Yester Y's (Wrap Up Week 22)

The second half of the week was filled with yarn activities.  We had plenty of yarn cut up from the sensory activity so the yarn was ready to go.  The left over yarn that we didn't use for a craft is now a play item, spaghetti mostly, for the play kitchen.
Bible

To help incorporate and remember the bible verse The Dragons drew a picture of themselves with Jesus.   They did this on white paper. (color of the week.)

Bible Verse:  Let the little children come to me      -Matthew 19:14

The Dragons enjoyed this activity a lot.  They were very excited to draw themselves with Jesus.  As they were drawing they told stories of what they would do with Jesus if he were here.  This was really nice to hear. :)













This week our theme is 'you' because 'you' are special to Jesus.  Children are special to Jesus.  So we took some time to learn about ourselves.  Earlier in the week The Dragons made an all about me book to talk about their personalities.  The second half of the week we took a closer look at how God made us on the inside, literally, like our bones.

The Human Body
The Dragons know that inside our bodies we have bones and muscles but where the bones are, their names, and their functions take a big more explanation.  Both Dragons were thrilled to be learning more about how their bodies work.

First thing we did was a short game.

 Where are your bones?

We felt some of our bones

And talked about the areas that we can't feel bone because of muscle and also talked about cartilage , such as the ears and nose.  

We briefly talked about babies not being born with developed bones which is why we have to be so careful with babies. 

We read a couple books on bones and learned the names of the bones.  

We also learned where our smallest and largest bones are in our bodies.  

All this was neat information for The Dragons. 

Then we grabbed some rulers and The Dragons measured their bones.

The Dragons used these measurements to make a craft of their bodies I will talk about more below.  

In addition to learning about bones and muscles I took the time to educate The Dragons on the differences in boys and girls.  This topic comes up a bunch.  Preschoolers are very curious.  We also have a blended family and I have hear the word vagina and balls the last couple weeks so I wanted to take a moment talk about these things.  

I found an awesome book at the library to help with this. 

I liked this book because it was kids talking about differences, not a really technical/wordy book.  It was easy for The Dragons to relate to. 

Alphabet

Since spring is now upon us we have spent a lot of time outside.  On our daily walks we look for things we are learning about for the week. 

The Dragons pointed out many white things, such as houses and cars, and we also looked for the letter y. 

We found many letter y sticks

We brought them home and kept them in our 'classroom' for the week. 

The letter y was added to our treasure map

The Dragons made a letter Y in their alphabet notebooks

 and decorated their y printouts with yarn

Crafts
Yarn Art
Materials: 

• Yarn
• paint
• paper

There are many different ways to do art with yarn.  Knowing my dragons though I wanted them to do something a bit more open.  

We took this craft outside because I knew it would be messy and there would probably be a lot of moving around.  It is also really nice outside. 

We used the yarn from our sensory activity because it was already cut up.  

The Dragon chose 4 colors of paint and I put the paint in large bowls so it would be easier to coat the yarn with paint. 

There were many long pieces of yarn that was fun for The Dragons to try and pull apart and swirl around in the paint.

Once the yarn had paint on it we first tried to drag the yarn across the paper to make designs.
Little Dragon liked this style but it was too slow for Doll Dragon.


So she tried smooching the yarn onto the paper to make a print.

This wasn't quiet what she was looking for either.

So we looked for different ways to paint with the yarn.  Finally we tried coating a bunch of different strands of yarn and leaving them on the paper.  We took a second piece of paper and lay it on top then pressed down to get a print.
We removed all of the yarn and there was a neat design on both pieces of paper.
Doll Dragon enjoyed this method the best.

Felt Doll
Materials: 

• felt
• scissors
• yarn
• needle and thread or sewing machine
• rice
• scented oil

Because we are learning about our bodies we pretended to be 'surgeons' for this project. 

Step 1: pick your color of felt and draw the doll outline. 

Step 2: cut out the doll

Step 3: draw and cut out a heart for the doll

Step 4: place the heart inside the doll and then sew around the edges leaving a small hole for filling

Step 5: fill doll with scented rice

Step 6: sew up the small  hole left in the doll

Step 7: place in the microwave for 20 seconds

Step 8: enjoy the warm cuddly smell good doll! 

All The Dragons love these dolls.  Summer Dragon brings his over everyday to play with him. 

Skeleton

Materials: 

• q-tips
• tape
• scissors
• black paper

We did this craft after measuring our bones, kind of making our own skeleton.  After measuring each bone I would cut a q-tip to be that bone.  This was fun and I think personalized the project more. 

Of course after the measuring and each dragon had their pile of bones there was some discovery time. 

The Dragons wanted to play around and make different designs with their bones before we made skeletons. 

When discovery was over we placed the 'bones' in the correct places making a skeleton. It was easiest to place the bone then tape instead of making the whole thing and then taping.  The q-tips seemed to get bumped out of place a lot that way. 

Little Dragons skeleton was dancing, Doll Dragons was jumping.  One of her legs fell off right before the picture. 

Of course after all of the hard work put in this week The Dragons needed to expend some energy. 

 (They actually did this everyday but... *shrugs*.)

With all the space in the playroom and everything being organized it opens up the room for running and throwing balls.  

The playroom is after all for play :)