A Letter a Day...Mm!

Today's Letter...Mm! We read a book called, If You Give a Moose a Muffin by Laura Numeroff.
A great website that lists preschool read aloud books for every letter of the alphabet is: http://www.letteroftheweek.com/lotw_booklist.html We then did an activity with matching upper and lower case letters. You will need a few clothes pins. Print off the cards on cardstock from the link: http://www.makinglearningfun.com/themepages/MooseMuffinUpperLowerClipCards.htm This goes along with the story. I had to help my son with a lot of these letters, especially ones that do not look like the capital letter (for example G and g). He loved this and as long as you make it a game, it is more fun!
                                                 
We did our Do-A-Dot art with the letter Mm. He is getting better at keeping the stamps inside the dots! This is a great fine motor skill builder. View my previous posts for Do-a-Dot letter printables.

  Afterwards, we traced lines from lowercase letter m to capital letter M for fine motor skill building. You can find a ton of letter M activities as well as this printable at: http://www.1plus1plus1equals1.com/Letter_Mm_Printable_for_Toddlers.pdf

 Our next M activity was a hit! I used m&m printables from: http://www.confessionsofahomeschooler.com/blog/2009/11/prek-letter-m.html
My son had to complete the pattern using large m&m printables. Each time he got it right, he was rewarded with the real thing.

Our math activity was another m&m printable from the same link as above. He had to count the m&m's in the box and then find the numeral that matched the quantity. This is a wonderful one to one correspondence activity. I made him touch each m&m slowly and count out loud. Then, I put 4-5 numerals to the side for him to choose from. Great number recognition practice as well!

After nap time, we played Memory. This is such a fun classic!

A Letter a Day...Dd!

Today we woke up and went and grabbed donuts for breakfast! Afterwards, we talked about the shape of a diamond. I had my son practice tracing diamonds and then finding them in a hunt of many shapes. You can download the same activity here: http://www.kidslearningstation.com/shapes/worksheets/diamond-worksheet.pdf

Next, we read the story Dinosaur Roar by Paul and Henrietta Strickland. I bought a bunch of dinosaurs from the Target dollar aisle and we played with them, talked about their names, and then lined them up for largest to smallest. We made a dinosaur craft with the capital D to put in our alphabet book.

For snack we made "dirt" with chocolate pudding and crushed oreos. Click here for recipe: http://recipes.kaboose.com/dirt-cups.html  Then, we did an "I Spy" hunt with the letter Dd. You can download and print this I Spy page from: http://www.homeschoolcreations.net/2009/10/preschool-corner-all-about-letter-dd/

We discussed what a doctor is and why they are important. My son dressed up like a doctor and we made a "doctor bag". I pretended I was sick and had to "visit" him. He made me all better! :)

We did the Bible Lesson, "Daniel in the Lion's Den". We watched the cartoon on You Tube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=83A03DlUI5g We talked about how when we are scared we can say a prayer for protection. This has really helped with being afraid of the dark at bedtime.

 After nap time, we talked about money and why we use it. I showed my son a Dime and we talked about its shape, the details printed on the coin, and that it is 10 cents. My son doesn't understand the concept of money, however I think its beneficial to introduce the coins and identify their names. We counted dimes and then went to the convenient store and bought a piece of candy (Laffy Taffy) and payed for it using dimes! Later, I put a handful of coins on the table and had my son sort out the dimes.