The Letter "D".

This week has been D week for Isabel.

Foods we ate:  Doughnuts, Dinosaur chicken nuggets, Doritos, a hot Dog that I made into the shape of a Dachsund....I know, sounds like a pretty unhealthy week ;)  We interspersed these with healthy foods too :)

Books we read:  My Big Book of Dinosaurs, Dave the Duckling Gets Into Trouble, Dora tells Time, Doves, Daddy and Me, and Kisses for Daddy.

We talked about things that are Dangerous!  I asked her, "What things are dangerous?"  And she started listing off, "Bears, coyotes, wolves..."  Then we moved on to talk about how crossing the street can be dangerous, or standing in a chair...and safe ways to go about doing these things.  When I asked her, "What might a dangerous dog do?"  She quickly responded, "Bite!"

After her nap one afternoon (yes, Isabel still takes a 1 1/2-2 hour nap daily), I had set up a Dinosaur Scavenger Hunt.  Well that's what I called it, but it wasn't a true scavenger hunt where you have clues leading to the next object.  It was really just a bunch of hidden dinosaurs placed around the room.  She had to collect them in an old candy tray that had exactly 15 slots for the 15 dinosaurs I had hidden.  She really enjoyed it!

We counted doves!  I found some small doves at the Dollar Tree (that you would use at a wedding), and I let her count them out from 0-9.  We talked about how zero means "nothing", "none"....for some reason it seems little kids sometimes have a hard time with that!

I was really surprised, because she is not usually into counting out objects, but she must have really liked the doves, because she did this one over again.  :)

We learned all about Doodle bugs, aka rollie pollies, aka the wood louse, aka pill bugs, aka sow bugs.  Talk about a creature with alot of names!!!  And did you know that this thing isn't even an insect??  It's an isopod! "Isopods are crustaceans distinguished by having 14 legs. Isopods are terrestrial or aquatic, depending on the species and are often found in dark, moist environments or on aquatic floors."  (Ask.com "What is an isopod?")  So I learned so much myself this week about the doodle bug that I had always thought was an insect.  Here is an easy for kids to understand link about them.

Doodle bugs were a big part of our lesson this week.  We read about them, did a coloring page, talked about their favorite habitats (under wet things) and why (because they have gills and must live around moist stuff!), and of course caught them and investigated them close up with a magnifying glass.  

We also learned about Doves this week and I had no idea that pigeons were a type of dove....brings to mind another "D" word...."duh"!  But we read a book about them and worked on a dove coloring page and tracing sheet.


We also made a tissue paper Daffodil and talked about why our own daffodils did not bloom this spring (no plant food).  Isabel really appreciated that I let her free with the glue, and amazingly she did pretty well minus the small spot of glue in her hair!

Then we got out into the dirt and planted the seeds for our garden...so we got dirty and dusty.

We also created some dance batons out of old streamers, dressed up and danced to some familiar classical music until we were both tired out!  (And believe me, that is alot of dancing to tire out Isabel!)

Today we had a Date with Daddy at McDonalds and would you believe that her Happy Meal toy was a Dragon!?  "D week", I'm lovin' it!

And tonight Daddy is taking her to a Durham Bulls baseball game while I get a highly-anticipated Girl's Night Out! 

This week I also explored some Montessori-inspired works with her, unrelated to the letter D.  I've been working on setting up the upstairs so that she has a little table at which to work and color, and to clear off our bookshelves so that she can choose a "work" (activity) independently and then do it for herself after she has been shown a "lesson" on how to do it.  I'm really excited about it, and she seemed to be very interested in some of the things that I put out on the shelves this week.

This pouring exercise wasn't the best idea....really I should have 2 pitchers which she can pour water back and forth....because with the little cups there, she wanted to pour the water and then drink it and have a tea party! LOL!  The sponge is for cleaning up spills.

This activity is awesome for helping her pincer grasp. (I found it in the book, Mommy, Teach Me!: Preparing Your Preschool Child for a Lifetime of Learning by Barbara Curtis) I took a piece of playdough (but clay would be better!) and tried to harden it in the oven after making three small holes for the toothpicks.  So she sticks the toothpicks in and then threads the bead onto the toothpick.  I set out just enough beads to make it to the top of all 3 toothpicks and she really likes to do this work.  The only complaints are that my tray is too small (if a bead drops, it bounces right off), and there is not enough work to do....she could do a tray of probably 15 toothpicks, so I need to make it bigger!

Then I made a small set of capital letter cards and lowercase letters out of old calling cards.  These turned out to be the perfect size for 4 year old hands!  She had to lay out the uppercase letters and then match up the lowercase ones with the big ones.  (I told her she was matching the baby with it's parent and she loved that). After a while of working independently, she got stumped, so we looked at the ones she got right, and then took the ones she didn't know and worked on those together.  Really she only needed me to help her focus on those last letters...it wasn't so much a matter of her not knowing them...it was almost that it got to a point of being a little overwhelming.  But with some encouragement she finished!

So that has been our week!  I've been impressed with how focused she has been, and how willing she was to do everything this week!  We had such a good time learning together :)