What's on the Tray Wednesday

 For the first time in a long time I finally got E's seal of approval with her trays this week. She has gotten so much use and enjoyment out of these activities already and the week is only half over!

 First up are a set of sensory balloons that I finally got around to making. I think what makes them so great is that they are so open ended allowing E to do what she does best - come up with her own ideas of what to do with them. I made two of each texture allowing her to match them up if she desired. Matching was a bit difficult but she did enjoy sorting them into two categories : "crunchy" (noodles, pop corn kernels, rice) and"squishy" (baking powder, wheat germ). We also discovered these are very fun to throw!

I think E is finally getting ready for some lacing work. I have set this activity out for her several times in the past because she LOVES to play with beads and generally enjoys fine motor work, but this is the first time that she has really taken to lacing the beads on her own.

This is by far E's favorite tray of week! She loves Gilbert on the show Caillou so to go along with our cat theme I whipped up this little game. Using a favorite character has definitely helped to interest her in a work that would otherwise not be appealing to her. She has spent hours feeding Gilbert the fish, dumping them out, and feeding him again. I've encouraged her to count the fish as she puts them in but she hasn't picked up on that yet.

 Linking up with H is for Homeschooling

Montessori Monday

Tot trays have been hit or miss around here lately. I continue to set them out because you never know what will spark an interest, but most of our work has come in the form of every day life. Here's a look at what we've been working lately. 

Sponge Water Transfer

 E loves water and was definitely interested in this tray, however she was more into washing her table than she was transferring water. Not my intentions for the activity, but it works.

 Practical Life - Buckling Car Seats
    E discovered her old infant seat that I brought out of storage to clean up for the new baby. She was very interested in the buckle so we grabbed a baby doll to practice bucking in - Great work for those little hands!

Practical Life - Peeling Oranges
    E loves helping prepare dinner. As soon as she hears me in the kitchen she comes running and asks "what can I do"? This night she worked very hard peeling oranges for our salad and was quite proud of herself!

 

Practical Life - Making Smoothies

    As with this weeks water transferring activity, tonging and pouring work set out on E's trays seldom engage her in and of themselves. She prefers work with practical life applications. Here she is very focused as she uses tongs to transfer smoothie cubes from a bag into the blender and then pour in juice. 

Practical Life - Serving Water
This picture made me realize that I really need to set up a water station for E. I asked her to set the table for  dinner and she took it upon her self to pour us all drinks from her water bottle.  I am having a hard time deciding how and where to set it up but it is definitely on my to-do list.

March Lesson Plans: Week 1

Monthly Theme: Pets
Weekly Theme: C is for Cat
Weekly Memory Verse : "...He rescues and he saves..."Daniel 6:27a
Weekly Tot Trays: Matching Sensory Balloons
                                Feed Gilbert the cat
                                Beading cat collars

Monday
     Book : My Very First Encyclopedia - Cats
     Songs: 3 Little Kittens
     Morning Activity : 3 little kitten mitten hunt/match game
     Snack : apple pie
     Art : paper plate kitten craft
     Afternoon Activity : mitten bean bag toss
Tuesday
     Bible Time :  Read Daniel and the Lions Den from 100 Bible Stories: 100 Bible Songs
                         Daniel and the Lions Coloring sheet
                         Listen to "Whisper a Prayer" song from 100 Bible Stories: 100 Bible Songs
Wednesday
     Library
     Baking :
     Art : Letter C craft
Thursday
     Book : Cat in the Hat
     Song : There's a Kitten at the Door
     Morning Activity : Yoga - cat pose
     Art : paw print stamping
     Afternoon Activity : yarn ball races

Friday
     Book : If You Give a Cat a Cupcake
     Morning Activity : ribbon dancing
     Art : yarn painting
     Afternoon Activity : cat obstacle course

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

February Lesson Plans : Week 4

A is for Airplane

Week 4 ~ Tot Trays - Sponge water transfer
                                  3 Part transportation cards
                                  Letter hunt box


Monday
   Book: Planes by Byron Barton
   Songs:  I'm a little Airplane
   Art: Letter A texture painting
   Afternoon Activity: Paper airplane races

Tuesday
    Indoor play area

Wednesday
    Library
    Baking: Pita Chips
    Art: Flour Paint

Thursday
    Morning activity: Ivory Soap Clouds
    Art: Decorate Propellers
    Afternoon Activity: Play with propellers

Friday
    Field Trip
    Art : Sponge Painting with white paint + airplane stickers
   


   

Tot School : C is for Car

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

The bug that seems to be making the rounds finally made it's way to us this week. We didn't get to nearly all I had planned but the kiddos still kept pretty busy despite feeling under the weather. It takes a lot to slow these little ones down. For our second week of transportation, we focused on cars and trucks. The kids really enjoyed the activities we did get to and it was nice to take their minds off their miserable symptoms for a while. 

