Hi-Ho Cherryo! Sorting

Hi-Ho Cherryo! is a favourite in our house, even M (at 18 months) joins in. I set up a simple sorting activity using the fruit and buckets. R had to sort the fruit by colour, using tongs to move them into the buckets.

He loved this, and repeated it several times. 

Apples

We have just finished a mini unit on apples. R is 3½ and M is 18 months.

Firstly, I printed some 3 part cards from abcteach, but I do not think they are available anymore, as I was unable to locate them. We used these to complete the apple labelling sheet from 2 Teaching Mommies.

We also used the apple observation sheet from 2 Teaching Mommies. I had a selection of apples to choose from. R chose one apple and we completed the sheet. M just joined in with the eating of the apples. :)

R chose another apple to draw. He placed it on his table and used it for inspiration whilst drawing. The apple card was also on his table, and he decided to write the word 'apple' on his picture. This is the first time he has purposefully written a word. We have had lots of letters come out in his drawings, but they have all been random. So this was exciting for me. I have had it stuck to the fridge ever since and have been proudly showing all the visitors that come to our house!!

We made apple trees from paper plates, toilet rolls and stickers. This was something the M could join in with, and boy, does he love to paint.

Both of the boys are into signing and nursery rhymes at the moment, so we sung "5 Red Apples" several times. I don't know where this came from. I made it a few years ago, and was unable to find it.

I made a little 1-5 counting book for R. He glued apple seeds onto each page to match the numeral on each page. He quite enjoyed this activity, next time I will make the book to go to 10, as he knows the numbers 1-5 well.

I printed the Roll and Colour Apple Tree from Kindergarten Hoppenings. This is a fantastic blog with loads of functional activities...one of my favourites! R is really getting into colouring in these days. He quite often asks for a picture to colour.

R is just beginning to understand patterning so, I made a couple of activities for his to practice this. These are from Confessions of a Homeschooler and Engaging Toddler Activities.

Also from Confessions of a Homeschooler, R did the shape matching and they both did the magnet page with pom poms. R also did the 6 piece puzzle.

R did apple size sequencing from Childcareland. Riley really gets this now, and was able to do this experience independently.

From 1+1+1=1, R did the Aa letter find with dot markers, whilst M did a dot painting. M absolutely loves the dot markers, and uses them almost everyday. Lucky they last forever!!!

We have started doing a few activities from the Ready2Read bundle by The Moffatt Girls. I love this idea and we are slowly working through the first few units. Here R coloured the -at and -an word families on the apple tree. 

Lastly, I made the boys an apple book that they completed with the dot markers. M had only 3 colours, whilst R's book contained a few facts about apples to make it a bit longer. They both loved having their own little books. 

This unit took almost 2 weeks to complete. We did a few other things too, but these were all the photos that I took. You can see my previous apples post here. 

I have just seen a wonderful apple pack from Musings Of Me. Here is the link to purchase the unit. I wish that I had seen this prior to our apple unit, I might just have to extend it another week to squeeze in some of these activities. There is a free apple book which we will do this afternoon. It uses dot markers...so I am sure it will be a hit in this house!!!  You can check out some of Michelle's other cute creations here, you will not be disappointed.

Thanks for reading

Pom Pom Transfer

If you are familiar with my blog, you will know that R loves pom poms. He lost interest in them for a while, so I did not get them out so much. Recently, I have been getting them out for M (who also loves them). This has sparked R's interest again. Here he is doing a transfer activity. He uses the tweezers to move the pom poms from the bowl to the tray. We also talked about shades of green, comparing the pom poms, bowl and tweezers.

I really like these tweezers. I recently picked them up whilst shopping for birthday presents, from a local toy shop, and they were only $1.99. They are easy for R to use and manipulate.

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. 

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.

Colour Sorting in a Muffin Tray

I made this activity for R after seeing it on Childcareland.

It was super simple. I cut the circles out of foam to fit in the bottom of the muffin tray, then cut the rest of the foam sheets into little squares. R simply has to sort the foam squares into the correctly coloured muffin cup. Simple and fun!

Fruit Salad

I recently picked up this set of fruit counters cheaply, because it was not a full set. I got them out with our colour sorting bowls for R to sort with.

R was not really interested in sorting by colour, so I came up with a little game to keep R's interest. I said some fruits and R collected them in a bow, making fruit salad for me. This is blueberry, grape and apple salad.

And strawberry, banana and grape salad.

Lastly, we had banana and strawberry salad.

R was really interested in this, and we spent ages making different combinations. including everything!

As we start working more on numbers, I had an idea to ask for fruit salad with two grapes, three bananas and one blueberry. I was even thinking of making some little cards for R to work independently. 

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!