Maths and Fine Motor Fun

R and I have been playing quite a few board and dice games now that he has got the number concepts 1-30 down pat.

We each get an ice cube tray (these ones are from Ikea), a bowl of pom poms, tweezers for R and a dice. You roll the dice and add that number of pom poms to your tray. Winner is the first one to fill their tray. 

I am looking for some ice cube trays with more holes in them so we can add two dice and practice some addition and subtraction with this game. I am thinking about making some "+" and "-" inserts to use with our education cubes when playing this game. 

R loves this game and requests it quite often. It is a quick game that requires little set up. 

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.

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!

Letter Ff and Square

R is 27 months old.

We had a great week last week. We had a bit of sunshine, and although it was still cold, we managed to get outside almost everyday. R has been recognising letters when we read books. So excitied by that.

Craft

R did a foot painting. I saved the paper that my deli goods were wrapped in when I last went shopping. The paper is large and quite thick. I just drizzled some paint on the paper and R walked on it. I had to hold his hands so he didnt slip, but he loved it. He did 2 paintings.

R printed with our square stacking cups. He wasn't so keen on this, doing it for a short time only.

 

Fine Motor and Sensory

Many years ago, I made a face where you can velcro the pieces in place. I got it out for R because he loves velcro, and he loved it. He did it so many times, first it was Daddy, then Grandad. Before we did it we looked in the mirror to see where all the parts of our face are located, then R began to stick the parts on. As he did, I talked about where parts are located on the face, and he got everything in place. I am not sure where I got the face from.

R did the Square Magnet Page from Home Grown Hearts and the F is for Fish magnet page from Confessions Of A Homeschooler. We tried with marbles, but they kept rolling off the page, so I got out the sparkly pom poms.

I got out the felt food that I made a few weeks ago. I made a sandwich with fillings and a pizza with toppings. Both ideas were seen at Serving Pink Lemonade. R had a great time, especially making a sandwich and pretending to eat it!

I gave R some feathers to explore. He enjoyed this, and kept trying to tickle me and M with the feathers.

I put some flour into a tub for R to explore. He absolutely loved it and spend over 1/2 a hour playing with the flour. He moved it around, drew in it and sprinkled onto his and my hands.

We used the Main Letter Page from Tot School Printables again as a playdough mat. I also put out the F and fish cookie cutters.

We also used the Ff lacing card and puzzle from Tot School Printables. R is getting good at putting the puzzles together, but still only laces the card a few times.  

I got out our magnetic fishing game to play with R. He did not like this last time I got it out, but this time he loved it. He played with it so much that it is still out on our shelves now. He gets this look of intent concentration on his face when he is trying to 'catch' the fish with the fishing rod.

Language and Letters

You can see the books we read here.

R is still right into drawing and tracing at the moment. I gave him the Ff tracing from Confessions Of A Homeschooler. He is getting so good at this now.

R did a finger painting on a letter F.

R stamped with Ff stamps on the foot from Tot School Printables. He really got into this more so than usual.

R did some Ff Sorting from Confessions Of A Homeschooler.

Shapes and Colours

R traced a square from the shape tracers that I printed from Home Grown Hearts.

We got out our wooden blocks to sort the squares. We also looked at squares and rectangles to see the differences. I showed R the longer sides on the rectangles.

I had intended to make squares out of straws with R, but when I went to get out the straws, I discovered that we only had 3 straws left, so I got out the craft sticks instead. I quickly made some little mats to help R with the constuction of the squares. He really like this activity and made the shapes several times. I saw this idea at Shannons Tot School. Once R had made the squares, we counted the sides.

R did Do-A-Dot Painting on a square, from Childcareland. He did this quickly, and is getting much more accurate each time he does this.

When R was about 18 months old, I made some squares from sandpaper. I got these out and R matched the differet grits of sandpaper. I also got R to trace the edges to feel the shape of the square.

R made a little shape man from squares, and of course, had to put some wiggly eyes on it! I cut out the squares and a mouth for R and then he completed the rest on his own. The final product is kinda cute!

Music and Movement/Gross Motor

We sang "Five Speckled Frogs" this week.

We kicked a football around when we were outside.

I used masking tape to make a square on the floor. R walked around the lines and jumped in and out of the square.

Cooking

We made fairy bread this week. It was simple thing that R could complete on his own with little help from me. He spread the butter on his bread, then sprinkled the 100's and 1000's over. He loved this.

Maths

I got out our small plastic fruits and coloured bowls for R to do some sorting. R was so excited when he saw these. He loves these sets, we have transport, bears, fruit, farm animals and dinosaurs.

Next Week Program: Winter.

Thanks for reading.