Other Activities We Did During Dd Week

The girls and I played with dominoes.  Then, Arin played this Domino Parking Lot game.  She had to count the spots on the dominoes and then "park" them in the correctly numbered spot.

We also used dice in our learning this week.  Arin used the lettered dice from our Boggle game to spell out some of her sight words. 

I love this picture!  Arin was quietly doing her schoolwork, when Ella decided to check out what she was doing.  She came over and laid down beside her sister and put her arm around her.  I love their close relationship :)

We played a dice probability game.  If a dice is rolled x amount of times, which number will show up most often?  Before Arin started rolling the dice, she made her prediction.  She guessed the number one would show up the most.  It was actually the six, but the one was the second most rolled number.

We played a dice sums game.  I had made a game board using all of the sums that can be rolled using two dice (1+1 through 6+6).  Then, Arin would roll two dice, add them together, find that number on the chart, and "dot" it.  Once the board was filled, the game was over.  Some numbers were harder to get, since there was only one possible roll that would make that number (ex: 5+6=11).  We all took turns rolling the dice and Ella even used the Dot markers to mark out the answers (with Arin's help, of course!).

Arin did a Dd letter hunt. 

For fun, the girls made pictures using their Do-A-Dot markers.

Daddy had to help Uncle Todd with some digging in his yard, so the girls had a great time playing and getting dirty in the dirt!

Bible Story: Daniel in the Lion's Den.  The girls colored a picture of Daniel in the Lion's Den as I read the story to them both from the bible and from their bible story books. 

Make Way For Ducklings

During Dd week, I read Make Way For Ducklings by Robert McCloskey to the girls. 

This story is about Mr. and Mrs. Mallard, who are looking for the perfect place to live and raise their family of ducklings.  They are looking for a place without any foxes or turtles.  They come across the Public Gardens in Boston, where they are fed daily by the park visitors and also by the policeman, named Michael.  The ducks decide this is the perfect place to live with their ducklings.

This story has become so popular that there is a statue located in Boston that was made in honor of this book.  You can check it out by clicking on this link.

We put together the girls' USA floor puzzle.  Then, we found Massachusettes and Boston on the map. 

To go along with the story, we fed the ducks (and geese and swans and whatever other birds were there at the time). 

This swan was so gentle.  It ate bread out of Andrew's hand.

This swan was not so gentle.  It skipped the bread and just tried to eat Andrew's hand.

For a special dessert, we made duck ice cream treats!

Daddy Day!

During Dd week, we celebrated daddy by spending the day doing special things with him.

We started the day at Dunkin Donuts!

Then, we took daddy driving (which is something he's been wanting to do for a while now).  The girls enjoyed putting.

Next, we took a dunk with daddy.  He humored us by diving for a dozen dimes! 

Check out Arin's new diving skills :)

Finally, daddy ate one of his favorite foods: drumsticks (turkey).

To go along with this day, the girls and I read A Day With Daddy by Louise A. Gikow

We had a delightful day with daddy!

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