"D" is for Dinosaur

This week Joe and I reviewed the letter "D" as we had loads of fun with dinosaurs in our Preschool studies.

We read so many dinosaur books--some old favorites and several new ones too. All of the books we are currently reading are in my Shelfari in the sidebar, but here are the ones we enjoyed most this week:

• Buying, Training and Caring For Your Dinosaur--such a fun read!


• Can I Have A Stegasaurus Mom? Can I? Please!?


• Dinosaur Days


• Dinosaurumpus


• Dinosnores


• The Littlest Dinosaur--very sweet


• Dinotrux


• I'm Bad!--another fun read


• When Dinosaurs Came With Everything

Joe continued with Starfall, PBS Kids, and various file folder games for reading and phonics practice. He did really well this week. I can tell he is beginning to understand and grasp that letters do blend together to make a word. As of this week he has some site words memorized, and was able to sound out more 3 letter words than ever before. (I am in no hurry to have him reading--we are definitely moving at his pace and will continue to do so. We only do reading games if he wants to, this is not something I insist on at all. At this point, Joe's school work is very much child led in all areas.)

Our Happy Phonics arrived yesterday. It looks awesome! I am so excited to get it ready over the weekend and begin using it Monday!! I will post all about in a week or two, along with what I think of the Singapore Math so far. **I decided to go with a different math for Hanna other than Singapore, she will be using Life of Fred--more on that later**.

From Kids Soup, I printed out several fun dinosaur themed learning games for Joe and put them into a file folder--site words, memory match and three letter words. He loved playing these games all week long, they were the first thing he'd ask to do. (I printed the front cover and reptile flap book from Homeschool Share.)

Front cover:

Inside, middle and back:

There were six of these cards below all with different words for a matching game.

For math we used flash cards to make numbers....

we played Dino Bones for addition, and used Kumon workbooks for writing practice, mazes and dot-to-dots.

We made some cool dino crafts--an egg carton/TP stegasaurus (how-to *here*).

A milk jug pteranodon (how-to *here*).

A paper plate longneck that he made using three paper plates and sponge painting--simple, but cute.

For Science Joe enjoyed a trip to the museum to see a dinosaur exhibit, watching our BBC Walking With Dinosaurs DVD and catching critters outside with Hanna. To see Joe's little catch, click *here*.

We had a fun week! Next week we move on to ocean studies.

To see what others are doing visit The Preschool Corner at Homeschool Creations, and Weekly Wrap-Up at Weird, Unsocialized Homeschoolers.

Milk Jug Pteranodon and More Dino Books!

We have enjoyed many dinosaur books, learning games and crafts this week. Joe loves dinosaurs and Jack is following in his footsteps, so I'm sure we'll be reading, learning and crafting dinos for years to come!

A couple dinosaur books that we've enjoyed....

Dinosnores, by Kelly DiPucchio,

and, The Littlest Dinosaur, by Michael Foreman.

Joe and I made a milk jug pteranodon.

This was a craft that required a good bit of help from me, but was fun because we got to do it together. Don't get me wrong, I do like to let my kids create on their own, but I also enjoy doing some of our crafts together, as well as having them do crafts that require following instructions to get the finished product. I think a little of all of the above will make for one creative kid:-)!

For our pteranodon we used:

• 2 milk jugs--one for the body and one for the head
• black, green, yellow, orange and white acrylic paint
• hot glue

What we did:

1. I printed and cut out the template for the wing pattern, *here*.
2. I traced the wing pattern onto one of the milk jugs as described *here*, and then cut it out with an exacto knife.
3. Next, I cut out the head with my exacto knife on the second milk jug just as described in the above link for the wing pattern.
4. Joe painted the body and the head. He painted everything except the black on the head. He does not like the black acrylic paint smell (for some reason the black smells very strong, and he will not use it), so I painted the black onto the head at his request.
   

5. We let them dry, and then I hot glued the head onto the body.

The handle on the body can be used as a finger hole, therefore making this a puppet. Joe loved this fact and has been flying his pteranodon around ever since it was dry!

To see more great stART projects, visit A Mommy's Adventures.

I am also linking this to We Made It Friday Showcase at Ramblings of a Crazy Woman.

Egg Carton Dinosaur Craft and Dino Books

This week we've been reading lots of fun dinosaur books, watching BBC dinosaur documentaries--Joe loves these--and making dinosaur crafts.

