Letter g, day 2

Theme:Garden

Sound
g says /g/

Sample Words
green, garden, grow, grass, grapes, gift, goat

Books
Tops and Bottoms, by Janet Stevens
The Carrot Seed, by Ruth Krauss

Sound/Movement
sing Apples and Bananas
sing Everything Grows, by Raffi


Craft
Grow green grass (this is perfect around Easter or spring)

You'll need:
wheat kernels
bowl
soil
ziploc bag
basket

Soak a heaping cup of wheat kernels in a bowl of water overnight. Line a basket (or a decorative bowl) with saran wrap and fill with soil. Soak the soil with water.


Spoon a thick layer of wheat onto the soil. Mist it with a little more water. Either place basket in a ziploc bag or wrap in plastic. Set in a warm place and leave the plastic on until most of the seeds have started to sprout grass. Remove plastic and mist daily if it looks too dry. Watch it grow!

Sensory Tub
Planting a garden-Put some potting soil in your sensory bin and add some small utensils such as a rake and shovel and some small pots. Add plastic plants, seeds (preferable larger seeds, such as beans or peas), popsicle sticks and whatever else you can think of. Have your child plant his/her own garden.




Dramatic Play
Add things like gardening apron, clogs, gardening hat, watering can, etc. to dramatic play area.

Handwriting
Practice writing the letter g.

Snack
grapes

Letter g, day 1

Theme: Goats (kind of an extention of farm week but moving from letter "f" to letter "g")

Sound
g says /g/

Sample Words
green, garden, grow, grass, grapes, gift, goat

Books
Gregory the Terrible Eater, by Mitchell Sharmat
G is For Goat, by Patricia Polacco
The Goat in the Rug, by Charles L. Blood (This is a great book used in some school curriculums. I could not find it at my local library but found it for a penny on amazon.com. It would make a great real-world connection for your child.)

Sound/Movement
Goats
Nanny goat, billy goat.
What do you say?
"Maa, maa", silly goats,
Run away!
~ Author Unknown

Craft
Make a goat out of a G from Totally Tots.

You'll need:
White and brown foam sheet/construction paper
Scissors
Pencil
Googly eye
Crayon
Glue



Sensory Tub
-green grass (easter grass) with plastic eggs


-if you have access to some sod, this would be fun to roll out in a shallow tub and have your child cut the grass
-Get a sample of sheep or goat wool and put it in the bin for your child to explore. You could also put in a comb and talk about how it's prepared for weaving.

Dramatic Play
-weave something out of wool

Handwriting
Practice writing the letter g.

Snack
grapes

Letter f, day 8 & Wrap-up

Theme: Farm

Sound
f says /f/

Sample Words farm, fence, finger, foot, food, four, fox, find, feather, fruit

Books
Choose any favorite books you've read from this theme.

Sound/Movement
Play Farmer, Farmer, What Do You See? (as you would Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See)using toy animals.

Craft
Put together your farm book, using the animal pictures you've collected over the past 7 days. Make a front page with a barn and title it Our Farm Book (or whatever you want really). Punch holes in it and tie it together. Read it together with your child.






(I know there is no chicken in here but my daughter has a real short attention span when it comes to coloring so this was what we got. If you want to put a little more into it, you could use toothpicks and make a fence on the horse page, add cotton to the sheep, and add dried corn to the chicken page.)

Sensory Bin
Fill a small bin with water and add plastic farm animals and a wash cloth. Let your child wash the farm animals.

Activity
-Do any activity that you haven't had the chance to do or pick a favorite and do it again.
-Use the farm animal clip art from day 1 and instead of matching up 2 pictures, have your child match up each picture with the first letter sound (ex: match picture of a pig with letter p)
-Make farm animals out of play dough



Snack/Lunch
Have a farmer's breakfast in a skillet: Make eggs and potatoes, with bacon and cheese.

Letter f, day 7

Theme: Farm
Mini theme: Horses and chickens

Sound
f says /f/

Sample Words farm, fence, finger, foot, food, four, fox, find, feather, fruit

Books
Chicken Little
The Cow That Laid An Egg, by Andy Cutbill
Cock-a-doodle-hoooooo!, by Mick Manning

Sound/Movement
Learn the sign for chicken and horse
Farm Songs and Fingerplays

Craft
-Make pom pom chicks

You'll need:
yellow pom poms
google eyes
orange paper, felt or foam paper
scissors
glue

Have your child glue 2 eyes on each pom pom. Draw feet and either cut them out yourself or have your child cut them out (depending on their scissor cutting skill). Then have your child glue the feet on the bottom of the pom pom. They may be used in dramatic play.

