Learning about the Alphabet: D is for Dogs

This post contains affiliate links. 

Over the course of twenty-six posts, I will introduce my own simple lessons for the letters of the alphabet. I will provide enough ideas and suggestions for a week's worth of activities.

For the letter D, we focused upon Dogs.

There are so many different breeds of dogs - anywhere from approximately 180 to over 300 depending on which organization you are consulting for registered types.  It is very easy to pick up a few books at the library and read about this amazing species. 

Does your family own a dog? Do you have a favorite breed of dog? I think my favorite is the Weimaraner. We had one for a while when I was young. She was such a beautiful and kind dog.

Did you know that a dog's nose is very similar to a human's fingerprint in that each dog's nose print is unique?

Did you know that a dog's nose has over 300 million receptors? Compare that to the human's 5 million...who do you think has a better sense of smell?

Why does your dog curl up into a ball to go to sleep? Dogs do this to protect their vital organs. They would have needed to do this when they were living in the wild to protect themselves from attacks by predators.

Coloring Sheets

The following two sites have a variety of realistic and cartoon dogs for children to color: 

Super Coloring's Dog Coloring Pages
Best Coloring Pages for Kids' Free Printable Dog Coloring Pages for Kids 

Projects

Coffee Filter Dog Craft 

Create your own dog with crayons, construction paper, glue, markers and a coffee filter. The great thing with this craft is that you could make it look like any number of cute dog breeds.

Books

Book Club: Pug Pals 

In this cute book, pugs Sunny and Rosy learn how to cooperate together to retrieve Sunny's missing bunny toy. Check out my post in which I show you how to make a Sunny or Rosy puppet and a bunny toy for them to share.  

Harry the Dirty Dog Activity for Tots 

After reading Harry the Dirty Dog by Gene Zion, your child will learn about how Harry prefers to stay dirty and help him get dirty using the printable provided. If you laminate your dog, then you can clean him up, too!

Soldier Dog 

If you have older children in your family and want them to join in the learning about dogs, check out this review by A Net In Time. Soldier Dog by Sam Angus is a story about the messenger dogs of World War I appropriate for ages 9 to 12 years old. 

Featured Shape

If you and your children are working on drawing dogs this week, try using curved triangles and ovals as your starting points.  

Activities 

Many libraries host "Read to a Dog" programs where children can read storybooks to dogs to help them gain confidence in reading aloud.

If your children are old enough, you can research about volunteering at a local animal shelter. If you cannot volunteer at an animal shelter, your family could always start a collection to supply one with food, treats, and other needed items for the dogs and cats. 

Other Topics 

D is for Door

You can decorate your door for any holiday or season by adding the appropriate crafting materials. For example, for the springtime, your child could add flowers around the outside or raindrops falling upon the door.

Ducks

You could study ducks with your child. Listening to songs like Six Little Ducks, making your own duck puppets, or reading books like The Story About Ping.

Dinosaurs

PBS Kid's Dinosaur Train 
There are videos, games, a field guide, and coloring pages and activities to print out.

Lots of great ideas when studying dinosaurs with little kids.

Dig dinosaurs out of hardened clay or ice to simulate digging up fossils.

I froze some dollar store dinosaurs in ice for my kids to dig out.

Melissa & Doug Dinosaur Chunky Puzzle 

Create a dinosaur-themed meal for your kids. 

Resources 

Kindergarten Worksheets and Games' Letter of the Week: D is for Dinosaurs 
Look! We're Learning
Tots and Me...Growing Up Together's Letter of the Week: Featuring the Letter D

I linked up with the following blog(s):

Learning about the Alphabet: C is for Construction

This post contains affiliate links. For more information please see my Terms of Use and Disclosure Policy page. Thank you.

Over the course of twenty-six posts, I will introduce my own simple lessons for the letters of the alphabet. I will provide enough ideas and suggestions for a week's worth of activities.

For the letter C, we focused upon Construction. 

Coloring Pages

Coloring.WS from DLTK's Construction Vehicle Coloring Pages
Super Coloring's Construction Vehicle Coloring Pages 

Projects

Craft: C is for Construction

SchoolhouseTeachers: Small World Sensory Science Lesson: Science 

Painting: Truck 

Books

Our neighbors recently had their driveway removed and repaved, which prompted my son to ask lots of questions about the equipment and construction in general on our walk to the library. He went to the library hoping to find books about Bob the Builder, but sadly our library doesn't have any about this famous TV contractor. Our librarian did pull out a half-dozen books on construction including Bulldozers by Jean Eick.  My son looked over the book selection and chose two (this one and One Big Bulldozer by Michael Dahl).

We both enjoyed Eick's Bulldozers book with the many photographs, explanations, and definitions.  The book explores what constitutes a bulldozer, how they are used, the different parts, and tools -- as well as how they are used worldwide. 

Bulldozers teaches its readers several things in addition to facts about the construction vehicle. One can learn mathematics when Eick discusses the weight and height and geography with the inclusion of the world map when reading "Where in the world can you find a bulldozer?"

I would recommend this book to families of budding contractors from preschool to early elementary-aged children. We will also be looking for the others in the series. 

Featured Shape 

As so many construction vehicles have a rectangle as a base for the truck, practicing drawing rectangles this week is perfect. 


For example, when I sketched a fire truck for my children to color, I used three rectangles along with three circles and a trapezoid. 

Crafty-Crafted.com has a Basic Shapes Dump Truck Craft that is perfect for this week! 

Activities

Baking 

Make a dump truck-themed cake to share. Your kids will love to help not only with the decorating but also with the eating of the cake!

