For this lesson you will need:
Permananant marker
Balloon
Designated counting item/counting jar
Paper grocery bag
V items (4-5, small enough to fit in paper bag)
Homemade magic wand. (a simple pen or stick will do)
Paper (white or construction 5 pieces)
Phrases on slips of paper (see activity)
Popsicle sticks
Tape
Posterboard (1 large piece) cardstock or paper will do: 1 piece per child
Books: What’s wrong little Pookie? By Sandra Boynton
The Way I Feel by Janan Cain
Today I Feel Silly: And Other Moods that Make My Day by Jamie Lee Curtis
Mean Soup by Betsy Everett
Crayons/Stickers
Pancake mix
Toppings for pancakes
Welcome Song: (To tune of Old MacDonald):
Welcome, welcome everyone
So glad that you are here.
Today we’re gonna have some fun
So let’s give out a cheer
Woo hoo!!
Clap clap clap clap
Slap(legs) slap slap slap
Clap clap clap let’s go! (when you shout “let’s go!”, do a group high five in the center)
Question of the Day: What kind of things do you like to talk about with your moms and dads? Allow each child to share their answer. Share your answer with the children as well.
Number of the Day ‘22’: Blow up a balloon and write the number 22 on it with a permanent marker. Tell children you are going to see if they can tap the balloon to each other 22 times without letting it hit the ground. Start out by tapping it to one child and have them tap it back to you. Tap it to the next person, etc. (just to keep it organized and prevent bloody noses..) Have children count aloud every time the balloon is tapped into the air. If the balloon touches the ground before you reach the number 22, they must start all over again!
Have children work together to count 22 of the designated object (candy, coins, stickers etc) to put into the counting jar. Remind them of the fun reward they will get when the counting jar is full!
Letter of the Day ‘V’: Find a paper grocery bag to use in a (super sneaky) magic trick. Put a few ‘V’ items into the box and cover it up so the children can’t see what’s inside.
Ask children if they’d like to see some magic, and tell them you’ve been practicing all night. Say, “Joe, can I borrow your sock? I’m going to turn this sock into something else!”
Put the sock into the bag, twirl your homemade magic wand around a few times and say the magic word “Va Va Va VOOM!”
Reach into the bag and pull out an item that begins with the letter V (Vaseline, vase, vegetable, video, vanilla, vitamins, vinegar) and say “Ta Da!”
Ask each child to give you an item of theirs that you can change into something else. Do this until all V items have been taken out of the bag.
Do one last “Va Va Va VOOM!” to make all of their items reappear, and give them back to the children. Review the names of all of the V items and ask what they all have in common. Demonstrate how to write the letter Vv and allow them to practice in their writing notebooks.
Teach the ASL sign for the letter V as well as the signs for Vegetable and Voice.
Introduction to Topic
Raise your hand if you have a voice. What exactly is a voice?
A voice is the sound that comes out of our mouths! What kind of things do we use our voices for?”
Activity: Before preschool, write the following phrases on slips of paper and put them into a cup:
“Sing A Song”
“Laugh out loud!”
“Pretend like you’re crying!”
“Shout HELP!”
“Make noises like you’re sick.”
“Say Good Morning”
Have each child take a turn choosing a slip of paper out of the cup. Read the phrase to the class and have everyone do what it says. When all phrases have been read, explain that there are many ways to use our voices, and that we are born with voices to help us to communicate. To communicate means to let others know how we feel.
“How do you think someone is feeling when you hear them laugh? (HAPPY!)
What do you think someone might be feeling if they’re shouting for help. (SCARED…)
How do you think a person is feeling when they make these noises (make your best groan and ‘in pain’ noises) (SICK!)
How do you think a person might be feeling when you hear them cry? (SAD!)
What about when a baby is crying? (Hungry, Poopy, Tired)”
“We can learn and understand a lot of things about each other by the way we use our voices. One of the most important things we can do with our voices is to use our words and talk about the way we feel. This isn’t always easy to do.”
Tell a story from your childhood when you felt hurt or angry and instead of talking about it, you held it inside or expressed it in a negative way. For example: I remember a time when I was young…just about your age, when I was having a very bad day. My brother took one of my toys without asking me so I got very angry. I went into his room and took one of his favorite toys and threw it down the stairs…… and it broke!
“Do you think that was a good way to handle my angry feelings? Instead of talking and using my words, I chose to do something mean to my brother, which didn’t make either one of us feel very good. In fact we were both very upset. Not only were we upset, but our Mommy was upset too and told us we had to go to our rooms for being so unkind to each other. If I would have talked to my brother about how I felt when he took my toy, do you think things would have turned out better?”
