Tot School Week 6

Charger is 23 months, Mustang is 48 months

We had another fun week! I finally got our bookself all set up for Tot School. I was quite pleased with how it looked. When I was getting together all the trays for the week, the kids were swarming me like it was Christmas. I had to go in my bedroom and close the door.



We did a few things with the letter B in mind, but I have a few more stil so we will continue it this next week.

B is for Butterfly



We used tissue paper that was in Mustang's birthday present. Cut it into 4 pieces and then used pipe cleaners for the body. It was very simple, but the kids loved flying their butterflies. Mustang almost got the pipe cleaner twisted herself.

B is for Bugs



This is the Bug Jug from Melissa and Doug. It can be found HERE. Charger had fun with this as always. When he pulled out the spider, I started singing Itsy Bitsy Spider and he loved it! We sang the song about oh 20 more times lol!




We read the B page in the book Alphabet House by Nancy Elizabeth Wallace. It doesnt have words, but everything in the picture starts with the letter B. In the back of the book, there is a list of everything to find in the picture. So, we found the B items and I had both Mustang and Charger try to say the words after me. Mustang has a speech impediment so this was helpful therapy for her and lots of new vocabulary for Charger. We only checked this book out, but I am adding it to my buy list.


A pom pom transfer game using our pumpkin ice cube tray, spoons, and pom poms. This was too easy for Mustang, I should have made her use tongs. But, it was really good for Charger.





We checked out a cool measuring tape from the library. I made a tray of stuff for Mustang to measure. She loved it and brought tons of other things, namely dolls and bears, to measure. Charger played with the things he was to measure and kept calling the measuring tape a clock :)




This cool tray idea I found on Izzie, Mac & Me. It, unfortunatly did not work well for us. I am going to have to rethink this for future use. I didnt want to seal the eggs because I wanted Mustang to be able to look inside. However, the first thing that Charger did was open his. And the result? Rice everywhere. Hmf. In case you have the non explorer types and would like to try this. I filled them with rice, oatmeal, beans, pennies, paperclips, and beads.





A couple more trays that I made for Mustang (more Preschool level then Tot School).

I got counting mats from Childcareland.com and she used corn from the farm as counters. We focused on 11-20.



For this tray I bought two large dice from the Dollar Tree. Mustang rolled the dice and then used them to write an equation. I got the numbers at the dollar tree too.


We read Richard Scary's Best Counting Book Ever (one of my absolute favorites)


And checked out a number pack from the library which included a Melissa and Doug number puzzle and a fun toy.





And last but not least...

B is for Beautiful Day to go feed the ducks. This was interesting. The first duck snatched a piece of bread out of Mustangs hand, biting her in the process. I had warned her, but apparently its just one of those things you have to learn. So, we left and came back. This time I put her on top of a bench so no duck could get her. Sadly, Charger slept the whole time as he had fallen asleep on the way there. He woke up just as we were leaving and we were out of bread. We did find some Kix on the floorboard of my van (see I knew there was a reason I hadnt cleaned it lol). We tossed them out the window and this satisfied Charger.

Truth be told, I am afraid of geese, so this was a bit nerve racking for me, but I survived.

Tot School Week 5

Mustang is 48 months, Charger is 22 months.

Tot School was a bit shorter this week, but we still had a lot of fun. One reason it was shorter was that Mustang had a dentist appointment. In the waiting room we found the book 'Show Me Your Smile.'



Normally, I dont recommend character books. In fact, I generally avoid them. But, this one was great! It described exactly what was going to happen when Mustang got into the big chair to see the dentist. It really calmed her fears and helped her know what to expect. If your tot is headed to the dentist, I highly recommend picking this book up first.

Back at the house...

We read the book Pastry School in Paris, which talks about measurement. It was a very cute book, but it really was a bit too old for my kiddos.


Then, we weighed things using this super cool scale we checked out at our library. Yes, we have the coolest library on earth and I am going to miss it sorely when we move :(



Mustang was interested in the weighing for a few minutes, Charger could care less. So, plan B...

I gave them each a container of beans and some measuring cups and spoons and let them measure and pour and transfer till their hearts content. Mustang wanted the scale, too. They poured for a long long time. Then they switched bean containers and poured again. 2 hours later, my shag carpet had a lot of beans on it, but they had a great time. This was by far the favorite activity of the week.






We read the book Applesauce Season. Great book!


Then, after a lunch of sandwiches and applesauce, we made these cute apples. I got the idea from My Montessori Journey. I didnt have any white paper plates and our heart shaped princess plates were not going to cut it, so I cut white circles out of cardstock.

I gave the kids strips of red construction paper and they tore them into smaller pieces to glue to the circle. I tore Charger's and he helped me put the red pieces on the drops of glue I put down. Mustang tore the pieces too small at first, but quickly got the hang of it.




Mustang received her first piggy bank from my parents for her birthday. We had fun going over the values and names of her money. But, the best part was putting the money IN the bank. Great fun and great hand eye coordination-especially trying to put the dollar bills in the little hole. I had to fold them up tight, but both Mustang and Charger were successful in putting the money in the slot. They were quite pleased.




We checked out this fantastic Time pack from our local library. It included the following items plus Eric Carle's Grouchy Ladybug. Both the Grouchy Ladybug and Monster Math School Time have pictures of clocks throughout the story. I had Mustang tell me the time on the clock in the book and then match her clock to the book. She could tell me the clocks that were on the hour, but no others. The toy clock only moved clockwise, so it really helped to teach her how a clock moves (she kept trying to make it go counter-clockwise). Charger loved the clock. He carried it around saying 'clock, clock.'

I picked up a cool workbook on time at our local Dollar Tree and took out the page that focused on clocks that were on the hour. I used Izzie, Mac & Me's reusable worksheet idea. It worked perfectly! So nice to know I can use it again in the future.





I found these big foam blocks at a yard sale for a 1.00 a few years back. GREAT investment! First we matched blocks. If you notice, there are different patterns in the blocks and Mustang thought we should make sure that not only the colors matched, but the patterns. Then we put them in order A-Z and 0-9. We stopped from time to time to sing the ABC song so that Mustang would know the next letter. This was great for increasing matching skills and alphabet order for Mustang. Charger worked on hand eye coordination and practiced the ABC song. It was also great fun!





For more fun ideas to teach your tot, check out 1+1+1=1 to see what others did this week.

Tot School Week 4 Review

Mustang is 48 months, Charger is 22 months

We had a fantastic week! Here is a recap of what we did. Activities that need explaination or links are blogged about seperatly below. We headed out to the farm for our first week of harvest so a lot of our activities were farm related.

OUTSIDE FUN

Trip to the farm


Nature Walk


Hunt Potato


Sandbox Fun


PRINTABLES

Farm Tot Book from 1+1+1=1


Pumpkin Counting


Animal Matching


100 Apples


MONTESSORI GAMES

Hair Clip Game


Corn off the Cob


LIFE LEARNING

Sweeping up the leaves


TOYS

Little Tikes 3-D Animal Matching


Letters (Dollar Tree)


Hammering Shapes


Animal Matching


Book Shelf







And Country Mouse, City Mouse Illistrated by Laura Lydecker (no images found)

To see what other Tot Schools did this week check out 1+1+1=1