Monday, October 11, 2010

D is for St. Dominic, Double Daisy Flower, Ducks, and Dinosaurs!

We finished D week in just one week - that might be a first! ;) E week will be spread over two weeks as we have several things like appointments, trips, meetings in the coming week. Our saint for letter D was St. Dominic.

Here are our themes for the week, all of which went into the Word Box, as usual.

Our D poems for the week from An Alphabet of Catholic Saints and God's Alphabet

~Circle Time~


This week, Caroline decided that she wanted to do Show and Tell at the beginning of each week during Circle Time. So we decided that she would find something that began with the letter of the week to bring for Show and Tell. Cecilia wanted in on the action as well, so I helped her find something beginning with D. Here they are showing their D items: Caroline brought her drumstick (which she tried to "hide" in her backpack, which was very humorous, as the end of it was sticking out, hee hee), and Cecilia brought a toy dog. They are also holding the dollhouse dishwasher, which I had in the mystery sound pouch at Circle Time.

Songs and Rhymes
Diddle Diddle Dumpling
Hickory Dickory Dock
Five Little Ducks
Ding Dong Bell
Hey Diddle Diddle
daisy and daffodil songs
various fall leaves rhymes/songs

~Work Activities~

Dominoes

other D work activities included a design puzzle, dress-up bears puzzle, and a deep sea puzzle (which included a dolphin!)

~Foods for D Week~

last week's chickadees became ducks this week ;)

drumsticks, deviled eggs, and dinosaur-shaped rice pasta!

lunch at Ana's Deli

None of the food began with D, but Deli does! Can you tell there are not many D foods? We had to stretch... and I don't even like chicken drumticks, but I found a pack of organic ones on a clearance sale and had them in the deep freeze, so they worked great as a D food! We also had chicken divan one night, which I haven't made in ages because the recipe calls for condensed soup, which I don't like to use much... but then I remembered that I have a condensed soup recipe, so I tried it in the chicken divan, and it worked!

Tea Time

We had doughnuts and a few dark chocolate chips at this week's tea time. The doughnuts were pumpkin doughnuts - very yummy - but, I had never made them before, and I didn't know how hot to get the oil... they began to get close to burning and so I took them out of the oil, but most of them didn't get cooked on the inside as a result. Next time, I will keep the oil temperature a bit lower and see if that helps!

Ahh, aren't they beautiful? ;) I cut them all in half, revealing the doughy insides, and then put them on a baking sheet in the oven so I was at least not serving raw eggs to my children. So, doughnuts will be something to work on in the future...

~Letter Formation~

forming letter D with playdough

writing D's in cornmeal

Punch Out the Letter - Capital and Lowercase Dd

Cut and Paste D Collage, which includes disciples, desk, driveway (the patch of grey!), dancing, David, dill dip, Donald Duck...

~Flower Fairy for Letter D: Double Daisy~

coloring the double daisy flower from the Flower Fairy Alphabet while listening to the song


~Saint for Letter D: Dominic~

Here's our little painted St. Dominic... I still need to varnish the last few. And St. Cecilia remains missing...

St. Dominic poem copywork from An Alphabet of Catholic Saints

Illustrating St. Dominic, whose symbol is a dog holding a torch in its mouth

Caroline's completed work

~In the Book Baskets~


Science Themes - Ducks and Dinosaurs:

Liturgical Year and Religious D Books:

Favorites for Letter D:

~Picture Study: D is for Dance~

Interestingly, a Degas painting was also used for our picture study this week, as it was a painting of dancers. After reading Degas and the Little Dancer, Caroline was apparently pretty into it, because she decided to pose just as the sculpture of the little dancer looked (she even wanted to wear a peach-colored ribbon in her hair as the dancer in the book had):

the actual sculpture by Edgar Degas

And then she wanted Cecilia to pose, too... Cecilia even put on part of a dance outfir from the dress-up clothes bin.

Here is Caroline's reproduction of the painting The Rehearsal Onstage

~ABC Virtue of the Week: Do your Duty~

These are virtue coloring sheets found here. Using the great idea of another Catholic homeschooling mom, I am reading Caroline a relevant story from this sweet little book full of stories with morals to them. I am choosing a story from Devotional Stories for Little Folks that reinforces the virtue for each week. We read a story this week about a boy who hadn't had to do any chores at his house and how he visited a family who all helped each other out with their work around the house, and so the boy began to do the same.

~Science: D is for Dinosaurs~

Caroline helped me put together this stegosaurus model that I found on clearance at the craft store this past summer. She helped to find the pieces on the diagram in the directions while I fit the pieces together.

Dino Dough Dig!
Plastic dinosaurs buried in the playdough... digging them out increases fine motor strength.

~Activities for D Week~

Doing Dishes

This was a big hit!

Doll Dress-up

I had them take out the basket of all the baby doll clothes and dress them up. It grew into a make-believe game about dressing their babies to take them to church.

~Cooking Project: St. Francis's Critter Crunch~

The feast of St. Francis of Assisi fell on the first day of D week for us, so we used his feast day on which to base this week's cooking project. Since he is the patron of animals, we made a variation of Critter Crunch. The "critters" in it are bunny grahams and animal crackers!

It is an easy, kid-friendly recipe: you just stir up the dry ingredients, which are all cereals, crackers, pretzels... nothing messy! ;) and then...

...stir in some melted butter, cinnamon, and Sucanat...
Then it bakes in the oven for a half hour and it is done!

~Chores/Practical Life: D is for Dusting and Decorating~

With fall now here, it was time to do my once-a-season dusting (if I do it that often, ha!). I dust when I put out my fall decorations and again when I put out my Christmas decorations, because I already have to clear off the surfaces to do that... Caroline was very helpful with the dust rags. Cecilia lost interest quickly!

Caroline sets out a pumpkin candle after dusting the end table

~Field Trip to Feed and Observe the Ducks~

We had a Field Trip Friday in which we went to the nearby lake (about a four minute drive from our house), then to the pumpkin patch, and then to lunch and the park! Caroline and Cecilia fed the ducks, and Caroline sketched some of them in her Nature Notebook.

~Outdoors: D is for Duck, Duck, Goose~

Yeah, kinda pathetic, huh? ;) Guess we need a few more children!
The funny thing is how much they enjoyed doing this, over an dover and over...

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