The Mom I Want to Be

The Letter D is a generally reliable letter.  It usually makes the “duh” sound as in dog or sad.  

D sometimes makes the /t/ sound (especially when it is the suffix “ed” as in kissed)

When combined with another consonant, especially the letter “g”, a grapheme is formed which sounds like /j/  (as in ledger)

1. Present a capital and lower case D to your child.

2. Read How Do Dinosaurs Say Goodnight?

3. Create a D bag with items from around the house, such as a dinosaur, dog, drum, dice, dish, doll, diaper, doughnut, daisy, dump truck, etc

4. Create a D collage, searching through magazines for words that start with the letter D to add to your alphabet book.

5. Provide a large cut out “D”, taped to a sheet of waxed paper for easier cleanup.  Provide bingo dauber style paints and allow your child to cover the D with dots.  If daubers are not available, dip cotton balls into paint, or use water color paints with eyedroppers or sticker circles from the office supply section of your local store.  When dry, glue to an 8.5 x 11″ piece of paper and add to your alphabet book.

6. Provide a worksheet with D’s for tracing across the top, a cut out dinosaur body and head, a brass fastener, markers and a glue stick.  Punch a hole in the body and neck of the dinosaur and show your child how to connect them using the brass fastener.  Encourage your child to decorate the paper with the dinosaurs home (ground, caves, trees, etc) and to decorate the dinosaur.  Have your child glue the dinosaur body to the paper, reminding them not to glue the head so it can move up and down.

7. Other activities:  Have a doughnut at snack time (or make them!) or play the drums

Diamond-shaped snacks
Dirt Cups For Kids Dirt Cups For Kids

Dinosaur Sandwiches

The Letter C is an unreliable, redundant letter.  It either makes the /k/ sound as in cat or the /s/ sound as in celery.  It is considered redundant because it doesn’t make a unique sound.

The Letter C is part of the /ch/ digraph as in chicken

When C is followed by ‘e’ or ‘i’ it often has the soft sound (as in celery). 

 

1.Present capitol and lower case C and see if your child knows what letter it is.  Explain how, like an A, it has different sounds depending on the word it is in.  The focus of this activity is on just one sound — the hard /k/ sound.  Give examples of words, like cat, carrot and camera.

2. Read The Very Hungry Caterpillar

3. Create a C Bag with items from around the house like corn, can, coffee, crayon, crown, comb, carrot, cake, car, candle, camera, etc.

4. Create a C collage.  Search through magazines for words that start with the letter C and glue them to paper.

5. Provide a large cutout “C”, taped to waxed paper for easier cleanup.  Provide paint in shallow paper plates and dry ears of corn.  Show your child how to roll the corn in paint and then over the “C’ shape to make corn prints.  When dry, glue the C to a piece of paper for thier alphabet book. 

6. Provide a worksheet with C’s for tracing across the top.  Provide a rectangle of aluminum foil to fit below the C line, 6 white circles cut from construction paper, markers and a glue stick.  Have your child glue down the foil as a cookie sheet, decorate the cookies and then attach them to the foil.

7. Other Activities: Snack on carrots, Play “who took the cookie from the cookie jar”, make collages with different materials, use clothespins to sort small objects, talk about cars

Circle-shaped snacks
Carrots with ranch dip
Caterpillar Sandwiches Caterpillar Sandwiches
Dried cranberries
Fruit Critters with Peanut Butter Yogurt Dip Fruit Critters with Peanut Butter Yogurt Dip
Cool Chicken Cones Cool Chicken Cones
Banana Caterpillars

The letter B is a dependable letter.  It usually makes the “buh” sound as in bat.

However, it is sometimes silent (as in doubt or lamb).  The rule for remembering this is that when b comes BEFORE T or AFTER M in the same syllable, it is silent.  This is too advanced for kindergarten students just learning to associate the sounds with the letters.  Therefore, until the children have mastered the “typical” letter b sound, try to stay away from using words such as doubt or lamb when teaching the letter b.

 

1. Present a capitol and lower case B to your child.  See if he knows the name of the letter or the sound that it makes. Give examples of words, such as ball, balloon, bubbles, etc.  Try blowing pretend bubbles whie making the B-B-B-B-B sound.  Encourage your child to come up with other words that start with B.

2. Read Drawing Lessons from a Bear

3. Create a B Bag with items around the house such as bear, balls, balloon, block, banana, bread, book, bubbles, buttons, beans, etc

4. Create a B Collage, search through magazines for words that start with the letter “B” and glue them down.

5. Provide a large cutout “B”, taped to a sheet of waxed paper for easier cleanup.  Select 2 or 3 paint colors and place a small amount on a shallow paper plate.  Quarter sized dollops that are close together will allow them to mix while being applied.  Provide an inflated balloon to your child and encourage him to bounce the balloon in a color, and then onto the “B” shape to make balloon prints.  Once the balloon print dries, glue it to a sheet of paper for thier alphabet book.

6. Provide a worksheet with B’s for tracing across the top and a blank space below.  Cut out balloon shapes from construction paper and give that and some small pieces of string to your child.  They can glue the balloon shapes and string to the page to make balloons.  If you like, they can prepare the background before gluing, coloring the sky, adding clouds, etc.

