This week's theme was so much fun! At the end of each week I let Ellie pick what she wants to study the following week. She chose to study dinosaurs and I was thrilled because there are just so many things you can do! Read on to see what dinosaur activities we did this week!
MONDAY
We started off this week by activating our prior knowledge about dinosaurs. I cut out a dinosaur with my Cricut Explore Air 2 and created a KWL chart (K-what I know, W-what I want to know, L-what I learned). Ellie and I had a discussion about what she knew or what she thought she knew about dinosaurs. I explained that sometimes we think we know something, but then find out we were wrong...and that's ok!
After that, Ellie decorated the cover page of her dinosaur journal. Every week the girls have a journal where they glue all their work in. I staple three large pieces of construction paper together and that seems to be a perfect amount of page. It's nice to have in all in one place and it's fun to go back and see what we did!
Shortly after Ellie finished her cover, she scurried away to her room and emerged with one of her dinosaur books. She was excited and ready to dive right in. We just browsed through the book and wrote wrote some notes down on sticky notes...things that were interesting, things that we learned, etc.
After a trip to Goodwill, lunch, and playing outside, we got back to work! I created a hand writing worksheet with the word "dinosaur". Each day this week she had to trace the word and then write it herself. This simple activity was two fold: one, she was working on her hand writing (obviously), second, she was writing and seeing the "dinosaur" many times. I was hoping that this would help her to remember the word and be able to read it and identify it. The she traces and practices her handwriting, I usually let her choose whatever writing instrument she wants. It makes her feel like she has control and it makes it more fun!
After that, we worked on graphing dinosaurs. We used this worksheet. Ellie assigned each icon a color in the graph. Then she colored the corresponding pictures the same color. She then colored in the correct number of boxes in the graph by each icon. Lastly, we analyzed the graph. I asked her questions like,
-Which dinosaur did you see the most? How do you know?
-Which dinosaur did you see the leas? How do you know?
Lastly, Ellie played a dinosaur game on the iPad.
TUESDAY
Tuesday was a little a lighter day, school wise. Our big learning activity today was a dinosaur dig. I gathered up our supplies: toy dinosaurs, paint brushes, string, shovels, and a large tub. We headed out to a local park that has a great sand pit. The girls helped me fill the tub with sand and helped me bury the toy dinosaurs. I then created a grid over the tub with sting and explained to Ellie that she was going to be a paleontologist today and was going to dig for dinosaurs. We discuss why paleontologists uses girds when digging for bones. It helps them keep track of their findings. The girls had a blast carefully digging out the dinosaurs and brushing them off with their paintbrushes.
This is a great pack of little dinosaur figurines. You get 12 little dinosaurs for $8.99!
(affiliate link)
Before dinner we sat down to complete a quick writing activity. I found some dinosaur stickers at Dollar Tree. Ellie chose four stickers and we completed the sentence "This Dinosaur has____" for each sticker. We talked about what a sentence is, how it starts with a capital letter, and how it ends with a period. It took a little bit of bribing and help, but we got through it.
WEDNESDAY
It was a beautiful day so we took a trip to the Milwaukee County Zoo to see them dinosaur exhibit! The exhibit was awesome! The dinosaur replicas were amazing and interesting. Layla totally loved them! Ellie, however, didn't really dig it too much. Poor Ellie got overwhelmed by their sizes and all the noises they were making. We got through it and had a great time at the zoo!
Click the pictures to see our adventure at the zoo!
When we got home we were surprised to see our order of dinosaur skeletons from Amazon arrived! You guys, these are SO SO COOL! For under $5, you get 12 dinosaur skeleton figurines!
Affilate link below
THURSDAY
On Thursday we worked on some sight words. Ellie has a list of about 22 sight words she knows/almost knows. There were a few that she kept getting stuck on so I created a worksheet for her to complete. She had to color the words, stamp the words, and write the word. Since it was dinosaur week I slapped a few dinosaur stickers on!
Meanwhile, Layla worked on a booklet I printed from online. You can find it here. We read each page, counted the dinosaurs and identified the color it should be.
After all that hard work, we went outside to be paleontologists again! I found these little excavation kits at the Dollar Tree. They had gems inside and not dinosaurs, but I explained to Ellie that scientists have to work carefully at getting whatever it is out, otherwise you risk breaking it. The girls had a blast using their tools to get the gem (or pretend dinosaur) out.
After breaking apart our excavation kit, we realized that the material acted like chalk! I wrote some of Ellie's sight words on the driveway and we read them! Then I created a little jumping activity with her words as well. Layla worked on her letter recognition.
FRIDAY
Dad was off on Friday, so I created some sub plans for him to do with the girls while I was out. Ellie constructed some paper dinosaurs and glued them into her journal while Layla worked on writing letters and numbers on a white board.
After lunch, the girls and dad went for a hike and they had an absolute BLAST. They say tons of wildlife, saw some small waterfalls, and played as they hiked. They even brought their little dinosaur skeletons. (Dad's way of incorporating dinosaurs into the hike. I think it was a great idea!)
Click on the pictures to see their adventure!
Later, while dad cooked dinner, Layla and I played a shape and color memory game. That sweet girl had so much fun having learning time with mommy. She was begging for more, so we also worked on a worksheet from a workbook I got at Dollar Tree.
SATURDAY
We took a trip to our public library to check out their book sale. Oh...my...gosh! I let each girl fill an entire bag with books to take home. (It was $5 per bag of books! You can't go wrong with that!) Ellie was in heaven. She found all sorts of exciting books, including a few by Eric Carle. She is able to recognize his work now, and she is very excited and proud of it! When we got home we dumped them out and I gave them cleaning wipes to wipe them down. Then they organized their books and read and read and read.
SUNDAY
Here's the thing. I didn't plan on doing any school work today, but when the opportunity presents itself and the kids want to, I DO IT! Ellie read some of her sight words with her new pointer (Dollar Tree again!).
Then she completed a dinosaur matching activity that she glued in her book. You can find this activity here. After she was done, we went back and looked at all the work she did this week.
Meanwhile, Layla was working on writing her numbers and letters on her whiteboard.
In between all these activities everyday there also is reading...lots and lots of reading. The best thing is is that it's usually kid initiated. I'm so lucky to have kids that love books!
Well, that about wraps up our busy dinosaur week! We had a great time with this theme and learned a lot! Next week is going to be.......OCEAN ANIMALS!
I hope you found some activities that you can do with your kiddos and don't forget to stop by again next week to see our new activities!
Check out our apple theme week!
Check out our first week of homeschool!
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