Fun with the letter D

I'm sitting here on yet another snow day.  We have had 3 full days and 2 half days in the past two weeks!  I was no where close to caught up with the lessons that I had planned, so I decided to scrap two weeks of lessons and have fun.  I simply chose the objectives that we needed to concentrate on, set out some fun and let the kiddos run with it.

We continued to work on the letter D.  Thus, we had doodle on the moon day.  I think that the kiddos really liked the rocket ship crayons.

I found a great link that you can print off a black and white picture of the moon (here).  I had them cut out the moon and glue it on black paper.  I also had them count the number of stars on their space scene. 

We listened to "Why Does the Sun Shine" and "How Many Planets" by They Might Be Giants.  We sang and danced our way through space.

We read "Mooncake" by Frank Asch.  It's about a bear who longs to taste the moon.  He tries to lasso it and when that doesn't work, he builds a space ship.  It is autumn so he falls asleep.  When he wakes up (in winter), he thinks he's on the moon.  However, it's just snow!  I had intended to make snow ice cream, but just went for full fat ice cream :-)  

Everyone took a turn shaking the bag and were so excited to eat the "moon cake" when the milk solidified. 

Moon Cake

What You Need:

• 1 quart resealable plastic bag
• 1 gallon resealable plastic bag
• ¼ cup of sugar
• ¼ teaspoon of vanilla flavoring
• 1 cup of half and half
• Rock(we used coarse Kosher) salt
• Ice cubes

What You Do:

1. Place the sugar, milk, and vanilla flavoring into a 1-quart plastic bag, securely seal the bag, and mix well.
2. Next, add 2 cups of ice to a 1-gallon plastic bag.
3. Add between 1/2 and 3/4 cups of rock salt to the gallon bag.
4. Place the sealed quart bag into the gallon bag. Close the larger bag securely.
5. Holding the large bag by the top seal, gently rock (we shook) the bag from side to side. 
6. Continue rocking or shaking the bag until the contents of the quart bag have solidified.
7. Have your child remove the frozen contents (ice cream) from the quart bag and place in cups to consume. Yummy!

D is also for dental health.  We read many non fiction books about how to care for your teeth and why.  We used this information to make an anchor chart and then we performed an experiment.

As you can see from our results...drinking tea, cola, and red soda can really stain your teeth (well our eggs).  

For a sensory experience, we made our own toothpaste!  We discussed how the toothpaste smelled and felt.  This was also a math activity.  Each child measured the ingredients.  To bring it all home the kiddos got to brush the eggs to try to remove the stains without cracking them.  

They discovered that it wasn't easy at all.  The stains wouldn't come off, even when they brushed so hard they cracked the eggs.  One child's comment was that he was going to tell his dad not to buy him red soda anymore.  Successful lesson!

Have fun in the snow!  I know that I did.