Friday, November 15, 2013

Fire Station Field Trip!

Our playgroup went on a field trip to the Fire Station this week! It was a fun trip, and Little Guy really seemed to enjoy it.  On the way, he kept saying he wanted to talk to two firemen.

The highlight of the trip was sitting in the fire truck!
Litte Guy was upset that he wasn't big enough to drive the truck.
We enjoyed looking at the trucks.  Little Guy was so small compared to the truck.
I think he really liked when a fireman helped him into the truck, and even showed him the seat that folds down.

One part of the field trip that I thought was especially valuable was when one of the fireman put on his complete uniform, including his face mask.  While he did look a little scary, it is so important that Little Guy sees that so he knows that it is a fireman, in case we ever have a real emerengency.

What is your toddler's favorite field trip?

Tuesday, November 12, 2013

Tot School- Fall

This past week, we did our first of three weeks working on a fall theme.  It was kind of a hectic week, so we did not get through all the activities I had planned.  We will pick up these activities during the next week.  Little Guy is 28 months old.

During the week, our work centered on Tot Trays, so we did not have a lap book to work in.  The first tot tray shown was the leaf poke page, from the fall pack at This Reading Mama.  Little Guy enjoyed using the toothpick to poke the holes, although he had a hard time only poking holes on the outline.   
Look at my leaf!
The pumpkin tray was next.  Little Guy had strips of orange construction paper to cut into pieces, then he glued them onto the pumpkin outline.  He really likes using scissors, but had not chosen this activity at all the previous week when we had it out originally.  He did seem to enjoy it, though!
Cut this piece!
The salt dough leaf impressions was fun, but took several sessions to complete.  I used this recipe from Art Club Blog to make the dough.

Ingredients:
  • 1/2 cup salt
  • 1/2 cup water
  • 1 cup flour
Directions:
  • Combine salt and water.  
  • Add flour and mix.
  • Knead to make dough smooth.
 I gave Little Guy a clump of dough at a time to roll out.  After he did some rolling, I checked it to make sure it was pretty even.
Making sure its flat.
 Then we used some plastic leaf impressions to push into the dough.  (I had to sprinkle flour on the  rolled dough to make sure the impressions did not stick.)
Push down the leaf!
We used a straw to poke a hole in each one so we could hang them later, and they were ready to bake.  I baked them at 200 degrees F.  I think our leaves must have been pretty thick, as it took them 4 hours to bake! 
All set for baking.
The next day, we got out acrylic paint to decorate our leaves.  Little Guy painted one leaf, then he was done!  We might be getting the painting out again!
Painting my leaf brown and red.
 Our next tray was reading and coloring the book "I See Fall," again from the fall pack at This Reading Mama.  Little Guy would turn to a page, I would read it, then he found the correct crayon to use.  After he finished coloring, I gave him some autumn themed stickers to add to his book.

Do you like how I color?
The next tray is a game called "Roll and Count Leaves" from the leaves pack at 3 Dinosaurs.  We did not play this game this week; look for it next week!

Our final tot tray was sorting leaves into small, medium, and large.  This activity is from Homeschool Creations. Little Guy did a great job of sorting the leaves into the three sizes.

This is a medium leaf.

In addition to these 6 activities available to choose from, Little Guy could also do a dot marker page or a coloring page (one per day for both of these).

What fall themed activities are you working on?

This week we linked up to No Time for Flash Cards and 1+1+1=1

Wednesday, November 6, 2013

Tot School- Pumpkins and Halloween

This week in Tot School we continued to learn about pumpkins and included some Halloween themed activities.  Little Guy is 28 months old.

Some of our favorite Halloween books are:
  • A Very Brave Witch by Alison McGhee
  • Trick or Treat, Marley by John Grogan
  • The Berenstain Bears Trick or Treat by Stan and Jan Berenstain
  • Froggy's Halloween by Jonathan London

I added a couple of activities to his Pumpkin lap book.  I put in new cutting strips and pictures, a shape match, traded the pumpkin sequencing for jack-o-lantern sequencing, and added a pumpkin match game.  This week, I used printables from the pumpkin pack 2 Teaching Mommies, the jack-o-lantern pack at Gift of Curiosity, and pumpkin printables 2 at 1+1+1=1

Matching the shapes.
Little Guy loves to cut!
By the end of the week, he could match all 7 pictures on his own!
The biggest jack-o-lantern goes here!
We had a lot of Tot Trays this week (which I did not photograph beforehand, sorry!):
  • Coloring pages
  • Dot marker pages
  • Leaf button snake (same as last week)
  • Pumpkin lacing (Using a foam pumpkin shape, I punched holes around the edge and tied on a shoe lace for him to practice lacing.)
  • Play dough with his name (see below)
  • Pumpkin name puzzle (I drew a large pumpkin on orange construction paper.  I then divided it into 5 parts since there are 5 letters in his name and wrote one letter in each section.  I cut the pieces apart and he had to put his name and the pumpkin back together.  This idea is from How We Learn.)
  • Halloween patterning strips (Using a preprinted pattern, Little Guy worked to copy the pattern underneath.  This is from Gift of Curiosity.)
  • Halloween wooden puzzles
  • Halloween counting game (see below)
  • Pumpkin and spider web foam stickers (He could put the stickers on paper, a small pumpkin, or a trick-or-treating pail.)

