Decidedly, “Dd” week was delightful.
We drew dinosaurs using charcoal pencils and large plastic dinosaurs as models. Those same dinosaurs stomped in paint across paper to provide a backdrop for dinosaur cut-outs. We learned about “thumbs-up” cutting, how to hold our scissors with our thumbs in the smaller hole, thumbs up while cutting. Turn the paper, not the scissors as you cut.
Dinosaurs dove into our counting collections and the children explored making patterns with cubes and dinosaurs. Ask your child what pattern they made with their counting objects. Cube, cube, dinosaur. Cube, cube, dinosaur.
We talked about dinosaurs, listened to dinosaur music, and read books about dinosaurs:
We read Jane Yolen’s series of dinosaur books: How do Dinosaurs Go to School? How do Dinosaurs Get Well Soon? and How do Dinosaurs Eat Their Food? These books incorporate questions throughout that prompted discussions on various topics such as what we can do to stay healthy.
Some of us read The Dead Bird by Margaret Wise Brown. It is a beautiful story about death. We talked about how birds sometimes fly into windows and die, and what we can do to honor that little dead bird. Some friends mentioned their grandparents who had died and we talked about what a funeral is. We reminded each other to think about our loved ones and remember them forever as they live on in our hearts.
The Dot by Peter Reynolds is a good story about gaining confidence. It inspired our dot art. Starting with a dot sticker we drew directional and diagonal lines, using a ruler, extending from the dot. We learned about rulers and what good tools they are for making straight lines and for measuring. How many inches are usually on a ruler? Find a ruler at your house and count the numbers. We learned there are 12 inches in a foot. See what you can measure around your home or outdoors. Compare a regular ruler with a tape measure. How and when do we use these different tools? Who uses these tools in their work?
Drip drop painting at the easels we honed our pincher muscles in our hands and fingers as we worked the droppers (pipettes) to fill them with watercolor and squirt them onto long paper to drip down.
Time to make the donuts! We learned about what a recipe is and what ingredients are. The children measured and helped to stir the dough. Each child got a ball of dough to play with and shaped it into a “d” is for donut! After they were baked in the oven to harden, we frosted the donuts with a special mix of shaving cream and glue and a pinch of pink paint for color, and topped them with colored sugar (glitter) and ta-da! Delicious inedible donuts!
Salt Dough Recipe
One cup flour
One cup salt
Add water to moisten and stir to create a dough
Shape into something
Bake at 250 degrees for about two hours.
Do not eat!
Our Zoo Phonics character was Dee Dee Deer. Dream up a list of “D” words at home together. Write your list out on a big piece of paper, tape it up somewhere and invite your child to read it and help them add to it.
Child’s pose morphed into Downward-facing dog pose. Have your child demonstrate down dog. We will add Down dog at the Fire Hydrant (a Keely original pose.;o) and will flip our dogs for Belly of the Dragon in a future Yoga class. We talked through a full body relaxation during Savasana. Practice Savasana, final relaxation at home. Begin to increase the relaxation time. Inhale, exhale…Namaste.
Outdoors we notice the children are using their imaginations, creating games, and forging new friendships. They take risks, climbing trees and moving heavy rocks, they draw with chalk on the sidewalk, listen to stories, and just enjoy nature and being together.
We learned about the secondary (second) colors: orange, green, and purple. Each day we mixed a new pair of primary colors at the easels to discover the new secondary colors. Have fun identifying colors in nature and around your home.
We will ease into electronic learning for two weeks of “E.” A balance of electronic learning with exciting activities to do outdoors and in your home will entice your child to continue learning while we are apart.
