W is for Whale

  Now let’s work on the letter W. There are so many fun crafts and activities you can do on the letter W, here are just a few.

·         Have fun working on one of these printable W worksheets.        

 ·    Sing a fun songs about the weather

·         Speaking of weather, this is great time to explore the weather more in depth.  Talk about what the weather is like where you are. 

·         Learn, while doing science.

·         Play

Waiter, Waiter

·         Children take turns ordering W foods.

·         Have each child begin with the phrase:

“Waiter, Waiter I would like waffles for my dinner tonight.”

·         Have each child choose a different W food to order.

·         Make a list of W foods first, with pictures, if your children have trouble with this game.

·         Here are a few W foods:

Waffles                                                                Wafers

Watermelon                                       Walnuts

Whipping cream                               Wedding cake

Wraps                                                   Watercress

·         Why not play in the water?  (You could even let your kids play out side in a pool, if it’s warm.  If it’s freezing, put their swimsuits on and let them play in the bath tub!)

o    Explore how water helps us, such as; to drink, to cool off, to wash, as a home for fish.

o    Make some water instruments.

o    Experiment with a water wheel.

o    Measure water with measuring cups.

 

v  For your W page:  Use the Coloring sheet above and cut and paste different animals and foods that start with the letter W.

 

Stuffed Paper Bag Whale

What you need:

·         Paint- blue or gray (tempera, poster, or acrylic paints all work well)

·         Paper lunch bag

·         Newspaper

·         Blue construction paper

·         Elastic band or masking tape

·         Scotch tape

·         Glue

·         Black Marker

·         Optional: wiggly eyes

Directions:

·         Stuff paper bag with shredded newspaper, leaving about 3 inches unstuffed.

·         Scrunch the top together and wrap an elastic band or masking tape around to seal.  

o   The stuffed part is the body of the whale.  

o   The end (top of the bag) is the tail.

·         Paint the paper bag, including the tail, a whale color (blue or grey) or even black and white for an orca whale.  You don’t need to paint the bottom of the whale (the tummy).

·         While your bag is drying… Cut out flipper shapes from shapes from the blue construction paper.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

·         Cut a rectangle from the blue construction paper and cut slits in it (see the dotted lines below)

 

·         Roll the piece around a pencil and tape it to make a tube (the spout of the whale)

Once bag is dried

      ·          Scotch tape or glue the flippers  to the paper bag (I usually glue them  to the tummy).  

·         You can poke a hole in the top of the bag with a pencil and squish the bottom of the spout in there and then apply scotch tape as needed.
  

·         Use a black marker to draw on eyes and a nose (or use wiggly eyes or round stickers).

Whale Piñata:

You can add wrapped candy to the stuffing and then allow the kids to break open their whales with a stick (like a piñata).  Having said that, the kids may grow so attached to their creations that they don’t really have the heart to break them.

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Letter X…always a tricky little letter. Nothing rhymes and the poor letter only has a few words to call its own…I could only think of Xylophone!

Letter X is the proud leader of these words:

X-Ray

Xylophone (knew that one!)

Xiphias Gladius (which is short for swordfish!)

Very interesting…Now that we have learned some new X words I would still like to stick with the favorite X word of the day; Xylophone. Here is a perfect craft for us today since it is cloudy, gloomy and rainy. Let’s get crafty!

This craft is from one of my favorite online resources for Preschool Activities and Crafts:

Xylophone Craft

What you need:

• You can print out the exact template here or
• Use colored construction paper cutouts
• Glue
• Crayons, markers,…glitter (to give it pizazz!)
• Scissors

What to do:

• Follow the instructions on the online template version
• Use colored construction paper and cut out rectangle “bars” for the xylophone. Oh heck! Just go on and use the template…so much easier!
• You can let your preschooler cutout their own shapes (with your supervision).

What did you learn?

Color discussion:  Discuss and identify each color bar.  Example:  Hold a color bar and say:   What color is this?  Yes, yellow.  What other things are yellow.  How about the sun or a lemon.  

Shape – The rectangle.  For this activity we can focus on the rectangle shape of each color bar.  Discuss that the color panels are rectangles (two long sides and two short sides).   Have the children find other things around them that are rectangles – a door, a refrigerator, window, area rug or table. 

Alphabet Letter X –  Each color bar displays two letter X’s, discuss and identify the X.  Display the Xylophone poster and say that xylophone starts with the letter X.  Conduct a separate activity for letter X.  During the craft assembly the mallets glued over the assembled xylophone to form an X as illustrated.

Counting & Sizing:  Have the children count and organize the color bar rectangles in size sequence from shortest to longest.  Ask which bar is the shortest?  Which is the longest?

————-This craft is a great one to use for your Letter X page. Since the mallots crossing the Xylophone make the shape of the X.

 

• How else should you spend your Letter X day? You could sing songsand pretend to be a Xiphias Gladius (swordfish).
• Play the X marks the spot game (great for a rainy day inside!)

Talk to your children about how treasure maps show where the treasure is marked with an X. Then give them a treasure map of a room in your house and let them find the treasures. For added effect put a big X made from tape on the spot where the treasure (cookies or cake for snack) is. That sounds like a lot of fun! Journey and Faith love pretending pirates and that pirates ships are after them. We throw “noonies” and cookies at the pirates to get them to leave us alone. We all know how grumpy we get when we’re hungry–we assume the pirates are mean and grumpy because they just want to eat! HA!

•  A great free-fun idea for X-day is to ask a local physician or dentist for old x-rays to show your child(ren). It would be really interesting to look at other people’s bones and teeth!

Alright…I’m running out of X ideas! If you have any ideas or suggestions we would love to hear from you–especially if you have any more X ideas. Tricky little letter!

 Have a great day!

Reneca and Kalisha