D is for Dinosaur...

 D is for Dinosaur & Daniel, we started off our letter of the week with our Dinoland small world play, which both boys loved & it was played with on & off all week. 

The boys made these Double Daffodil cards to give Nanny & Grandma on mothers day (UK). We then had a go at some dropper art, at a local toddler group.

 For our worksheets this we again visited Confessions Of A Homescholer & we also downloaded the dinosaur pack from Over The Bog Moon. This week for our do-a-dot sheets I decided to have a go at making some pom pom magnets like these. I used a hot glue gun to stick some round magnets that we already had on to the back of some pom poms, when i ran out of magnets I cut up some free magnets (advertising etc) to use. Some of these were a little thin so to make them stronger i used the glue to double it up before sticking on the pom pom.

 Both boys have loved the pom poms as they have been able to use the sheet over & over, we have also had a couple of free hand creations on the fridge. I was really excited when I saw this pin on pintrest Joseph (4) has always struggled holding a pen/pencil, so next time he was colouring I grabbed an old, sock & cut 2 holes, MAGIC! It really works & he loves it. Joseph calls it his pinching parrot like from the recent series, I Can Cook (UK TV show). I might even add eyes & a beak for him!

 We also had a go at the pre-writing practise from the dinosaur pack, Daniel (2.5) loved the fact that he was helping the mummy dinosaur find its egg. I think he liked the sense of purpose rather than just tracing because he was asked!

We have 2 sets of Leapfrog Fridge Phonics, one lower & one uppercase. I bought the 2nd set from a charity, partly because our 1st set was missing a couple of letters & partly so that we would have 2 base units one for each of the boys! As part of our letter of the week i have been putting away all the other letters & just leaving out that weeks letter.

We have had a great week with letter D, but are looking forward to E for Easter & Egg!

x Jo x

Dropper Art

We did this activity at a local toddler group, so I didn't take many pictures so as not to put pictures of other kids on the net. But the boys both loved this so much that I just had to post about it. It also fits in with our letter of the week - D.

 We used ready mixed paint that had been watered down by about 1/3 & large droppers (or pipettes), I have some small ones at home but I'm on the look out for these larger ones. On to A4 coloured card (that had been pre-folded in half) the boys used the droppers to drip, dribble & squirt the paint on to their card. Once finished we re-folded the card then opened it out to see the finished effect.

I really love these & think they look a but like butterflies, it would work well on card pre-cut in to a butterfly shape.

x Jo x

Dinoland

After the B for Builder small world play went down so well, I decided to make a D for Dinosaur box for the boys. In the base of our box I used small cardboard squares, which is actually for the base of our pet rat cage, its called Ecobale & is a type of horse bedding!  I made boulders out of scrunched up paper bags & sed some rocks from our beach small world. I added some plastic plants, eggs & 2 palm trees, that the boys made at a toddler group using tinsle & kitchen roll tubes.

 During play my paper bag bolders became dinosaur nests!

We used our Ladybird Dinosaur book to look up the names of our figures & taked about how big they would have been & what they liked to eat.

They got the dinosaur figures from Santa and they hadn't really been played with since, this was a great opportunity to give the boys a starting point to begin play. They both enjoyed this box and like most of our others it has been asked for several times.

x Jo x