Luv Bug is 43 months old
It has been a BUSY couple of weeks around here. We started our dinosaur unit, but took a break for a vacation for our 8 year anniversary. When we got home, Daddy was still on vacation, so we took a few little day trips. We did manange to fit in a few other dinosaur activities and finished up a few days late. I did a dinosaur unit with Luv Bug last year. She LOVED it, so I decided to do another this year.
I prepared several trays since I knew they'd be out for 2 weeks, but we were having so much fun with dino related activities, they were barely touched. Here are a few Luv Bug chose:
Luv Bug loves to pick up rocks on walks and hikes. The day before we started this theme, we went wading in a creek and found some rocks that looked like fossils. I put them on her science tray this week.
Magnetic pom poms (idea here). The printable came from here, scroll down. It's the 1-10 sticker sheet.
Sorting fruit pouch caps.
Hammering tees into foam.
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When we begin a new unit, I try to have a theme related sensory bin. Last year, I just put in some stones from the Dollar Tree and some toy dinosaurs. I think that was the most played with sensory bin to date. Since she loved it so much, I decided to duplicate it but added a salt dough volcano this time.
She wanted fire to come out of her volcano, so we added some tissue paper.
Of course, lots of puzzles. This came from a set I posted about here.
I have another collection of children's puzzles. These have 100 pieces which are a bit too much for her. I put the puzzles together and remove several pieces, Luv Bugputs the missing pieces in.
I found so many cute Dinosaur Tot and Preschool packs. All the printables either came from my files from years ago, or from one of the following:
This printable was in my files, from an old Mailbox magazine.
I set out her do a dot markers and some foam triangles and let her decorate her dinosaur.
She loves stickers. not sure where the shiny set came from, but the ones on the big sheet are part of this Melissa and Doug's collection.
Found this cute dinosaur 'mask' at the Dollar Tree.
I realized that we haven't done too many open ended art activities. I saw this idea at Teach Preschool and loved it. She added every piece I set out.
Capital D craft
She wanted to make a duck for lowercase d. I tell her what each piece is for, but I don't tell her where to put them. I thought she did pretty well.
I made these 'fossils' from salt dough, then added them to Luv Bug's sandbox when they were dry.
I found this dinosaur egg for less than $1. She and Daddy worked together to dig out the little dinosaur toy.
We did the egg in vinegar science experiment. It's supposed to feel tough and leathery like a dinosaur egg may have felt.
It worked well, but Luv Bug squeezed a bit too hard. Next time I'll boil the egg.
It's hard to see, but there is a 10 foot lenght of yarn around Luv Bug to measure the diameter of a T-rex jaw. She's showing me how wide she can open her mouth. First she ran around it, then jumped in it.
I cut some 6" triangles for the teeth and she added them around the inside.
I made some dinosaur feet for her and put on We Are The Dinosaurs from the We Are The Laurie Berkner Band dvd.
She liked them on her hands better.
We papier mached a balloon (too messy to take pics), then I let her paint it make a dinosaur egg.
Before I blew up the balloon, I added a small toy dinosaur. I told her the egg was ready to hatch and she had to help it.
She was very surprised to find a baby dinosaur inside.
At the end of the 2 weeks, we let her erupt her volcano. Since it was made of salt dough, it became very slimy, so I had to throw it away.
We read MANY dinosaur books. Here are some of them (some do discuss evolution, especially the first. I just skipped those parts).
Another fun theme. Next we'll be learning about Autumn. It will most likely be another 2 week (or longer) theme. It's one of my favorites!
Linking up to:
Linking up to:
