Dinosaurs!

 We continued our summer fun this week with the theme, "Dinosaurs!"

I had been on vacation the previous week, and I brought back a treat to share with my class! Yum!

During summer camp, we always have Yoga day where the school does a child centered yoga workout. The video we've been using is great because most of the poses are named after animals.

We also have splash day, where all the kids put on their bathing suits and we play outside in water tables and have a fun squiggly sprinkler to run through.

We also have some older children that have joined our class for the summer. While my kids are having their rest in the middle of the day, these children have extra play time out of the room and they also work on some practice sheets that I got from the Summer Bridge Books for K-1 and 1-2. They are great worksheets to keep the older kids practicing their skills over the summer! I love the Pk-K book and I use it through out the year for their letter worksheets.

We read this week: Danny and the Dinosaur by Syd Hoff
                               Curious George's Dinosaur Discovery by Margret and HA Reys
                               The Dinosaur Who Lived in My Backyard by B.G. Hennessy
                               Detective Dinosaur by James Skofield
                               The Smallest Stegosaurus by Lynn Sweat

Our question of the week was "If you were a dinosaur, would you be a carnivore or herbivore?"

For our theme of the week,  the kids wrote in their journals about if they like dinosaurs or not.

While my class writes in their journal each week, the older kids (Kindergarten and 1st grade) work on these reading response sheets about the book that we read that day.

The kids drew the background for their hand print dinosaurs! They drew the background and did their hand print, and the teacher finished it off with a quick dinosaur head.

I cut out different small dinosaurs and the children made "rubbings" by placing them under their paper and using crayons.

I drew pictures of some dinosaurs for the kids to color and cut out. Some of them kept the dinosaurs the same and some mixed them up. It all turned out so cool and they were each so happy with their creations.

I have a dinosaur match game, check it out here, that I love because it not only has cards with dinosaurs but also has things like claw, horn and footprint. My class loves a good game of memory anytime, and these are nice because the cards are thick and sturdy, not easily bent.

Using salt dough (I used this recipe) we made dinosaur fossils!! These were so fun to make. I made the salt dough and turned it into small balls. The kids flattened it out a bit and pressed in the dinosaur figurine of their choice. I baked them for like 4 hours at 250 degrees so that they would keep their light color. I sent them home that day and the kids loved them!

I made a little board game with construction paper and we used small dinosaur figurines as the playing pieces. I honestly can't remember where I found this game last year, I think it was on Pinterest.

Our movie for the week was Toy Story!

Our song of the week was "The Clouds are Passing By" to the tune of farmer in the dell.

(C) 2001 - 2011 Jean Warren www.preschoolexpress.com

The games that we played this week at morning meeting were so fun!

We played "1,2,3" which we have played before and is definitely a fan favorite! We stand in a circle and each child says 1,2 or 3 consecutive numbers starting with 1 up to 9. So for example: "1,2,3" "4" "5,6" "7,8,9" and the next child who would have to say 10 sits down and is out of the round. Then it starts back at one. My class really loves this one, and usually if we play it in the morning, I will hear them in centers or at their lunch tables playing their own facilitated versions of the game.

We played "I have, who has?" which I originally saw being played in a Montessori class. It's so cool to see the children take over the game and help their friends follow along. I currently have three versions that we play, but I am planning on making one with numbers and maybe a grab-bag of random things. That might be fun! This week we played Colors and the Alphabet.

"Just Like Me" is a great game when a child is feeling a little bit sad or just to get the class feeling like a group! I start by modeling with a few statements, i.e, I like vanilla ice cream. If a child also like vanilla ice cream, they stand up and yell, "just like me!" After I model a few statements like that, I will pick a few children to be the leader. It's so cool to see them thinking about what they want to say!

"Zoom" is a fun and quick game to play with a class of any age. First you need to pick a direction that the zoom is going to go around the circle. The person starting says zoom and turns their head the the person next, and it goes around the circle. Once the class gets comfortable with this game, I will record how long it takes us!

We played "Number Ball" with a beanbag. We toss the beanbag around the circle and the kids have to say the next number. We stand in a circle and toss the beanbag across to friends and try to beat our record!

That's all for now! Leave me a comment please if you visit! =]