Week 12- The Beach

This past week we went to the beach so we did a few beach themed activities.

Shell Imprints

I tried to show Little Sweets how to make an imprint of the shell in the play dough, she enjoyed just sticking the shells in the play dough instead. 

Foam Fish Patterning

I made patterning cards out of the foam fish I had bought from the dollar tree.  Little Sweets put the foam fish on top of the pattern cards. 

Melissa Doug Fish Puzzle

Little Sweets enjoyed fishing for the puzzle pieces on her puzzle.

Playing in the Waves with Daddy

Little Sweets loved the beach and especially enjoyed playing in the waves.

Digging in the Sand

Little Sweets had fun digging in the sand.

Fun Sand Sculptures

As we were walking the beach we saw some neat sand sculptures.

Homosassa Springs Park

After spending the weekend at Hilton Head we went to my grandfather's house in Florida.  We visited the Homosassa Springs Park while we were there.  Little Sweets got to see real manatees, alligators, and other animals that are native to Florida. 

After seeing live alligators I was surprised she wanted to play with this fake one. 


For more great tot school posts go here.

We're back from vacation

I haven't been blogging lately because we have been on vacation.  I plan to start posting again this week.

  We had a great time at the beach. 

Review of the book "God's Promises for Girls"

I recently received the book God's Promises for girls by Jack Countryman and Amy Parker in the mail courtesy of booksneeze.com.  This is a very cute book for little girls.  The book is divided into topics that would be relevant to little girls and provides scripture to support each topic, example topics include; God's Love Never Changes, God's Promises When You Are Worried, Promises about God's Grace, etc...  The verses in the book are taken from The Children's International Bible.  I was not overly excited about the translation. I think some of the verses require further explanation for children to grasp full  understanding of the verse.  I did enjoy the book and plan on using it with my daughter.  It is a great teaching tool and can easily be used as a scriptural reference book.  I recommend this book to girls between the ages of 4-10. 

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from BookSneeze.com book review bloggers program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. For more information about this program please go here.

Fun Frugal Friday- Scapbooking Scissors

I was at Target browsing the dollar bins and I came across scrapbooking scissors for $1.00.  These scissors are great to use with preschoolers.  They love the neat designs they can make with the scissors and it helps their fine motor development. 

Caterpillar Patterning Printable

Caterpillar  Patterning Printable

This is a printable I made for my daughter to use for color matching and patterning.  The printable has six different caterpillar patterns.  You can use the worksheet with pom poms.  To download the printable go here.

Tot School- Bugs Week 2

This week we did more bug activities.

(22 Months)

Pattern Shapes Butterfly

I drew a butterfly and traced pattern block shapes on the butterfly.  I laminated the paper and Little Sweets placed paper pattern block shapes on top of the traced shapes.  ( I don't have plastic pattern blocks yet, but I laminated some shapes that I cut out of construction paper.)  Little Sweets did great and placed all of the shapes in the correct spots.  I helped with turning some of the shapes the right way.

Homemade Butterfly Puzzles

I printed pictures of butterflies off of the computer and laminated them.  Then I cut them into two pieces.  Little Sweets matched the pieces.  She needed help lining them up.  She likes things lined up perfectly.  We also talked about the butterfly colors.

Size Matching Sheet

I printed this activity from Confessions of Homeschooler blog.  We talked about large, medium, and small and Little Sweets placed the cutout butterflies on the butterfly sheet.

Looking for Bugs

Little Sweets and I looked for bugs outside.  We found some but decided not to put them in her bug cage.

Caterpillar Fun

I printed out different caterpillars patterns that I had made on my computer.  Little Sweets used her pom poms to make caterpillars by placing them on top of the printed caterpillar.  This activity helps with fine motor skills as well as teaches color matching.  To download the free caterpillar printable please go here.  There are six different caterpillars on the worksheet.   

Dot Art Lady Bug

Little Sweets used her bingo stamps to put spots on her ladybug.

