Tot School : D is for Dog

E is 26 months, C is 22 months, B is 4 years

Tot school this week was all about dogs! The kids love dogs so as I imagined this theme was again very well received!

Arts and Crafts

Puppy Stamping

     We didn't do much art this week, which is unusual for us, but the tots did have fun with this simple project! I mixed up some paint ( it was supposed to be brown but ended up blood red ) and turned the kids loose with some puppy themed stamps. This was very much a process oriented activity. Very little actual stamping was done, but they had fun getting messy and experimenting with different techniques!

 Gross Motor

Dog Bone Hopscotch

    It's still a little chilly here to spend much time outside but there is something about this time of year that makes us all want to get up and move. I've had a lot of fun planning activities to keep these kid's energy constructive and under control! This activity is simple and self explanatory but the kids certainly enjoyed it.   Sneaking in some number recognition work was as an added bonus! 

 

 Pretend Play

Obedience School

    We did lots of pretend play this week. I sadly don't have any pictures, but on Monday I made the kids puppy ears to wear and they had fun pretending to be dogs playing "Obedience School". 

Dogs

    I don't really know what to call this activity, but the kids had fun taking care of their super cute balloon puppies. They walked and ran them all around the house, pretended to feed them, and had all sorts of fun. Their favorite thing was to put the puppies in funny places like on the window sill or on the table and scold the puppy for being naughty. lol. 

 In the Kitchen

Dog Biscuits

    I didn't get any pictures of this activity either, but the kids had so much fun making homemade dog biscuits for our dogs. This recipe was super easy and very toddler friendly. I highly recommend trying it! 

Ingredients:
2 c. whole wheat flour
1 c. rolled oats
1/2 c. peanut butter (smooth or chunky)
1 1/4 c. hot (not boiling) water

Other Needs:
rolling pin
cookie cutter(s)
2 standard size baking sheets
large bowl

How To Make The Easiest Dog Cookies Around:

1. In large bowl, mix whole wheat flour and rolled oats until combined.
2. Place 1/2 c. of peanut butter in bowl.
3. Pour hot water over mixture, and combine with spoon until cool enough to mix with hands.
4. Knead dough in bowl with hands until ingredients are combined and you are able to make large ball of dough. Add extra flour, if needed, until dough is not sticky.
5. Separate the dough in two.
6. Roll out dough on floured surface to about 1/4 inch thickness and cut out cookies; place on baking sheets.
7. Place baking sheets in oven heated to 350 F and bake for 40 minutes.
8. After cookies are baked, leave in oven overnight (or at least 8-10 hours) to dry and harden.

They all helped measuring and pouring the ingredients in the bowl then took turns stirring it up. They spent nearly an hour playing with the dough before we actually made the biscuits. Lots of fun!

See how other tots are playing at 1+1+1=1

Tot School : C is for Cat

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

The first week of our Pet theme was a huge success! We started off with E's favorite animal, cats! Her enthusiasm was contagious. The boys ended up enjoying this weeks activities just as much as she did!

Arts and Crafts

Paper Plate Cat Craft

     We talked about the different colors cats can be ( gray, black, brown, orange...) then I let them choose which color they wanted to paint their plates. 

I used their artwork to make a cute little cat craft later on. They loved looking at their kitties and knowing that they helped make it!

Cat Stamping

    The kids painted using cat themed stamps. Easy and fun!

Letter C Yarn Painting

     I gave the kids each 3 lengths of yarn - short, medium, and long.  We noticed the difference in lengths and I showed them how to dip the pieces into the paint and drape it across their paper to make neat designs. 

 They enjoyed this for about 10 seconds and then moved on to hand printing and finger painting!

Gross Motor

C-A-T Bean Bag Toss

    I made some quick bean bags to go along with our Three Little Kittens day using some extra mittens and, of course, beans. After nap one day, I set up some baskets with the letters C - A - T. The kiddos were thrilled to discover the game when they woke up. As they tossed the bean bags into the bins, I yelled out the letters. This was a great activity for mixed ages! I focused on letter recognition for the little ones while B worked more on spelling out the word by making baskets in the correct order!

Yarn Ball Races
    The kids used their noses to roll balls of yarn from one end of the room to the other!

Ribbon Dancing
    I made "cat toys" for the kids out of ribbon and straws. The kids had fun dancing around with them!

Pretend Play

Pet Store
    C and especially E love pretending to be kitties all the time. One day we created quite an elaborate game of "pet store" that B enjoyed as well. We turned the kitchen table into a kitten cage and we took turns driving to the store to buy a cat!

    

Early Math

Mitten Hunt and Match 
    We got another use out of our mitten game during our Three Little Kitten day this week. I hid them around the playroom and the kids had fun hunting for them. My intention was for them to match them up afterwards but they weren't interested. They certainly enjoyed the hunt though!
    