7. Other Activities: Sing “Bingo”, play with balls, blow bubbles, use straws to blow paint on paper, bake banana bread

Bananas
Blueberries or other berries
Butterscotch pudding
Apple Butterflies Apple Butterflies
Bumble Bee’s Bumble Bee’s
Pretzel Butterflies Pretzel Butterflies
Brownies
Bears (Teddy Grahams)
Fruit Critters with Peanut Butter Yogurt Dip Fruit Critters with Peanut Butter Yogurt Dip (call them bugs and dip)
Banana Caterpillars

1. Draw a letter A to show your child.  Introduce the idea that an A makes different sounds when it is in a word.  One sound is the name of the letter — see if your child can come up with any examples of words that start with that sound, such as apron, acorn, April, ace, etc.  Next ask if they know another sound an A can make.  Give examples of the words that start with the short a sound, such as apple, alligator, ambulence, etc.

2. Read Imogene’s Antlers

3. Prepare an “A” bag with items from around the house.  Consider apples, alligator, ambulence, aprone, airplane, ant, acorn, etc

4. Create an “A” collage — search through magazines for words that start with the letter “A” and glue them down.

5. Make apple print A’s.  Provide a pattern cut into the shape of an A (taping it to waxed paper will help with clean up).  Prepare a small amount of yellow, green and red paint in shallow paper plates.  Using a plastic knife, help yourchild cut an apple into thick slices, horizontally, across the core.  Show him how to dip an apple slice into the paint and make a print on the paper.  When the paint dries, glue the A to sheet of 8.5×11″ paper for placing in thier alphabet book.

6. Prepare a worksheet with A’s for tracing across the top and a large apple shape below.  Provide fat pencils or markers so they can practice thier A’s.  Offer bits of red, green and yellow construction paper and a glue stick to create a paper collage apple.  For the youngest children who might have trouble with glue sticks, you can offer colored “dots” from office supply instead.

7. Offer a number of different apple items to try — apple slices, applesauce, apple butter, apple vinegar, apple pie, etc.  Have your kidlet prepare a simple chart to record which they liked and which they did not.

8. Sing “The Ants go Marching”, pretend to be ants crawling around to music.

Apples
Ants on a log Ants on a Log
Apple Bites Apple Bites
Apple Cartwheels Apple Cartwheels
Aquarium Cups Aquarium Cups
Jello Aquariums Jello Aquariums
Applesauce cups
Apple Cheese Bites Apple Cheese Bites
Animal Pawprint Cookies

Old MacDonald Had a Woodshop, by Lisa Shulman. Old MacDonald is building a surprise for the young animals on the farm. With a zztt zztt here, and a tap tap there, the other animals join Old MacDonald in using the many tools in her woodshop. At the end, they surprise the little ones with a miniature toy farm—just like the one where they live!

 

 

Classifying Tools

 

Have children identify the woodworking tools in the book. Ask them to find tools that are used for other activities (the paintbrush, the mouse’s broom, and Old MacDonald’s artist tools). Provide children with old magazines and scissors. Have them find and cut out pictures of different tools. Help them group the tools according to the type of activity for which they’re used, for example, cleaning tools, gardening tools, cooking tools, etc. Paste the pictures on a large piece of paper, and label each group.

 

 

Choral Singing

 

 Invite children to sing the story with you. Have them add the following hand motions to accompany the sounds the tools make.

 

…in her shop she had a saw…with a zztt zztt here…

(Bend arm at elbow and make sawing motions.)

…in her shop she had a drill…with a rurr rurr here…

(Make a fist with one hand as if holding a hand drill, and pantomime turning the drill handle with the other hand.)

…in her shop she had a hammer…with a tap tap here…

(Pretend to hold a hammer and tap it gently in the air.)

…in her shop she had a chisel…with a chip chip here…

(Hold index and middle finger of one hand together, and tap that hand with the opposite fist.)

…in her shop she had a file…with a scritch scratch here…

(Rub hands together.)

…in her shop she had a screwdriver…with a squeak squeak here…

(Point index finger straight ahead and turn it from side to side.)

…in her shop she had a paintbrush…with a swish swash here…

(Make painting motion with one hand, back and forth along the opposite arm.)

 

 

Make Up a Song

 

Create your own Old MacDonald song by changing the setting, for example: Old MacDonald had a School (or a restaurant, or a zoo, etc.). Ask children to think of animals, people, or things that would belong in that setting, and the sounds they would make. Write the group song on chart paper, and sing it together.

 

 

Fun with Onomatopoeia

 

Onomatopoeic words sound like the things they describe. Ask children to identify these words in the book. Then have them listen as you make different sounds, for example, by dropping a book, tearing a piece of paper, pouring water, etc. Invite children to create their own onomatopoeic words to describe the sounds they hear.

