D is for Dinosaur

It occurred to me at the last minute that D is for DINOSAUR.....duh. I made some quick changes and tried to make it a dinosaur themed week. Take a look...

Day 1:
*Bible Story/Memory Verse
*Calendar/Weather
*Reviewed A-C and introduced D
*Dino Race to the D's (The dinosaurs had to find all of the D's.)

*D Basket (He found the following items around our house that start with D: dog, dump truck, digger, drink, duck, drum stick, dollar.)

*Pumpkin Letter Puzzle-I put all of the letter pieces from a puzzle into a Halloween basket. Ro picked out the letters and put them in the right spot on the puzzle.

(Idea credit: Little Miss Glamour Goes to Kindergarten)

Day 2:

*Bible Story/Memory Verse
*Calendar/Weather
*Flashcards A-D
*Block Letter-First he traced it with his finger, saying the verbal prompt, "Big line down, frog jump, big curve." Then he filled it in with dinosaurs.

*Writing
I modeled how to write capital D's using the above prompt. Then I wrote several (good and bad) examples and he practiced tracing in his workbook. I repeated the same process for lowercase d's, using the verbal prompt, "Around, bump the top, bump the bottom"-every single time.

*Dino Dig-I hid ten dinosaurs in a bin full of rice and Rowin had to dig around and find them.

Day 3:
*Bible Story/Memory Verse
*Calendar/Weather
*Name Practice-I had cut out the letters in his name using felt. Then I traced them onto another piece of felt with permanent marker. He had to fill in the letters like a puzzle.

*Reviewed A-D flashcards
*Dot Dino Page-we used sparkly circle stickers this week instead of dot markers

(Free printable from The Measured Mom)

*Dog House Craft-I cut the D so that the middle opened and closed like a door. He made the paw prints around the D with finger paint and painted the inside of the "dog house".

(Idea from Crystal & Co)

Other Dinosaur Activities:

*Make Dinosaur Feet-These are cute! You slip your foot through the slit and wear them-I forgot to get a pic of them on. We made these for Rowin and his cousins because he's having a small dino family birthday party in a few weeks. :)

(We didn't use this, but here's a free printable for these: http://coolest-free-printables.com/2013/02/03/large-printable-dinosaur-feet/)

*Dinosaur Plate Craft-Cut a paper plate in half, have your kiddo decorate it however they like, and then add the dinosaur body parts (I cut ours out ahead of time).

You can click here to see where I found these ideas: Brachiosaurus and T-Rex

*Dinosaur Books-I found this GREAT list of dinosaur books at our public library! I was going to write them all out for you but there are about 100. Sorry. Just go to your library. :)

We read dinosaur books pretty much every single day, but this one worked particularly well with what we learned this week: ABC T-Rex by Bernard Most. It goes through the whole alphabet, and every page has several items in the picture that start with the corresponding letter.

*If your kiddo doesn't care for dinosaurs, you could easily trade out everything we did this week and do dogs instead.

*If your kiddo IS into dinosaurs and you missed some of my other dinosaur related posts, check out my July/August 2015 posts.

Letter C

Week 3! Rowin has the hang of our routine now. He finishes his breakfast and heads right over to his little table. I'm still having a hard time keeping Rayna (15 months) entertained while we "work". She just wants to do whatever her big brother is doing. My biggest success was giving her a paper towel roll and a car. That kept her busy all of 4 minutes. Seriously. Suggestions?! Please help!!

Anywhooo, here was our week...

Day 1:
*Bible Story/Memory Verse (still Matthew 22:37)
*Calendar/Weather + mini weather unit
-I had Rowin identify pictures of different kinds of weather and different types of clothing. We talked about how we wear different clothes depending on the weather. (I had these as part of a weather set, but you could draw, print, or make these yourself if you wanted to.)
 -I explained what a chart is and how we use charts to show and understand information. We filled in the following chart together, discussing what we would wear for each type of weather. (They didn't fit in my pocket chart, so we just did it on the floor.)

*Reviewed A&B flashcards and introduced C
*Letter Hunt-he found all of the C's

*Letter Basket-he found the following items around our house that begin with the C sound: cat, crayon, cake, cookie, computer, cup, cow, car, cough drop.

Day 2:
*Bible Story/Memory Verse (This time, I said the verse with our motions, and left out words as I said it. Rowin had to say the missing words.)
*Calendar/Weather + mini weather unit
-We reviewed what we talked about on Day 1 and then I asked him if he's ever seen a cloud that looked like an animal or another object. I told him I had a poem called Cloud Parade (this was a Scholastic resource I found in one of my old teaching bins). I explained what a poem is and then read it to him.

I showed him all of the cloud pictures and he guessed what he thought it looked like. Then we lifted it up to see what picture was underneath. You could literally just draw white blobs and do the same thing-have your kiddo decide what he thinks they look like.

*Reviewed A-C flashcards
*Block Letter (link is on Letter A post)
-First he traced it with his finger
-Next, he drove a car on it a few times, starting at the top every time.
-Then, he filled it in with play dough.

*Writing
-Just like last week, I modeled how to write capital and lowercase C's. Then I wrote several and he gave me a thumbs up or thumbs down if I wrote it correctly. If he gave me a thumbs down, he told me what I did wrong. (I make sure to do some backwards and some starting at the bottom-common mistakes.)

-He practiced tracing C's in his workbook.

