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!!

November 4th- 8th

Community Helpers 

Supplies

• Construction paper
• Sidewalk chalk
• Small Squirt bottle or watering can
• Mini marshmallows
• Crayons or markers
• Cotton balls
• Small tongs

Books for the Week

•  "Clifford the Firehouse Dog" by Norman Birdwell
• "Chicka Chicka Boom Boom" by Bill Martin Jr. and John Archambault
• "I Stink!" by Kate and Jim McMullen
•  "You Think It's Easy Being the Tooth Fairy?"  by David Slonim and Sheri Bell-Rehwoldt
• "Firehouse" by Mark Teague

Monday: "F" for fire: Read, "Clifford the Firehouse Dog".  Then cut a large "F" out of paper. While you're cutting out the "F" have your child rip up pieces of of red, orange, and yellow paper. (Great for fine motor skills!). Write the word "fire" next to the "F" and explain that you're going to make fire.  Have your child cover the "F" with the torn pieces of paper.
Original source: www.notimeforflashcards.com

Tuesday:  Put out the fire!! With sidewalk chalk, make flames. Based on whatever skills your child needs to work on (letters, shapes, numbers, etc.) write it amongst the flames.  Now, fill a squirt bottle or watering can with water and have them put out the flames.
Make this as exciting as possible. If you have a fire truck or a fire fighter hat have them put it on. Get into it! ("Help! Help! There is a fire on the circle!"). If you're having fun, they will have fun.

Wednesday: Marshmallow teeth.  Make a mouth a piece of paper.  Have your child add "teeth" to the mouth by licking the marshmallow and sticking it to the mouth.  The saliva will make it stick to the paper.  Take this opportunity to count and also talk about the size of the "teeth".  I put the marshmallows in a small container so my son was forced to grab the marshmallows with this pointer finger and thumb. (Great for fine motor skills and writing.)

Thursday:  Trash truck counting.  Make 10 houses out of  paper and number them 1-10.  Lay them out on the floor and place the corresponding number of cotton balls on each house.
Now it's time to pick up the trash!  Role play the idea of Trash Day.  It's time to pick up all the trash from each of the houses. As the truck pulls up to each of the houses, call out the number and have them count as they use tongs to put the trash into the truck.  How many are there all together?
Alternative:  If you don't have a trash truck or dump truck to play with you can play "pizza delivery". Same concept, but cut out little pizzas and deliver the correct number of pizzas to each house.

Friday:  "Driving the alphabet":  Read "Chicka Chicka Boom Boom".  Write out letters of the alphabet to resemble roads on construction paper.  Put a glob of paint separately and dip a small truck or car into the paint.  Now, tell your child to "drive" the letters.  Make a fun game out of it by making pretend police car noises if they drive off the road.