Toddler Fun, Week 6: Letter D, Number 6, Brown and Deer

Being an itinerating missionary means being gone a lot, many hours in the car, and staying in strange places many nights.  But it also means we get to see SO MUCH of our state and country!

This month we are mainly in the Ocala/Central Florida area, which is simply beautiful.  So, in honor of that, I decided to do "D is for Deer" week.  I hope you enjoy!

Week 6

Letter: D

Number: 6

Color: Brown

Animal: Deer

Activities

1. Drive through Ocala National Forest

 On our drive home, we stopped at a pier to look around.  It was breathtaking!  Honestly. All we could hear was ourselves, and the birds.  Aidan loved it just as much as we did!  As we continued to drive, I was praying to see a deer.  I told my husband I would settle for a skinny cow.  Just then, we saw 3 deer 



by the side of the road!  Oh happy day!  I was so excited!  Aidan saw them too, he didn't particularly care, or understand why mommy was so excited, but it was a great moment!!










2. Deer Footprint Activity

I made footprint stamps using foam craft paper, 6-inch cardboard cake stands and elastic.  (I printed out a deer footprint, cut it out, then cut it out the foam paper.  I hot glued it to the cake stands - off of which I cut some of the side, attached the elastic, hot glued the foam onto the cardboard, and voila!  Then I cut out antlers and ears, and attached them to a pipe cleaner headband.

For the footprint part, I put paint on the stamps, and slipped them onto his hands and feet.  Then he practiced walking on his hands and feet.  The prints weren't super defined, but he had a good time pretending to have deer powers!

The finished product! (Can you tell where he stood up, haha?)  I cut out the best-looking part, and hung it on our fridge.  I was particularly tickled that the footprint actually looked like a "D" on each side.









3. Forest Animal Habitat Placing

I had some stickers back from when I had time to scrapbook that were forest animals.  I printed out a picture from where we were in the Ocala National forest.  Then, we talked about where each animal lives - water, trees, on the ground.  Aidan knew where pretty much each animal lived, which was exciting!






4. Goofy Pictures

I don't use Snapchat, but I downloaded it this week, so Aidan and I could play around with the filters.  Of course, the deer one was our favorite, but we had fun trying out all of them.

Snacks

1. That sandwich, "doe"...

(I know the antlers make it a buck. :)) For this lunch, I used a sandwich - which I cut to look like a deer head, ears and neck, the crust for the antlers, cheese for the forehead, and black olives for the eyes and nose.  I also have him some pistachios and mandarin sections.  It was a huge hit!  Except for the olives, haha!

2. "D" is for Donut Deer

Our little guy is a HUGE donut fan, so I knew I needed to include them somehow.  So, for this snack I used cinnamon mini donuts, pretzels, chocolate chips and candy eyes (because I was tires of making them every time, haha!)

Crafts

1. D is for Donut

For this Alphabet addition, I cut out a brown D, and he stuck it on the paper.  Then he painted some white finger paint on it for icing.  I had pre-cut some colorful strips of paper, which he, with my help, cut into little "sprinkles".  This boy loves his donuts, so I knew it would really help him remember "D".








2. Deer Footprint Art

We made a couple of these, one for Daddy, one for Grandpa, and one for Aidan to put up on the wall in his room.  It's just his and my footprints, which I "doctored" up to turn into deer. :)

Books and Media

We Read:

1. Imogene's Antlers by David Small

I loved this book as a kid, and was more than happy to introduce Aidan to it!  It's about a young girl who wakes up one morning with antlers, and how that affects her life.  It's great for promoting creative thinking and imagination.

2. Stormy Finds the New Forest by Tom Storm

Our friend Amy brought Aidan this book back from Great Falls, Montana, where both she and the author are from.  This book gives a good explanation of the relationship between hunting and deer overpopulation.  It's more for older kids, so we just like looking at the illustrations, which are very pretty!

3. Over in the Forest by Marianne Berkes

We took this book out of the library, but really, I'd love to own it!  It's a great counting book, featuring forest animals, but what makes it even more perfect for our needs this week, is that it has each animal's footprints too!

4. The Deer in the Wood by Laura Ingalls Wilder

I am a big Laura Ingalls Wilder fan, and had a couple of these kids' version of her books growing up, so I was tickled to find there was a deer one!  It's about how Pa goes hunting, but so enjoys watching the deer, that he simply isn't able to shoot any of them that day.  I think it's so special, how it shows a gentler side to a man.

5. Baby Bear, Baby Bear, What Do You See? by Bill Martin/Eric Carle

Again, I was so glad to find an Eric Carle book that fit our theme this week!  There is a mule deer in it, and we've read it so many times, that Aidan "reads" it to himself, which is pretty much the most precious thing, ever.



We Watched:

1. Bambi 

This Disney classic has been moved back into the vault, but I was able to find it on Amazon.  If you don't want to spend the money, a lot of times you can find it at your local library.  I recently found the "Place Hold" function on my local library's website.  It allows me to find books, even at other libraries around the city, place them on hold, then my account tells me when they come in, and then I go pick them up.  They're waiting for me in a nice little bundle when I get there.  Perfection.


2. Paw Patrol, Season 2 Episode 11, Pups Leave Marshall Home Alone/Pups Save the Deer.  

If you're looking for it on iTunes, it's in the Paw Patrol Volume 3.  In true Paw Patrol fashion, there's an emergency, and the pups save the day.  In the second part of this episode, there is a deer family in trouble, and guess who is on their way to save the day?!  You guessed it! :)