Puzzles 

My kids love Melissa and Doug puzzles. They received this construction-themed one for Christmas. 

Painting with Trucks 

Use some of your children's older trucks and cars to paint. Run the trucks through paint on a tray and have them make tracks on paper.  If you use large paper, you can even turn it into wrapping paper for a party when it dries. 

Other Topics

Colors 

There are so many possibilities to teach children about colors. Here a few fun ones to try with your children. 

Create a chameleon and talk about camouflage. 

Learn about color mixing with ice cubes.

Enjoy a rainbow salad with your children. 

Resources

Kindergarten Worksheets and Games Alphabet Resources 
Tots and Me..Growing Up Together's R is for Rice and Rainbow Sensory Fun 

I joined up with the following blog(s): 

Learning about the Alphabet: B is for Baking

This post contains affiliate links. For more information, please see my Terms of Use and Disclosure Policy page. Thank you.

Baking shortbread cookies

Over the course of twenty-six posts, I will introduce my own simple lessons for the letters of the alphabet. I will provide enough ideas and suggestions for a week's worth of activities.

For the letter B we focused on baking.

Coloring Pages

Super Coloring's Baker Coloring Page 
First-School Preschool Activities and Craft's Baker Coloring Page 
DLTK's Coloring Pages' Chef Coloring Pages

Baking Projects

Letter B as a Baker Craft

SchoolhouseTeachers.com's ABC: What Will I Be offers a great lesson on B is for Baker.

Baking Cookies

Getting into the kitchen and baking cookies with your preschooler is a wonderful way to share family time and incorporate education into your day. Your child can help gather ingredients, read the recipe, measure ingredients, and prepare the cookies for the oven.


Safety first! Please keep in mind that the oven is very hot and your child should be supervised at all times near an oven. Do NOT allow them to handle items going in and out of the oven. Use your due diligence to prevent injuries. Allow trays and cookies to cool after baking before allowing children to touch them again.

I have to admit that I love using the pre-measured cookie mixes like those sold by Betty Crocker.  They make it very easy when you need to make cookies quickly for an event. We have used the following mixes with good results: Sugar Cookie Mix, Salted Caramel (which is a limited edition mix), Rainbow Chocolate Candy, and the Pumpkin Spice (which is also a limited edition mix).

The 36th Avenue's Christmas Cookies - Funfetti Cookies 
This recipe calls for red and green sprinkles and M&M's but you can use other colors for the rest of the year, too.

Books

There are so many books out there teaching how to bake or cook with children. Visit the library or use one of the links below to learn about some of the books available.

Featured Shapes - Circle and Sphere

What better shapes are there than circles and spheres when you are taking about baking? So many cookie recipes ask you to roll your cookies into balls (or spheres) and then press flat (creating a circle shape).

One great way to incorporate a painting activity is with circles. Gather materials around your house that have a circular shape that could act as a stamp. For example, plastic cup, plastic lid, empty and clean yogurt container. Let your child use them as stamps with paint and a large sheet of paper.

Activities

Imagination Time: Play food

While talking about baking, allow your children to cook you a pretend dinner. In our household, we love the products from Learning Resources. They have such a variety of kits from fruit salads to healthy dinner baskets. They even have a baking set!

 

 

Visit a bakery

Watching older brother
pick out rolls for dinner

Rolls at our local bakery

Take the time to visit a bakery with your children. We are fortunate enough that we have bakeries that specialize in sweets and bread within driving distance of our home.

Clay Play

Use old cookie cutters and clay to let your children pretend to bake cookies. (Remind them not to put the clay in their mouths!)

Other 'B' Topics

Bees

I Heart Crafty Things' 15 Adorable Bee Crafts for Kids 
Included in this roundup of crafts are those that incorporate a variety of materials including paper bags, paper plates, paint, glue, craft sticks, and tissue paper among other items.

Ms. Barbara's Bees: A Preschool Study 
This includes many lessons to incorporate the study of bees into your preschool or homeschool including a really cool beehive created with egg cartons.

Butterflies

Fireflies + Mudpies' Coffee Filter Butterfly Craft 
This is a great craft for a warm day outside. We used to make similar butterfly crafts when I taught workshops at the zoo. Kids love seeing the marker colors spread and combine when spraying water on the filter.

Fun Learning for Kids' Butterfly Collage 
I always love the idea of giving kids materials and letting them create their own art project. Here is one you can do with butterflies as the base.

Parenting Chaos' b is for Butterfly Letter of the Week Craft 
This offers the lowercase letter b for the butterfly craft.

Mommies Reviews' Homeschooling Craft B is for Butterfly
Cute art craft using pasta to create a butterfly picture.

Birds - Bird Feeder

There are lots of interesting bird crafts that could accompany the letter B. And you can also make a bird feeder to hang outside allowing for some nature watching time. Please visit my Crafts - Animals Pinterest Board for more bird craft ideas.

The Resourceful Mama's Peanut Butter Toilet Paper Roll Bird Feeder 
We used to make these when I taught at the zoo. They were an easy way to prepare a bird feeder with just a few supplies.

Kitchen Counter Chronicles' Cookie Cutter Bird Feeders
These bird feeders use gelatin as the 'sticking' agent instead of peanut butter. Great if you (or a loved one) have a food allergy. They also allow for creativity and experimentation, if you and your children want to try different shapes than just the heart suggested.

Resources

First-School Preschool Activities and Craft's Alphabet Letter B Baker Theme
MPM School Supplies B is for Literacy Center Craftivity 
Sight and Sound Reading's Letter B Crafts