Spring Monthly Theme

We've gotten past the April Showers and I'm ready for the May flowers. This month our theme will be Spring with flowers and bugs. It will be nice to be outside more. Being outside opens up some more vocabulary opportunities, naming flowers and animals outside.

Holidays

1st Mother Goose Day

2nd Children's Book Week

4th National Weather Observer Day

5th Cinco de Mayo

6th-12th Sign Language Week

10th National Public Garden Day

12th Mother's Day

13th Tulip Day

19th Plant Something Day

23rd World Turtle Day

24th National Scavenger Hunt Day

25th- June 2nd National Gardening Week

29th National Snail Day

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Holiday Activities

Mother Goose Day

We are currently obsessed with the Itsy Bitsy Spider. We sing it every night when I brush his teeth and he loves it. We will do a little art project for Mother Goose Day, cutting out the spider and a spout. I'll link a printable below with all the May printables in one spot for you. I've got the spider and the words for you to cut out but you'll need to cut out your own spout. Your child can decide if it's going to be a rainy picture or a sunny picture. It can start a discussion about the Itsy Bitsy Spider if they're at that level or they can just color and glue. It can work on following directions, you could play with it a little before gluing making the spider go up and down the spout. Have with it.

Children's Book Week

Of course, we will visit the library and read books every day. Reading books is so good for learning new words and language. Books allow for lots of repetition when you're reading the same book repeatedly. A Springtime book we like in our house is Little Blue Truck Springtime. Another book that I feel goes with a spring theme is The Very Hungry Caterpillar and it has the repetitive line "But he was still hungry." you can eventually pause and let your child fill in the phrase. We will probably still play with our Chicka Chicka Boom Boom sensory bin we made last month and is a fun book to read while you play. Watch out for more of my favorite Children's Books this week on Instagram.

National Weather Observer Day

We have been talking a bit about weather each morning and I have a printout you can get here. We use it in our Morning Menu. I usually sing the What's the Weather? song I learned when I worked in the preschool briefly. I started offering two choices, "Is it Rainy or Sunny?" Now I usually will say "What's the weather like outside?" If he's unsure then I'll offer choices for him. Like I tell my families often, repetition is important, and it is how they learn new skills.

Sign Language Week

I got into being an SLPA because I was looking for Sign Language classes and they were under the SLPA program. I used signs with my kids and use them with many of my clients. Sign Language is a great way to start communication, and you can use hand-over-hand to help them. You can't make them move their mouths to verbalize. Many clients start with signs, add verbalizing to their signs, and eventually drop signs and verbalize. I like to look up any signs I don't know on Babysignlanguage.com and it's where I send my parents as well. It has videos that make learning the signs so easy. I usually start with singing "More" which can be taught easily with snacks if your child is motivated by food. Food wouldn't be a good motivator for my clients who might have some feeding troubles. It teaches them that I do something I get something and many kids are motivated by food. That can help them to want to communicate more.

National Public Garden Day

We belong to the local Arboretum and love to play there. Since this day falls on a Friday this year we can go to the Arboretum since I'm off work. Friday is our Fun Field Trip Day. We will visit the Children's Garden and play. Maybe they will have something fun that day. We will find all the flowers in the different gardens. We can name colors, and count flowers. It'll just be great to get outside as well.

Tulip Day

We will make a Tulip Art project. Make handprint Tulips and draw the stems on. This will be a sensory experience, some kids don't like paint on their hands. You can offer color choices to work on making choices and naming colors. It also works on Following directions.

Plant Something Day

It'll be on the weekend and a great time to get in the dirt and plant something. We will probably go to the Garden center and get our plants this weekend. I want to grow some veggies like cucumbers, peppers, and zucchini. I'll let my little one pick some flowers for us to plant. We can talk about the colors. It allows for fun and learning all summer long. We love watering our plants, watching them grow, and picking our veggies. Sometimes pickier eaters are more willing to try the food they've grown. We have a little garden right now but I hope to have a bigger garden soon. It allows for lots of communication, and following directions.

National Scavenger Hunt Day

We love going for a walk, especially on nice days. We look at things outside, pointing out flowers and birds. I have a Spring Scavenger Hunt that you can print and laminate to take on walks or even if you're playing in the backyard. I'll post it below.

National Gardening Week

Since it's a week-long I plan to do multiple things.

-We will play in our Garden sensory bin but add bugs this month.

-We will collect nature items like leaves, flowers, and grass to make a nature collage.

-We will make a little Dino garden that we found at Aldi. We were going to do a fairy garden with some dirt in a shallow dish, small rocks, and probably some cute Fairy or Gnome things. I couldn't pass up the Dino Garden kit when I found it.

-Since we like to get in the kitchen I think a fun activity will be making dirt cups, chocolate pudding and crushed-up Oreos. It'll be fun to smash up the Oreos.

More Activities

Sensory activities

Like I said we will continue with our Garden bin with the dried beans as a base. We have some little carrots from Easter and fake flowers. This month we will add some plastic bugs. We have small scoops and tweezers which will be good for working on fine motor skills to pick up the bugs. We name the bugs and colors. I also have some little bees and ladybugs with matching counter sheets. It'll help them to learn the 1 to 1 of counting. It's under my Spring Printable's link at the bottom.

We will also continue with our Chicka Chicka Boom Boom sensory bin with dyed alphabet letters and magnetic letters. He's been having so much with it. It's great to work on letter recognition even though it's a skill not really worked on until 3.

