Skip to main content

Leaf Mobile

We decided to put together the Leaf Mobile today after reading a few of our Leaf Books. Our leaves are fading fast around here so I decided to use paper leaf cutouts that I picked up at our local teacher store instead of real leaves. 
I just used thread to string the leaves to the hanger. (Real generic) I knew I would be doing this craft and that he would not pay too much attention to the details. I did decided to put two of the same leaves together when stringing them so that you can see the leaf from both sides. 
Jake did not help much during the time of putting it all together, although he thought he did. He would take leaves and throw them up at the mobile. He also held the thread as I cut pieces off. 
As we were putting together the mobile I tried to reiterate the vocabulary; leaves and falling. I kind of made up a song as I went:

To the tune of Frere Jacques 
Leaves are falling,
Leaves are falling,
To the ground,
To the ground,
All the leaves are falling,
All the leaves are falling,
Down to the ground,
Down to the ground.
(I know not genius but it works and uses our vocabulary! 
At least you don't have to hear me sing it!)

I hung the mobile in the center of the room. I hung it low enough that he could reach the leaves and walk under them. Jake loves to walk under and through things so he got a kick of walking under the leaves and letting them sweep over his head. 


After the mobile was finished we continued to sing the song as we took turns walking under the leaves. I also added some hand movements to the song. I wiggled my fingers in the air as we sing leaves are falling. Then drop them to the floor and tap them as we sing down to the ground. 
He really enjoyed himself! And the dog even participated!



abc button

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Play to Write- Week 3

We participating in a Wednesday Play Group called Play to Write over at Cherrios and Lattes . This is week 3- Write/Spell Your Name.  We started this week's practice with some name tracing. Cherrios and Lattes provides the printable for some dotted letters. She suggested doing rainbow writing with this sheet. I showed Jacob but he was more interested in writing all the Jacobs. I started by modeling on the first name. Then I held his hand and we did it together. Finally I let him do the last three on his own with only my verbal prompts.  He took this very seriously and was very proud of himself! I was surprised at how much he liked doing this activity. He has a long way to go but he did pretty well! One thing I had to repeat was not to go around the o and a more than once. He wanted to go around and around. This is an activity that I think he will want to do again! The next activity was Missing Letter Name Practice. We started by singing a little song I sing fo...

Name Writing Practice

Jacob did a little name writing practice today. He was asked to trace the dotted lines to write letters for his name. This is good practice with spelling as well. I had him say each letter as he wrote the letter.  As you can see he is very choppy and not exactly on the dotted lines. His motor skills are not quite sharp enough yet to be able to hold the crayon and he especially loses control as he works on towards the end. We also did a Missing Letter Name Practice. Both of these ideas came from Cherrios and Lattes ' Play to Write, Write to Read. These are good ways to practice names and writing. He gets very angry if he thinks he made a mistake. See the scribbling. I have to reinforce that it is ok to make a mistake and that everyone makes mistakes but we just keep trying. Practice is the only way to get better. When this happens I cannot help but think of my former students that did the very same thing and proceeded to throw fits and give up. I hope to help Jacob ge...

Building Good Readers

"Your boys are such good readers! I wish mine loved to read like yours do! How did you do that?" Can parents build good readers? How do parents build good readers? This might seem like a daunting question, a task too difficult to tackle. But truly, it does not have to be.  As our children grow and become readers on their own accord they often feel that they do not need or want parents to read to them. It is very common for this to happen, but as their parents, it is our job to push back.  Readers are not born, they are made.  We must find times to read to our children. That might mean reading aloud looks different as they get older. Maybe instead of before bed; you are reading at the dinner table, as they are playing, or during snack time. The point is to share books that will pique their interest and hold their attention. You might have to choose books you might not otherwise choose. The key to reading aloud is to m odel reading for them and to sho...