D is for Dinosaur, Ducks, and Dots

This week was all about the letter D!

Monday: D is for dinosaurs!  

Stories: Dinosaurs, Dinosaurs  By: Byron Barton and Ten Terrible Dinosaurs By: Paul Stickland 

Ava started her school day with a color sorting activity. She had to sort different shades of blue, red, yellow, purple and green. The activity mat is part of an old window shade and the shades of colors come from the paint store.

During circle time, we reviewed letters A, B, and C . Ava had to pick a sticker out of a bag and tell me what letter was on the sticker (and if it was capital or lower case).Then, she had to find a picture on the white bored that had the same beginning sound as the letter on her sticker. She labeled each picture. 

Dominic doesn't like being left out so he got to help too, Ava was his helper. 

During art time, Ava created a dinosaur out of the letter D!

She made it all by herself!

In the sensory table this week, I added home made cloud dough (just like moon sand). I found the recipe from Tinkerlab (http://tinkerlab.com/2011/11/cloud-dough-exploration/  ) Instead of vegtable oil we used baby oil. It smells so good! It's been a big hit with the kids! I added plastic dinosaur skeletons and small paint brushes. The kids had their own dinosaur excavation site right at home.  

During math time Ava had to sort dinosaurs by type and then put them into a bar graph. She had to label the number of each type of dinosaur on the graph using pre-made number labels. We then discussed which dinosaur she had the most of, which she had the least of, etc.. We did this using 3 times using different combinations and numbers of dinosaurs. 

Here she is working on her alphabet page for her ongoing alphabet book. 

She also practiced tracing the letter D. 

 Tuesday: D is for ducks! 

Stories: Down of the Farm: Ducks By: Sally Morgan

Song: We acted out Five Little Ducks using a puppet and rubber duckies.  

Ava's completed duck project.

We made duck ponds and played with rubber ducks. I dyed the water blue for something different and added  measuring cups, a funnel, spoons, and smaller containers for scooping and pouring water. The kids played with this for an hour and were as wet as ducks when they decided they were finished playing! 

Lilly didn't like the fact that big brother and sister were out on the deck without her, so I let her have a go at some water play in the kitchen. I added some ice and a few toys. She really got into splashing around. 

During math time we worked on AB patterns. Ava had to Velcro different colored ducks to complete patterns on laminated pattern strips. Some patterns needed to be continued, while on others she needed to figure out what was missing inside the pattern. There was even one strip that had an ABC pattern. 

At the end, she was given the chance to create her own patterns on a blank pattern strip

Look Mommy!

I found great alphabet mini books on  http://www.first-school.ws/theme/alphabetp2.htm#d. The books are a great little activity because they involve, coloring, cutting, gluing, sorting pictures, and  practice writing the letters. The site has them for every letter and both long and short vowel sounds. I plan on having her create these mini books for each letter. 

Wednesday: D is for dots! 

Story: 10 Black Dots By: Donald Crews
We spent a good part of our day at the Cincinnati Children's museum participating in story time and doing lots of playing and exploring! We worked on a couple activities while the two little ones were taking their afternoon naps.

Ava made a number dot book with numbers 1-10. Each page had a numeral and corresponding number word. Ava had to put the matching number of dots on each page using our dot paints. 

Using the dot paints, Ava filled in a capital and lower case D.