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

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.

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!!

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.

Transport

R is 27 months old.

I compiled this program because R loves anything with wheels...cars, trains, trucks, bobcats, bikes... He will spend hours pushing his little cars around, pushing them along train tracks, and filling the trucks with pom poms, pebbles or anything else that fits.

Crafts

R made a cardboard roll airplane. I saw this idea on No Time For Flashcards. First, R painted a paper towel roll, wings and tail with brown paint. When they were dry, I glued the wings on the top and stuck the tail piece into a slit cut in the end of the roll. R zoomed it around for a while before pulling the wings off the top. :)

R made a train from different shapes. I cut all the pieces out, then R glued them together, following my instructions. This idea came from No Time For Flashcards.

Another similar craft which I saw on No Time For Flashcards was a shape boat. R finger painted on a sheet of paper with blue paint. When this dried, R stuck the shapes on to form a boat. I offered some verbal instruction.

R did a painting with a little trailer (his choice) from our farm set. He enjoyed it so much that he made 3 paintings!

Maths

When I was still working I made a transport sorting game from Kizclub. R had to put the mode of transport in the correct area. He needed some verbal help with this the first time he did it, but after that he did it on his own.

I made a simple sorting game from vehicle pictures. This was too simple for R. He completed it and packed it away quickly.

We looked at the wheels on R's vehicles. We counted the wheels and discussed the circle shape of them.

Colours and Shapes

I got out our pattern blocks to make a sail boat. This was really hard for R, the pattern blocks kept moving all over the laminated sheet, so he lost interest quite quickly, preferring to explore the pattern blocks instead.

I printed off some shape vehicles from 2 Teaching Mommies. I laminated all the pieces and we sat together to make some vehicles.

Fine Motor and Sensory

This sensory tub was unplanned and came together by accident. I was cutting out some items to laminate. I used the sensory tub to put the off cuts into. R started playing with the strips of paper. I cut some up into small squares and put some plastic transport toys in there. R had a great time with it. I ended up cutting all the paper that I was going to throw out into squares for this tub.

R loves water play, so we got the boats out of the bath and played with them in the sensory tub. I also put in a little bit of soap.

I put some little plastic transport manipulatives out to use with the playdough. Now this was pure gold, combining 2 things R loves. He spent ages with this, pressing the manipulatives into the dough, making tracks, and stacking the cars up. He returned to this activity so many times this week that I lost count!

For a bit of variety in the sandpit, I added in some vehicles. This was also very popular, although it was quite cold, so we didn't get outside as much as we both would have liked.

I set out some blocks and cars to see how R would use the two together.

I made some tiny transport cards with pictures from Google. I laminated them and hid them in a bowl of dried beans for R to find. When he finds the cards, he puts them in the little box. I made an activity sheet to go with this, listing the name of the vehicle and a picture for R to match the cards to when he found them, but he wasn't interested in that at all, so out came the box! The cards are approx. 2-3cm, but each is slightly different, due to the orientation of the vehicle pictures. We have done this a few times before, and I keep coming back to it, because R enjoys it and will repeat it many times.

Music and Movement/Gross Motor

We sung loads of songs this week, including "Up in the Air I Fly," "The Wheels on the Bus," and "Row Row Your Boat."

We pretended to be lots of different types of vehicles, making their noises and moving around our car mat.

R and I played a little game where he would push a truck around the room and I would say "stop." He would stop and wait for me to say "go again."

Snack

I made a couple of little sailboats for R for a snack. He loved this and kept saying "I eat boat, Mummy." This idea was inspired by Mama Jenn. I used pears for the base of the boats, cheese for the masts and fruit toast for the sails.

Language and Letters

You can see the books we read here.

Our alphabet craft this week was "C is for Car". I cut a 'C' from black paper and drew in road markings with a white crayon. R then stuck on some car stickers. For each car he stuck down, he kept saying "that daddy's car."

I made a set of Transport Spelling Cards from Dinosaurs and Trains. R used these on a cookie sheet with magnetic letters. He did so well at it, matching all the letters, only getting 1 'u' upside down. I was so proud of him, especially as this was the first time we have done letter matching in this form.

I printed out an Itsy Bitsy Book called Zoom from Kidzone. We have not done anything like this before, but R drew on it, then I cut it out and folded it up. R read it, and was so excited to show Daddy when he came home from work.

Science
We rolled vehicles off a ramp. This was the activity of the week. R kept saying "Fun, Mummy!" :)

Next Program: Polar Animals