Birthday Fun

R turned 3 a few weeks ago, and I planned a day of fun, with a lot of learning thrown in! We had a great day together and the addition of M&M's made R's day. :)


From Homeschool Creations, I laminated the tracing sheet. R loves doing these sheets, and we have not done it for a while, so he was happy to do it.

We also ordered the balloons by size, from the same pack.

I used some birthday pictures found on Google to make a cutting sheet for R. He has been into cutting lately, and can now cut independently. 

I printed a couple of M&M's sorting mats from Making Learning Fun. R loved this activity. He wanted to do it several times, and asked for it over the next few days!!

I let R ice and decorate a cupcake. He was looking forward to this, he helped me make the cupcakes. I let him loose with some 100's and 1000's, M&M's and some cachous. This is what he created:

Lastly, we did a Roll and Graph activity from 2 Teaching Mommies. R like doing these, and usually we only go to 5, but this day, he wanted to keep going. R used Christmas pom poms with tinsel through them as the markers. We recently got the photo cubes, and we both love them. They make this type of activity much easier for me to prepare. R loves throwing these dice and running after them to see what he rolled. It is also a great way for us to involve M (aged 1) in our learning activities. He rolls the dice and R adds the counter to the graphing sheet.

R also filled in the Cupcake Observation sheet as he ate the cupcake he decorated. I really like the this idea, and R did to. We discussed each section, and R decided and marked the sheet.

All in all, we had a fun day with lots of learning!

Thanks for reading.

Roll and Dot

I am on study break at the moment, so I have had a bit of time to search around the internet for some new ideas. One of the things I saw on Tons of Fun was a dice game using Do-a-Dot markers. It did not take long for me to set this one up.

We used a number die and a colour die. R rolled the dice and selected the correct dot marker, making the corresponding number of dots on his paper. For example, in the following photo, R rolled yellow on the colour die and 5 on the number die, so he would make 5 dots with the yellow marker.

R really liked this game. We played it again, with each of us taking turns to roll and dot. This activity took very little time to set up and was a good way to reinforce numbers 1-6. 

Thanks for reading. 

Number Match

I have noticed that I set up a lot of language and alphabet activities for R, and not as many maths activities, so I have been trying to set up more maths and number based activities. This activity is similar to the Alphabet Stick and Match activity that R and I completed a while back.

I wrote the numbers 1-9 on a small whiteboard. Next to the whiteboard, I placed a bowl with magnetic numbers 1-9 in it. 

R matched the magnetic numbers to the numbers on the whiteboard. I named the numbers as R matched them. After he was done, he took the numbers off the board and put them back in the bowl. I got him to trace over the numbers on the whiteboard. This removed the numbers. R was delighted with this and continued until all the numbers were 'wiped' off.

This was a simple activity to set up and R enjoyed it.

Elmer Birthday Cake and Crafts

R has really taken a liking to the 'Elmer' series of books since we borrowed "Elmer and the Rainbow" from the library a few months ago. I asked at the library if they had any others, and the kind librarian put some on 'request' for us, so we have had a steady stream of 'Elmer' books for a while now.

When R was choosing his birthday cake, he asked for Elmer. So I got my husband to sketch a picture of Elmer from the book cover. I made a round cake and used the drawing to cut out the pieces we did not need. I could not make gray icing, so I added plain icing to the cake and made a grid with an icing pen. Then it was a matter of 'simply' colouring in the squares with the different coloured icings. I say simply - because, once I found a method, it was quite simple to do. It was time consuming though, taking about two hours to ice the whole cake.

It turned out quite well, I was really proud of my efforts when it was finally finished.

We have also done a few craft activities:

This is a picture I found on Google and R painted it with Do-A-Dot markers (which R has fallen in love with in recent times)

Another Google picture find, collaged with small coloured squares.

We have done a couple of other things, but I cannot find the photo's. I will update if/when I locate them.

Thanks for reading.

Colour Paddles

I was sorting through some old resources that I made when I first began working and I found these colour paddles.

They were really simply made. I drew the template onto cardboard and painted them in the primary colours. Once the paint was dry, I glued matching cellophane onto the back and they were done.

I had to get them out for R to explore. He absolutely loved them and spent about half an hour looking at things with them. I also showed him how to put one on top of the other to create a new colour.

It was a simple way to introduce colour mixing to R.

Colour Shades

R knows his colours, and most colour activity no longer appeal to him these days, so I was excited to find some more advanced colour activities for R. I found this activity at Love My Life x4.

At first R was reluctant to do this activity, but the second time I put it out he went for it and loved it.