Dinotrux, by Chris Gall, is a book that Joe has had me read over and over since we brought it home from the library. It is not informational at all, but is pure fun. It keeps him laughing the whole time I'm reading.

When Dinosaurs Came With Everything, by Elise Broach, is one we've enjoyed for a couple years now. It's another fun read about a boy and his mom setting out for a day of errand running. Instead of the typical lollipop at the bank, balloon after a haircut or cookie at the grocery store they are giving out dinosaurs. This little boy ends up with a yard full of dinos, and has all kinds of fun with them.

Joe and I made a TP roll/egg carton stegosaurus. This craft was one that required my help, but the finished product is adorable!!

We used: 3 TP rolls--one left whole for the body, and two cut into appropriate lengths for the neck and front/back legs (this info can be found *here*); 6 cardboard egg carton cups--5 left hooked together, and one separate for the head; green and black poster paint, elmer's glue and hot glue.

What we did:

1. Paint TP rolls and egg carton cups green, and let dry.
2. After dry, cut notches into TP rolls that will be used for front/back legs, and glue onto body. Joe was able to successfully use elmer's glue for this.
3. Glue neck onto TP roll body, also using elmer's glue.
4. Glue egg carton cup head onto the neck--I used hot glue for this.
5. Paint a mouth/eyes onto the head with black paint.
6. Glue spines onto the body--I used hot glue for this.

Joe and I enjoyed making this together. He was really excited to put it in his room, which has a dinosaur theme, when it was finished and all dry.

Dinosaurs at the State Museum

This week in our preschool Joe and I are studying dinosaurs—Joe's pick. Our state museum has a Mesozoic dinosaur exhibit right now, so Jamie took Hanna and Joe to check it out. These were robotic dinosaurs, which are among Joe’s favorite.

Joe also enjoyed digging for dinosaur bones.

Jamie said Joe wanted to know all about this engine. It had moving parts and he was very interested as to how it worked.

Another favorite of the kids anytime we visit the museum is this old timey school house.

This was a perfect activity for our week of dinosaur fun! Jamie, Joe and Hanna all had a great time. The kids had been asking to go to the museum for quite some time to see this exhibit and were very excited to finally go.

Zoo Class--Rain Forests and Umbrellas

Joe and I went to a class at our zoo. We went all the time last year, but have been pretty hit or miss since Jesse joined us. It is nice to finally be getting back into the swing of things like this for all of us!

This was the most fun we've ever had at zoo class! The classes are always very well planned out, and always include some really neat crafts and hands-on activities, but this one beat them all. The class was about rain forests.

The teacher talked about rain forests--what makes them so green, the animals, climate and so forth. After that, the kids made a rain forest picture.

Next, it was center time. There were some really neat rain forest centers set up around the room, but the neatest one was making your own umbrella. Joe loved this and was so excited to get to decorate, and then take home his "very own real umbrella":-). He did a great job and was so proud.

Next, the kids got to meet and greet a lorikeet bird Miss Jenny brought in. After this, it was time to head over to the lorikeet arena and feed them ourselves. One of Joe's favorite things to do at the zoo is feed the lorikeets, so at the mention of this he was bouncing up and down with excitement.

Upon entering a lorikeet zoomed right onto his head.

Then, another landed on his arm to eat.

He enjoyed every minute of feeding the lorikeets. After we fed them, we visited a new attraction, a very special one at our zoo. To see what this was--you'll love it--click *here*. Next, we went to the rain forest area, snakes and reptiles--these are Joe's favorite animals at the zoo.

When we were in zoo class, I remembered that we had the book, The Umbrella, by Jan Brett at home.

Joe and I have enjoyed this book for a couple years now. It was a perfect bedtime story that night to go along with our class earlier in the day.

We had a great time at the zoo. It was so fun to have Joe one-on-one. He ate up every second! I am so glad we went, and can't wait to go again in a couple weeks!!

“M” is for Moose

This week Joe and I reviewed the letter “M” and he picked moose to go along with it. We are making a few changes in our preschool curriculum right now. We are adding Happy Phonics and Singapore Math—Hanna will also be switching to Singapore Math. I will post about how these are working for us in several weeks. I am very excited about these changes!

We read some fun moose books—some were favorites, and several new ones (all books are in sidebar in my shefari):

• Mucky Moose
• Moose Pond Beaver Pond
• The Invisible Moose
• If You Give a Moose a Muffin
• The Lonely Moose
• Moosetache
• Moose and Magpie

For reading/phonics I added Starfall and PBS Kids Island back in this week. Joe hadn’t used these sites for months. I have to say, the Starfall seemed to help him out in just one weeks time with site word recognition and reading three letter words. I will use this site regularly again. We used handwriting sheets I printed at Starfall and Kumon workbooks for writing practice.

