I realize I am so very NOT up-to-date on documenting our preschool, book club, and after school activities. This is sad for numerous reasons, most of them only important to me, but especially for extended family who never got a chuckle out of seeing my kids doin their educational 'thang'. So, for the grandmas. And anyone else that doesn't mind going BACK a couple months. This post about dragons, knights, and princesses is for you!
Dragon week was right around Lunar New Year (otherwise known as Chinese New Year, but that smacks of exclusivity for a holiday celebrated all over East Asia and parts of SE Asia and, frankly, my Korean sensitivity forbids me from using that phrase!). Our dragon week was NOT about the holiday, though we DID read some books about it. Gwen really likes How to Train Your Dragon and I knew her Toothless obsession would play well into fun 'generic' dragon activities. We were ill in one form or another for about 3 weeks, so I didn't take as many pictures of all our adventures. But here's a skimming of our activities!
We used 3Dinosaurs free printable medieval (includes lots of dragons) pack to play a little ABC game together.
of course the rainbow writing
We made our very own dragons out of TP. Originally I wanted to do a plastic cup version because they are so much cuter, but in the end, I opted for cheap (free).
first the painting
Gwen was meticulous with her painting.
glue on a little tissue paper fire and you're done!
They didn't 'blow' their fire quite the way I'd hoped, but the girls loved them anyway!
You've got to check out this video to see the jewel details Gwen put on her dragon and to see what Caroline decided her dragon looked like!
ha ha! squid! (she's right, though! Don't you agree?)
Caroline's dry-erase coloring of a 'water' princess. Every day she drew a few different 'themed' princesses. It was fun to see what she came up with!
We did some jewels on the ABCs (focus on phonics that time) bc princesses need their bling!
Then some jewel patterns, which were a big hit with both girls.
Gwen was very proud of her 'advanced' patterning.
For 2 out of the 3 weeks, we had to cancel book club because of illness. So for the 3rd we kind of did a 'combo' dragon-knight-princess theme and our friends came dressed up as one of the three! See the cute dragon to the right, there? And on the left you've got a 'knight-ninja'!!!
handprint castles that we made. Idea credit goes here.
The girls begged Eric to dress up as a prince and play with them. He's such an accommodating daddy! :)
Caroline's origami frog became 'queen' and held court with her retinue... that's when you know your kids really enjoyed the theme!
You see the amazing crown-bed Caroline designed for...
...princess lizard!
We survived the less-than-ideal three weeks of illness and managed to have some fun along the way. It was during one of Gwen's 'sick' days that she had to stay home from Kindergarten and got to play with us. Apparently it made a lasting impression, prompting this journal entry months later:
(translation: "I like to be at my sister's preschool. I like to draw pictures. I also like to put jewels on letters.")
and THAT is why I love preparing learning activities, even when it would be easy to say 'not today'. Carpe diem, right? Keeping up preschool when we were all so tired--- and tired of each other--- for all those weeks was challenging. But seeing Gwen's opinion book made it all worth it. Now if only I could go back in time and take more pictures. But we were not at our best, so I am grateful for the pictures we got at all. :) Hope this inspires you (and me!) to keep up the learning activities when we'd rather just plop em in front of the tv!
(though we do that too).
:)
This is so great. The girls will love going back through these pic when they're older.
ReplyDeleteEric makes a pretty good prince. :)
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