Tot School: Red Week

Hi friends!  I am linking up this week with #TeacherMom's new tot school linky.  One thing my kiddo needs more time with is learning her colors.  So last week we focused on the color red!  Since red reminds me of apples, I made this apple sensory bin.

This was really easy to make!  Here is a list of things included:

- bin - Target Dollar Spot

- apples - Michael's Craft Store (don't forget to use the 40% off coupon!)

- oats - any grocery store

- apple trees - toilet paper rolls, construction paper and red marker for the apples

- animals, farmer and fence - Little People Farm play set

(Pictured Below)

- tongs

-box for apples - from a Melissa and Doug play food set

The only thing I had to buy for this activity was the apples.  I got them 40% off at Michael's with a coupon.  Everything else we had at home.

The animals loved eating the apples!

She used the tongs to transfer the apples from the bin to this box.  

Isla loved reading these cards from Preschool Homeschool.  They are simple sentences about things that are red.  Preschool Homeschool has sets like this for every color and for other themes.  They come in color and black/white.  In this picture Isla is using an apple pointer to track while "reading" the sentences on the cards.  We kept them up all week and she could go read them whenever she wanted.  

Coloring the black/white version of the cards with a red crayon.

We used red play dough to make things that started with the letter c, one of our focus letters for the week.  

This cat themed lunch was more about the letter c than the color red, but I did use a red plate!

I made this dot the letter page for more letter c practice.

This FREE count and clip center from Teaching Tykes was so fun!  The center has cards up to number 20, but we just used the cards up to number 10.  

I hope you enjoyed reading about some of the activities we did this week.  Check back next week for more color themed ideas!   

Polar Animals and the Letter Ii

With the start of the new year, I made a promise to myself that I would get more organized about the educational (and fun!) activities that I do with my daughter every week.  AND I'm going to blog about it!  I'm all about themes, and because it's January I decided to start with polar animals.  It's always been one of my favorite units to teach my students about!  I also decided to focus on one letter a week.  My daughter's name is Isla, so we started with the letter Ii.

This was our first attempt at using Do-A-Dot markers.  It was a BIG hit!  She loved finding all of the letters in the igloo.  Each time she did a dot I prompted her to say the sound for i.  You can download this page and a few others we did this week by clicking HERE. (We also did the included penguin page and polar bear puzzles, but I forgot to take pictures of those in action.  I laminated both of those pages and printed the polar bear puzzles on card stock for durability.)

This is one of the other letter i pages I made.  I laminated it so we could use it over and over again.  The markers we used are Crayola Washable Dry Erase Markers.  They aren't stinky like Expo markers and they are WASHABLE!  I modeled how to write the capital and lowercase i, then let her practice on her own - she felt like such a big girl :).  This was a quick activity but she asked to do it every day!

Penguin clip art from Creative Clips,

I made this color sorting game with things I had around the house.  The wood baskets are from a Melissa and Doug play food set my daughter got for Christmas.  I'm so glad I didn't toss them!  The blocks are a Melissa and Doug Wooden Blocks set.  I printed out the penguins(sticking with the polar animals theme), laminated them and taped them to the baskets.  This is a game I kept out all week and she kept going back to it.  I also had her practice naming the colors and shapes as she sorted them.

This idea came from No Time for Flash Cards and I couldn't wait to try it.  It was so easy to prep!  I used a blue paper bin from the Target Dollar Spot.  I filled the bin with a few inches of water and then put a small bowl in it(for the ocean) and filled the bowl with potatoes so it wouldn't float.  Then I placed it in the freezer overnight.  When I took it out the next day the bowl was stuck in the ice, so I filled the bowl with some lukewarm water and let it sit for a few minutes until the ice around it melted enough for the bowl to come out.  I added a little water to the ocean for the animals to swim in.  The ocean was her favorite part of the activity.  All of the animals went swimming!  She also liked breaking off small pieces of ice as they melted away from the ocean and eating it(so I'm really glad I cleaned the bin before hand!).  We added a couple ice cubes for "ice bergs" and she loved that as well.  You can see in one corner of the bin the ice was raised and the animals were able to slide down it.  I don't know how that happened or I would recreate it because she also had a lot of fun with that part.  We talked about the names of the animals and their colors, how some animals live on land and others in the water,  and talked about cold vs. hot.  The animals are from the Toob Penguins and Artic sets(which are crazy expensive on Amazon today so I didn't include a link).  Did you know they sell Toob Animals at Michaels Craft Stores?  You can use a coupon and get them 40-50% off!  

SNACKS.  So while I was searching Pinterest for polar animal ideas, I came across these cute snack ideas.  How could I resist?  The polar bears were SO easy and quick to make - she loved them!  The penguin sandwich (from Disney) took more time, but when my daughter saw her lunch she GAVE IT A HUG! Literally, she hugged her plate - lol!  Made the time it took to make it all worth it.  The penguin cup was a gift from her aunt last year(from Target).

That's a little bit about our week.  I took more pictures of our letter Ii activities, but can't find them so I will be better about where I put them for my next post!  It you'd like to see more polar animal ideas you can check out my January Pinterest board by clicking HERE.

Coming up next....the letter s, as in s is for snowman!  Check back next week to read all about it!



   
 
  

Christmas Crafts!

My goal this month has been to do a fun holiday project or craft each week with my daughter. There are so many AMAZING activities on Pinterest, but many of them were too much work for my brain to think about right now.  I wanted to do things that were easy prep, low mess and fast clean up.  So what have we done?  Here’s a look:

Cereal Christmas Trees

This was really easy to prep!  Everything I needed I had in the house.  I cut out the tree shape, trunk and star from construction paper(freehand).  I used craft scissors to cut the tree to give it a little pizzazz.  Then grabbed a handful of fruit loops for Isla (my daughter, 22 months) to glue on the tree like ornaments.  I put a dab of white glue on the tree and then she put a fruit loop on the glue.  It was a quick project to complete but she had a lot of fun!

Christmas Name Train

I picked up the foam train shape and foam stickers at the dollar tree.  We started with spelling out her name.  I gave her one letter at a time for her to place on the train.  We practiced saying the names and sounds of each letter while we were at it!  (Lots of fun to be had with those foam letters.)  Then she picked out the foam shapes she wanted, I peeled off the backing and she placed them where she wanted.  Both the shapes and the letters were sticky, so no glue mess to worry about.  We have a lot of leftovers so she can do this several times over!

Christmas Coloring Book

This counts right? ;)  I got this Christmas coloring book at the dollar tree. She really enjoyed coloring a few pages and then she was over it for the day.  But it’s a good sized coloring book so we have gotten it out quite a bit this month.  A quiet, non-messy, no prep activity is always welcome in this house!   

This was right before I had to run back around the table to keep her from spilling those candies all over the floor. 

Gingerbread Houses (Ok - not so easy prep, low mess, fast clean up but full of priceless memories!)

A family tradition!  Every year my family gets together to make gingerbread houses.  This was Isla’s first time making a gingerbread house.  My sister premade the houses so that they were ready to be decorated.  Every one brought candy and went to town decorating.  I put the frosting on for Isla and she picked out the candy and stuck it on her house.  She didn’t eat as much of the candy as I thought she would have, but I think that’s only because she tried one of those red oblong candies and then decided she didn’t want to try any more candy, haha!  If you are going to make gingerbread houses be sure to check out your local 99 cent store.  They have Christmas tree and Santa shaped gummies that are perfect for this project! 

So, that’s what we’ve been up to around here.  What projects/crafts are you doing with your little ones this time of year?  I’d love to hear about it!