Tot School- F is for Fish, Frog, Flower, and Feather

We are plowing right ahead through the alphabet!  I can't believe how many letters we have practiced so far!  Last week, we worked on F is for Fish, Frog, Flower, and Feather!  Little Guy is 34 months old.

Little Guy's favorite activity (by far!) was the game Water the Flowers from the April Showers pack at Our Little Monkeys.  We played this game everyday, and most days more than once.  It is a pretty basic game, where you roll the dice and move that many squares.  One side of the dice said "Oops. Slipped in a Puddle.  Lose a turn."  He really liked that one, and wanted to roll that every time!  He wasn't really in a hurry to get to the flower at the end!

His other favorite activity for the week was decorating the F with feathers.  I helped him to put the glue on the letter, but then he enjoyed sticking all the feathers on.  I saw this idea on No Time for Flash Cards. 

 Another activity from the April Showers pack at Our Little Monkeys was putting the flowers in size order.  We have not done this recently, but Little Guy had no problems ordering the flowers.

 The next activity practiced one to one correspondence and done fine motor skills.  I printed the F dot page from School Time Snippets and got out little fish erasers.  Little Guy had to put one eraser on each circle.  This was a great activity, as it did not take too long and he seemed to enjoy it.  This activity can have a lot of transference to other letters by finding small objects that will fit in the circles.

 This week the printables were not such a big hit.  I used printables from Our Little Monkeys and the Romping and Roaring F Pack at 3 Dinosaurs.

 One printable that he did like was from the Romping and Roaring F Pack at 3 Dinosaurs.  It was a letter F and he used frog stickers to decorate it.  He really seemed to enjoy pulling the stickers off the sheet to apply to the F.

 The last activity was lacing a fish.  He did it once during the week on his own, then did it second time with my help.   With help, he is able to work his way around and not miss holes.

What words have you used to practice the letter F?

We linked up the the Tot School Gathering Place at 1+1+1=1!

Tot School- E is for Egg

Hello!  Last week in Tot School we could not pass up the opportunity to focus on E!  With Easter upon us and eggs everywhere, it was a great pair!  Join us for E is for Egg!  Little Guy is 34 months old.

To practice the letter E, we made an E covered in eggs.  This is an activity I saw on No Time for Flashcards.  Little Guy started by painting a large E.  I cut the E out of a cereal box so it would be sturdy.  He started painting with a paintbrush, but quickly tired of that.  Then I gave him a sponge with a new color, and he added some more details.  (He is still not a huge fan of painting.)  After allowing it to dry for a few days, he glued on the eggs I had cut out from scrapbook paper.

The next activity practiced one-to-one correspondence.  I printed out this egg from the Easter Pack at Gift of Curiosity.  I had some little erasers in the shape of stars, so Little Guy had to place one star on each dot on the egg.

 This week we had several printables from the Easter Pack at Gift of Curiosity and the Easter Pack at 3 Dinosaurs.  The best part of this activity came from Little Guy.  After using the dot marker on the counting page from Gift of Curiosity, Little Guy decided he wanted to cut the page apart.  It had 4 rectangles on it, so that was fine (plus we did not have any cutting practice this week, so it was a bonus!).  Once the numbers were cut apart, I helped Little Guy put them in order.  So what started out as a dot page with some counting turned into a number sequencing activity!

 The next activity was (by far) his favorite of the week.  I had bought these foam eggs from the dollar section in Target a few weeks ago.  They were already cut in two pieces.  I mixed the pieces up and created a Memory game with them, reviewing some of the letters we have previously worked on in Tot School.  Once a match was made, the two pieces would fit together to make an egg.  We played this game every day! 

 The last activity is another from No Time for Flashcards.  I put all the letters of the alphabet into plastic eggs.  I also wrote the alphabet on a metal cookie sheet (we had magnetic letters so they would stick to the cookie sheet).  Little Guy had to open each egg and match the letter inside to the letter on the tray.  This was a great way to practice the alphabet, as it not only reviewed the letters we have previously worked on, but it also showed new or unfamiliar letters.  Little Guy even surprised me a few times, naming letters like N.  This activity was only completed once, and it took a couple of times to get through all the letters.

 How's Tot School going for you?

We linked up to the Tot School Gathering Place at 1+1+1=1!

Happy Easter!

Happy Easter!

I hope you are having a wonderful day!  The Easter Bunny visited our house last night, and left Little Guy a basket.
His basket had:

• a Viewfinder with pictures of animals (I remember having one of these as a kid!)
• a Play-Doh fun factory
• Pip-Squeaks markers
• a sidewalk chalk holder
• the book "Put Me in the Zoo"

He knew exactly how to use the viewfinder!

The Play-Doh fun factory was also a big hit!  New playdough is always fun, and this gave him so many ways to play!  We played for about half an hour before we had to get ready for church.

 Sidewalk chalk, markers, and the new book will be enjoyed later!

