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D is for Dental Health.

D template  filled with paper dots.  Kids can use the hole punch for fine motor practice and then glue their dots onto the template.

ASL D and Dad

Letter sort – b’s and d’s.  Save frozen juice cans and make the letters on craft sticks. Put a corresponding letter on the can. Great visual/perception game

Trays:  Playdough, dots (punched). Intro the Montessori dressing frames if you have them.  If not, then gather pieces of clothing with zippers, buttons, and snaps and allow the children to try to tackle them independently.  Dropper and suction bottomed bath mats. Mix up some colored water and have children very carefully squeeze one drop onto each little suction cup. Include a small sponge and he can absorb each little cup when finished. This will occupy a preschooler for a looooooong time.

Math:  diamond shape, dimes, diagonal lines.  Have children sort the diamonds from the other cards in a playing card deck. Sort dimes from pile of change. Discuss how many other coin combinations make up a dime. Make diamonds of different dimensions (hey, alliteration ; )) on the geoboard. Look for diamonds in clothing (argyle) and rug patterns this week.

Number 4: make a page for the notebook with the numeral and a set of four things like 4 seasons, the four sides of a diamond, four limbs on a person, 4 gospels etc. Discuss 4 operations – add, subract, multiply and divide – informally by dividing a sandwich in two, giving two cookies to three friends, combining your legos with your brother’s etc.

Snack:  Veggies and dip or doughnut holes

Music: drums – make your own with empty oatmeal box.  Consider reading about Drummer Hoff.

Game: Duck, duck, goose

Dental Health – there are LOTS of fun activities here. We liked cutting out a large tooth from yellow cardstock and painting it white with our brushes to model thorough brushing. The painting with dental floss would be fun too. More dental printables and crafts here.

science project -(from same site) what are cavities?  Take an apple and poke some large holes in it with a pencil or kebab.  Let it sit for several days til the holes turn brown. Use as an object lesson.  Lots of links at the above site for brushing charts and more.

Some lit:

Whose Teeth Are These?

Going to the Dentist

Teeth are Not for Biting

George Washington’s Teeth  – a funny book in rhyme detailing our first president’s dental woes

Diddle diddle dumpling

Diddle diddle dumpling, my son John
Went to bed with his stockings on.
One shoe off and one shoe on,
Diddle diddle dumpling, my son John.

Practice the rhyme when dressing this week. Rolls off the tongue. <g> My oldest two boys used to sing song this nursery rhyme whenever a baby lost a sock.

Saint/hero:

King David – there is a very very cute book to make based on these pics. (would make great notebook pages) And there are more page ideas here.

Thought I forgot about C didn’t you? <g>  Busy week here but we are set for tomorrow.

C is for caterpillars, Very Hungry Caterpillars, and the collage art of author/illustrator Eric Carle, who cooperates by supplying us with a number of C books.

ASL: C   and  cookie

C template, glue on popcorn kernels or cornmeal

Lit:

The Very Hungry Caterpillar  (by Eric Carle)

The Little Cloud

The Very Clumsy Click Beetle

Have you Seen My Cat?

Eric Carle’s ABC

Ten Little Ducks

Character:

OH!!! Hopefully Bloglines doesn’t get this posted before my postscript addition here. We found the most incredible book this week.  It’s called Cookies, Bitesize Life Lessons. Trust me, you WANT this book! The author uses cookies as her medium to explain abstract concepts like modest – as in, "you don’t run around telling everyone you make the best cookies, even if you know you do." or respect, as in, "respect means offering the very first cookie to your grandmother."  I love it. Absolutely love it.

Saint:

Christopher, the Holy Giant by Tomie DePaola (dramatize by carrying a baby doll on shoulders)

Trays:

cutting with templates, corn/spoon transfer, clay, Oreo cookie Matchin Middles puzzle, crayon resist and rainbow crayon coloring (3crayons taped together), chalk on dark paper, paper chains

Snack:

We will make cookies from pre-rolled dough and frost them green. We will arrange them in the form of a caterpillar for fun. Cooking with children is an obvious extension this week. The Mom and Me Cookbook is a lot of fun.  It is full of the outstanding photos and clear instructions for which DK is famous. Mollie Katzen’s Pretend Soup is another good bet.

Math:

intro coins – use them for the crayon resist, match them, discuss their value. Print the page linked and add to the binder.

Calendar – hang up a large wall calendar and begin noting the date each day. (we will add to this each week)  Additionally (or instead of!) print these pages for the preschool notebook and note them at the beginning of each learning time.

Shape:

Cylinder – more accurately a geometric solid.  Most of our kids know their basic shapes so I am digging out the Montessori solids. Look for can shapes this week to ID as cylinders

Art:

Collage! There are so many possibilities here.  We will start with something small and not messy : ) Take a sheet of clear contact paper and peel off the backing.  Lay sticky side up on table. Place an 8×11 piece of colored cardstock cut into a 1inch border/frame on top. Fill the center of the frame with torn tissue paper in various colors. Top with another sheet of clear contact paper sticky side down this time. Easy Peasy. <g>

For more ideas see these Eric Carle inspired projects which can be used for older children as well.

Song:

C is for Cookie (Cookie Monster’s song)

C is for cookie
That’s good enough for me,
C is for cookie,
That’s good enough for me, C is for cookie,
That’s good enough for me.
Oh Cookie, Cookie, Cookie starts with C!

Science – cotton ball clouds  and caterpillar life cycle (ck out the second life cycle link and scroll way down to the project – way cool and can fit in a page protector. My favorite ; ))  You can also be discussing healthy snack choices with reference to the Hungry Caterpillars digestive woes.

Ok, that’s more than enough to keep us hoppin’ this week. Time for bed!  Have a great week y’all!