 

Additional Theme Related Literature:

 

A Day With a Carpenter, Joanne Williams

Harvey the Carpenter, Lars Klinting

How a House is Built, Gail Gibbons

My Little Red Toolbox, Stephen T. Johnson

Tool Book, Gail Gibbons

Toolbox, Anne Rockwell

Tools, Gallimard Jeuness & Claude Delafosse

Tools, Anne Morris

Workshop, Andrew Clements

 

Additional Theme Related Activies

 

Math Center—Give the students a page with 5-10 objects around the room to measure with a tape measure. They can record their answers on the sheet.

 

Literacy Center—Collect styrofoam blocks from families. Children can use golf tees to pound in letter shapes.

 

Social Studies – Have a carpenter or home builder visit your classroom to talk about tools they use, safety, etc.

 

Take a field trip to a local hardware, home improvement store, or your local high school shop room.

 

Fine Motor—Have students use pliers to pick up small objects—nuts, washers, screws. Children can sort these into separate containers or jars to reinforce sorting.

 

Art—Use an old shoebox or Kleenex box to create a toolbox. Add a handle on the top with a pipe cleaner and use brads to make a hook that closes with a pipe cleaner. An adult will have to tape the back of a shoebox or cut a slit on three sides of the Kleenex box. The kids can paint the boxes red.

 

Memory Game—Use the Tool cards to make a tool memory game.

 

Woody Wood Dough—Use the recipe to make a new type of dough.

Get some scrap lumber to practice sanding and staining (used diluted brown paint and paper towels).

 

Woody Wood Dough

 

1 cup clean, well-sifted sawdust

1/2 cup flour

1 Tbs. liquid starch

1 cup water

 

Mix ingredients together in bowl until stiff dough is formed. Add extra water if dough is too dry. Allow Woody Wood Dough to dry 2 to 3 days. Sandpaper can be used to smooth Woody Wood Dough after it’s completely dry. Tips: Press Woody Wood Dough into cookie cutters and candy molds to create paperweights, beads and ornaments.

Magical Snowmen

 

1 white candlestick

1 piece of watercolor white paper

Watercolor paints

Paint brushes

 

Begin by drawing a picture of a snowman using the bottom of the candlestick (not the top with the wick).  The picture of the snowman will not be seen until you paint over it with the watercolor paints.  Once the snowman is drawn, use a paint brush to spread the watercolor paint over the entire piece of paper.  The watercolor paints will not adhere to the parts where the snowman was drawn using the candlestick.  When the entire piece of paper is painted using the watercolor paints, the magical picture of the snowman will appear!

 

 

Create a snowman with 3 doilies, or 3 boxes covered in white paper.

 

 

Create a snowman suncatcher using white paper, clear contact paper, and silver, white and blue items.

 

 

Make an edible snowman with three refrigerated biscuits placed on top of each other on a sheet of foil like a snowman. Have her use pretzel sticks and raisins for the snowman’s arms, eyes, nose, mouth, and buttons. Place the foil on a baking sheet and bake as directed. Serve with butter or honey. Enjoy these warm snowmen on a cold winter’s day!

Sock Snowman

 

Put a jar lid in the toe of a sock.  Crumple newspaper into three balls. Put the largest one in the sock on top of the lid. Tie string around the sock above the ball. Add the other balls, tying string above each one.  Cut off the rest of the sock above the last piece of string.  To make a hat brim, trace around a water glass onto paper. Cut out the circle.  Set an empty film canister in the center of the circle and trace around it. Cut out the small circle to form a ring.  Slide the paper ring over the canister and tape it in place. Glue the hat over the cut end of the sock.  Glue on button eyes and buttons on the body.  For a scarf, tie a fabric strip around the neck. Place twig arms under it.  Glue on a sequin mouth. Glue on a button nose.

 

 

Surprising Snowman

 

 Each of your youngsters can make a handsome snowman with–of all things–balloon imprints. To begin, inflate a balloon to about four inches in diameter, and knot the end. Partially fill a shallow pan with white tempera paint. Dip the balloon into the paint; then press it three times onto a sheet of construction paper, re-dipping between presses. For the large circle, press down on the balloon firmly. For the medium circle, press down less hard, and for the small circle, press down lightly. Use a Q-tip or paintbrush and different colors of tempera paint to add facial features and twig-like arms. Glue on pieces of colorful cereal for the snowman’s buttons. Top off this marvelous creation with a hat and a scarf cut from felt or gift wrap.

 

 

1 C. salt

1/2 C. flour

3/4 C. water

Large bowl 

Mixing spoon 

Crayons

Light-blue construction paper

Paintbrushes 

 

Make “snow” by mixing salt, flour, and water in a large bowl. Invite student  to use crayons to draw a winter scene on light-blue construction paper. Have students paint “snow” over their pictures using long brush strokes. (Ask students to apply only a thin layer. The snow will not show up until the mixture has dried.)

You need unbaked tube biscuits, bird seed and yarn.  I gave each child one biscuit.  They took a straw and put a hole through the top of the biscuit(for the hanger).  They took the bird seed and pushed it into the biscuit on each side.  The cooks at our school baked them for us.  They used the yarn to make a hanger by putting it through the hole.  Each child then had something to take home and feed the birds.  To make sure each child had their own I put the biscuits on aluminum foil and wrote their names on the foil with permanent marker