Tot School : A is for Airplane

E is 25 months, C is 22 months, and B is 4

This week was so much fun learning all about airplanes. The boys especially enjoyed this theme and E didn't hesitate to jump in on the fun either.  I forgot to bring my camera to work on Monday so sadly I don't have a ton of pictures this week. The good news is that after a ridiculously long repair process, I finally got my good camera back on Tuesday so the pictures that I do have are at least decent quality!

Arts and Crafts

Decorating Propellers

    I don't remember where I picked them up, but I found these little wooden propellers a while back and knew they would bring us some fun sooner or later. I kept the art part simple, just letting the kids decorate them with markers so they could play with them right away! It actually turned out to be a great exercise in coloring on a 3 dimensional surface. It took a lot of focus for the kids to hold the propeller and color on it at the same time. 

They all had a blast playing with their propellers after they were done decorating!

Cloud Sponge Painting

    The little ones enjoyed painting with a sponge on Friday to make a cloudy scene. My plan was for them to add airplane stickers but I couldn't find them anywhere. 

Sensory

Ivory Soap Clouds

    My favorite activity of the week was making Ivory soap clouds. Apparently Ivory soap, unlike other soaps is whipped before it is poured into molds, creating air bubbles inside the soap. When you microwave it, the air expands causing the soap to puff up into a fluffy cloud.

 Cool, right?  You can turn this into a fun science experiment by microwaving different types of bar soap and comparing the results. I stumbled across this activity last minute and only had Ivory soap on hand so we just observed the Ivory soap. The kids ( and myself ) were awed as we watched the soap puff up right before our eyes. I cut the soap into quarters so we got to make 4 clouds! I set the clouds in the water table with some toy airplanes for the kids to explore and play with. 

 E especially had a blast poking at the clouds and eventually took to breaking them apart into a fluffy powder and hurling it into the air (Cough Cough). In case you were wondering, this activity wasn't all that messy, E just thinks she needs to strip down any time the water table comes out - lol!

To extend the play I added some water to the table. Boats were brought in and we even made some of our own as our fluffy clouds turned into a frothy sea!

Gross Motor

Paper Airplanes 

    I unfortunately didn't get any pics of our paper airplane fun on Monday but it was a big hit. I pre-made several different types of paper airplanes following tutorials from this great site, including a fun paper helicopter! I also made a couple of these cool straw airplanes

We had fun throwing them back and forth to one another, trying different techniques and comparing how they fly!

Early Literacy

Tracing Lines

    At home, E has continued to enjoy her pre-writing worksheets that I have been printing out. This airplane one is from Home School Creations' Preschool Transportation Pack.  This work is definitely a challenge for her but she really enjoys it and has made a lot of progress just in the past 3 weeks that I have been offering her these sheets! 

Come see how other tots are learning at 1+1+1=1