Pumpkin Stew

Halloween may be over, but I am still all about pumpkins!  I love them!  I'm so glad I can use them in my Thanksgiving activities, too.  Guess what I'm whipping up now???  A big batch of Pumpkin Stew!

I made up this little rhyme to use with my S-Blend kiddos, but I think it can be adapted to work for almost any of my kids.  Yesterday, I grabbed a big bowl, a wooden spoon, two plastic pumpkins and a variety of play food items.

Yes, I know they're jack-o-lanterns and it's after Halloween...it's all I had!

We put the pumpkins in the green bowl as we said "Pumpkin Stew.  Pumpkin Stew."  Then we rubbed our stomachs as we said "Mmmm, I like it.  Yes I do!"  Next, we shook the salt shaker and pretended to add salt to the stew as we said "Salt and Pepper".  Then the child chose an item from the blue bowl and added it to the stew as we said (for example) "Pizza, too!"  Finally, we took the spoon and stirred up the stew while we said, "Stir, stir, stir my pumpkin stew!"  The kids loved it!  They caught on to the rhyme very quickly and were eager to put in all the food items I had chosen.

I plan to use this with my little ones working on CVC combos and two-syllable words next week.  I want to make it easy for them to repeat this activity at home, so I that's why I made the printed version.  I recruited my son to draw some the graphics for me (isn't he amazing???? He did the pot, spoon and salt shaker).  It sure is nice to have an in-house graphics designer, let me tell you!  That is, when I can pin him down.  The pumpkin came from KPM Doodles, and the boarders from Scrappin' Doodles.

I will send home a set of picture cards and a copy of the the rhyme and the pot.  The child can choose a picture to put in the little frame on the rhyme page prior to starting the rhyme.  As they recite the rhyme with their parent, they can add it to the soup pot and pretend to stir it in.

Here's an example of the picture cards I will use with my S-Blend kids:

I made these at LessonPix.com.  Do you know about LessonPix?  I came late to the parade and just found out about them last week.  How did I not know about them???  Anyway, it is an amazing site where you can create materials using their graphics in just a few minutes.  It has a sound finder feature that lets you enter in the sound and place in the word and then displays all the graphics that match.  You can quickly choose the ones you want, and then turn them into cards with just a click of the mouse.  Amazing.  However, it is not a free site; you do need to purchase a membership.

Do you want to make Pumpkin Stew, too?  If so, you can download the rhyme and stew pot here.  Just be sure to let me know what you think about our original creations :-)  (Can you tell I'm a proud mama?)


Pam

Quick Last-Minute Halloween Activities

Need a quick last-minute Halloween activity but don't have much time to prep?  I've got a couple of great ones!

Here's one I've been using A LOT over the past couple of weeks.  I found some great Fall dot paint sheets  at 3dinosaurs.com.  The Fall Pack Extras has a variety of apples, leaves and pumpkins; the pumpkin is the one I used the most and is pictured at left.
So what did I do with it?

1.  I printed and laminated it and used it as a play dough mat.  I used orange play dough to make little balls, and gave them to the child one at a time after saying targeted words or phrases.  The kids promptly smashed them on the mat!  Many of them tried to cover the entire pumpkin with a layer of smashed play dough.  Fun for them, and a great way to get many reps in a short amount of time.

2.  I printed it out and used it with dot paints for several different purposes.  As an articulation activity, I glued small pictures above each vertical row.  The child would say the word and make one dot with paint for each dot in the row.  I also used it as a categorization activity.  I wrote category names above each row and had the child name 4 items in each category, making a dot for each item named.  Here's an example of one I used:

Here's another fast and easy Halloween craft:  Mummy Lights!

I saw this one on Pinterest, and just had to try it!  There was no website linked to the picture, so I don't know who to credit on this one, but it was easy enough to recreate by myself.  Here's what you need:

Gauze strips cut into 3-4" pieces, a jelly jar, wiggly eyes, tape and a tea light candle.  You can use this target any articulation sound you want by giving the child a piece of gauze after saying target words or phrases.  The child I worked with today requested "Sticky tape" twice for each gauze strip, because we are working on /st/ in two-word phrases.  The child uses the tape to attach the gauze to the jar.  All you need is a small piece of tape at each end.  After the jar is completely covered, simply glue on wiggly eyes (and a smile, if you want your mummy to look more silly than scary).  Then put the candle inside. That's it!  Look how ours turned out:

So cute!!!

Happy Halloween!


Pam

Fall Flip Book for S-Blend Practice

Last week I posted a little Halloween Flip Book that was extremely popular with my readers.  I was surprised by it's popularity, as it was something I made years ago and hadn't pulled it out in a few years.  But as I saw how much the kids enjoyed using it this past week, I decided to create another one.  This one is specifically designed to be used to work on S-Blend words and phrases, as I have several little buddies who struggle with those skills.  I haven't had a chance to try it out yet, but basically I plan to use it just like the Halloween one.  The stack of pictures on the left side of the book are adjectives as in the Halloween Flip Book, and the stack on the right are objects/people.  The words on all the picture cards begin with S-blends, which include SP, SL, SM, ST, SK and S.  Most of the adjectives pair up with at least one object that makes sense, but it is fun to talk about why when they don't.  There are twice as many adjectives in this set than objects so you can be selective.  If you'd like to use this little book too, you can download it here..  I recommend that you print it on photo paper if you have it.  It's my little trick for not needing to laminate!

Enjoy!

Pam

P.S.  I love receiving your comments!