Center Time - Week 1

This week, "In the Garden," we will incorporate communication skills during our center time.

Art: Provide Play-Doh to practice building what lives, grows, or is used in the garden.

• Communication Goal: After building object, describe the flower or garden tool and how it is used.

Blocks: Build a garden and use various types of plastic insects and flowers to incorporate building scenes.

• Communication Goal: Name types of insects and flowers.  Describe position (in, on, under, etc.) of insects.  Identify where each insect lives and what makes flowers grow.  Use sentences to describe objects.

Dramatic Play: Practice cooking with foods gathered from garden in the kitchen and use special tools at the gardening table.

• Communication Goal: Interact with peers when role-playing; increase vocabulary; use sentences to describe role in the play activity. 

Literacy: Numerous books will be provided about insects, plants, gardens, and gardening tools.  Clinicians will be available and willing to read and/or assist in stimulating communication.

• Communication Goal: Focus on a story for at least 3-5 minutes; answer questions about stories selected; comment on pictures and story.

Sand/Water: Provide soil, gardening tools, and seeds to incorporate plant growth.

• Communication Goal: Turn-taking, interacting, and using 2-3 words to describe actions involved in plant growth. 

Small Manipulatives: Provide matching cards of parts of the garden; identify various types of flowers and insects.

• Communication Goal: Identify parts of the garden and be able to match words to pictures; practice using vocabulary words.

We will also have various cues available in the classroom:

• Literacy: Various books about plants, insects, garden, and vegetables available for reading.
• Visual Cues: Pictures of insects, flowers, and tools; insect life cycle; plant growth pictures; props and prompts (puppets, rules, vocabulary, etc.)
• Written Cues: Picture cards with name of gardening tools, life cycle of insects and plants, flower types, insects and other objects found in the garden.  There will also be written cues regarding daily schedule, simple directions, and classroom rules.
• Graphic Organizers: We will use multiple diagrams during our lessons for describing specific insects and flowers during language circle, flow maps during literacy and science for sequencing events of the story and life cycles of plants and insects.