G is for Graph

 We counted the letters of each child's name and graphed how many letters there were. It was a great way to work on a couple of skills simultaneously.  I printed each child's name in a different color to help the younger kids identify which name we were looking at so we could count the letters together.

I got the idea from this website. http://www.teach123school.com/2014/06/back-to-school-books-and-freebie.html

A Visit to the Fire House

We had a lot of fun a couple of months ago on a field trip to the fire house. We started in their educational room. They taught the kids some fire safety rules and then practiced a few situations where they might encounter fire. 

Stop drop and roll

Crawling if there is smoke in the room.

Checking out what a fireman might look like if they need to rescue you. 

Finding ways to get out of a room if the door feels hot.

Then we went upstairs to tour the fire house and see the trucks. 

Here's a picture of me and my cuties!

Drive-In Christmas Party

My brother moved here from California (where I grew up) a couple of months ago and stayed at our house for a while. When he moved out he had some empty boxes. He asked me if I wanted him to recycle them. I was about to say yes, when inspiration hit!! 

We made good use of them for our Christmas party this year. We made cars to use at Chipman's Corner Drive-in Theater. : )

I added wheels and headlights to the boxes with large and small paper plates and brads. Then the kids decorated their cars with markers. 

We took them upstairs and watched the old version of How the Grinch Stole Christmas.

While they watched, they ate the gingerbread men that we made after we decorated the cars. It was pretty fun!

My favorite part was watching all the parent responses when I told them that they got to take the cars home. Some of them gave a very unenthusiastic thank you when they left. Hahaha. 

E is for Egg: Hatching Chicks

Here is a cute little egg project we did during letter e week. Before we hatched our own chicks, we read the book Horton Hatches an Egg.

I printed both papers on cardstock and pre-cut out the chicks for the kids. They colored the chicks and cut out the eggs. 

We glued the chick to the back of the bottom egg.

Then we used a brad so the chick could hatch out of the egg. 

If you would like to make your own hatching chicks, click here for a free printable. 

When you click on the link, there are a lot of ads on the page. You want to click the small grey download button right beneath the box that says view document. You will need to sign in to download the paper. You can sign up for a free 4shared account or use your social media outlet to download. Please leave a message below if you have any problems or questions. 

D is for drawing

 

Here is an example of a fun squiggle page we did during letter d week. 

Want to know what a squiggle page is? Click here. 

You can learn about drawing prompts and squiggle pages as a great way to foster creativity and let the imagination run wild!

You can also download some free printable squiggle pages for your own use on that page.  

Dinosaur Stomp

 

We tried out a new activity this year that was pretty dang fun! I saw this idea somewhere, I think from Family Fun Magazine, and thought it would be fun to try. It also goes perfectly with the song we like to sing during letter D week.

So we decided to make some dinosaur feet so we can properly stomp around.

It took a couple of days because we painted one day and added claws the next.

Start with some small boxes like cracker or microwave popcorn boxes. Then spray paint them green and cut a hole out for the feet. 

Break out the paints and let your little dinosaurs paint them.

After the paint has dried, glue triangular shaped claws at the front. We used construction paper, but I would suggest card stock. 

Put them on . . .

. . . and have fun stomping around. . .

. . . as the fiercest dinosaur around!