-Chicken and horse coloring pages-Go to google images and type in chicken/horse coloring page, then choose your favorite, print it and have your child color it. Save it for day 8 to make a book. On the top of the chicken paper, write chickens eat corn and/or lay eggs. On top of the horse paper, write horses eat grass (Or you can cut it out and paste it on another piece of paper. In that case, write on that paper.)

Sensory Bin
Counting corn

You'll need:
seed corn (you could substitute popcorn kernels)
dry erase marker
mini muffin tin

With a dry erase marker, write numbers in the cups of a mini muffin tin. Put the seed corn in either an empty muffin cup or in another container. Have your child count out the correct number of corn as they put it in the numbered cups.






You could also set out the pom pom chicks and have your child feed the corn to the chicks with the tweezers.




Activity
-Go feed a horse


Handwriting
Practice writing the letter f.

Snack
Egg in a hole

Get Your Grass On!

How to make REAL easter grass from wheat.
(I know we're breaking up farm week, but I had to throw this in here quick in time for Easter. Plus it goes along with our next theme.)

I'm a follower of Food Storage Made Easy on FB and they posted this the other day. So cute. If you do it now you'll have grass by easter.

1) Soak about 1/2 cup wheat kernels in water overnight.


2)Line your easter basket with plastic wrap and fill with soil. (I just grabbed a plastic Easter container instead of bothering with lining a basket-my kids are still little they don't care that much.)


3)Soak the soil with water.


4)Spoon a thick layer of wheat onto the soil.


5)Either wrap the basket/bowl in plastic or put it in a ziploc bag. Set in a warm place and leave the plastic on until most of the seeds have started to sprout grass. Remove plastic and mist daily if it looks dry.


6)Enjoy a basket of real grass in time for Easter.

Letter f, day 6

Theme: Farm
Mini theme: Ducks

Sound
f says /f/

Sample Words farm, fence, finger, foot, food, four, fox, find, feather, fruit

Books
Giggle, Giggle, Quack, by Doreen Cronin
Duck on a Bike, by David Shannon
One Duck Stuck, by Phyllis Root

Sound/Movement
Learn the sign for duck
Farm Songs and Fingerplays
5 Little Ducks (went out to play)
5 Little Ducks (that I once knew)
Duck, duck, goose

Craft
-Duck coloring page-Go to google images and type in duck coloring page, then choose your favorite, print it and have your child color it. Save it for day 8 to make a book. On the top of the paper, write ducks like water. (Or you can cut it out and paste it on another piece of paper. In that case, write on that paper.)

-Make a paper plate duck (from crayola.com)

You'll need:
orange paint
paint brush
2 paper plates
black marker
scissors

Paint one side of a large, plain paper plate and let dry. Paint the other side of the paper plate and let dry.

Fold the paper plate in half. This is your duck's bill.

Cut the second plate around the edge so it's a little smaller (or use a smaller plate). Fold it in half. Near the fold, draw your duck's large eyes.

Place the small plate so the eyes are centered above the big bill. Turn plates over and tape together where the fold lines meet.


Sensory Bin
Ducks in the water-fill your bin with water and add rubber duck bath toys. (If your kids are anything like mine, they'll love water no matter what you put in it!)



Dramatic Play
Go on a duck hunt. (You could make binoculars out of 2 toilet paper rolls and pretend around the house.)

Activity
Visit a neighborhood duck pond and feed the ducks.


Handwriting
Practice writing the letter f.

Snack
cheese and "quackers"

Letter f, day 5

Theme: Farm
Mini theme: Cows

Sound
f says /f/

Sample Words farm, fence, finger, foot, food, four, fox, find, feather, fruit

Books
Click, Clack, Moo: Cows That Type, by Doreen Cronin

Sound/Movement
Learn the sign for cow
Farm Songs and Fingerplays

Craft
Cow Coloring Page-Go to google images and type in cow coloring page, then choose your favorite, print it and have your child color it. Save it for day 8 to make a book. On the top of the paper, write cows give milk. (Or you can cut it out and paste it on another piece of paper. In that case, write on that paper.)

Sensory bin
Make a cow and other farm animals out of play dough. You could also use farm-themed dough stampers.

Activities
Bean bag toss-tie one or more large bells (cow bells) to a string and hang it at toddler level. Have your child toss bean bags at it to make it ring.



Milk the cow-fill a glove with water and tie the end. Hang it from a string and show your child how a cow is milked.



Visit a local farm with cows.

Handwriting
Practice writing the letter f.

