Dinosaurs at the Zoo- a 2 year old's perspective

This past Christmas, Little Guy received a camera.  He has enjoyed using it, and takes pictures of the most interesting things.  Last weekend, we went to the zoo.  During the spring and summer, we have dinosaurs that come to the zoo.  This is Little Guy's perspective on the dinosaurs.

Not too shabby!  I hope to post his pictures here monthly, showing his perspective on the world!

See you next time!

Tot School- G is for Garden

With nice weather comes a longing to be outside!  We have spent lots of time outside, so it was a great week to learn about G is for Garden.  Little Guy is 34 months old.

In keeping with decorating the letter for the week, this week we decorated a G with Easter grass.  First Little Guy painted the G green.  Once it had dried, I gave him some Easter grass to glue on.  I cut the grass up a little, so there were smaller pieces that I hoped would glue on easier.  He liked using the grass!

The next activity was similar to one we did last week.  I used the dot marker sheet for G from School Time Snippets and some gray glass rocks.  Little Guy had to put one glass rock on each circle.  I think the novelty of having something new to use (we have never used these rocks before) helped to peak his interest.  I think he completed this activity 2 or 3 times during the week.

The next activity was cutting practice.  I printed sheets from the Spring Cut It Out pack at This Reading Mama and the G is for Garden pack at Motherhood on a Dime.  Little Guy cut the pictures apart, then would either glue them back together or we made patterns out of them.  He does not really understand patterns yet, but it is an concept we are working on.

The next activity was from 1+1+1=1.  I gave Little Guy the numbers to sequence, the pictures of goats to size sequence with the numbers, and 3 pipe cleaners with 6 wooden beads.  He can recognize all these numbers now and was able to match the goats with the numbers.  To go with each number, he had to put that many beads on the pipe cleaner.  I am trying to make sure he associates the numeral with the quantity.  Plus, it was an easy way to sneak in some fine motor practice:)

While I offered 2 printables, he only completed one this week.  I had a G page from 1+1+1=1 and a page from the G is for Garden pack at Motherhood on a Dime. 

The last activity was sorting fruit and vegetables, from the G is for Garden pack at Motherhood on a Dime. This was a new idea, as we eat many of these things but had not really talked about fruit and vegetables.  This was definitely a work-together activity.

My plan for the week was that we would also plant some sunflower seeds that would later be transplanted to the garden.  However, we did not get that done.  I feel like Little Guy had some good expereinces last week anyway, and we will get to planting soon!

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

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!