- toy potato
MA Standards:
Language/L.PK.MA.1: Demonstrate use of oral language in informal everyday activities.
Head Start Outcomes:
Language Development/Receptive Language: Attends to language during conversations, songs, stories, or other learning experiences.
PreK Learning Guidelines:
English Language Arts/Language 1: Observe and use appropriate ways of interacting in a group (taking turns in talking; listening to peers; waiting until someone is finished; asking questions and waiting for an answer; gaining the floor in appropriate ways).
EEC Infant and Toddler Guidelines
PW50.: The older toddler engages in a variety of physical activities.
Play Together: Who Took the Potato?
© Commonwealth of Massachusetts, Department of Early Education and Care (Jennifer Waddell photographer). All rights reserved.
ELA Focus Skills: Follow Directions, Listening and Speaking, Vocabulary
Play this adaptation of “Doggie, Doggie, Your Bone is Gone,” to help children build listening skills.
- Ask a volunteer to sit on a chair with his or her back to the rest of the children.
- Display the toy potato. Say, Can you tell me whether this is a leaf or a root vegetable?
- Now, close your eyes and use your ears. Someone will take the potato, say something, and sit back down. Keep your eyes closed. Listen very carefully to the voice and any footsteps. When I tell you, open your eyes, turn around, and guess who took the potato.
- Select a child to quietly take the potato, softly say “I have your potato,” and sit down, hiding the potato behind his or her back. Have the other children also put their hands behind their backs.
- Signal the player to turn around and ask, “Who took my potato?” Give him or her three guesses.
Repeat the game to make sure every child gets a turn to be the player and the one who takes the potato.