Dog's Colorful Day: Part 2

Fun with Dog: Math

One of our first math activities was to count Dog's spots.  Of course, in the book, he has 10...but we created a game in which we had to determine the number of spots by completing an addition problem.  We are learning and practicing the strategy of counting on, so this was the perfect opportunity to use that strategy.

The munchkins loved playing and adding the correct number of pom spots.



After playing the classroom version of this game, each munchkin made his or her own..complete with a bag full of poms to take home!

(or to play with during free time!)

We spent much of our math time during this unit working on different types of graphs. 

We graphed the favorite color of all our friends...

Which was the favorite?  We had way too many columns that were the same.

Of course, any munchkin knows that the math word for that is "equal".

We had some fun with a bag full of skittles Dog's spots, too.

Everyone sorted their colors, tallied them on the recording sheet and then transferred those tallies into a bar graph.

Now that graph had a bit more to analyze!

Probably the most fun, however, was the taste test!

All the munchkins had the chance to taste each skittle flavor and choose one favorite taste.

Everyone had to collect data from their friends and record it on a data sheet.





That data was then transferred to a graph, too.  It was a little harder to keep track of, but the munchkins did a great job!

And although this has nothing to do with math...

We ended with a fun visitor!

"Dog" himself...or at least his stand-in Otis!

Thanks for visiting, Otis.  We love you!

Until next time...

Giggles,

Mrs. D.

Dog's Colorful Day: Part One

Days With Dog

Word Fun

Our February unit based on the fun book, Dog's Colorful Day always has so much packed into it that I found it was hard this year to get it all into one post.  So I've decided to break it apart into two parts.  This one will focus on some of the literature activities that we did.  The next one will focus on math.

After reading the story, it was only natural to work with color words.  Well...my munchkins have been reading their color words since before Christmas, so that was hardly a challenge.  In order to step things up a notch, we decided it was time to start learning to spell them!  Dr. Jean's fun song, The Color Train, helped tremendously.  When you put anything to music, it is so much easier for munchkins to remember!

We made a little color word game, coloring colored cards and matching color words.  We used it as a matching game, but also as a self-checking game of spelling. 

The munchkins had fun playing it together and quizzing each other on how to spell each word.

We had a fun pocket chart poem about some colorful dogs, as well.  Many of the munchkins enjoyed reading it together during their free time...

The favorite part? 

The very last line had some fun nonsense words that were very fun to say!

We decided to create our own version of the dog in Emma Dodd's book, but we changed him up a just a bit.  We decided to give him spots of only one color.  We had to determine how many spots to give him as well. 

We had blue spotted dogs...

And yellow spotted dogs...

And gray spotted dogs...with only a couple of spots at that!

The munchkins then had to construct a sentence to go with their dogs.  The sentence could say anything they wanted, as long as it included a number word and a color word. 

What fantastic sentences we had when it was complete.  Many of the munchkins wrote questions:

Do you see my two red spots?

Do you like my five pink spots?

And others had statements:

This dog is white with three blue spots.

Some munchkins even combined two sentences:

It was a great way to practice all the words we are working so hard on lately.

And if that wasn't enough, to end our unit the munchkins each re-wrote the Dog's Colorful Day story in their own words, using what they know about beginning, middle and end.  

Wow!  I'd say that deserves a Dog's Colorful Day snack!

Yum...

Yes, those are Dog's spots (M & M's) on his white fur (vanilla pudding).

And it was a fun lesson in color mixing. 

What color do you get when you mix them all together?

Until next time...

Giggles,

Mrs. D.

Dog's Colorful Day Part 2

Some More Fun With Dog

As I am trying desperately to get myself caught up this month, I realized I have not posted the second part of our Dog's Colorful Day activities!  I guess in order to keep my posts in a proper chronology, I should take care of that now...before moving on to St. Patrick!

As our first post on this great story mentioned, we used Dog to have lots of fun.  The book lends itself so nicely to many different math and language activities, as well as offering a great opportunity to study color.  That is where we'll pick up with today's post.

The munchkins have been working very hard to learn to recognize the eight most common color words.  These past weeks, we've added the challenge of learning to spell them!  Dr. Jean has a fantastic CD with a neat little song called Color Train.  It puts the spelling of each color word to music in such a way that the munchkins learn them so quickly.  They have had a blast with it. 

And during this activity, it was fun to hear the tunes of all the little songs as the kids were working!

We created our own little Dog out of cut paper, placing spots of a certain color on him.  The munchkins could choose the color of (and how many) spots his or her dog would have.  After the dog was complete, each munchkin wrote a sentence describing the dog.  We used the sentences to play a riddle game, using the description to choose the correct dog.  It was fun!

But first we had to cut all Dog's pieces...

Then they had to be glued together...

Then the spots needed to be added...

There!  Finally done!

Then the munchkins got busy with their writing...practicing those color words of course!



What a great finished product! 

Can you believe what fantastic writing a six year old can do when they have the chance?

Well, our fun with Dog and with colors didn't stop there.  We took some time to explore the colors of the rainbow, discussing just a bit how those colors get there (with the help of a really cool prism!).  We read several books about the different colors and what happens when they are mixed together, too.  So, of course, we had to try mixing colors ourselves.

And we didn't want to forget about one last math activity that just couldn't be missed.  We graphed Dog's spots! 

Each munchkins received a bag full of skittles spots. 

First they needed to be sorted...

Then the munchkins created a tally graph for each color...

And then the tallies were transferred into a bar graph.

Finished! 

Then, to add to the graphing fun, we had a skittle spot taste test!  Each munchkin tried one spot of each color.  After choosing one flavor as a favorite, the munchkins had to collect data from each friend in order to see what their favorite flavors were.  The data was then recorded on a special recording sheet.

As everyone worked, there was a wonderful little "hum" all throughout the classroom!

 

Then the data was transferred to a graph.

Of course, we discussed and analyzed the results.  No one in our class liked the orange spots!  But interestingly enough, I don't think they were tossed aside when it came to eating the rest of the spots in our baggies!

Well, you may think that was all there was to do with our spotted Dog, but...never fear.  We still had more!

Our last major activity focused on story structure and remembering that all stories have to have a beginning, a middle and an end.  Of course, those three parts have to go in the right order for the story to make sense.  So it was up to the munchkins to decided how to re-write the story of Dog using just three sentences that would tell the beginning, the middle and the end in an orderly way. 

Very nicely done!

All that hard work deserves a doggie treat!

Farewell, Dog!

Until next time...

Giggles,

Mrs. D.