Field Trip to the Butterfly Garden

We went to the children's museum this week.  They have a butterfly garden outside.  Little Sweets and I walked around and saw many different types of beautiful butterflies. 

stART Activity-  The Very Busy Spider

 

We read The Very Busy Spider by Eric Carle and painted a spider web with a marble.  To read more about this stART activity please go here.

Homemade Rainmaker

We had a craft time at our playgroup this week.  One of the other moms came up with the idea to make homemade rainmakers. It was so cute I wanted to share.   Little Sweets decorated a paper towel roll.  Then we rolled up a piece of tinfoil and put it inside and taped construction paper to the end to close up the hole.  We poured rice into the paper towel roll and closed up the other end.  When Little Sweets turns the paper towel roll over it makes noise like rainmakers make. 

For more Tot School posts please go here. 

stART- The Very Busy Spider

The Very Busy Spider

We read the book The Very Busy Spider by Eric Carle.  This is a great book for young children who love to read about animals.  Little sweets loved naming the animals as we read the book.  After we read the book Little Sweets made a spider web.  We painted a spider web using a marble and white paint.  Little Sweets rolled the marble in the paint and then on a black piece of construction paper. 

If you would like to see more great stART activities or would like to link up please go here. 

Tot School- Bugs Week 1

  

  This week our theme was bugs.  We will be doing bug activities for 2 weeks.  Here are some of our activities from the week.

Sorting- Long and Short

I found some rubber worms that I had used when I was teaching and used them for two sorting activities.  Little sweets sorted these worms by length.  She put the short worms in one container and long worms in the other container.  She really enjoys sorting activities   This was the first time we sorted by length and she did a great job.  At first she wanted to sort them by color but after I showed her what to do she caught on real quickly.

Sorting by Color 

I had Little Sweets sort the worms by color for this activity. 

Butterfly Art

I picked up some bingo markers at the dollar store and Little Sweets loved them.  She used them to decorate her butterfly.

Homemade Butterfly Book

Little Sweets loved the markers so much that I decided to cut out small butterflies to stamp on.  I used the butterflies in a color book I made.  The book is repetitive and the only word that changes is the color word.  I use the book to help Little Sweets learn her colors. 

Build a Bug Game

I bought a build a bug game at a consignment sale and let Little Sweets play with the bugs.  I was hoping she would be able to put the bugs together herself, but she doesn't have the fine motor skills yet.  She showed me where to put the parts in her bug and she had some interesting looking bugs.  Some bugs had hands coming out there heads.  She loved her bug so much that she took him to nap with her.

Big and Little Caterpillars 

I had some circles left over from last week so I thought I would continue on with the lesson about big and little.  Last week we sorted the circles by size and this week we used the different sized circles to make different sized caterpillars.  I cut out a stencil for the caterpillars and Little Sweets glued the circles on top of the stencil and glued on the eye.  We also talked about the difference between big and little.  I also used this activity to go along with the book; The Very Hungry Caterpillar.  To learn more about my stART activity please go here.  

Dirt Pie

Little Sweets helped me make dirt pie and eat it. 

Bead Bugs

Instead of using laces for the lacing beads we used pipe cleaners and made bugs out of the beads.  Little Sweets is still having trouble lacing the beads.  I helped her with this activity.  ( I found lacing beads at The Dollar Store.  It was a super deal.)

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Learning Tools

stART-The Very Hungry Caterpillar

Last week our theme was shapes.  I had a bunch of circles left over so I thought it would be fun to make a caterpillar out of them. We read the book The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle and we made a caterpillar.    I made circle stencils and Little Sweets glued the colored circles on top of the stencil.  She helped add the eye and I added the antennae and feet.  After we made the caterpillar we decided it would be fun to make a smaller one.  Little Sweets helped make a smaller caterpillar and we talked about the difference between big and little. 

For more fun stART activities please go here.