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?

Pumpkin Themed Tot Trays

These are the Tot Trays that I am using with Little Guy this week.  Here's a sneak peek at them, check back next week on my Tot School post to see if Little Guy liked these trays!

1. Coloring pages from 1+1+1=1.

2. Farm puzzles (leftover from our farm unit, but still highly enjoyed!)

3. Pumpkin decorating with foam pumpkin, tacks, and buttons.  Using the tacks, your toddler can decorate a foam pumpkin with buttons.  (I picked up the pumpkins at the dollar store.)

4. Pom-pom transfer with a pumpkin shaped ice cube tray and pom-poms. Using tongs or a clothespin, your toddler can move the pom-poms in and out of the ice cube tray.

5. Leaf grabbing.  Using tongs or a clothespin, your toddler can move the foam leaves in and out of the pumpkin bucket.

6. Button snake with leaves.  Each foam leaf has a slit in it.  The ribbon has a large button sewn on the end.  Your toddler can "button" the leaves onto the ribbon.

7. Pine cone decorating.  Using materials such as sequins, stickers, and pipe cleaners, your toddler can decorate a pine cone.

8. Dot pages.  Using dot makers, your toddler can complete the dot pages from the Pumpkin Pack 2 at 1+1+1=1 and the Pumpkin Pack from 3 Dinosaurs.

What pumpkin themed Tot Trays are you using?

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

Tot School- Farms Week 3

This week was our last week working on our farm theme.  Grandma and Granddaddy had returned home, so we returned to Tot School as usual.

Some more books we enjoyed about farms were:

• Biscuit's Day at the Farm by Alyssa Satin Capucilli
• It's Milking Time by Phyllis Alsdurf
• The Helpful Puppy by Kim Zarins
• Little Hide and Seek Farm, a DK book (this is like "Where's Waldo" for little kids!)

To get ready for our last week, I reworked the tot book.  Little Guy spent more time doing some of the activities in the book.  He really liked the little coloring book this week (we did bring out the markers).

Little Guy really enjoyed playing with this Peek-A-Boo barn that I printed from Buggy and Buddy.  He would put the animals behind the door, then we would sing "Old MacDonald had a farm."

"And on that farm he had a cat."

I printed this booklet called "What Do I Say?" from the Farm Pack at This Reading Mama.  I read the page, then Little Guy glued on the animal that matched the sound.  This was a great booklet for us to read again and again throughout the week.

This is where the dog goes!

I also printed this set of ABC cards from the same farm pack.  We laid them in a line to practice singing and pointing to the letters.

Getting ready to sing!

I made a few printables this week.  One was a cutting page.  I made strips of things that you could find on a farm, with gray lines in between.  Little Guy had to cut the pictures apart on the gray lines.  Then we sorted the pictures into two categories: animals and not animals.

Getting better and better with the scissors!

I also made letter dot printables.  I used a picture of a farm and put circles with an F all around.  Little Guy really liked using the dot marker to cover all the F's.  We did the same with a tractor picture.

Here's another F.

The sensory bin came back out this week.  We put Little Guy's Little People farmers and animals in to live on our farm.  A fun way we did some fine motor work was to have Little Guy put a bunch of green peas into the tractor trailer to "feed" the animals.  It took a little bit of work to pick out one color of material.

Driving the tractor.

We also worked on some vocabulary during this unit.  We talked about what baby animals are called, such as a baby sheep is called a lamb and a baby cow is called a calf.

I hope you enjoyed our farm theme!  Do you have activities that you would add?

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

The Color Game

Another way we have been practicing colors is with the color game.  This is a fun game that we started playing outside on our patio, and moved inside as the weather cooled off.

Materials needed:

• sidewalk chalk, 6 colors (if playing outside)
• different colors of construction paper, 6 colors, 2 sheets of each color (if playing inside)
• large die
• labels (to put on the die)
• packing tape (optional)

Set up:

• Using the sidewalk chalk, draw a circle on the sidewalk.  You will need 6 different colors, and 1 circle of each color for each person playing.  For example, I drew 2 pink circles, 2 blue circles, 2 green circles, 2 white circles, 2 orange circles, and 2 yellow circles.  For inside play, arrange your 6 colors of paper in a circle. 
• Using the labels, label each side of the die with one of the colors you used for the circles.  (Optional- put packing tape over the labels to ensure they do not fall off.)

To play:

• Roll the die.  Whatever color lands up, the player (preferable the toddler) must identify the color, then jump onto a corresponding circle.
• Repeat.
• Don't forget to giggle and have fun!

Get ready to jump....

Blue!

What ways do you incorporate learning into gross motor skills?

We linked up to No Time for Flash Cards Linky Party!