Wednesday, May 28, 2014

X Week

We had an eXceptional X week!  As we are nearing the end of the alphabet, it is getting harder to come up with crafts and activities.  I mean, there are only a few common words that start with the letter X.  I did incorporate some words in this week’s lessons that didn’t actually start with the letter x, but all of the words still helped Brooklyn learn the x sound better. With that being said, we did some pretty fun stuff this week!  

On Monday, Brooklyn made a xylophone shaped like an X.  I cut four different colored strips of paper in different sizes.  Before Brooklyn glued them onto her x, I had her arrange them from biggest to smallest.  She then glued them on and added some little screws with a black marker.  She also did her x dot picture and practiced writing x’s.  

Tuesday was lots of fun as we talked about x-rays.  I showed Brooklyn some pictures of x-rays on the computer, and we talked about our bones.  We did a really cool craft where Brooklyn made her own x-ray of her arm and hand.  I got the idea from this website.  I traced Brooklyn’s hand and arm on a paper towel and let her use Elmer’s glue to draw bones inside.  Brooklyn then placed another paper towel on top and smoothed it out (to glue the two paper towels together).  I used a little bit of black watercolor paint in a small bowl of water to make the “x-ray ink.”  I placed the paper towels on a cookie sheet to keep the mess contained.  Brooklyn used a big paint brush (because I didn’t have a dropper - either will work fine!)  to paint/drip the black paint/”ink” over her x-ray to reveal her bones.  We then let it dry overnight.  There are so many fun x-ray crafts out there, and even though this one was a little messier and more time consuming than others, it was so much fun!  Once Dr. Brooklyn saw the x-ray of her arm, she continued playing doctor and did an eXam on her patient.  I printed out this page and gave it to Brooklyn, along with a marker.  I read off the exam list (in the lesson plans), and Brooklyn x-ed out the body part that went along with each clue.  In the end, she discovered that her patient had a hurt arm.  This was also a good way to practice writing x’s.



Dr. Brooklyn examining her patient 

Wednesday was MOPS.

Brooklyn made a xylophone painting on Thursday. I made four mallets by hot gluing pom poms to the end of straws (I was planning to use lollipop sticks but couldn’t find them so I used straws instead.  When using straws, be careful - the hot glue will melt them.)  Before she did her painting, she practiced playing her X xylophone that she made on Monday with the mallets.  I then gave her red, green, blue, and yellow paint - the same four colors of her four mallets.  She matched each mallet to its same paint color then one by one dipped a mallet in the paint and pretended to play a xylophone by gently banging the mallet all over the paper.  She had lots of fun making her colorful painting.  


Her xylophone painting
On Friday I told Brooklyn the story of Jesus dying on the cross for our sins.  We talked about Jesus’ love for us even when we do bad things.  We then made a crucifixion painting.  I used tape to make three crosses on a piece of paper.  I then let Brooklyn finger paint the entire piece of paper in the colors of her choice.  When she was finished, I removed the tape to reveal the three crosses.  

For details and instructions of these crafts and activities, please click to see my lesson plans.  If you have more ideas for the letter X, please comment and share - I would love to hear them!!

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