By far, his favorite tray was finding the letters of his name in the play dough.  I made new pumpkin pie play dough for him (it smells so good, recipe below!). Using magnetic letters, I traced them onto a strip of paper beforehand so he could match up the letters as he found them.  Once he found all the letters, he would ask me to put them back in so he could find them again.  I got this idea from School Time Snippets, but modified it to be just his name.

Pulling a letter out!
Here's the recipe for Pumpkin Pie Playdough (from The Griffeth Family)

Ingredients:
  • 1 cup flour
  • 1/2 cup salt
  • 2 tsp. cream of tarter
  • 2 tsp. pumpkin pie spice
  • 1/2 tsp. cinnamon
  • 1 Tbsp. vegetable oil
  • 1 cup water
  • 6 drops red food coloring
  • 15 drops yellow food coloring

Directions:
  1. Mix all ingredients together.  
  2. Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, until dough forms in a ball.
  3. Remove from heat, put dough onto wax paper to cool.
  4. Once cooled, knead.
  5. Enjoy!

We also enjoyed playing this Halloween game from Gift of Curiosity.  Instead of using a regular dice, I used this great one that Little Guy got from his aunt and uncle that has clear pockets on all sides to make custom dice!  I put up to three little jack-o-lantern erasers in each one, so we could practice counting 1, 2, and 3.  Once he rolled that number, he would count it, then put that many counters on the game board.


I see two jack-o-lanterns.
And we also were visited by a little frog this week!


I hope you had a fun pumpkin week, too!

We linked up to No Time for Flash Cards Linky Party!  
We also linked up to the Tot School Gathering Place at 1+1+1=1!

Wednesday, October 30, 2013

Tot School- Pumpkins

This week in Tot School we worked on pumpkins.

Some of the books we enjoyed were:
  • Duck and Goose Find a Pumpkin by Tad Hills
  • A Day at the Pumpkin Patch by Megan Faulkner and Adam Krawesky
  • Sixteen Runaway Pumpkins by Dianne Ochiltree

I included several different activities in Little Guy's Tot book.  One activity I included was the booklet "Orange Pumpkin, Orange Pumkin" from First Grade a la Carte.  This book follows the pattern of "Brown Bear."  I put the words on the bottom of each page, and as I read it, Little Guy glued on the matching picture.  Later in the week he colored the pictures.
Coloring the green witch.
Several of the activities this week came from the pumpkin pack at 3 Dinosaurs.  Little Guy loves using his scissors, so of course I used the cutting practice pages.  After he would cut the strips apart, he would glue them onto a piece of construction paper, making a big collage.  I also put in a matching game, where you match the two halves of a picture.  (I put in two sets with 3 pictures each.)  I also printed the Jack-o-Lantern coloring book.
Putting the pumpkin together.
I made a simple pumpkin sequencing activity with pumpkins in  five sizes.

This is the biggest pumpkin!
Little Guy enjoyed many of the Tot Trays I planned for his this week (see all the pumpkin Tot  Trays here).  The first one he wanted to do was to use tacks to attach buttons to the foam pumpkins.  He worked on this several mornings.  The hardest part of this was that the tacks were not very long, so they did come off easily.  However, Little Guy did not mind and would jsut put them back on!
Putting the tacks in!
Look at our pumpkin!
He also like decorating the pine cones with the stickers. 
Look at those stickers!
The buttoning of leaves was harder for him than the felt squares, but good practice!
Buttoning the yellow leaf on the ribbon.
The tongs were hard to use with the pom-poms, so I pulled out an orange chip clip.  He was able to use this to drop the pom-poms into the can.
The pop-pom goes here.
One activity we added was pumpkin cleaning.  We went to the pumpkin patch with our playgroup and Little Guy picked a small pumpkin.  He then spent some time wiping it with a damp cloth and then with a dry cloth.
Making sure its nice and clean.
From our other Tot Trays, he really liked the puzzles and loves doing the dot pages!  The tongs continue to be good practice for him, although they are a little big for his little hands.

What pumpkin activities does your toddler enjoy?