Day 3:
*Bible Story/Memory Verse
*Calendar/Weather
*Name Practice-Since we read the Cloud Parade poem yesterday, today we made a cloud out of marshmallows that looked like his name. :) He traced his name with glue and added the marshmallows. (Idea from www.fun-a-day.com)

*Reviewed A-C flashcards
*Dot Marker Page (link is on Letter A post)

*Car Craft (idea for this from www.Crystalandcomp.com)

And then there's this one. She climbs right up like she's going to do everything with us. Soon enough, sweet girl. Soon enough.

Letter B

Rowin was ready and excited to move onto letter B this week! I tweaked and adjusted a few things, but overall, kept the same format. I want to establish our "norm" before changing things up too much. Here's what we did this past week...

Day 1:
*Bible Story/Memory Verse (Matthew 22:37)
*Calendar/Weather
-We talked a bit about calendars this week (He has a Melissa and Doug Magnetic one) and learned two of Dr. Jean's songs-Month Macarena and Days of the Week. You can check out her CD's from the library-they're all fun, educational songs.

*Reviewed A and introduced B
*Letter Hunt-Rowin found all of the B's in a mix of letters
*B Basket-searched the house for items that start with the B sound (bear, blocks, bananas, broccoli, ball, book, bun, bird, boy)

Day 2:
*Bible Story/Memory Verse (Matthew 22:37)
*Calendar/Weather
*Reviewd A and B flashcards
*Block Letter-Rowin traced the B with his finger and then filled it in with puff balls (The link for the block letter printables is on my Letter A post.)

*Writing
This week, I modeled how to write a capital B. Then I wrote several more B's, some the right way and some the wrong way, and Rowin gave each one a thumbs up or a thumbs down. If he gave it a thumbs down, I asked him what I did wrong. Then we repeated this whole process with lowercase b's.

I also incorporated the verbal prompts that "Handwriting Without Tears" uses. So every time we wrote a capital B, we said, "Big line down, frog jump! Little curve, little curve." Every time we wrote a lowercase b, we said, "Big line down, up and around." It's important to say it in the same sing-song voice every single time. It sticks in their head like a song and helps them remember the next time they go to write the letter.
After modeling, Rowin practiced tracing capital and lowercase B's in his workbook and on a dry erase letter card.

Day 3:
*Bible Story/Memory Verse (Matthew 22:37)
*Calendar/Weather
*Name practice-I wrote his name on a large notecard and he traced over it with a glitter glue pen.

*Reviewed A and B and all the items in our B Basket
*Dot Marker page (link is on Letter A post)

*Butterfly Craft (this link is also on Letter A post)

*Nature Scavenger Hunt-Just for fun, we walked down by the river and Rowin looked for all of the items on this list. Each time he found one, he put a sticker in the box.

Another fun week! It's so cute to watch him playing and then stop and say, "Mommy!!! B-B-Baby!" He's getting it-YAY!!! :)

Letter A

We finished our first week of "school"!! Haha, I really shouldn't even call it that. What do you call a 20 minute, 3 days a week, little learning time? I don't know. So we're calling it school.

It was fun! I could see pretty quickly which skills are going to come easy for him and which areas are going to need a lot of work. I do have to say, I LOVED being a teacher again. :) Here's what our week looked like....

Day 1:
*Bible Story (from the Jesus Storybook Bible) and Memory Verse (Matthew 22:37)
*Calendar/Weather (He just switches the day of the week and the weather on a little chart)
*Introduced letter A with flashcard (name/sound/word)
*Letter Hunt: He had to find all the A's

*Letter A Basket: We went around the house and found as many items as we could that started with the A sound (apples, alligators, airplanes, asparagus).

Day 2:
*Bible Story and Memory Verse (Matthew 22:37)
*Calendar/Weather
*Reviewed letter A flashcard
*Box Letter A: Rowin traced the A with his finger and then filled it with blue marbles. You can print these free block letters here: http://www.themeasuredmom.com/printable-block-letters-150-ways-fill/#_a5y_p=2006533

*Writing: I showed Rowin how to write the letter A and he practiced tracing/writing in a workbook. This was very hard for him! I totally forgot that I had to teach him how to hold his pencil the right way, how to use his "helping hand" to hold the paper in place, how to tilt his paper a little bit....my kindergarten teacher days feel like a long time ago! I forgot to get a picture of it but you can pick those workbooks up at the Dollar Store.
*After his workbook, he practiced writing a little bit more on a dry erase letter card (forgot a picture of that too but I think they were from the $1 bin at Target)
***Next week I will spend a LOT more time modeling the right and wrong way to write the letter. I jumped in too quickly today.

Day 3:
*Bible Story and Memory Verse (Matthew 22:37)
*Calendar/Weather
*Reviewed letter A flashcard
*Practiced tracing his name (we've got our work cut out for us!)

*Dot marker page: He filled in all the circles with a red dot marker. I think I'll make these into a book once he's done A-Z. You can print these from this link: http://www.themeasuredmom.com/dot-sticker-pages/ 

*A is for Alligator Craft: I had cut the pieces out ahead of time. He put it together and glued everything on. This site had tons of cute Letter of the Week crafts: http://crystalandcomp.com/letter-of-the-week-crafts-for-preschoolers/ 

Overall, the week went really well! I need to tweak a few things for next week, but I think he had fun. One thing I do need to figure out is what to do with my Into-Everything-14month old while we're working! I'm open to any/all suggestions!! :)