It is also a sensory activity to get into the dirt to plant things or just play in it. You can see the different textures between it being wet and dry. If you're using it just to play in get some plain dirt not potting soil that might have that stuff to help hold in moisture for your plants. We want just plain dirt maybe some rocks and little sticks, natural things. I have a family that made a dirt sensory bin and it looked so fun.

Get outside

Go for walks, go to the park or zoo. Plants have sprouted and flowers are blooming. Go

looking for red flowers on your walk around the block. Ask your child what they see. What can they name? If your child isn't there yet, you model it and name things for them. "Oh I see such pretty red flowers in that yard. Do you see the red flowers?"Again repetition of the "red flowers."

Go to the zoo and see some animals. In our area, we have a big zoo but we also have a little smaller zoo and a Wildlife rehabilitation center. You can name the animals, and work on animal sounds. The smaller places are nice for a little half-day outing. If you have bigger kids and homeschool you can always continue learning by researching more about the animals you saw. If your child has the patience (mine does not yet) you can read the signs that are by the animals to learn about them. Reading is always a good thing to do. If nothing else it will tire them out in some fresh air. We love going to the zoo and when it's nice go almost monthly. My little one had so much fun interacting with the Brown bear. He got to watch the Polar bears play "chase." Maybe there will be a new baby Polar bear soon if you know what I mean. It was very PG just chasing but apparently in a mating-type way according to the Zoo guy who was there.

Go for a hike. We love our Babies in the Woods monthly class. A little storytime and a hike. My little one loves the hike. He tries to keep up with his friend and says "I'm running." All the kids have so much fun exploring looking for signs of nature and animals. We've been looking for signs of Spring. It seemed like a scary thing to me at first but it was so much fun. We plan to go for hikes outside of our class as well, just as soon as life slows down enough for us to do so. At the very least I know I can count on my one friend to be up for an outdoor adventure this summer. You can discuss new things like the little stream soon there will be tadpoles in the water. My little one can't wait to go splash in the stream this month for our class. He's so excited. I just hope it's warm enough. I'm pushing my fear to the side and going to let him do it. He'll be so happy. We can work on action words like "Splash, jump" and words like "Wet, muddy."

Kids learn best through play and you're their first model, so play and talk to your kids. Model what you want them to say and narrate what they're doing so they can learn the words to use themselves.

Spring Printables Here

Speech Goals from The Rosetti Infant-Toddler Language Scale.

9-12 months

Says "mama" or "dada" meaningfully

Imitates consonant and vowel combinations

Imitates non-speech sounds

Vocalizes with intent frequently

Uses a word to call a person

Says one to two words spontaneously

Vocalizes a desire for a change in activities

Imitates the name of familiar objects

Attends to new words

Gives objects upon verbal request

Looks at the person saying the child's name

Performs a routine activity upon verbal request

Looks at familiar objects mentioned during a conversation

Follows simple commands occasionally

Understands simple questions

Gestures in response to verbal requests

 Verbalizes or vocalizes in response to verbal requests

Participates in speech-routine games

Identifies two body parts

12-15 months

Shakes head "no"

Says or imitates eight to ten words spontaneously

Names objects frequently

Imitates new words spontaneously

Combines vocalization and gesture to obtain a desired object

Produces three animal sounds

Wakes with a communicative call

Sings independently

Takes turns vocalizing with children

Expresses early developing modifiers

Follow one-step commands during play

Responds to requests to say words

Maintains attention to pictures

Enjoys rhymes and finger plays

Responds to "give me" command

Points to two action words in pictures

Understands some prepositions

Understands new words

Identifies three body parts on self or a doll

15-18 months

Says 15 meaningful words

Uses consonant sounds, such as /t,d,n,h/

Talks rather than uses gestures

Imitates words overheard in conversation

Asks "What's that?"

Asks for "more"

Names five to seven familiar objects upon request

Identifies six body parts or clothing items on a doll

Finds familiar objects upon request

Identifies objects by category

Understands 50 words

18-21 months

Uses single words frequently

Uses sentence-like intonational patterns

Imitates environmental noises

Verbalizes two different needs

Uses two-word phrases occasionally

Identifies four body parts and clothing items on self

Understands the commands "sit down" and "come here"

Chooses five familiar objects upon request

Understands the meaning of action words

Identifies pictures when named

21-24 months

Uses two-word phrases frequently

Uses 50 different words

Uses new words regularly

Relates personal experiences

Uses three-words phrases occasionally

Refers to self by name

Uses early pronouns occasionally

Chooses one object from a group of five upon verbal request

Follows novel commands

Follows a two-step related directions

Understands new words rapidly

24-27 months

Imitates two numbers or unrelated words upon request

Uses three-word phrases frequently

Asks for assistance with personal needs

Uses action words

Points to four words in pictures

Recognizes family member's names

Understands the concept of one

Understands size concepts

27-30 months

Names one color

Refers to self by pronoun consistently

Uses two sentence types

Responds to greetings consistently

Uses negation

Responds to simple questions

Identifies four objects by function

Understands location phrases

30-33 months

Answers questions with "yes" or "no'

Imitates a series of three numbers or unrelated words

Uses plurals

Uses prepositions

Understands five common action words

Follow two-step unrelated commands

Understands the concepts one and all

Answers yes and no questions correctly

33-36 months 

Relates recent experiences through verbalization

Uses verb forms

Expresses physical states

Converses in sentences

Counts to three

Shows interest in why and how things work

Follows a three-step unrelated command

Identifies parts of an object

Responds to wh- questions

Follows commands with two familiar attributes