APRIL Circle

Group forming (sing til everyone joins together and is in circle)

Round and round the earth is turning
Always turning round to morning
And from morning round to night

Speech - seasonally appropriate songs (all have movement involved too)

Drip drip drop
Little April showers
We're getting wet
And we don't care at all
Drip, drop, drip drip drop

Use fingers to tap drops on head and arms, whole body! - this develops tactile sense)

It rains on Sprout
It rains on Wild Thing
It rains and rains on Mummy!
But it didn't rain on Nature Girl
She has a HUGE UMBRELLA!

(repeat so everyone gets a chance to make the big umbrella - a big body X or Y stretch)

Its raining its pouring (hands drum on head)
The roots are getting wet (touch your toes)
The rain will help the flowers grow (grow back upright)
It quickly melts away the snow (sink back down)
Its raining, its pouring (stand up while fingers drum on head)
My boots are getting wet (touch your toes again!)

March in circle with the classic for silly kids:

It's raining, its pouring
The old man is snoring
He went to bed with a bump on his head
And didn't get up til morning.

ENKI action verse: Tall stand the Sailor Men

(ENKI materials are copyrighted, so I won't post the whole thing but this is a verse for Lateral midline crossing, and heavy on the Proprioceptive system work)

Looking glass EYE SPY - right now we're focussing on looking with the right eye for Nature Girl - she's the only one who gets that instruction. For now it's just looking - as we go on we'll combine this with out phoneme work.

ENKI action verse: Waters

(Crossing the midline repeatedly in different ways - right/left, horizontally, and forward and back)


Rolly polly rolly polly up up up!
Rolly polly rolly polly down down down!
Rolly polly rolly polly out out out!
Rolly polly rolly polly in in in!

Rolling the hands round in a spiral following instructions - Proprioceptive system - naval radiation)

12345
Once I caught a fish alive
678910
But I let him go again
Why did you let him go?
Because he bit my finger so!
Which finger did he bite?
My little finger on the (?)

Act it out grasping up with 12345 and down with 678910 - helps with body awareness (lateral midline crossing and quickly identifying left or right)

EXTRA LESSON Body Geography Simon Says

In this exercise you give instructions to the child without acting anything out yourself. At 8 I have Nature Girl using the terms right and left, with a younger child you start with right, and then move on to left after a few months. Nature Girl is nearly 9 so we are crossing the midline and having her touch her left side with her right side and vice versa. You build up to a verbal sequence of three (Nature Girl can't handle more than one at a time right now) "take your right hand and touch your left ear, then touch your right knee, and your left big toe"

Nature Girl does not have a firmly developed right dominance yet. This usually happens between ages 6 and 7. Why is this important? Firmly developed dominance happens at the same time that there is a growth spurt in the left hemisphere of the brain and both hemispheres have developed localized and holistic functions. - as a result concentration span increases, language development is in sync with the imagination, and the individual has more control over visual perception - able to perceive the switch between 2 and 3 dimensions instantaneously. This is necessary for learning to be done at a subconscious - comfortable level.

Dance thumbkin dance
Dance ye merrymen everyone
Thumbkin can dance alone, thumbkin can dance alone
Dance merrymen dance
Dance ye merrymen everyone

Dance foreman dance
Dance longman dance
Dance ringman dance (ringman cannot dance alone)
Dance little man dance

hand and finger coordination fingerplay (necessary for handwriting)

ENKI Action Verse: RAIN

Tactile and auditory - this one involves running the fingers over the entire body tapping, pounding, dancing lightly and in big washing rubdown movements head to toe.

Clap, Snap, Stomp sequence game

This is another sequencing game and Nature Girl has a hard time with following right now. It's an Extra Lesson game from Take Time. Make a rhythm sequence to follow clap clap snap stamp stamp (for instance) Nature Girl is more likely to engage if she gets to lead to. So go back and forth leading the sequence.

Verse for formdrawing forms

Little drops of water (vertical lines)
Little grains of sand (scoop a curved line)
Make the mighty ocean (curving running wave form)
And the pleasant land (smooth hillock running form)

Great A little a (body makes a large A quickly crouch to make little a)
Today is pancake day (clap with beat)
Toss the ball high (catch ball tossed)
Throw the ball low (throw the ball back)
Those that come after (salute)
Can sing heigh ho! (canter round circle while next child gets turn)

This is my right hand I'll raise it up high
This is my left hand I'll touch the sky
Right hand left hand
Roll them around
Left hand, right hand
Pound, pound, pound!

Bean bags or balls tossing games according to frustration level

The rainbow toss:

Bean bag in right hand toss in arc over head to catch in left - feet planted
Pass bag back to right across midline in front
Practice doing it without losing balance or looking up.
Switch sides (start with bag in left hand)

Crawling toss

Throw balls into basket
Crawl to retrieve

Relaxation exercises

Yoga - salute the sun
shaking out hands left hand then right hand
shoulder roll
Head drop
Deep relaxed belly breathing - remind child to pause!
Low sounding - MMMMMMMM
Sing vowels (short vowel sounds)

Listening game: listen intently to natural sounds and list (its nice to lie down for this, heads together making a spoked wheel - in our case a peace symbol)

Focusing verse

I am a star
From heaven I came - point above
To earth below - point down
My friends to meet - hands to sides
To be truthful in deed - right hand over heart
To love all I know - left hand crosses right
To walk with my angel - hands behind shoulders
To shine like a
STAR! - jump into star form

Closing verse (sing)

Birds in the air (hands link and fly through air)
Fish in the water (hands swim through ocean)
Stones on the land (fist on flattened hand)
I'm in God's hand (both hands cupped gently then together upright as to pray)

Namaste!

For those of you reading to get an idea about circle time - this is NOT your average circle! In a kindergarten you'd have a circle calling song (same all year) , a group forming action verse, one verse for balance and rhythm, 1 for midline crossing, 1 for music prep, one for spinning (proprioceptive) and one for closing (same all year) 7 verses - 2 you use all the time, 5 new ones to learn each season, and you'd work up to that!

Because Nature Girl is doing Extra Lesson therapy I have incorporated as much of that therapy as possible into circle so it stays playful and fun. She has anxiety issues and I need to keep this moving quickly so she doesn't get caught up in something she perceives as difficult - our circle has 22 parts! AND I've been doing these verses for a long time - I had 5 to learn new in this whole big thing. Learning 5 verses is a lot of work! It really is. I practice in the shower!