Dinosaurs

My little boys pull out the dinosaur toys each weekend, then I have to put them all away before preschool, so they were so excited I finally pulled them all out to stay! You'll see them in my set up pics, because I couldn't get them away!
Here's the highlights of dinosaur week:

Dramatic Play
A paleontologist dig site. The first 2 days, was wheat and plastic dinosaur bones. They had hats and vests as well, plus brushes to help in their excavating.






Week 2, I made dirt dinosaur eggs, that they got to break apart to find the small dinosaur toys. (recipe here) They really loved hatching the eggs! The big dinosaurs joined the tub that day from the block area, to be the parents. I only remembered a picture once they were hatched.


On the 4th day, I added the plastic eggs with ABCs on them, so they could put them in eggs and hatch them over and over. Plus, they were matching the capital and small letters on the eggs.
 
There were also T-rex hats from Dollar Tree. Things got a little wild on the first day, lots of hitting and fighting with them on, so they were put away the next 2 days, and earned back the last day, and they played much better with them. Some cute things they were playing, was they would play until they "died" and just laid there. Then, other kids dressed as paleontologists and armed with brushes, would come and "discover" them. They always came back to life at the point. It was a fun game they invented, and one of the many reasons play time is a priority for me. They kept asking other kids to join them and play paleontologists with them, and when they died, they'd yell for paleontologists to come and discover them buried in the dirt!

Blocks

We had big and small dinosaur toys out all week here, plus a few games and puzzles on the shelf to pull down.

 








Art

Dot markers and dinosaur dot pages. They were going through these so fast, I had to copy a bunch more in the first 15 minutes of the day. They really enjoyed it!

Watercolor dinosaur skeletons. I traced dinosaur skeletons with a white crayon, so they couldn't see it. Then they painted over it with watercolors to reveal the dinosaur. They were amazed! Each child did at least one, and some stayed awhile and did several. They were fascinated by painting, then watching the paint just disappear. One child painted over his so many times to watch it disappear, he wore a hole into the paper.



We had playdough with rollers and cookie cutters, but also dinosaurs to add footprints and make fossils.

Painting with dinosaur footprints. I had paint brushes out too, because some kids just like to paint, but they all stomped the dinos on their pages too. Then, most of them painted over the footprints. It's all about the process, not product, right!?

Small Manipulatives

Dinosaur math puzzle, putting pictures in order 1-10

Dinosaur matching puzzle

Dinosaur lacing cards (from paper plates)

ABC matching dinos. We worked together on these, and they were great at matching the capital and small letters. They also made patterns with the dinos, really extending their learning.

D is for Dinosaur with flat marbles with pictures from here

Matching dinosaurs on the magnet board with pictures from here

Writing

Dinosaur chalk boards

Dinosaur stencils

Reading
I don't usually specifically write about the reading center, because it's always just books related to our theme, but I think this is one of the first times that I read every single book in the center. We spent a lot of our free play time reading. And I read Mine-o-saur, which we had read during friendship week, each day. They love that book, and call each other Mine o saurs when they're not sharing!

Snack

Day 1, we were herbivores, and learned that word. We talked about plants a dinosaur would eat, and how their teeth showed a paleontologist if they were an herbivore or carnivore. They were wonderful to try all the yummy plants I offered! We had salad (spinach) with ranch, carrots, baby bell peppers, apples, and grapes. They kept passing it around to get more until they were all gone. They loved eating the leaves! And then licking their extra ranch off their plates :)

Day 2, we were carnivores, with our sharp carnivore teeth, and ate dinosaur shaped chicken nuggets.

The other days were just regular crackers and juice days.

Outside

We got some spring and winter weather during this theme, so outside play varied each day! It was discouraging getting back into snow clothes after a warm spell in February. It's making me anxious for spring!

Large Group

We learned the poem 5 Enormous Dinosaurs
5 Enormous Dinosaurs, stomping on the floor. 1 ran away, and then there were 4.
4 enormous dinosaurs, looking at me. 1 ran away, and then there were 3.
3 enormous dinosaurs, chewing on a shoe. 1 ran away, and then there were 2.
2 enormous dinosaurs, lying in the sun. 1 ran away, and then there was 1.
1 enormous dinosaur, having no more fun. He ran away, and then there were none.