 The bunny also left him some eggs, but we haven't had a chance to find them yet.  Instead of candy, they are filled with bouncy balls, bubbles, little porcupine ball animals, and plastic frogs.

In the days leading up to Easter, Little Guy was able to participate in a couple of Easter Egg "Hunts."

He doesn't look as excited as he really was about those eggs!

He was so excited to see the Easter Bunny!

 He was so cute picking up eggs!  He would look at one, pick it up, then run to another one, running past 5 eggs on the way!  We was just excited to be getting eggs, he didn't care how many he got!

After collecting his eggs, he had to go back for a hug!

 Love my boys!

 I hope you enjoyed your day!

Tot School- B is for Bunny

It seems like there are busy times and quiet times in life.  I must be in a busy time right now, as it seems like I never have enough time to do everything that I want or need to do.  Ah well!  Today's post is a few days late, but I hope you enjoy the activities we did for B is for Bunny!  Little Guy is 33 months old.

The first tray was sorting bunnies by size from the Easter Pack at Gift of Curiosity.  Little Guy seemed to enjoy this one, and completed it several times.  He would even get silly, put a bunny under the wrong label, look at me and say "Does this one go here?" to try to get a reaction. 

I used several printables.  He seems to be enjoying them again, which I like:)  One is from this pin on Pinterest and the other two are from the Tot Easter Pack at 3 Dinosaurs.  He enjoyed using all the colors of the dot markers, even getting some blue on his cheek!

This next activity was the favorite.  I had bought these foam bunny shapes from the Dollar Spot at Target a few weeks ago.  We covered the bunny with glue, then he went to town adding cotton balls.  On the first bunny, I let him put the glue on it, but he was not using very much, so then I generously squeezed the glue to cover the bunnies.  Daddy suggested we add the googley eyes, which seemed to add to the cuteness factor!  Little Guy made 3 bunnies during the week.  (I limited him to one per day to extend the activity.)

 The lacing activity I did not snap a picture of.  Little Guy only did this once during the week.  I used one of the foam bunnies and punched holes all the way around it for one and the red bunny came from a lacing set we own.

 The last activity was scooping "bunny tails" (white pom-poms) from the muffin tin to the basket.  Little Guy had the choice of using an ice cream scoop or tweezers.  He did use the tweezers one day, but really preferred the ice cream scoop.  After he would scoop them all, he would put the pom-poms back in the muffin tin and pretend to bake cupcakes.  I  love seeing him use his imagination!

 What fun spring-y activities are you working on?

 We linked up to the Tot School Gathering Place at 1+1+1=1!

Tot School- A is for Animals

Spring is in the air, and we are loving the warmer weather!  Time outside is more frequent and this mama loves the sunshine!  Even though it was a nice week, we still found time to work inside on A is for Animals.  I should probably share that the letter A is one of the first letters Little Guy learned, as both Daddy and I wear a lot of UofA apparel!  Little Guy is 33 months old.

We had a fun week with just six activities.  Two of them were puzzles.  The first was a wooden puzzle that had several animals in the picture.  This was the first activity completed, and he did it every day, often two or three times in a row.  I had recently picked up this and a few more puzzles from a consignment sale, so I got a good deal on them.  The second puzzle was a a long alphabet train.  To do this puzzle, we would first sort the train cars by color, then Little Guy would either look on the box or I would tell him which animal came next and what color train car it was in.  This puzzle certainly took longer to complete, but it was a great way to go over all the letter.   Unfortunately, I forgot to take any pictures!

We also used a variety of printables.  We used some from 1+1+1=1, H is for Homeschooling, and Tot School. Little Guy seemed to enjoy them this week!

The next activity was counting and fine motor practice.  I had put the numbers 1, 2, and 3 in a muffin tin.  In the cup right beneath them, I put the corresponding number of mini animal erasers.  Little Guy had to use the tweezers to move the animals to the numbers and then back.  I would sit with him and count the erasers as he moved them.  We are also starting to work on basic number recognition.

He also built the letter A out of Duplos.  I gave him two pictures to copy, one from Wildflower Ramblings and the other from One Beautiful Home.  The main different is size.  The letters from Wildflower Ramblings come four letters to a sheet, while the letters from One Beautiful Home are one per sheet.  Little Guy chose to use the smaller card.  He also had to choose his own Duplos, finding the right sizes in his Duplo bin.  This was definitely an interactive activity, as Little Guy can't quite put the letters together on his own.

The last activity was spooning.  He had to use the spoon to get the beans from the bowl to the ice cube tray.  He started out by putting some in each little compartment, then when they all had some beans, he was done!  He didn't really want to work until all the beans were gone, but he did eventually.  I think there might have been some turn-taking in there!

Overall, it was a fun week.  Six activities seemed like a good amount, with enough variety but not so many that we don't have time to finish.  What tweaks have you made in your Tot School?

We linked up to the Tot School Gathering Place at 1+1+1=1!