D Week- Dinosaur Matching Cards

I found these cool dinosaur head and tail matching cards from the 1+1+1=1 Dinosaur Tot Pack. I printed them out, colored them, then laminated them for durability.

This activity is a good twist on the matching games we have already done (football and Thomas) and is definitely more of a challenge. Finding heads and tails that match didn't come as easily as finding two trains or two football team logos that are the same. Trip didn't quite get it yet, but he tried and we had some fun making some funny dinosaurs as well.

D Week- Dinosaur Feet

I saw the idea for dinosaur feet made out of tissue boxes on Pinterest and loved it. Fortunately, we emptied two tissue boxes just before I was going to do this project so I was all set. I had hoped that Trip would help me glue tissue paper to the boxes, but he wasn't interested at all, so I did it myself.

To get started, I cut up two sheets of green tissue paper and watered down some white glue. I also taped around the opening in each box to provide a little more strength. It helps if you leave the plastic in the box, but if you take it out (like I did on one of them without thinking), you can always glue some more plastic in its place (I used a small piece of a trash bag but a food storage bag or grocery bag would work too). Having the plastic and it being reinforced with packing or duct tape helps your child keep his or her feet in the box. 

I started gluing on the tissue paper, using lots of glue and overlapping the pieces. After one layer, you could definitely still see the printing on the box. I wasn't too worried about it, but if you don't want to see what's on the box, you might consider covering it in paint or a thicker paper.

After another layer, the printing was mostly covered.

Once my boxes were dry, I cut up a large kitchen sponge to make the claws. I cut the sponge in half and then got three large and two small triangles out of each of the two pieces.

I used the larger triangles for the front claws and stuck two of the smaller ones together to make the back claw.

Trip's reaction to these dinosaur feet was interesting. They sat on the table almost the whole week and he would have nothing to do with them. Daddy and I each tried to get him to put them on and both times it ended in him falling to the floor and crying just at the suggestion. Then, during the weekend, he suddenly wanted to try them on. We put them on his feet and he tromped all over the house roaring and having a great time.

As Trip tried them out, we discovered that they are a little slick on our carpet, so I added a few lines of hot glue to the bottom of each box to provide some traction.

I was glad that this project didn't turn out to be a flop and that Trip realized how fun some new feet could be.




I'm linking up with:

D Week- Sensory Tub

When I don't have many objects that start with our letter of the week, I have found that a sensory tub with water beads is a good way to go. The water beads are so much fun in and of themselves that they don't need too many things added to them. I collected Trip's dinosaurs, dog, a few ducks, and some foam Ds to add to the orange water beads we used for our Halloween tub.

Trip especially enjoyed the dinosaurs (which he calls "dinafriends" for some reason). They had to fight,

swim,

and RAAAARRRR!

D Week- The List

Daddy has been waiting for "D for Daddy" week for a quite some time now. He was excited to do some fun things with Trip. Although there aren't that many words that start with D (making my list pretty short), there are some good ones, namely dinosaur, duck, and dog.

Our D week fun included:

• a D object sensory tub
• dinosaur feet
• a dinosaur matching game
• our ducky family
• making a dump cake with Daddy

L Week- Painted Leaves

Trip spontaneously wanted to paint one afternoon, so we got out the finger paints and he went to town.

Once the paint was dry, I used cookie cutters to trace leaves on the back of the paper and cut them out.

I ended up laminating the leaves because I had room in a laminating pouch I was using for something else. I then taped them on a string to make a fun bunting to hang on our sliding glass door. It's a nice new way to display Trip's artwork.

L Week- Light Box Coloring

This light box lives under our guest bed and I rarely have a reason to use it. It sure does come in handy when I want to trace something or do some stencil embossing, but I don't do those often. L week prompted me to get it out and figure out a way that I could use it with Trip. I printed a Lightning McQueen coloring page, taped it on the light box, got out some red crayons, and turned on the light. Trip wasn't so sure about it at first, but he soon realized that it was a fun twist on coloring.

 (Sorry for the poor quality pictures- my camera did not like the light box. By the way, it's not actually as bright as it appears in the first picture.)

 

The activity didn't last long, but Trip did ask to turn it on again the next day, so I guess he liked it. I'm hoping to come up with some other ways to use this light box in the future. Any suggestions?

L Week- Lion Lunch

As I plan the activities for each week, I usually do a Google Images search for snacks or lunches that that fit with our letter. For L week, I searched for "lion snacks for kids" and came up with some fun options. I especially liked this one and this one. I find it helpful to have a little inspiration and then I can make it my own.

I used pasta for the mane since Trip loves it in any form. Our lion had a bread and peanut butter face with mini marshmallow and mini chocolate chip eyes, a carrot nose and whiskers, and a mini chocolate chip mouth.

At first, I just made the face, but then when I was adding some carrot sticks to the plate, I realized that they made a good body.

Trip was thrilled with this lunch and ate everything but the bread after he spent a few minutes roaring at it, that is.