Memorable Moments

Slinky Dancing with my Girl

 E helping C with his bib

 C watching tv

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 B came home with a Cat in the Hat hat and E wanted one. I quickly turned our stamping project into hats for her and C. She calls it her birthday hat because I told her B's was for Dr. Seuss' birthday.

My little kitchen helper! No, she did not handle anything hot. She just like to wear the "hot nots" as she calls them!

See how other tots are learning at 1+1+1=1

Tot School : Winter Animals

It's snowing!!!
We finally got our first measurable snow of the winter. Granted, it is barely an inch, but it still puts me in the mood to share with you some of the winter activities we have been up to over the past week. I have to confess that I didn't make it to the library this week (actually I did make it but I forgot my card) so we didn't have most of the books on our lesson plan and probably wont have any for next week either. Never the less, the kids enjoyed all of our wintery activities.

Though not really winter related, E continued to enjoy her tot trays at home. This weeks trays included rice pouring work, a salt try, and the tonging work from last week instead of the stacking sugar cube work listed on the lesson plan. E's favorite by far was the salt tray. We had tried this once several months ago and she wasn't quite ready for it. Though she is still a ways off from actually writing letters, she is definitely using it more appropriately now, making designs and prints in the salt. All great pre-writing practice! Here you can even see some squiggles that kind of resemble the letter S.

She also liked when I would write an S in the salt and then help her trace mine by guiding her finger!

vigorously erasing her designs

She spent quite a bit of time doing the rice pouring work and can do it well both left and right handed!

We started off the work week by reading The Mitten by Jan Brett. Thankfully we own that book so we were still able to stick to our plan. We followed up by doing a mitten lacing activity. This was the first time I had introduced lacing cards to the kids so I was interested to see how they did. E and C both gave it a real effort. It was pretty challenging but I think with a little more one on one instruction they could quickly catch on.

I am sure B could have done this, however he decided it was much more interesting to fashion his mittens into some sort of trapping device and enjoyed tying things up with them instead ( I wish I would have gotten a picture. It was amusing to see his little imagination at work!)

Monday was a gloriously beautiful and sunny day which is hard to come by this time of year in Ohio so we made it a point to get out and enjoy the great outdoors.

 E was afraid of the big red swing last time we visited the park ( several months ago ) but not anymore!

 Her favorite thing was the teeter totter! She had the biggest grin on her face and proudly chanted "teeter totter bread and water" which she must have learned from Nana and Papa because I have never taught her that.

 The tots both enjoyed looking for wild life. Here they are trying to spot a woodpecker that was making noise at the top of the tree. They were also convinced that there was a crocodile in that little creek :)

We spotted several brilliant cardinals along the way. I can't get over how beautiful they are against the bare trees and bright blue sky.

We finished the day with a fun painting technique using water colors and salt.

When sprinkled on the wet paint, the salt absorbs the water which concentrates the paint around each grain creating a speckled effect - art and science all wrapped into one!

Thursday we learned all about bears and hibernation. I turned the dining room table into a bear cave which provided much entertainment throughout the entire day. B even requested it as a repeat activity on Friday. We discussed the meaning of the word hibernation and talked about why some animals sleep all winter as we played. We went through many cycles of the year, gathering food in the fall, curling up to sleep in the winter, and waking up to stretch and eat blueberries in the spring.

Sorry for the terrible photo quality ( my good camera should be fixed soon) but I hope you can still appreciate the cuteness of these jammied little ones all curled up in their cave on a snowy winter day!

In the afternoon, the kids made a simple bear cave craft. They colored in a brown bear I traced for them and glued cotton on a paper bag cave to make it look snowy. I taught them a this cute little song and they enjoyed acting it out with their bears and caves!

Time for Sleeping
(Sung to the tune of "Sing a Song of Sixpence")

Now it's time for sleeping
The bears go in their caves
Keeping warm and cozy
Time for lazy days
When the snow is gone and 
The sun comes out to play
The bears will wake up from their sleep
And then go on their way.

Bear going in cave

Tucking bear in with a blanket to keep cozy (her idea!)

Bear waking up and going on its way

Brady had a snow day on Friday so I nixed the rice poring that I had originally planned on and threw together a quick winter animal sensory box instead. 

The kids always enjoy sensory boxes and, as usual, added their own items as play progressed. Some how or another we ended up with a tractor, a truck, a toy garbage can and a cookie jar that was really a shark included in our little forest by the time they were done. I found it interesting (and cool) that B chose to use a plastic container as a shark rather than grabbing his actual toy shark. 

We finished the week playing with play dough and using animal figurines to make tracks in the "snow". 

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