Arts and Crafts

Truck Tracks

    Painting with cars and trucks was the only art project we got around to this week but the kids thoroughly enjoyed it. 

Sensory

Car Wash

    After the tots had their fill of painting with the cars, I set out a bucket of soapy water for them to wash them in.  Lots of splashing and giggling were involved!

Transportation Sensory Bin
     Sensory bins are always a hit and this one was no exception. It was a particularly soothing activity on a day when they were all feeling pretty crummy.

 More trucks and tractors were added at the boy's house. We don't have many ourselves.

Gross Motor

Red Light, Green Light

    A simple game of red light green light was a great way to get us moving a bit and work on skills like following directions.  It is a bit frustrating for B to play these types of games with the little ones because "they don't do it right" but I think that E and C definitely benefit by watching B and trying to keep up with him. E is especially interested in participating and it won't be long before they are both able to understand and and follow the rules. 

E liked being in charge of the sign. She would yell out "Green means go!!" but didn't like to make us stop which upset B. C just liked to hold the sign and bend it which really ticked B off. Poor B. I'm glad he gets to play with kids his own age at school.

Early Literacy

C is for Car 

    E really enjoyed using her dot markers on her C is for Car page. She doesn't really get the idea of dotting the circles yet and prefers to scribble all over the page. Hopefully we will get there soon but for now it is just a fun activity for her and gives us an opportunity to talk about letter shape and sounds. She is picking up on letters pretty well. She knows C's name starts with C and she can identify a C among other letters but sometimes she will call it a E or something else. 

See what other tots are learning in Tot School over at 1+1+1=1

Make Learning Fun - Color Matching!

I have noticed over the course of the past month or so that many of the Montessori inspired activities I have set out for E are not engaging her the way they used to. When she was just a tiny tot, this type of work seemed perfect for her. I'd set her down with a bowl of pom poms and a small-holed container and she would repeatedly fill and empty, fill and empty with full focus. Now she seems to find this type of work monotonous and to be honest, I can't say that I blame her. She can sort, she can sequence, she can match, she can pour, but doing these things just for the sake of doing them does not interest her. I love Montessori and I recognize the value in these types of activities so I am trying to find ways to sneak in the work and make it fun and engaging.

This week we learned about cars and one of the activities on E's tot trays was matching hot wheels to corresponding color cards. As usual, she humored me by completing the work once but then wanted to go off and drive her cars all around the house. Following her lead, I cut out a quick little road from a cereal box for her to drive the cars on. Then I placed the color cards along the road and joined in the play. Driving the red car along the road I would say " I am trying to get to my red house, can you help me find my red house"? She eagerly drove her little car along, leading the way to the red house. We did this for all the colors.

 We had all sorts of fun playing with the cars, having yellow parties at the yellow house, running to the green store, etc. Every so often I would say, "Its night night time, all of the cars have to go home to sleep in their own houses".  She would drive the cars to their corresponding colors and voila color matching work made fun! She loved this game and it has been great for helping her differentiate between blue, purple, and green, the three colors she sometimes confuses. Now I just have to get creative in spicing up the rest of her work!

Letter Stamping Activity

I have one more activity to share from last week before moving on to this weeks activities. I have been trying to incorporate a little more letter work into our learning time lately but I still want to make sure that everything we do is fun for E. When I saw this simple stamping activity I knew it would be right up E's ally.

I quickly demonstrated how to press the stamp on the ink pad and then inside the T on her paper saying "t" each time. She took over and went to town stamping T's all over her paper ( We are still working on the concept of staying in the lines). I encouraged her to say the letter sound every time she stamped and we also sang the letter factory song to practice the sound the T makes. E loved this activity and asked to do many more letters. It's a great way for her to become familiar with the form of a letter as well as the sound. We will definitely be keeping this in our letter activity repertoire!