Week two with dinosaurs

Since I teach full day, alternate day Kindergarten, my students either see me 2 or 3 times a week.  That really isn't enough time to get through everything there is to explore and discover with a theme or topic, so we usually do our themes for at least 2 weeks.  It was quite fitting learning about dinosaurs this past week since while we thought Spring was on its way, we felt like we were in the ice age!  We had a very bad ice storm.  The trees were frozen stiff and when the wind would blow it sounded like a bowl of Rice Krispies (Snap! Crackle! Pop!) only MUCH louder!  Well, it might have been blistering outside, but we were having fun learning inside.  Here are some more dinosaur activities we did this week.

This is our dinosaur pocket chart activity.  We practised writing our color words and reading with intonation (voice inflection goes up for a question and reads with excitement for an exclamation).

We graphed our favourite dinosaur and then wrote facts about them in our journals.

My favourite dinosaur is a Stegosaurus.  It has spikes on its back.

My favourite dinosaur is a Triceratops.  It has 3 horns.

My favourite dinosaur is a T-Rex.  It has Sharp teeth.

Here are our literacy centers for the week:

Making words.  We found little words within the big word 'Dinosaur' and recorded our findings.

Writing our CVC words.

Working with the blends br-, tr-, st-.

We reviewed our vowel sounds and found the middle vowel sound in the word.  I always sing this little song with the kids (it's from my daughter's Leapfrog Making Words DVD)

A-E-I-O-U

They're the vowels

They're the glue

They stick the words together

Stick the words together!

As a class we brainstormed Dinosaurs can, have, are...

and then the students used these words to personalize their own dinosaur with our finger-paint activity.

All the activities above are from my Dinosaurs Math and Literacy Activities.

We wrote our dinosaur words around our classroom.  This activity from my teaching partner, Alessia Albanese.

We had a special day when we were Paleontologists.  We had our own special hats and of course, we needed tools.  The kids had a blast 'digging' out bones (okay, they were chocolate chips) out of the ground (okay, it was out of a cookie).  Our tool was a popsicle stick (you could also use a toothpick).  They counted how many bones (chocolates) they found and recorded their answers.  Our Reading Buddies in Grade 3 helped us out with this activity.  Then we got to eat our cookies!  Mmmmm!

We stamped our dinosaur thematic words.  This activity is from my Dinosaurs Trace, Stamp, Color, Cut and Paste it.

I wish I could show pictures of what a great time the kids had, but our School Board does not allow that...so we we are (the teachers) having a great time!  Pictured below:  Mrs. Albanese, me (I'm not really that short...I'm squatting so you can see the cute paleontologist on the door!), and Ms. Bucci (student teacher).

Have a great week!