Ask children if they can think of a time where they were upset about something and if they could explain how they handled it. Ask how things might have been handled better by using their words. Explain that our moms and dads and brothers and sisters can’t know what we’re feeling, or what we really need, unless we use our voices to tell them.
Activity: Before class, use popsicle sticks and paper faces to make ‘feelings puppets.’
On separate pieces of paper draw a scared face, angry face, confused face, sad face and a sick face (colored green) Cut the faces out and tape a large popsicle stick to the back of each one. Give each child one or two of these puppets depending on how many children are present.
One by one read the following scenarios. After each scenario has been read, have the child with the face that matches the scenario raise it up high. Then have the children think of a way that the person might use their voice to explain their feelings.
Scenario 1, Angry: Lucy loves to paint beautiful pictures. One day while she was painting, her little sister came over and spilled water all over her pretty picture!
(have child hold up appropriate face to match Lucy’s feelings) Explain that it is definitely okay to cry when you’re really sad or upset, but instead of hitting or yelling at her little sister, she should use her voice to say:
“Mom, I love painting and it makes me very mad when I paint a pretty picture and then ‘sister’ ruins it! Will you please keep her on the other side of the room until I’m done painting?”
Point out that explaining her feelings to her mom will help her understand why she is so upset and will make her more willing to help her. If Lucy would have hit her sister, she would have gotten in trouble and wouldn’t have been able to paint anymore!
Scenario 2 Sick: When Michael woke up from his nap his tummy hurt so he climbed in his mommy’s lap and cried and cried. Because he was crying, his mommy just thought he was still tired. How can Michael help his Mom know what he was really feeling?
Scenario 3, Scared: Mommy had asked Jenna to clean her room. When she started picking up her toys, she heard thunder outside. Jenna is very afraid of thunder and lightening. She stopped picking up her toys and hid under the covers on her bed. If her mom comes upstairs and sees that she’s not cleaning her toys, she might think Jenna hadn’t listened to what she had told her to do! How can Jenna tell her Mom why she had stopped cleaning her toys and was hiding under the covers?
Scenario 4, Sad: Parker woke up and couldn’t find his favorite teddy bear anywhere. Parker came into the kitchen crying. His Mom was very confused and thought he had been hurt!
How can Parker tell his mom how he’s really feeling?
Scenario 5, Confused: Whenever Veronica went outside to play, her mom told her not to go by the road. She just wanted to look at the pretty flowers next to the road and couldn’t understand why her mommy wouldn’t let her go look at them! How can she explain this to her Mom?
Continue the scenarios until they’ve grasped the concept and use additional feelings such as jealousy, excitement, nervous etc. Be sure to emphasize the fact that whatever feelings they have are OK. It’s just much more helpful if we can use our voices to explain how we’re feeling, rather than keeping it inside or showing our feelings in a hurtful way.
Story: What’s wrong little Pookie? By Sandra Boynton
The Way I Feel by Janan Cain
Today I Feel Silly: And Other Moods that Make My Day by Jamie Lee Curtis
Mean Soup by Betsy Everett
Craft: Make a Megaphone to help children understand that using their voices is important.
Step 1: Draw a large circle on to a piece of poster board, or piece of paper. Cut out. Cut the circle in half, making two half circles.
Step 2: Have children decorate their half circle with crayons, stickers, etc.
Step 3: Roll one half circle together at the straight edge to make a cone shape.
Step 4: Seal with tape, staples or glue. Cut the small end off for mouth end.
Have children practice talking, singing and shouting with their new megaphones.
Snack : Pancake faces. Make some pancakes and provide toppings for children to create their own faces on the top. Some toppings may include peach slices, chocolate chips, raisins, whipped topping, peanut butter, berries, etc. Tell children to create a face that matches what they’re feeling right now!
Service: Help children practice putting their feelings into words. Have each child choose someone they love, and help them write a short note to that person expressing how the child feels about them. Tell them you will write whatever they tell you to in this note.
Good bye song: To the tune of “If You’re Happy and you Know it”
If you’ve learned a lot today, clap your hands (clap clap)
Here’s the letter of the day (sign the letter V), clap your hands (clap clap)
Oh, we’ve had a lot of fun,
Now our preschool time is done (tap index finger to wrist)
See you next time (wave) and we’ll do it all again! (Clap clap.)
