top, bottom, under, near, next to, between, below, in

objective:
a. to practice with top, bottom, under, near, next to, between, below, in
b. following directions with 2 or more critical elements

Points to remember:
1. I put this little book in my purse and used it while waiting this afternoon at an appointment.
2. You child should know the names of all the animals before you begin.
3. The stickers are removable so you can use this activity again. Lesson:
1. The inside of the book is a sticker page. Show your child one page of stickers at a time.

2. Tell you child, "Place the mommy pig with her 2 babies on the farm." I let Brooke place the sticker wherever she wanted on the farm. Then I began to use location words.
3. "Put the other baby pig near the mommy"
"Put the chicken and her chicks under the barn."
"Put the roster next to the mommy chicken."
"Put the boy at the top."
"Place the pool of turtles at the bottom of the page."
"Put the goats in the fence."
"Put the goats between the chickens and the goats."
"Place the food dish below the boy."
4. Continue you use all the stickers or you child doesn't want to play anymore.
Modification:
1. Brooke was able to get all the location words except below so we practiced later in the day while at an indoor play place. I had her hide below the swing and then below the table. She enjoyed this game and practiced the other words such as in, on, out, top and bottom.

Which one is different?

Objective:

a) learn and use concepts of same and different

b) answer why? questions

Points to Remember:

1. Use the vocabulary of same and different as many times as you possible can?

2. Give your child enough time to think about and answer after you ask a question. This is harder than it seems. I often count silently to 10 while I wait for Brooke to give me an answer.

3. Download the sheets from http://www.montessoriforeveryone.com/

Lesson

1. Go to the Free Download section and then to Language Materials or click here

2. Print the activity sheet labeled What Doesn't Belong?

3. Cut out each group of 4 pictures.

4. Show your child the first group of pictures. Ask, "Which one is different?" and then wait. If your child doesn't understand, try to use other words such as "Which one does not belong? " or "Which one is not the same?"

5. Then talk about the pictures. "These 3 are all same because they are all animals. All these animals live on a farm. Do sneakers live on a farm? No, what are sneakers? What do we do with sneakers? That's right, we wear sneakers? " and keep on talking about the pictures as long as your child is interested.

6. Ask your child, "Why is this picture different?" Since you have already talked about these pictures, your child should be able to answer this why? questions.

7. Move on to the next set until you have completed and talked about all 4 sets of pictures.

Modifications:

1. Look around the Free Download section to find more great activities.

2. Use the red X's that came with the download as markers so you can re-use this activity again. 3. Make an effort to use the concepts of same and different in your everyday conversations.

Numbers

Objective:

1. One-to-one correspondence.

2. Number recognition 1-6

3. Practice following the directions of middle, biggest, smallest and all

Points to Remember:

1. I typically have some "homework" that Brooke and Kate do while Jake does his homework from 1st grade.

2. The kids sit at the kitchen table to complete their homework as I walk around and help as needed.
3. Since we do this everyday, I usually don't get too much complaining.

Today we worked a little bit on numbers and following directions while Jake practiced his word wall words from school.

Lessons:

I printed worksheets on apples from TLS Books.com . The site has great worksheets to print for free.

In this sheet your child counts the apples and circles the answer. Then your child colors the middle apple.On this sheet, your child counts the apples and circles the number. Then your child colors the biggest appleHere your child counts the apples and circles the number. Then your child colors the smallest apple.On this sheet, your child counts the apples and circles the answer. Then you child colors all the apples.

What I like about these sheets is the practice with middle, biggest, smallest, and all as your child practices one-to-one correspondence and number recognition.

Brooke did great today and successfully completed all the sheets after I read her the direction.

Modifications:

1. I printed all 4 sheets onto one page. Then cut the page into four small sheets, giving Brooke one sheet at a time. Saving paper!

Following Directions

Objectives:
a) to listen and follow directions containing two nouns and one "location word"
b) to demonstrate an understanding of "above, below, in front of, beside, behind, top and bottom"


Points to Remember:
1. Make sure the child know all of the vocabulary before you begin, such as girl, boy, beach ball, pool, cloud, tree, ladder, sun, kite, etc.
2. Use the same predictable sentence structure so the child can learn what to listen for in the sentence. "Place the cloud above the pool." and "Place the flip flops below the tree." The 3 critical elements the child will listen for is cloud, above, pool and then flip flops, below, tree



Lesson:
Listening to directions given orally is always an auditory/verbal skill that Brooke needs to practice. She needs to be able to listen to directions and follow them once she gets to school. Practice at home is very important. We found these fun worksheet to practice.

1. I cut out the images of the cloud, flip-flops, boy, beach ball, kite, sun and girl. I gave Brooke the paper with the pool and sky and laid the images above the picture.

2. I asked her to
a. Put the sun above the pool
b. Put the flip flops below the tree
c. Put the beach ball in front of the pool
d. Put the girl beside the pool
e. Put the kite behind the tree
f. Put the boy on top of the ladder
g. Put the cloud on the bottom of the sun


3. Once she put the pictures where I asked her to put them, I allowed her to glue on the pieces anywhere she wanted.

Modifications:
1. There are lots of these types of sticker sheets available from Oriental Trading Company. The only problem is you get 12 of one type in a package. Maybe if you have 12 friends that will work!2. Look for coloring books with stickers...they just might work for this activity.
3. You can always use miniatures...Polly Pocket and all her stuff with a dollhouse would be a great manipulative to use. Such as, "Put the Polly Pocket on her bed." or "Put the shoes in the trunk of the car." and many other options with fewer or more critical elements.

Brooke's goals at age 4

I have created a list of goals that I expect Brooke to complete this year. These are goals for children with a hearing impairment to master at the age of 4. Brooke is capable of reaching all these goals. As I create lessons to work on these goals, I will link back to this list.

• Pays attention to short stories and answers simple questions about them.
• Listens to long stories.
• Carries out, in order, a command of three parts such as "Pick up the ball, put it on the table, and bring me the book."
• Carries out four separate commands using different prepositions: in front of, beside, behind.
• Knows "between/above/below/top/bottom/next to/in/out"
• Follows a four-step command; a direction with four critical elements.
• Carries out more complex commands with 2-3 actions.
• Understands and replies appropriately with a word or gesture to questions such as "What do you do when you are sleepy?" "Which one is bigger?"
• Comprehends time phrases: all the time, all day, for two weeks.
• Understands irregular plurals, e.g., child/children.
• Understands possessives: dog’s.
• Understands approximately 1500 – 2500 words.
• Understands the number three, e.g., "Give me three"
• Imitates a 12-syllable, 9-word sentence, based on short-term recollection.
• Remembers four items of a story.
• Repeats two numbers backwards.
• Recalls four numbers, letters, or words.
• Identifies four colors.
• Understands dependent clause: if, because, when, why
• Hears and understands most of what is said at home and school.