Dinosaur Week Roars to a Close

We finished up our exciting week about the dinosaurs yesterday!  Before we did our daily school routine we went to the post library for storytime.  The Owlets love the library and they love storytime!  The librarian read books about caterpillars and then they made a caterpillar craft out of scrapbook paper circles, pipe cleaners, wiggle eyes, and glue dots. 
We came home and the Owlets were excited to start learning and playing!  For a math activity I made ten dinosaur footprints and ten dinosaurs, I numbered the footprints and dinosaurs 1-10.  I laid the footprints out in a line and turned the dinosaurs face down.  The Owlets picked a dinosaur, said what the number was, and then laid the dinosaur on the footprint.  I was impressed with how well they did on this activity and they had a lot of fun doing it!
Our art activity was pretty cool, I gave the Owlets a plate full of uncooked pasta in different shapes, some glue, a q-tip, and a piece of black construction paper.  The idea was to make a dinosaur skeleton, but the instructions were, glue the pasta on however you want so your skeleton looks however you think it should look!  The skeletons came out very interesting!  The Owlets also made Dinosaur Handprints for our letter "H" activity.  They dipped the side of their fist into green paint and laid it on paper then they used their thumb for toes.  Some of the prints had ten toes!
The Owlets had a lot of fun this week and I am hopeful they learned a little about dinosaurs!
We have a brand new theme for next week and some pretty exciting stuff to go along with it ! 

A Dino Good Enough to Eat!

As our dinosaur unit comes to a close we made added a cooking project to our list of activities.  The Owlets made dinosaurs that were good enough to eat!  We started with bananas and the owlets stuck Chex cereal into it so it looked like spikes, then they put a chocolate chip on it for the eye.  The Owlets enjoyed making this special dino treat, but the best part was getting to eat it up!
 The Owlets worked in the centers that have been set up throughout the week, but of course we did a new art activity and a new letter "H" project.  For art the owlets made dinosaur footprints using their hands and the Owlets made hula skirts out of paper bags, yarn, glitter, crayons, and stickers!
Gross motor activities are important to all child development programs and this week we have moved like dinosaurs and today we listened to one of the Owlets favorite singers, Laurie Berkner, and her song We Are the Dinosaurs.  The Owlets had fun stomping and dancing!  It was a good day for learning and we have more fun in store for tomorrow!

Here Come The Dinosaurs!

We kicked off Dinosaur Week today!  The owlets are super excited about this week so that makes it even better! In preparation for this week the owlets and I spent a morning at the library looking for books on the subject of dinosaurs, buying plastic dinos at the store, and picking up sand!  Sadly, we don't have many books at home on the subject and we didn't have any plastic dinosaurs. Yesterday after church we ran to Lowe's to get some sand.  50 pounds of sand is not a light a load to carry, but Clever Owl and I made it happen, next time though I will send Papa Owl in for it!  I spent last night cutting out dinosaurs, I was glad that Papa Owl helped or I would've been up all night!
During our "circle time", we talked about what we knew about dinosaurs, I think my favorite answer came from Sassy Owl: "Dinosaurs live with Little Einsteins."  Then we discussed what we wanted to learn about the prehistoric creatures. 
This morning I added colorful dinosaurs to two dish pans and filled them with sand.  I gave the owlets paintbrushes and shovels so they could be paleontologists and dig for the dinos.  They got so excited when they found one!  This is also a good dramatic play activity!  For art, I added food coloring to spray bottles and cut out an egg shape, the owlets sprayed the egg shape and when they are dry we will cut them with a zig zag pattern and glue a baby dino coming out of the egg.  The owlets enjoyed doing these activities outside.  I copied a pattern of three types of dinosaurs onto construction paper, numbered them 1-10, laminated them, and finally cut them all out!  This is our math activity for the week and the owlets are going to sort the dinosaurs by type and then put them into sets.  Today they just sorted them by long tails, horns, and spikes! I'm sure our letter for the week should be D, but it's not, we are learning about the letter H.  For our literacy activity the owlets made hippos with their hand prints.  I love the idea of using hand prints to make something for each letter of the alphabet!
We have many more exciting plans for the week and I can't wait to share them with Sassy Owl and Monkey Owl and of course with all of you!  Have a fabulous Monday!!