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.

Chicago Opera House

Presenting..."CinderHood"

We were honored to have a home-town native who is now a member of the Chicago Opera House visit us for a fabulous presentation of their original children's production of "CinderHood"... the wacky, interactive story of Cinderella that is "briefly interrupted" by Little Red Riding Hood.

The munchkins loved it!

And they loved being able to have their photo taken after the performance with the cast.

Until next time...

Giggles,

Mrs. D.

Grandparents' Day

Entertaining Someone Special

We so enjoy having a day set aside when all our special VIPs can come visit our school, see what kindergarten is all about and have a chance to enjoy a snack together.  It's always a very special morning full of fun and love!

This year was no exception.

We showed Grandma our daily writing board...



And read with her in the Reading Center...

We showed Grandpa our writing journals, being sure to read him every page!

And read the pocket chart poem with the whole clan!

We showed off all our Montessori trays...

We also posed for pictures, just for fun...

And we even spent some time with Mommy, if Grandma & Grandpa couldn't come...

Thanks so much for visiting everyone!

Until next time...

Giggles,

Mrs. D.

Our Lady of Lourdes

I Am the Immaculate Conception

During February, we take a day to celebrate Our Lady and learn all about the little girl, Bernadette, who was so beautifully blessed with visions of Mary at Lourdes.  I was excited this year to be able to show the munchkins some Holy

Water from Lourdes, as my niece made a pilgrimage there recently.

We read the story of Bernadette and created some fun projects to help us remember this feast day...

This one is a little stick grotto with blue jewels for the spring and a lovely holy card of Mary and Bernadette.

And this one was a paper grotto with an image of Mary that the munchkins colored themselves, using the statue of Our Lady of Lourdes from our Atrium as a model (right down to the yellow roses on her feet!).

We decided to write in our journals about Mary and Bernadette this year and the entries were wonderful.  The illustrations were just a beautiful!

I love the detail!

Some of the munchkins continued to think about Bernadette and Mary during their free time at centers too...

This is the first time I've seen a Marian grotto created from pattern blocks at the math center!  Very creative and so inspired!

Do you see Mary?

Our snack for this special day was lots of fun too (especially those that actually stayed standing!)

Like these...

Our Lady of Lourdes, Pray for us!

Until next time...

Giggles,

Mrs. D.