We did the poem several times each day. Sometimes we'd look for the rhyming words, and other times focus on the counting. We did what I call "kindergarten math" with them, which makes them feel smart. It's just decomposing the number 5. Pretty much, as we take away 1 dinosaur, I leave it on the board and we show the different groupings of 5. 5 and 0, 4 and 1, 2 and 3, 3 and 2, 1 and 4, and 0 and 5. We did this during Oceans week with 5 little crabs too. These songs are more than just counting backwards!

We also learned the word "paleontologist" and the different things they do. We practiced herbivore and carnivore each day as well, and also learned a lot of dinosaur names during our play and books.

Day 1, we read Digging for Dinosaurs and learned about paleontologists. We used leftover chocolate play dough from valentines, and made fossils. They could use plants, shells, or dinosaur feet for their fossils. They came home once dry.

Day 2, we read Ten Little Dinosaurs, then practiced more counting with these play dough mats. We made dinosaur eggs to match the number on the mat. I got the mats here.

Day 3. we read Saturday Night at the Dinosaur Stomp, then danced. We talked about tempo, and they dance fast and slow, depending on the tempo of the song. They used the dancing ribbons too. Then we read Dinorumpus.

Day 4, we read Dinorella. Then we did a graphing activity. We first chose our favorite dinosaurs, and made a class graph. Then we just took turns with a spinner and graphed the results. They had so much fun and were cheering for a winner as they spun!

Small Group

My group worked on sorting with dinosaur pictures and toys. We sorted by size, color, and other attributes like walks on 2 feet or 4 feet, or flies. I used pictures from here.

Miss Kim's group played a dinosaur matching game.

Week 2, Miss Kim's group worked on numbers with the dinosaur 1-10 puzzles, and also practiced tracing their names.

My group used dinosaurs to measure things throughout the room.

Colors

Parents, sorry I have not stayed as caught up on the blog as I should! The goal is to post the weekend after the theme, but life has been too crazy to get to it. I am caught up now, and should hopefully stay that way now! 3 kids are crazy, plus my husband works from home on our computer, so I have to wait until night, when we're much busier. That problem has now been solved, and I should stay more caught up. Thanks for your patience!

Dramatic Play



Paint Store. Thanks to all of our painting projects this year with the bathroom remodel, and building the play house, I had lots of empty paint cans for the store. Lots of brushes and stir sticks too. The color samples were gathered from Lowes and Home Depot, then I just added the cash register and shopping carts.

As usual, the cash register was a hit, and they spent a lot of time shopping for blocks and scanning the legos on the belt. I guess the paint cans were just too big!

The paint supplies were a hit all on their own. While I did see kids buying paint, they just loved taking the cans and brushes all over the room to paint the walls and furniture. It was a lot of fun.

Blocks (I forgot to take pics)

Week 1, we had out waffle blocks. These are new, donated by a sweet neighbor, and are a huge hit! They can build tracks and roads easily, and they loved that.

Week 2, we had out Duplo legos, then the foam blocks.

Art
Day 1, we simply painted with primary color paint, so they could start exploring with mixing colors.

Day 2, we used colored beads to make necklaces and bracelets.

Day 3, we had tubs full of baking soda, and bottles of red, yellow, and blue colored vinegar. This is more sensory than art, and they loved it! They not only got to experiment with mixing colors, but they got to watch it fizz and bubble too. They were so great at sharing, as well. Each kid got one tub and could use it until their vinegar was gone, then they let someone else have their seat while they played something else.


















Once everyone was done, we used the art table to make their painted toast for snack. I colored some milk red, yellow, and blue, and they used pastry brushes to brush it onto bread, then we toasted it.

Day 4, we did Jello art. They had glue and shakers full of different colors and flavors of Jello to sprinkle on. They had a lot of fun with this too and I had a huge stack of pictures afterwards! It was messy, but the room smelled so good for days! Way better than the vinegar day :)

 

Small Manipulatives

Paint chip cards with matching clothespins

Folder games

Rainbow cards with pom poms and tweezers

Color puzzles










 

Colored horses with matching clothespin legs















Color Dinosaurs


Snack

Our color-specific snacks were colored goldfish that we sorted before we ate them, and the painted toast.

