December 9th - 13th

Winter Animals  

Supplies:  

•  Plastic fruit cup
• White acrylic paint
• tissue
• construction paper
• yarn
• paper bag 

Books:

• "Polar Bear, Polar Bear" by Eric Carle
• "Tacky the Penguin" by Helen Lester
• "The Mitten" by Jan Brett
• "Bear Snores On" by Karma Wilson
• "Dream Snow" by Eric Carle

Monday:  polar bear craft

Have your child paint a plastic fruit cup.  We tried using tempera paint at first and the paint just rolled off.  Luckily, I had some white acrylic paint that worked well. Let dry.

 As the paint dries, have them tear up tissue into small pieces.

 

Assemble polar bear by gluing torn pieces all over, gluing the nose, and adding eyes, ears, and a mouth.

 

Tuesday: Mitten lacing.  This is an activity my son did at story time at the library.  They read, "The Mitten," first.  Then, they chose two mittens that were the same color.  I matched up the holes and then tied them together with a piece of yarn.  My son then, laced the yarn in and out of the holes.  (Great eye/hand coordination and fine motor practice!).

Wednesday:  Penguin foot craft

Trace your child's foot onto a piece of black paper. 

 Trace over the line with a marker so your child can see the line better and have them cut it out.  Any scissor practice is good.  If they are having a difficult time cutting, hold their hand as they cut.  Resist the urge to cut it for them.

 

Trace their hands onto a black as well.  You can cut out their hands as they cut out the foot.  Cut out a white belly, a beak, and feet from orange paper.  Have your child assemble their penguin.

Thursday:  Hibernating bear in a cave.  First we read, "Bear Snores On," and discussed hibernation...

Cut out the parts of the bear (head, body, ears, tail, and legs), and have your child assemble their bear.

We made our cave out of a paper bag but you could also use a tissue box.  Put your bear in the cave to hibernate.

Friday: "W" is for winter.

We simply talked about what the weather is like in the winter.  We glued "snowflakes" and "snowballs" to the letter "W".

December 2nd-6th

Winter  



Supplies:

• Foil or wax paper
• Elmers school glue
• Construction paper
• Dice
• Markers or crayons
• Ivory soap

Books:

• "The Snowy Day" by Ezra Jack Keats
• "The Biggest Snowman Ever" by Steven Kroll
• "The Mitten" by Jan Brett
•  "Froggy Gets Dressed" by Jonathan London

Monday:  Elmer's Glue Snowflakes:  On a piece of foil or wax paper (better)  have your child squeeze glue in different patterns to make snowflakes.  When it is dry, you can peel them off, moisten the back with water, and stick it to the window.

Tuesday:  "S" is for snowman:  Cut a large "S" out of paper and other accessories (eyes, carrot nose, scarf, hat, buttons) to a snowman out of different colors of paper.  To assemble the snowman, I laid out all of the pieces of the snowman.  I then put small "x's" where I wanted my son to put the glue.  As he put the pieces on, we talked about where eyes should go and where a hat goes, etc.

 

Wednesday:  Mitten memory game:  Cut out several different pairs of mittens out of colored paper, making sure to have two of each color.  Glue them onto another piece of paper and cut out again.  Now, lay out the mittens face down to play a game of "memory".  Take turns flipping over the mittens to gain pairs.  While you play you can talk about the color names, and use words such as "pair" and "match".

Thursday:  Snowman dice game.  On a sheet of paper make a game key.

 

Draw two snowmen on two separate pieces of paper.  Now with the dice, take turns rolling the dice.  If you roll a "1"  add eyes, "2" nose, "3" mouth,"4" hat", "5" scarf, or "6" arms.  Whoever completes their snowman first is the winner.

original source " www.toddlerapproved.com

 

Friday:  Snow fun!  Place a bar of ivory soap on a plate and stick it in the microwave.  Hold your child up or let them stand on something so they can watch the soap heat up.  Heat the soap for about 1 minute and 30 seconds and watch what happens!

 

Ivory soap is made with a lot of air.  So, as the air heats up, it expands and so does the soap.  Take it out of the microwave and let it cool.  When it's cooled, let your child play with it.

