Go Away Big Green Monster!

This week, the kindergarten classes and the preschool class met the Big Green Monster!  We read Ed Emberly's Go Away Big Green Monster! using the iPad app.


First, they were given a blank monster with circles at the top spelling out their names, as well as round stickers with letters.  The children needed to peel off the stickers and put them on the circles to spell their first name; in preschool, the letters were given in the right order, but in Kindergarten there was an added challenge of scrambled stickers!










Then we read the book one page at a time and the children colored their monster according to the narrator.  When the book was finished, we listened to the sing-along version of the book.  The children really enjoyed the animations that the app provided!

Laying on your stomach helps
to build muscle strength!

The Big Green Monster Visits Preschool

The Big Green Monster strikes again!  This time, he visited preschool.  We listened to the story and created our own Big Green Monsters as the pieces were discussed.

We started by coloring the center of the small paper plate green

Then adding two yellow eyes, a bluish-greenish nose, and a scary red mouth with sharp white teeth!

Go Away Big Green Monster!

Go Away Big Green Monster!

We read Ed Emberly's Go Away Big Green Monster! using the iPad app.

As each page came up, the children saw another piece of the monster's face.  They colored their page to match the monster.

The students loved seeing the animations in the app.  After the activity was done, we listened to the song available within the app and watched the illustrations come to life!

Sorry for the blurry pictures - these kids are always in motion!

Go Away Big Green Monster!

Roll A Monster

Most of my students love dice games and I've found many "Roll A..." games online.  It gets even the most reluctant pencil user to draw.  Since it's Halloween season, in some individual and group OT sessions, we've been playing "Roll A Monster".  

The students roll a die, then call out the number represented by the number of dots on the die.  This ability is called "subitizing" (to perceive at a glance the number of items presented) and is a wonderful math skill!  Then student then finds the intersection of their number and the part they are working on.  

Together, we focus on the detail in the drawings, the proportion of the pieces, and the orientation and location of the body parts.  We are also working on pencil pressure and drawing lightly enough to fully erase our lines.  The students love seeing the goofy monsters they come up with!  I've included some of the monsters I've rolled (as models) so you can see a few of the possibilities.

Revisiting Mat Man

In the Kindergarten classrooms, we reacquainted ourselves with Mat Man!  There are many mini-Mat Mans running around the classroom.   As a group, we built Mat Man while listening to the song.

Back at their tables, each student drew a picture of a person, making sure to include the parts we sang about with Mat Man. 

They then spelled their first names by using stickers and matching the letters to their name tags.  They peeled each letter off and "wrote" their names next to their drawings.

Clowning Around!

In the New Durham preschool classroom today, we put together some shape clowns!

We talked about colors, shapes, and the parts of the face.   We also counted how many eyes, noses, mouths, and cheeks we have.  

Then we talked about where these parts go!

Class Clowns!

Mat Man

In the kindergarten classroom in Effingham, we met a new friend named Mat Man.

Mat Man is a friend from Handwriting Without Tears that helps teach children several concepts, including body awareness, counting, and building.  Each child was given a piece of Mat Man and told to listen carefully to Mat Man's song.  As the song introduced each part, the child added his or her piece to the class Mat Man we were building on the board.   Click here to visit Mat Man World and build him online, hear the song, and download other resources.