Sensory Table
Days 1 and 4, I had bottles of primary colored water that they could mix in clear tubs. This was a huge hit both days, and I loved seeing all the color combinations they created!
I forgot to take a pic, but here's one from last year:
 

Days 2 and 3, we checked on our decomposing pumpkin and observed its changes.

Large Group

Day 1, we read White Rabbit's Color Book and added colored water to cups with paper towels sticking out of them to start an experiment.

Day 2, we read Mouse Paint and checked on our experiment. The colors had risen up the paper towels, and dripped into the empty cups to mix and make new colors. We mixed the remaining colors, just to get to watch them change.

Day 3, we watched this Primary Colors video (several times, by popular demand), and read Color Train, then sorted things by color.

Day 4, we read The Mixed Up Chameleon. We then painted paper plates to make our changing chameleons.

We also learned 3 new songs, Mitch the Fish, Scat the Cat, and a rainbow song.

I'm Scat the Cat, I'm a happy cat,
if you don't like my color, you can change it like that!

I'm Mitch the Fish, I can swim and I can swish,
I can change my color, if I wish!

Small Group
Miss Kim was not able to come these last 2 weeks, so these activities were actually done as a whole group, instead. The kids did very well!!

Day 1, we read Freight Train, then searched for colors around the room. You can even see that chairs and bean bags were brought over! They had so much fun sorting.

Day 3, we mixed play dough together to make our color wheels.

Day 4, we made paint mixing worksheets and mixed all the primary colors together to make secondary colors.


We mixed the primary colors in so many different ways, on every day, so I hope the kids remember now all the colors they can make from the primary colors! We had a fun and messy week playing with color!

Friendship

We had a fun and productive few weeks learning about friendship. It's one of our most important themes, since the main reason parents put their kids in preschool is to learn social skills. It's also a little difficult as a theme, since it's based on skills I'm trying to teach them each day.
We learned the word cooperate, and practiced cooperating in our play and clean up times. They did awesome!
Name Writing
Our name writing practicing is going really well, and each morning they have remembered to move their bus and come write their name with me. We're working on starting all letters from the top, and I'm already seeing great improvements. They're even more willing to write their names on their own now in art and the writing center.

Dramatic Play
I got out the tents and tunnels, since winter time is making us a little stir crazy, and needing some more active play! They have a blast playing in them, and I love watching the games they play and the great imaginative things they come up with!

One of their dinosaur castles, protecting the baby dinos from an impending volcano:
 

Blocks
Since the kids have been begging for dinosaur toys, they came out this week! I only planned on it for 2 days, but each day, they'd ask to have them out the next day, so they were out all 4. I set out the book, The Mine-o-saur, so at least it went along with our friendship theme. It was great having the book there, and I ended up reading it to them all several times during their play, and it's an awesome book about a dinosaur who's selfish, then learns to share to make friends.
Their dinosaur play is fun to watch too. They built them homes, castles, and nests with the blocks, and took them into the tunnels on trips and to bedtime. Great imaginative play this week.

Art
We painted with frozen paint. I just freeze it over night in an ice cube tray with popsicle sticks. It's kind of like a crayon at first, then once it starts melting, it paints more like paint. They liked it, and made quite a few pictures at the beginning, but the tents and dinosaurs won most of the attention this day!

We played play dough with capital ABC stamps and scissors. I love scissors and play dough. It's a great way to master the cutting skill, and strengthen small motor skills, and it's easier than paper to start out.

We had another sensory play day with trays of baking soda and cups of colored vinegar with droppers. The droppers are another great small motor skill. This was a huge hit, and they were amazed by the fizzing and bubbling they made when combined! It was also fun to watch the colors mix. And of course, my child figured out that when you add enough vinegar, it makes a sticky dough. That was a lot of fun for many of the kids, and they played here until they were all just colored blobs!

 

We painted with ABC stamps. Even with all the fun art we do, sometimes they just want to paint, and they had a great time.

Small Manips
We did ABC floor puzzles.

We played with the number peg puzzles.

We threaded ABC beads.

Writing
We did a letter rubbing activity, so they could rub the letters onto their papers. I have these alphabet cards I laminated, then traced over the letters with puffy paint. I use them for the kids to trace over the letters to practice their formation and learn their name and sound (it's a powerful tool, to combine the senses, in touching the letter, saying it, and hearing it). I showed them how they can also use it for the crayon rubbings and they enjoyed that.


