"D d" is for Dinosaur...

I found these dinosaur (and dinosaur skeleton) images on the internet, free to copy and use.  They were originally just line drawings, which a friend of mine colored for me.  I laminated them, and taped them to a dry-erase marker board  (which is hanging in our classroom). 

It makes a great visual aid for the letter "Dd", of course, as well as matching a dinosaur to its skeleton.  I use the internet often to find images to use as tools for teaching my grandchildren.

Pp is for "Pig" craft project...

Paint a "Piggy Bank".  I purchased this piggy bank from Walmart, unfinished.  It was solid white.  My 5 year old grandson and I painted it to match our classroom.  I think it turned out pretty well, considering the unskilled labor that went into it.  lol!

"Jj" is for Jellyfish (craft project)...

Items needed:  paper plate, wiggle eyes, paper streamers, card stock paper, glue, marker.  Simple!

Butterfly Craft Teaches / Reinforces Letter, Colors, and Shapes Recognition...

"R r" is for Rabbit (mask craft project)...

My granddaughter, age 3, modeling her rabbit mask. 

The mask is made from card stock paper.

"M m" is for "Mittens"...

 

 

We have been learning the letter "M m".  "M m" is for "Mittens".  Today we learned the poem / story about the "Three Little Kittens Who Lost Their Mittens" (literature / reading).  My two young students and I made a large poster depicting these kittens wearing their mittens (art).  The kittens represented each of them, as well as their baby brother.  This poster makes a great visual aid for learning the story, learning rhyming words, recognizing the letter "M m" and the sound it makes (phonics), learning the opposite words "lost" and "found", learning colors (brown, black, tan, etc.),  and learning to recognize the numbers 1-2-3 (math). I suppose the story of the three little kittens could also be counted as a social studies lesson as it shows how irresponsible behavior will result in a negative consequence. 

 

"M m" is also for "Mammal".  We discussed the characteristics of mammals (science).  They are warm-blooded, have hair / fur, give birth to live young, and they produce milk to feed their babies.

Our poster is almost as large as the children's school table, which will comfortably seat 4 small students.

Handprint / "Fan Bird" Craft Project - Elijah Fed by Ravens...

We did this project in Primary Sunday School Class as part of our study about Elijah who was fed by ravens during a time of drought. 

This project could also be used to make a white dove  during Christmas or Easter, or in the Spring to make various colors of birds

 Fold a piece of black construction paper in half.  Place hand on top and trace around your hand.  Cut out and glue the palms (bird body) and thumbs (bird head) together.  Fold down the other fingers to make wings.  Add yellow beak and yellow feet.  Cut a 8 to 12 inch  X  4 to 6 inch piece of black paper and fold it accordion style and glue one end into the top part of the body, at an angle, for the bird tail.  White crayon was used to make the eye.  Wiggle eyes would be great!

 

My grandson's version:

This craft would be good to make and use as a visual aid when learning the letters  "B" is for Bird, "C" is for Crow, "R" is for Raven; the colors; and animal (life) science.

This idea was taken from the book Christian Crafts from Construction Paper, written by: Lori Miescke, published by: Shining Star Publications.
 

"V v" is for "Volcano"...

This week we have been learning the letter "V" sound, and some words that begin with that letter.  This is what we have done with the word "volcano":

We read a book about volcanoes and then drew a picture of a volcano.  

We practiced writing the letter "V".

The book we read was by National Geographic.  Great pictures, but it did mention ...millions of years.  If you don't believe in evolution and the earth being millions of years old, you can just skip tht part of the reading.  We did!

This is the volcano eruption kit that we obtained from Amazon .com.

If you prefer to make your own volcano, you can find instructions online. 

 

 

 Of course, we had to supply the ingredients for the chemical reaction to make our volcano erupt and look realistic.

 

 

My grandson adding the final ingredients...

 

Watching intently...

 

Looking into the cup and trying to figure out how that stuff worked...

 

Of course, the stuff must be touched!

 

 After looking at those amazing photos in the book about volcanoes, my grandson was rather disappointed in how his own volcano erupted.  "Where's the smoke?"  he asked.  "Where's the fire?"

LOL !!!

"O" is for Octopus (craft project)...

Theme of the Day's Lessons:  Letter O, Number 8

Phonics:  Short O sound

Color:  Octopus can change color.  Choose a particular color that you want to focus on.  

Science:  All about the Octopus - live in salt water/ocean - watch a video on the internet about octopus,  read books or find info about them on the internet.

Numbers:  An octopus has 8 arms.  Count them.  Practice writing number 8

Geography:  On a world map or globe, find and name all of the oceans.

Arts/Crafts:  Make an ocean scene like the one pictured above which incorporates the letter O for the head of the octopus, and making the 8 arms by tracing around the child's hand and fingers, excluding the thumbs.  Add wiggle eyes if you want.  Green strips of construction paper for the seaweed.