the animal you are coloring or drawing (i.e., color, size, shape, where it lives, sounds, etc.)  Ask your child questions about the animal (i.e., What color is your animal? Where does it live? etc.)  

    Go on a letter hunt.  Pick letter; such as “m, n, b, p, h, t, d, g, c/k, f, or v.” Find animals, objects, or pictures at home, outside, or while driving that start with your chosen sound and label them.  Ask your child to repeat each word after you say the word.

Restaurant/Food Theme

  • MONDAY

    TUESDAY

    WEDNESDAY

    THURSDAY

    FRIDAY

    Read the story of “The Little Red Hen Makes a Pizza” by Philemon Sturges or  “The Little Red Hen” or another story that has to do with our restaurant or food theme.

    Practice saying the words hen, cat, dog, duck and pig.  Use pictures from a book or cards and show them to your child as you model correct speech production.  Encourage your child and praise any attempts to repeat the words.

    Make a favorite snack or meal together.  Talk about the ingredients, what comes first, etc.   

    Have your child cut out pictures of food from a magazine, newspaper, clipart and/or draw pictures of food.  Talk to your child about his/her picture.  Name the items and ask them to name the items as well.

    Go on a letter hunt for foods that start with the letters “b” or your child's target sound in the house or at a grocery store while shopping for food.

    Read the story “If You Give a Pig a Pancake” by Laura Numeroff or “Curious George Makes Pancakes” or another story that has to do with our restaurant or food theme.

    Practice saying the words pig, pancake, duck, mail, and tree.  Use pictures from a book or cards and show them to your child as you model correct speech production.  Encourage your child and praise any attempts to repeat the words.

    Make pancakes together.  Allow your child to touch the mix and help put ingredients into the mixing bowl.  Talk about what you are doing, what you will do next and enjoy eating your pancakes together.

    Play with play dough together.  Form the letter “p” and say the sound for “p” and/or make shapes of things that start with the letter “p” (i.e., pancake, pig, pie, pizza, etc.)

    Go on a letter hunt for objects at home or outdoors that start with the sound “p” and/or letter “p” or your child's target sound.  If your child has difficulty with this task, find items or pictures and label them for your child and ask her/him to say the object name.

    Read the story “If you Give a Moose a Muffin”  by Laura Numeroff or another story that has to do with our restaurant or food theme.

    Practice saying the words moose, muffin, berry puppets and eat.  Use pictures from a book or cards and show them to your child as you model correct speech production.  Encourage your child and praise any attempts to repeat the words.

    Make muffins together.  Allow your child to touch the mix and help put ingredients into the mixing bowl.  Talk about what you are doing, what you will do next and enjoy eating your pancakes together.

    Make sock puppets together and pretend to go out to eat at a restaurant; as well as, any other pretend game that your child would like the puppets to play (i.e., hide and go seek)

    Go on a letter hunt for objects, words or pictures that start with the “m” sound or your child's target sound at home, outside, at stores.  Point out words that start with “m” and label them.  Ask your child to repeat each word after you say the word.

Summer Theme

  • MONDAY

    TUESDAY

    WEDNESDAY

    THURSDAY

    FRIDAY

    Read the story I Know An Old Lady Who Swallowed a Shell by Lucille Colandro

    Practice saying the words lady, fish, pail, sand and wave.  Use pictures from a book or cards and show them to your child as you model correct speech production.  Encourage your child and praise any attempts to repeat the words.

    Make a sand castle together, maybe even take turns burying each other’s feet.  Talk about the sand, how it feels, how it looks, etc.  Practice saying words and building your child’s vocabulary.

    Have your child cut out or draw pictures of items that the Old Lady swallowed from a magazine, newspaper, clipart. Use the pictures to retell the story.  Talk to your child about his/her story.  Name the items and ask them to name the items as well.

    Play in the water.  Pretend to be different animals that the Old Lady swallowed.  Do the crab walk and say, “Look I’m a crab.   Be a crab.” Continue with fish and gull; as well as any other water animals you can think of.

    Read the story of The Rainbow Fish by Marcus Pfister

    Practice saying the words fish, sea, play, scale, starfish, octopus and fin.  Use pictures from a book or cards and show them to your child as you model correct speech production.  Encourage your child and praise any attempts to repeat the words.

    Re-read the story.  Count the different colored scales and/or fish together.  Talk about the shapes and colors of the different fish and scales.

    Paint or draw a picture of an ocean together.  Use the different colors of the fish you and your child saw in the Rainbow Fish.  Practice saying color words and/or words from Tuesday.

    Take a trip to the Albuquerque Aquarium.  Watch the feeding of the fish in the big tank.  Name the fish in the tanks, name the colors.  Always in encourage your child to say the names and use his/her speech.

    Read the story of A House for Hermit Crab by Eric Carle or another book about the beach or ocean

    Practice saying the words move, big, little, fish, coral, snail, shell.  Use pictures from a book or cards and show them to your child as you model correct speech production.  Encourage your child and praise any attempts to repeat the words.

    Make picture cards of big and little sea creatures like those from the book (shells, crabs, fish, starfish, snails, sea urchins, etc.)  Talk about the sizes big and little.  Ask your child to help you group the items into a big pile and a little pile.  Encourage your child to name the pictures as you categorize them.

    While playing with play dough make an ocean scene by forming the different sea animals read about in A House for Hermit Crab.  Name the animals and encourage your child to label the items.  Retell the story or make-up  a story using your play dough creations

    Go on a letter hunt.  Pick  a letter; such as “m, n, b, p, h, w, t, d, g, c/k, f, or v.” Find animals, objects, or pictures at home, outside, or while driving that start with your chosen sound and label them.  Ask your child to repeat each word after you say the word.