Theme: Dinosaurs
Focus of the Week: Our theme series focuses on one letter, one shape and one color each week. I put together and printed this printable mostly for my two. I hung it in our craft room and would often point to the letter, shape and color for him to identify throughout the week.
September Themes: My boys (ages 2, 3) go to preschool twice a week, so I planned our activities for the off days - Monday, Wednesday and Friday. I printed a monthly chart as a way to keep organized and stay on track. Here's the second week at a glance:
MONDAY:
Letter (D): "D" Dino. You'll need white and green paper, glue and a googly eye. Before the activity, I cut up all the shapes needed (see below). As we put the craft together, I pointed out all the different shapes. My two loved using his dino to "walk" across the table.
- Letter D (body)
- 5 triangles (spikes)
- 4 rectangles (legs)
- 1 oval (tail)
- 1 circle (head)
Numbers (Dino Clip Cards): You'll need Dino Clip Cards and clothespins (check Dollar Tree). For the number and sorting activity, I had one of my boys play with our toy dinosaurs while I did the activities one on one with other child. Then, we'd switch. I like how this activity uses one-to-one correspondence, number recognitions, and fine motor skills. Note: My four is great at counting and wanted to do all the clip cards (#1-12). My two only wanted to do a few cards before he was done (#1-3).
Sorting (Dino Size Sort): You'll need T-rex, stegosaurus, and/or long neck dinosaurs from funny crafts. My four was able to put the dinosaurs in order from smallest to biggest. For my two, I would hold two dinosaurs together and we'd compare small and big.
Sensory (Dino Play w/Baking Soda): You'll need baking soda (Costco), shovels to dig, and play dinosaurs. We do so many sensory bins at our home. I normally use a large plastic bin from Walmart and place it on the floor, but our bin so happened to fit in our Ikea table with the table top off (see below). This way the kids could play standing up and I thought it would better keep the baking soda inside the bin. We always do sensory bins in a room with hard wood floor, so the mess is easy to sweep up afterward. I figure an hour of play is worth the five minutes of clean up. Note: Save the baking soda! It is now November, and we are still using the same bag of baking soda!
WEDNESDAY:
Color Activity (What Color was the Dinosaur?): We ended up running out of time for this, but you print dinosaur coloring pages and simply color them with crayons. Have your child tell you which color they think dinosaurs were and color them accordingly. Focus on the color brown.
Shape (Oval Stegosaurus): You'll need clothespins (spikes) and colored paper - brown would be best as it's the color of the week. Before we did this activity, I cut out a bunch of ovals. As we did the activity, we talked about our shape and glued the ovals into place. I coached my two along (pictured left), but my four wanted his spikes to be all over his T-rex (forget a veggie eating dinosaur) and drew a scary face with maker (pictured right). I love and welcome the creativity.
Gross Motor (Dino Stomp Song & Dance): This song is a little cheesy, but my boys loved marching and doing the actions to Laurie Berkner's "We are the Dinosaurs" on youtube. If you have any type of dress up dinosaur hats or costume, it would be fun to wear them.
Science (Dino Egg Hunt & Volcanoes): You'll need plastic eggs, mini dinosaurs (Dollar Tree), old play dough, small cup, vinegar (colored red for lava) and baking soda (from the sensory bin). This was our favorite activity this week! Before the activity, I hid mini dinosaurs in plastic eggs and hid them around our back yard. My boys LOVED finding them. Then, we made volcanoes out of old play dough and erupted them over and over until we were out of vinegar! My four exclaimed, "This was the most fun activity ever!"
FRIDAY:
Fine Motor (Fossil Dig): You'll need baking soda (base), cornstarch, dinosaur fossil molds, plastic letters, and excavating tools (brushes, spoons, play drill, etc). This was another favorite activity this week! My boys were so excited to find letters as they drilled out a fossil. Learn more here!
Outing (Dino Museum): We recently moved to Oregon and love finding new things to do! Little did we know there's a small museum here with dinosaur bones. The boys and I enjoyed an afternoon at the museum before dinner.
Additional Activity (Frozen Dinosaur Eggs): I couldn't help myself and had to make Frozen Dinosaur Eggs. I filled our large square ice mold with water, food coloring, and a mini dinosaur (they often have these at the Dollar Tree). We brought them in the tub with shaving cream (also at the Dollar Tree). Super fun!
Dinosaur Booklist: And of course, we read often throughout the week. We mostly read before our quiet times each day, but we occasionally read during a meal or random time during the day. I placed these books on hold at our local library and we enjoyed reading them this week as we learned about dinosaurs:
- Brontorina by James Howe
- Danny and the Dinosaur by Syd Hoff
- Dinosaur A-Z: For Kids Who Really Love Dinosaurs by Roger Priddy
- Dinosaurs! by Gail Gibbons
- Dinosaurs Love Underpants by Claire Freedman
- Dinosaurumpus! by Tony Mitton
- Digging Up Dinosaurs by Aliki
- Edwina the Dinosaur Who Didn't Know She Was Extinct by Mo Willems
- How Do Dinosaurs Clean Their Rooms? by Jane Yolen
- When Dinosaurs Came With Everything by Elise Broach
Note: I'd also like to focus on beginning sounds, hand writing, cutting and beginning reading for my three (he'll be four in a few weeks). I will incorporate more of these ideas in this series, but also love this beginning reading program.
