Turtles

They boys have been interested in Turtles over the past few days, so I decided to make them a turtle sensory tub. This was similar to the dinosaur tub we did a  few weeks ago, because they enjoyed it so much.

The contents of the tub include:

• blue aquarium rocks
• glass pebbles
• green grass filler (the type you get to fill Easter baskets with)
• plastic rocks 
• small turtle figurines
• a few plastic trees

We also did some counting and fine motor work with some turtle number cards printed from Confessions of a Homeschooler. 

 R really liked this, but M struggled with the learning links. 

Dinosaur Sensory Tub

The boys have been all about dinosaurs of late. I made them a dinosaur sensory tub to play with the little dinosaur figurines that we have accumulated.

The contents of the tub are:

• Green aquarium rocks
• Assorted trees
• A volcano
• Mini dinosaur figurines
• Dinosaur skeletons

They made a huge mess with the little stones, but the fun they had was well worth it!

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.

Cooking with a Sensory Tub

This photo was take a while ago, after R was finished playing with a sensory tub.

The sensory medium is a soup mix, containing yellow and green split peas and barley. His interest in the tub was coming to an end, so I added measuring cups and spoons, a muffin tray, a cookie tray, some items from out kitchen play toy box and his little kitchen. In the interest of reducing mess, I lay a blanket on the floor.

R loved this activity. He scooped and mixed the mix and cooked it in thew oven. He made me a cake (yum!). R easily spent an hour with this set-up. Surprisingly, he made very little mess!

This was a great way to allow a bit of creative and imaginary play combined with sensory play.

Cloud Dough

I had a bag of bread flour which had gone out of date, so I decided to make some Cloud Dough after seeing it on Play At Home Mom. It was really easy to make and both the boys had a great time playing with it.

The boys spent about an hour playing with this medium. When they were done, I stored it in a plastic bag in the fridge, so we can re-use it.

I halved the recipe based on the flour that I had available. 

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!!

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.

Polar Animals

R is 27 months old.

This was a really fun program that I compiled to enhance R's interest in polar bears. It had also been really cold here, so it fitted in perfectly! We even did some activities in bed this week, because it was so cold! I set R up with a pillow and a stable table, and we got some things done while being warm! R really enjoyed this, and wanted to do it again the next day.

Craft

We made a paper plate penguin, seen on childcareland.com. R loved this, especially painting on the paper plate and using the wiggle eyes. I love what he created, it is so cute!

R glued cotton balls onto a polar bear pattern from Making Learning Fun. R helped me pull apart cotton balls to glue onto the bear first (a great fine motor and muscle strengthening activity). He did not enjoy the cotton wool sticking to his fingers once they had glue on them.

Maths

I printed off the Polar Animals Track Matching Puzzles from 2 Teaching Mommies. R wasn't too sure about this at first, but once I showed him how the cards joined together, he completed them all several times. He then matched up our polar animals to the cards.

I made the Roll A Penguin Dice Game from Carls Corner. For the first time, we used the dice to play this game. Usually we put them together like a puzzle, but R is recognising the dots on the dice now, so we used it. After he rolled the dice, R would match up the dots on the dice to the dots on the page. I would then read what he had to do, and he would do it. He did it twice.

I made some arctic animal cards to match the arctic animal figurines that we have. R matched the animals to the cards, and I encouraged R to name the animals.

Fine Motor and Sensory

I hid the polar animal figurines around the room for R to find. I hid them in less obvious spots that I have previously, and it took him a while to find them.

I put the polar animals out with some ice blocks. I had intended to make some large ice blocks in an ice cream container, but in the end, I forgot about it, so we had to use the small ice blocks. R really enjoyed this, but only played with it a short time, because of how cold it has been here.

I made 'snow' from 1/2 cup of soap flakes whisked together with 1 cup boiling water until it increases in volume and thickens up like whipped cream. I used to make this a lot when I was working, but had never made it for R. He loved it, and spent over 1/2 an hour playing with it. He had it all over his little table, his chin and apron (so glad I put it on him...I nearly didn't).

We built an igloo from marshmallows. We looked at pictures of igloos on the internet, then tried to build one. It was quite hard to stack the marshmallows because they were irregular shapes. R had also never eaten a marshmallow before, and enjoyed the ones he got to eat. We also talked about hard and soft whilst playing with the marshmallows. The first picture is R's igloo and the other one is mine! I couldn't get a packet of white marshmallows because they were on special at the supermarket when I went and the white ones were all gone.

R used tongs to transfer cotton balls from one container to another. He always enjoys this type of activity, and I though the cotton balls would add a bit of variety, as we usually do tong transferring with pom poms.

For our cutting activity this week I printed a penguin size matching worksheet from childcareland.com. R drew on it with textas and then cut out the squares before gluing then into the correctly sized boxes. R did so well at this activity, he is really getting good control over the scissors.

I printed an igloo playdough mat from Sparklebox. I also gave R all the bear cookie cutters that we have.

Quite a while ago I made R a Polar Bear Shadow Match File Folder Game from Making Learning Fun. He can do it easily, but I put it out as we have been reading the book every day. The first few times that we read the book, he was referring to the zookeeper as a farmer. Finally, he pointed to the zookeeper whilst completing the file folder game and said "that zookeeper, Mummy."

I printed out some tiny arctic animals and laminated them. I hid them in a tub of pom poms for R to find. R did this so many times.

I also printed the penguin puzzle from Lawteedah. R wasn't interested in this at first, but completed it twice when I joined in with him. We have mostly only done 3-4 piece puzzles like this, so I think the 8 pieces were a bit overwhelming for him.

I created a really basic sensory tub from cotton wool and the arctic animal figurines. R played with it for a little while, before using the cotton balls with his train set!

Music and Movement/Gross Motor

We sung a simple little song this week about Eskimos. R and I also did the Snowy Pokey, which I found at Perfectly Preschool. This was lots of fun.

We put a ball in between our legs and waddled like a penguin. Both of us had a great time.

R and I slid around the tiles in socks. R showed quite good balance whilst doing this.

Cooking

I made a little penguin from an English Muffin for R to eat for a snack. I saw the idea on Totally Tots. I used a sultana for the eye and carrots for the beak and feet. I spread the penguin with cream cheese.

Language/Letters

The books we read this week are here.

R made a P is for Penguin this week. He used cardboard pieces to scrape paint onto a "P" cutout, and the beak and feet. Then R glued it all together and added on a wiggly eye (his favourite part, so he told me!). I saw this idea on Rockaby Butterfly.

Science

We sprinkled salt on ice blocks and watched it melt the ice. This didn't happen fast enough for R and as soon as he was finished sprinkling the salt on the ice, he wanted to pack away!

Colours/Shapes

R made a shape polar bear from DLTK. We talked about biggest and smallest circles when doing this activity. R is getting really good at following directions now.

Next Program: Ff and Square

Thanks for Reading.