Alphabet Adventures: D is for Diner

Mmm, we went on a yummy Alphabet Adventure earlier this week, D is for Diner! On a beautiful summer morning we headed out a for a late breakfast at a local diner.

The Adventure

The clue bag was a little tricky for this adventure, but this time I filled the bag with some of our pretend play breakfast food. We then talked about where you can find these yummy foods and talked about what a diner is. We have several options of diners in our area, but choose to head a few towns over to the Fairlee Diner. We liked that inside there were options of either sitting at a booth or on old stools at the counter. It feels like an "authentic" diner.

After we ordered we created a fun alphabet activity while waiting. We used the diner's crayons and the disposable placemat to find as many "Ds" as we could. Each time Big Brother found a D he either circled it or crossed it off.

He needed some help with the lowercase letters and smaller print. This was a great way to embed letter recognition into something we were doing in a fun way. We'll definitely do this again with other letters. 

Of course, Little Brother also found a developmentally appropriate way to play with his placemat too. 

Breakfast was great, and everyone loved having a chance to order something different than our usual breakfast fare off the menu. 

Mmm, the waffles looked too yummy to even wait to take a picture for. 

The Project

Unfortunately we were not able to find a book which connected to a diner for this adventure, so we connected the book to the project instead. D is for Dog! 

We reread one of our favorite books, Go, Dog. Go! by P.D. Eastman. 

And then involved another family member in the project, our pet dog. We painted her foot and printed it onto paper. (We've done this before for a different project, but had two adults on hand so the prints came out better.) Our family dog is easy going and tolerates this, but I wouldn't recommend doing it with kids unless you know you have a dog who will be okay with her paw being painted. 

We're excited to be moving further into the alphabet! 

Other possible "D" adventures: donut shop, dug out, driving range, drive in movie theatre, dog park, or a dance.