November 18th-22nd

Space

Supplies

• Construction paper
• Oreos
• Fly swatter
• Paper plates
• Flour
• Baby oil
• Tempera paint

Books

• "Papa Please Get Me the Moon" by Eric Carle
• "Roaring Rockets" by Tony Mitton and Ant Parker
• "On the Moon" by Anna Milbourne
• "I Want to be an Astronaut" by Byron Barton 
• "Faces of the Moon" by Bob Crelin
• "The Way Back Home" by Oliver Jeffers

Monday: Name Rockets.  Write your child's name on a piece of paper and count how many letters are in their name.  With different colors of construction paper, cut out the corresponding number of squares and write one letter on each of the squares.  Have them build the rocket going letter by letter.  Then add wings and a nose.

Tuesday:Phases of the moon oreos.  Read "Faces of the Moon" and talk all about the illustrations and the moon.  On a piece of paper, draw the moon in the phases:  New moon, first quarter, full moon, and third quarter.  Carefully remove one side of each oreo so the cream stays on one side of the cookie. (you get to eat the other side.)  With a popsicle stick or spoon draw a line on each of the oreos and show which part of the cream they should scrape off.  As they complete each phase, they can set it onto the paper and match it up.  At the end they can eat them all.

Wednesday: Alien spaceship.  Read "The Way Back Home".  Use paper plates and whatever you can find to create an alien spaceship.

Thursday:  Fly swatter sun.  Cut a large circle out of paper.  Place several globs of paint all over the circle and put  a larger piece of paper under it.  Now, your child can "swat" the paint all around to create a sun.

Friday:  Moon sand.  In a large bowl combine 2 cups of flour and 1/4 cup baby oil.  Mix together.  Play with it as you wish.  It clumps together so you can make molds.

November 11th-15th

Dinosaurs

Supplies

• Construction paper
• Used coffee grounds (saved from your morning cup of coffee)
• Wooden clothespins (Dollar store)
• Chenille sticks or yarn
• Flour
• Salt
• Baking soda
• Vinegar
• Red food coloring
• Plastic bottle 

Books

• "How do Dinosaurs Go to School?" by Jane Yolen and Mark Teague
• "Dinosaur Train" by John Steven Gurney
• "Danny and the Dinosaur" by Syd Hoff

Monday: "D" is for dinosaur.  Read a dinosaur book of your choice.  We read " How do Dinosaurs Say Goodnight?".  Then, we made a large "D" out of paper and I asked my son to color it.  When he was done, I helped him glue it onto a larger piece of paper and I wrote "Dinosaur" on the corner saying the letters as I wrote the word.
We then talked about what a dinosaur has on his body (head,neck, arms, legs, tail,etc.). Then we drew, cut out, and assembled our dinosaur.

Tuesday: Clothespin dinosaur.  Read a dinosaur book of your choice.  Cut a stegosaurus out of paper.  On the top of the stegosaurus write numbers 1- 10 or however high you'd like to go.  Number the top of the clothespins the same. Have them color the dinosaur and stegosaurus.
When your child is finished coloring they can put their "spikes" on their dinosaur by matching the numbers.
*  I played this with my 1st grader as well, and he added the "spikes" by solving addition.

Wednesday: coffee ground fossils.  Make coffee ground dough:
1/2 cup used coffee grounds
1/4 cup cold coffee
1/2 cup flour
1/4 cup salt
Mix together ingredients in a bowl and knead to make dough.
We read a book about fossils from the library.  We then went around the house collecting things to press into our dough to make fossils.  We made little balls, pressed them down, and then pressed the different items into it.  It took about a day and a half to dry.

Thursday: Dinosaur feet  Make dinosaur feet out of construction paper.  Get creative as you'd like.  I had my son pick out the colors and how many "claws" he wanted.  We talked about the shapes of the feet and claws.  To attach them to his feet I cut two smalls holes on either side, stuck chenille sticks through and twisted them together.

Friday: Dinosaur volcano.  First we read, "Dinosaur Train."  It is a story about a boy who goes on a dinosaur adventure and sees a volcano.  Fill the bottom of a bottle with baking soda (about 2-4 Tablespoons).  Fill another container with a pouring spout with vinegar and a few drops of red food coloring.  I had some red playdough so I covered the bottle with the play dough and rocks to make it look a little more realistic.  You could also cover it with dirt, sand, or rocks.
When you're ready, pour in the vinegar mixture and see what happens!!