Language Group Week of October 24, 2016

Fall Harvest

This week we continued our monthly theme of fall harvest.  Corn is one of the products that we harvest on a farm, so we learned a song about five crows who a scarecrow tries to scare away from eating the corn.  This is a simple, repetitive song (song to the tune of “Five Green and Speckled Frogs”) so it is easy  and fun for even very young children to learn.  We used the poster to help the children “countdown” the crows.

 

As a related activity, a number of crows performing various activities were created.   Some crows were simply standing, some flying with wings spread, some eating corn.   Some crows were girls as evidenced by the pink bows in their hair.  Three crows were placed out at a time, and one child was called upon to respond to a question/directive.   Examples included:   find the two crows that are the same;  find the crow that is different from the other two;   find a girl crow;   find a crow who is eating;  find the crow who is not eating. Once that child had his turn, a set of three more crows were laid out and it was the next child’s turn.  Children were also asked to explain why they made their particular choice (e.g., how do you know the crow is flying?  Why do you think this is a girl crow?).

This activity focused on a number of language skills and concepts including:

1. listening to and following directions
2. responding to questions
3. understanding same/different
4. understanding gender (boy/girl)
5. understanding actions
6. negatives (the crow who is not a girl)
7. attending while waiting for your turn

Activities you can do at home inlcude:

1. Count items in your home.  When setting the table have your child count out the correct number of forks.
2. Ask your child questions using the negative (e.g.: Which one is not a spoon?).
3. Talk about same and different while sorting the socks in the laundry.
4. Sing the song we did at school!

5 crows, all shiny black

Sat on a scarecrows back

Eating the most delicious corn

YUM! YUM!

Scarecrow,he shouted “BOO!”

One crow, away he flew

Then there were four black shiny crows

Just 4!

Continue to 1...

Then there were no more shiny crows

No more!

Miss Diane and Miss Linda