Snack
Milk and cookies

Letter f, day 4

Theme: Farm
Mini theme: Pigs

Sound
f says /f/

Sample Words farm, fence, finger, foot, food, four, fox, find, feather, fruit

Books
If You Give A Pig A Pancake, by Laura Numeroff
If You Give A Pig A Party, by Laura Numeroff
The Three Little Pigs

Sound/Movement
Old McDonald Had A Farm
Learn the sign for pig
Farm Songs and Fingerplays

Craft
Make a pig puppet


Pig Coloring Page-Go to google images and type in pig coloring page, then choose your favorite, print it and have your child color it. Save it for day 8 to make a book. On the top of the paper, write Pigs like mud. (Or you can cut out the pig and paste it on another piece of paper. In that case, write on that paper.)

Sensory Bin
Pigs in the mud

You'll need:
a tray or cookie sheet
toy pigs
chocolate pudding

Pour some pudding out on a tray and either put the pigs in the pudding or put them next to the tray for your child to put in the pudding. Have them pretend to play with the pigs in the mud.

However, if you're not okay with this...

...I wouldn't recommend it. Boy did they have fun though!

Activity
Make pigs in a blanket

You'll need:
hot dogs mini hotdogs
crescent roll dough
cheese (optional)

If you're using regular hotdogs, roll out one crescent dough, put a slice of cheese on the widest part then roll the hot dog up in it. Repeat with remaining dough. For mini hot dogs, cut each crescent triangle into 2 triangles. Bake at 350 until golden brown, about 10-12 minutes.

Dramatic Play
Farm kitchen-put out supplies in the dramatic play area such as pie tins, rolling pin, cookie cutters, flour sifter, apron, etc.

Handwriting
Practice writing the letter "f".

Snack/lunch
Pigs in a blanket
chocolate pudding (mud)

Letter f, day 3

Theme: Farm
Mini theme: Sheep

Sound
f says /f/

Sample Words farm, fence, finger, foot, food, four, fox, find, feather, fruit

Books
Sheep in a Jeep, by Margot Apple
Farmer Brown Shears His Sheep: A Yarn About Wool, by Teri Sloat
Pictures of sheep

Sound/Movement
Mary Had a Little Lamb
Baa, Baa, Black Sheep
Move around the room like a lamb and baa
Learn the sign for farm and sheep
Farm Songs and Fingerplays

Craft
Make a hand print sheep

You will need:
black ink pad or black paint
paper
glue
cotton balls
marker

Rub your child's hand in the ink pad (or the paint) and make the hand print upside down on the paper. Allow to completely dry. Come back later and have your child glue on white cotton balls. (My child wanted to draw a face, hence the marker.)


Sheep coloring page-Go to google images and type in sheep coloring page, then choose your favorite, print it and have your child color it. Save it for day 8 to make a book. On the top of the paper, write sheep give us wool.

Sensory bin
-Pick up hay with tweezers and feed it to toy sheep.

-Pick up cotton balls with tongs and transfer them to different cups.




Activity
Go visit some sheep. We're lucky with our theme this week because we live on a small farm (not ours) and there happen to be sheep in our back yard. This week the ewes happened to start lambing and they were all getting sheared. We've had a lot to look at!





Make butter. Put some heavy cream in a clear glass or plastic jar and shake it until it starts to separate and form a solid. Pour the liquid off and keep shaking, then pour the liquid off again. Save for snack.


Dramatic Play
Use tinker toys to make a butter churn.

Handwriting
Practice writing the letter "f".

Snack
Homemade bread and butter

Letter f, day 2

Theme: Farm

Sound
f says /f/

Sample Words farm, fence, finger, foot, food, four, fox, find, feather, fruit

Books
Chicken Little, by Ed Emberly
Barnyard Dance, by Sandra Boynton

Sound/Movement
Old McDonald Had a Farm
Learn the sign for farm
Farm Songs and Fingerplays

Craft
Make a fence with the letter "f"

You'll need:

Have your child color the "f" then help them cut it out, if necessary.

Glue the barn on then use the strips of paper to make the fence. Glue the "f" on last.



Sensory Bin
Make the letter "f" in foam.

You will need:
shaving cream
zip top bag

Squirt some shaving cream into the bag, you don't need very much. Squeeze out as much air as you can then seal it. Have your child practice writing the letter "f" in the foam.

(This worked okay in the plastic bag. I think I will do it again tomorrow but bring out a cookie sheet and squirt the shaving cream on that. I know it's a bit more messy so it'll require more supervision.)

Dramatic Play
Provide dress-up clothes and other things for a farmer: overalls, rain boots suspenders, hat, pie tin, rolling pin, apron, bucket, shovel

Handwriting
Practice writing the letter f.

Snack
french fries