Joe wanted to do magnet letters/words on the cookie sheet with Hanna.

He is never enthusiastic about reading the words that I put on it for him. However, he asked Hanna to do it—he wanted to impress big sister I guess:-), and he actually read words on his own! This was a first and the three of us were all excited! Joe was so proud of himself and was just grinning from ear to ear.

I pulled out our If You Give a Moose a Muffin lapbook, which can be downloaded and printed at Homeschool Share.

We used it for story sequencing, moose facts, letter m objects, counting and tangible addition with the Muffin Mat, and Tic Tac Toe.

For math, in addition to the tangible additon and counting above, we used Kumon workbooks for dot-to-dots and mazes, and the chalkboard for writing practice.

For arts and crafts we had fun with an edible color wheel and cool color mix painting.

Joe made an adorable paper bag moose.

He also made a moose lowercase letter “m”.

We used My Silly Body Book for Science complete with a 4 year old sized body/skeleton made of hard, coated cardboard.

We had a super fun week!! Joe has already picked out what he wants to study next week. I’ve got it planned and we are ready to go!

To see what others are doing visit The Preschool Corner at Homeschool Creations.

Paper Bag Moose Craft and The Invisible Moose

Joe and I based our week on moose in our Preschool.  We spent our school time today on the couch together under a blanket reading moose books.  It was so fun!  One book that Joe thought was particularly fun was The Invisible Moose, by Dennis Haseley. 

 

This book is about a moose who is a little embarrassed by his question mark shaped antlers.  He sets out to save a moose friend who has been captured by Stealy McSteal, and has to become invisible to do so.  This book is pure fun, but does have a sweet story line woven throughout.

I found an adorable moose craft for Joe to make after we read our books.  It can be both a decoration type craft and a hand puppet. 

We used: 

• a brown lunch sack sized paper bag
• 9 oz. paper cup
• brown, tan and black craft foam (construction paper or cardstock will do—you could also use white paper and color/paint it the above mentioned colors)
• brown acrylic paint and a paintbrush
• elmers glue and hot glue gun
• googly eyes

What we did:

1. Paint the lunch sack and the paper cup brown, and let dry. 
2. Cut out nostrils, arms, ears and antlers from craft foam/paper. 
3. Put your hand inside the lunch sack and stuff it into the paper cup. 
4. Take it out and apply glue all around the part of the bag that is now crumpled and will be inside the cup—I used hot glue for this. 
5. Stuff this part of the bag back into the cup. 
6. Glue on the ears, antlers, arms and googly eyes. 

 

This was such a fun craft to make.  Joe was really excited to see what the finished moose was going to look like, and couldn’t wait to show it to his Daddy when he got home. 

I am linking this up to stART at A Mommy’s Adventures, and We Made It Friday Showcase at Ramblings of a Crazy Woman.

Edible Color Wheel and Color Mix Painting

Joe and I did another color wheel activity this week for Open Ended Art. Hanna also participated—she wasn’t passing up cookies with frosting:-). This week’s was edible. First, I tinted white frosting red, yellow and blue using Wilton cake tints.

Next, I gave each of them a plate and six vanilla wafers. I had them first put the primary colors on three of their cookies and place them on the color wheel—their plates.

After that, they mixed the frosting colors to get the 3 remaining colors for their wheels, and enjoyed their cookies!

After this activity Hanna went on to finish her school work while myself and Joe continued with a color block/color mixing activity using paints. This is the best piece of artwork Joe has produced (in my opinion) so far this school year.

This picture required following instructions, using only circular brush strokes and lots of patience. Joe enjoyed the whole process to my surprise.

I am determined to have Joe learn through art just as Hanna did at her Montessori school, and so far have been blessed to find some wonderful art lesson blogs and websites. I was worried that this lesson might be a bit too long for him and too detailed. I was prepared to break it into two days if needed, but he finished it in one day and LOVED it!! His favorite part was seeing what colors he ended up with when his brush strokes mixed.

To see a different perspective of how Joe's painting looks, click *here*.

We enjoyed this whole day of art activities. It was lots of fun! To see what others did today with their color wheel projects visit Mommies Little Artists.

*I am also linking this post to We Made It Friday Showcase at Ramblings of a Crazy Woman.*