BIG D, little d, what begins with D?

This last week was my turn to teach for our preschool co-op group on Tuesday and Thursday. We are following the letter of the week curriculum and my letter was D. Plus I was given the five senses to cover, going along with our monthly theme, All About Me.

I was a little nervous, not quite knowing what to expect, but I have to say it wasn't that bad!!! Six preschoolers (plus a busy toddler) can be a little crazy, but as long as I kept them busy, we were good!

I'm gonna back up a sec and post some pictures of our very first preschool field trip, to
Krispy Kreme Doughnuts, which so nicely went right along with the letter of the week. :) We got to get a behind the scenes peek at the doughnut production process then had a treat afterward.
So on Tuesday, I introduced the letter D, we sang "Do as I'm Doing" and Five Little Ducks," I read Go, Dog, Go & Dinousaur Dinosaur. We practiced writing the letter D at the table and put together a little paper booklet about things that started with the letter D. For our craft, we made Dog-ear headbands, which also went along with our hearing segment.

After our snack, we talked about the senses of sight, hearing and touch. I read Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? We looked at things with magnifying glasses, listened to different sounds while blindfolded, and touched different textures. I had a mystery box that had an object inside that each child had to guess what it was just by touching it. We wrapped things up that day by playing Duck, Duck, Goose.

On Thursday, we were wild about Dinosaurs!!! We reviewed the sound D makes, how to make a D in sign language, then I read How Do Dinosaurs Say Goodnight? & Danny and the Dinosaur. We moved to the table for practicing our letter Ds, did some beautimous dot art with the letter D. Outside, the kids became jr. paleontologists while Digging for Dinos! Our snack for the day was a dino-shaped sugar cookie and a {dino} bone-shaped Jello jiggler. Next, we started our awesome dinsosaur skeleton pasta craft, which the kids loved.

Near the end of our time that day, we shifted gears a bit and finished up our senses by talking about taste and smell. I was mean and had the kids see if they could taste the difference between sugar & salt, vanilla yogurt & sour cream, and oranges & lemons. Then for the rest of the time, the kids played with scented playdough (strawberry, orange, mint & lemon) that Gav and I made the day before. It was a HUGE hit!!!

I'm so glad that I get to be a part of this group and that Gavin has this opportunity to go to preschool and learn through different experiences. Next time, the letter I (should be interesting!) with a monthly theme of Gratitude (November).