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. 

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. 

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.

Ping Pong Scoop and Post

Over the past few weeks, I have been slowly setting out activities for M to participate in. He recently turned 1, and has been wanting to joining in our learning activities. R and I usually complete most of our learning adventure while M takes his daytime naps, however, M is slowly changing to one nap per day. So, I have found it much easier to get them both busy in order for us to get anything done.

One of the first activities that I set out for R and M was a scooping activity. R scooped the ping pong balls with the big orange spoon into the tissue box. M used his hands, and did try the spoon after seeing R do this. I left this activity out on our toy shelves for the week (I usually swap out their toys on Sunday) and it was used a lot. I had to replace the tissue box several times.

Sadly, the orange spoon did not survive the week, it got stepped on and snapped where the handle becomes the spoon.

Tonging Plastic Puff Balls

I recently picked up a few new items to renew interest in some activities that we have done many times before. Here is two of my finds being put to good use.

I got the flower ice cube tray for about 50c from Ikea. The little plastic puff balls were from Spotlight and were a bit more expensive, at $4 for 2 bags. R used the tongs to move the puff balls to the flower tray.

We have used the puff balls for sorting and M also enjoys playing with them. 



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.

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!