Transportation, Dinosaurs and Wild Wild West

Hi There,
Over the past three weeks we have been talking about some wonderful topics and I just want to highlight some of the things that your child has had the opportunity to experience here at school. Thank you to so many of you for coming in to read to the class. It has been wonderful to have so many readers.

Art
Transportation:
I showed the children some maps and we talked about the different parts and colors of a map. For art we taped laminated maps to the table and the children rolled plastic vehicles in paint over the maps. The children also made their own Red Light Green Light game to play at home. Each child had two white circles. They colored one red and one green, taped a craft stick to the circles and then went outside to play the game.
Dinosaurs:
The children had fun creating a dinosaur. Each child picked out one dinosaur to decorate. They had various colors and types to choose from. The glued on feathers, tissue, buttons, wiggle eyes and various other items including glitter. Oh how children LOVE glitter!!! Some of the dinosaurs are VERY glittery . The children also made volcanoes by gluing red and orange strips of tissue paper to their volcano. For more dinosaur activities to do with your child at home here are some of my dinosaur related videos.
Wild Wild West:
We talked about horses and cowboys/girls and so for art the children decorated horses with wiggly eyes, brown felt and yarn.

Dramatizations
Transportation:
I set chairs up in the classroom in rows to resemble a bus with an isle down the middle. I was the bus driver and had the children line up and give me their pretend money to get onto the bus. They choose a seat on the bus and we sang The Wheels on the Bus as we acted out being on a bus.
Dinosaurs:
We talked about paleontologists and so we went on a dino dig and pretended to be paleontologists looking for dinosaur bones. We hid them in the sand box and we went out with magnifying glasses and brushes to look for a bone. It was fun to watch the children look for a bone and use their magnifying glasses. They took their job very serious.

Games
Transportation:
We played Red Light, Green Light and what a hit that was! We talked about what a traffic light is and how drivers in cars need to obey the colors on the light when they change. We went outside on the grass and the children lined up in their cars and watched the colors I held up. I had a red circle and a green circle and I hide them behind my back. When I held up the green circle the children drove their cars by walking across the grass and when I held up the red circle they had to stop. They did a good job at paying attention to the colors and then lining up to play again. For more transportation activities to do with your child at home here are some of my transportation idea videos.