Letter of the Week: Dd

I don't love dinosaurs, but when I asked Arin what she wanted to learn about for Dd week, that is exactly what she chose.  Had it have been me that was asked, I would have chosen something like dogs, or dolphins, or daffodils, so I was a bit surprised when I heard Arin say dinosaurs.  On the other hand, Andrew said that dinosaurs were one of his favorite things to learn about when he was younger (like father, like daughter!).  As it turned out, we didn't do a lot of factual learning about dinosaurs, but we did use them as our main theme for the week.

Arin practiced writing the letter D and the letter d.  The worksheet can be found here.

She also practiced all of the letters, using tracing sheets, which can be found here.  I covered the worksheets in clear contact paper and gave Arin a dry erase marker to use while tracing the letters.  She loved this activity.  She typically does not love writing activities, but this one she did once because it was her assignment and another few times during the week because she wanted to!

The girls both practiced lacing skills with a dinosaur picture, which can be found here.

Arin used these dinosaurs, first to practice attaching paper clips, and then to attach clothespins.

Arin had her first introduction to greater than and less than using this dinosaur worksheet.  I told her to have the dinosaur "eat" the larger number.  She did great! (she especially loved using the glue for this activity)

We made fossils.  I made playdough, pressed dinosaurs into the playdough, and then had Arin match up the dinosaur to the correct impression.  To check if she was right, she simply placed the dinosaur onto of the playdough to see if it fit into the indention.

Arin played paleontologist.  We found a 3-d dinosaur puzzle at Dollar Tree.  I took it all apart and buried it in a tub of sand.  Then, Arin dug through the sand and found the pieces, cleaned them, and then put the puzzle together.  It was a challenge to put the puzzle together (even for me).  We assume this would be the same for the people putting dinosaur skeletons together.

Arin enjoyed watching Dinosaur Train everyday.  This has long been a favorite show of hers (guess it shouldn't have been such a surprise afterall that she would pick dinosaurs for Dd week!).

We read the following dinosaur books. 

Edwina: The Dinosaur Who Didn't Know She Was Extinct by Mo Willems
How Do Dinosaurs Eat Their Food? by Jane Yolen and Mark Teague
The Dinosaur Tamer by Carol Greathouse (this was the favorite dinosaur book and would also be good to use in United States geography)
Dinosaur vs. Bedtime by Bob Shea
If the Dinosaurs Came Back by Bernard Most
Danny and the Dinosaur by Syd Hoff