Snack
The first day, we carried over our Jan Brett theme with Gingerbread Friends. For snack, I shared the original Gingerbread Boy story, then we made gingerbread people. I wanted a healthier snack, so we cut them out of bread, them toasted them, and added some jelly or cinnamon/sugar. This was one of their favorite snacks, and I've already had several requests for toast again!

Small Group
Week 1, our volunteer moms read the book The Crayon Box That Talked. It's about crayons who can't get along, until they realize they're all important. The kids then each got 1 crayon, and had to work together to make a picture. Tuesday's group was really sweet and wanted to give their picture to one of our friends who was home recovering from tonsil surgery.
I continued practicing numbers and counting with the kids with a game with our math "friends."

We rolled our giant dice, then, the kids had to each count out that many "friends." It was nice for me to be able to work with them one-on-one on this important skill.

Week 2, our volunteers helped the kids with their number recognition by reading the book Chicka Chicka 123, then the kids found and glued numbers 1-10 on their trees. Nothing to do with friendship, but number recognition is something we're really working on right now.
My group played with our math "friends" again to practice more sorting and patterning. We've done a lot of this, but I was reminded how much I need to use the proper vocabulary with them. When I explained we were going to sort them, they were all confused. Once I explained what sorting was, they got it and did great, but I need to use the word sort more, so they recognize what it is they're doing.

Large Group
Day 1, we read Gingerbread Friends by Jan Brett, and watched a Sesame Street clip about what friends are and why they're important. We had a great discussion, then played a Gingerbread people game. It was the same one we played over Christmas, and they were excited to see the people hidden all over the room. I showed them a Gingerbread man or woman, then they had to find its match hidden in the room. This time, I told them we were working on cooperation, so once someone found it, they needed to help their friends come find it. No competition to be first, but cooperation to help each other. They did really great at working together and not arguing!

Day 2, we read a book about cooperation, then cooperated to build a Lego tower. First, the kids each got their own pile of blocks and were told to build the tallest tower they could, and they weren't allowed to share. They didn't love that rule, and thought it wasn't nice to not share. They all finished their towers, and thought they were pretty small.  I asked what we could do to make a bigger tower, and they all wanted to share. We pooled the blocks together, stacked our towers, and had to help each other hold it steady, and we learned to cooperate. We then wrote in our journals about ways we can cooperate. We had to skip outside time because of rain today, so we had extra time and made Get Well cards to cheer up one of our classmates and friends who had her tonsils out.

Day 3, we read a book called Making Friends by Fred Rogers. It had a lot of good discussion points, like about how hard it can be to play with friends who want to do different things and how to do that, or what to do when you're left out by your friends, or get in a fight with friends. We spent a lot of time talking about these situations, and role playing what we can do in those situations. Often, these are things I tackle during play time (seeing someone left out, or someone trying to join and doesn't know how, and kids fighting or having a hard time sharing, etc), and I think it has the most impact when it's actually happening (one of the reasons the free play time is SO important in pre-k), but how to deal with these situations is something that needs to be taught and role-played.
When I help children in these situations, I try to not solve the problem for them, but talk through with them what they can do, then offer the support they need to do it. (For example, Tommy won't share that toy Billy wants, so I go over and help Billy ask Tommy if he is done with the toy yet, and if not, if he can play with it when you're done, and other situations close to that.) This is what we role play too. Role playing can be powerful. I've seen it work with my daughter, who gets frustrated easily when she doesn't get her way with friends, and I've seen her leave, and take deep breaths to calm down before coming back to work things out. This is something we've had to practice over and over for her to finally start doing it! Role playing with your children can offer them a powerful problem-solving tool.

Day 4, we read a book about being selfish and it had so many great discussion points. The kids had lots to talk about and we role played too. It ended up taking up most of our time so we couldn't do our activity, since we fit in show and tell. I didn't mind though, because they were right on topic and it was a productive lesson about selfishness and sharing!

Outside time this week was cut short because of bad air quality, and rain/snow, but the days we got out were fun. We enjoyed more coloring the snow with these food coloring/water bottles and that's always a hit. The snow is also low enough to swing on the swing set some more, and they always like sledding. They also searched the yard for deer footprints, and loved discovering that the birds have eaten almost all their bird seeds! It's fun to see the scratch marks in the peanut butter where they were eating.