Drawing with Window Markers

I recently picked up some Crayola window markers on sale (40% off). I paid about $4 for the set...BARGAIN!! We tried them out on a mirror and a window, but they were really hard to photograph! They work really well, especially on the mirror. I encouraged R to draw his face in the mirror, discussing the parts of his face and how many eyes, noses etc.

We also tried them out on alfoil. This also worked will, and R really enjoyed the noise that the markers made on the foil. He draw really fast to make more noise.



We will be using these markers a lot more!

Letter Gg and Grey

R is 35 months old.

We had a really fun week this week.

Craft
R made a giraffe from his footprint. He finger painted the dots onto the pieces when I cut them out. This idea came from Busy Bee Kids Crafts. This turned out unbelievably cute! R also snipped at the green paper on the bottom.

R did an easel painting with grey paint. To make grey paint we mixed a drop of black paint into the white paint.

R also did some drawing with all our grey pencils, markers and crayons.

R collaged a goldfish with gold circles. I used a circle punch to make the circles and R simply stick them on the fish along with a googly eye. Sorry, but the picture is not very clear.

R worked on a water colour picture of a goat from a purchased book. He really enjoyed this!


Letters and Language
I cut out a letter G and R added some glue and glitter. Another bad picture, sorry.

R sorted out the capital G’s and the lowercase g’s on the sorting mat from Confessions of a Homeschooler.

He also loves the Gg tracing. Anything that involves markers is much loved!

At his request, R also traced on the main letter page from Tot School Printables. He did really well at this activity.

R stamped with Gg stamps on a goat, from Tot School Printables.


Colours and Shapes
I sent R on a grey colour hut. This is what he found:

R sorted out pom poms, placing all the grey pom poms into a bowl.

I cut some shapes from alfoil for R to explore. He was not really interested in this activity.

Fine Motor and Sensory Skills
R explored some golf balls, rolling then and feeling the dimples in them.

R did a few of the Tot School Printables. He did the lacing card.

R played for quite a while, making sausages to cover the letter Gg and using the G cookie cutter.

R easily did the 3 piece puzzle.

R put some M&M’s on the Gg magnet page from Confessions of a Homeschooler. The M&M’s were a real motivator for this activity.

I made a simple sensory tub with green split peas, some measuring cups, spoons and a plastic muffin tray. R played with this for a long time.


Maths
More Tot School Printables. R did the goat ordering.

R sorted some cutlery that I set out for him. He also explored some coins, before posting them into a money box.

Science
I put some shaving cream and a blob of black paint into a zip-loc bag. R manipulated the bag until the shaving cream hat turned grey.

He then did finger painting with the grey shaving cream. We have done this many times and R never gets tired of it!!


Gross Motor Skills
We did the Gorilla Dance from an old CD from when I was working.

R got out his mini golf set and we hit the ball around the backyard.

I showed R how to gallop and we pretended to be galloping horses.

Cooking
We made our own garlic bread with home made garlic butter and a French Stick. It was yummy!

Next Program: Hh and Heart.
Thanks for reading!

Felt Pizza

I made a felt pizza after being inspired by Serving Pink Lemonade.



R loved this and played with it for days. One day when we were playing, I asked him to make me a specific pizza with ham and pineapple on it. This is what he made me:



I then asked for capsicum, onion and olives.



Next was pepperoni, pineapple and mushrooms.



We had lots of fun making pizza. Next time, I think I will introduce numbers with this activity. I will ask for a pizza with 4 olives, 2 mushrooms and 1 piece of pineapple. He will be able to create and work on numbers and counting skills at the same time!

Alphabet Match and Stick

I was sorting through some old scrapbooking materials to see what R could use for his activities when I came across a sheet of die cut letters. I came up with a matching activity where R has to find the letter and stick it onto a sheet with the letters of the alphabet written on it.

I encouraged him to lay out a few letters and match them to the sheet. 

He completed this with little assistance (I had to help with the a and the g, because the die cuts were quite different to the letters that I wrote). He amazed me again with his letter recognition skills. 

Mrs Wishy Washy

We borrowed Mrs Wishy Washy from the library this week. I had ordered it and had to wait for it to come in from another library. When we went to collect it, I was pleasantly surprised to find that it was a "big book". We had loads of fun reading it, and the size of it was a bit of a novelty for R. The book inspired some of our activities this week.

I put out some dark brown playdough (for mud) and the animals from the book; a pig, a duck and a cow. R loved putting them into the playdough. We talked about the animals 'getting dirty' like in the story.

After playing with the animals in the playdough, I suggested to R that we give them a bath. He was all for this, because he absolutely loves water play. I set out a tub of water with bubbles in it. I also gave him a nail brush and a pig, cow and duck.

He scrubbed the animals clean with the nail brush.

We also did a craft for each of the animals in the book. R collaged splotches onto the cow.

He fingerpainted pink paint onto a pig.

Finally, he collaged feathers onto a duck after decorating it with a yellow Do-A-Dot marker.

We really had a lot of learning opportunities this week from one simple book. 

Chicka Chicka Boom Boom

We have recently discovered this book, and we love it!! I was looking for a few activities when I came across these from Totally Tots. We have read the book several times a day for over a week now, and I wanted to find some ways to extend R's interest in the book.

Firstly, I gave R a laminated tree on a cookie tray with our magnetic letters. He added the letters. He explored the letters, placing random letters on the tree. Then I held the book open on different pages for R to find the letters that are on the page. We only have uppercase magnetic letters (the lower case letters are on the birthday wish list!).

The next day, I got out the play dough and cookie cutters to go with this activity. R made the letters, after rolling out the play dough and added the letters to his tree. R really enjoyed this activity and even M joined in, poking holes in the play dough letters (at least he wasn't eating it this time!!). R is a bit over play dough, so when I put it out; I have to include some props that will entice him.

R is beginning to recognise letters. He can now identify A, B, C, D, M, Q, R (of course), S and T.  He sings the alphabet song that goes with the Leapfrog Fridge Phonics set. He amazes me each and every day!!

Tactile Science

I found this great idea at Mrs Bainbridge’s Oasis and immediately printed it off for R. I set it up at his table and let him explore the materials.

We talked about the feeling of each item:

• Cotton wool ball – soft
• Sticky tape – sticky (before) and smooth (after)
• Sandpaper – rough
• Pasta – hard
• Dried beans – bumpy

Once R had explored each item, I said the name on each finger and he stuck the item on the right finger. Simple, educational and hands-on. Love it!!