Caterpillar Review Activity

Caterpillar Review Activity

This was a fun activity that I made for Little Sweets.  Each player gets a caterpillar sheet and tries to fill in the circles.  I laminated colored circles to use as the body.  I wrote words and numbers we were working on that week on the circles and turned them over.  Little Sweets picked a circle and could place it on her caterpillar if she could tell me what the name of the number or word on the circle.  I plan on using this game as a review with other words and numbers in the future. 

Homemade Lego Math Game

Homemade Lego Math Game

This was so easy and fun to make.  I drew dots on index cards, cut them apart, and taped them onto legos.  Then I did the same thing with numbers.  My daughter counted the dots and matched the lego to the lego with correct corresponding number.

(This is a great activity for number recognition and counting.)

Sorting and Patterning with Foam Stickers

Sorting with Foam Stickers

I picked these stickers up from the dollar tree.  They usually have stickers for different holidays.  I had my daughter sort the stickers by shape.

Making Patterns with Foam Stickers

We also used the stickers to make patterns.

Graphing with Stickers

I made a graph and my daughter placed the hearts on the graph.  We talked about how many of each heart we had.  Which row was the greatest and had the most and which had the least. 

Shape Collage

Shape Collage

This is a great activity when teaching shapes.  I cut out shapes and let my daughter stick the shapes onto contact paper.  (This is great for young children because you don't have to use glue.)  When she was finished I put piece of paper on the sticky side of the contact paper. 

Tot School Week 4

Our theme this week was based on the book, Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What do you see? We also did some other fun activities too.

Brown Bear, Brown Bear Activities
Early on in the week we read the book Brown Bear, Brown Bear What do you see? by Eric Carle. I love this book and had planned on using it for my story and art activity. What started out as just one activity evolved into multiple activities. Here are some things that we did.

Math Activity: Color Sorting

While we were reading the story we talked a lot about colors. That's when I decided that it would be a good idea if we did a color sort. I copied three pictures from the book: blue horse, green frog, and yellow duck. Then I found items around the house that were one of those three colors and I had Little Sweets sort the items by color.

Science: Animal Identification Game
I copied all of the pictures of the animals from the book, cut them out, and glued them to index cards. Then I had Little Sweets point to the animals. I tried telling her which animal to point to but, she thought it was more fun to tell me which animals she wanted to point to. She wasn't super interested in this activity, but I hope to come back to it and emphasize the animals colors. I would like to ask her; "to point to the blue animal or the green animal etc."

Art Activity: Painting with Pudding

I got this idea from Michelle Kincaid at http://www.atozteacherstuff.com/ Little Sweets used pudding to paint her bear brown. Great art activity and snack....

Other Fun Activities

Field Trip: Saluda Shoals Park and Enviromental Center

Little Sweets loves being outdoors. She also loves animals, so I decided to take her a park near our house for a nature walk. While we were at the park we saw lots of squirrels and birds.

This is a picture of Little Sweets running after the birds saying; "flying, flying."

We also went to the enviromental center at the park. They had a play area for children. Little Sweets loved playing in the tree house and the tunnel.

Jellybean Math

I made jellybean number cards for Little Sweets. She placed the jellybeans on the card and we counted them together. To read more about this activity and to get printables for it go here.

I also made jellybean pattern cards. I used the cards to teach Little Sweets about colors, matching, and to introduce patterns. To read more about this activity or to get the printable to go with it, please go here.

Language Arts: Learning about the Alphabet

Little Sweets has a new favorite song; "The Alphabet Train" by Dr. Jean. We listened to this song four times in a row before daddy and I decided that was enough. Little Sweets danced on her alphabet mats as she listened to the song. She also got out her alphabet puzzle as soon as the song started playing.

Tot School Week 3

This week I decided to do things differently. I don't have a theme, but instead have divided activities up by subject area.


Science Activity: We are still learning about animals. Little Sweets loved going to the pond that is near our house. She got to see ducks and turtles. She enjoyed quacking at the ducks. She also saw lots of people walking dogs. She barked at most of the dogs and meowed at a chihuhua.

Math Activity:Sorting fruit loops by color

Language Arts Activities: We are working on the alphabet. We listened to the song The Alphabet Train by Dr. Jean and Little Sweets worked on her alphabet puzzle.

Art Activities: Talked about colors as we made fruit loop necklaces. We also made colored salt jars. (We made the noodle necklace a few weeks ago.)

Field Trip: We went to Edventure the Children's Museum in Columbia

I thought this was the cutest exhibit, a mini grocery store for kids. Little Sweets knew exactly what to do since she likes to go to shopping with mommy. When she was finished shopping she had to put everything back. She knew exactly where everything went. She's just like her daddy very organized and puts everything back in its place.

Valentine Math Activities 3

Valentine Foam Stickers from the Dollar Store

Graphing Activity

First have your child sort the hearts by color. Then have them place them on a graph. After you check their work you can have your child actually stick the sticker side of the heart on the graph. To further extend this lesson ask questions like which color heart do we have the most of. How many pinks do we have. How many more pinks are there than purple. How many less pinks are there than reds etc.

I must admit Little Sweets is too young for these older preschool/kindergarten activities, but you have to remember that I taught these two grade levels and absolutely loved it. I am still trying to retrain my brain so that I can think of more developmentally appropriate activities for Little Sweets. While I still have these ideas popping in my head I thought I would share them with you so that you might be able to do the activity with your child.

Valentine Math Activities 2

Valentine Foam Stickers from the Dollar Store

Patterning Activity

I used the stickers to make 2 different kinds of patterns, an ab pattern and an abc pattern. There are a variety of shapes and colors in the package so your child can make many different kinds of patterns.

Valentine Math Activities

Valentine Foam Stickers from the Dollars Store

Example of Sorting Foam Stickers by Shape

There were many different shapes and colors in the package. You could have your child sort by shape or by color. I would have them show you how they've sorted then take the backs off and stick the stickers to the paper.

Counting and Sorting Using Muffin Tins

Counting and Sorting Using Muffin Tins

Little Sweets was playing with some foam letters I had used when I was teaching. I’ve been trying to teach her about colors so I got out a muffin tin and started sorting the foam letters by colors. Little Sweets didn’t quite get what I was doing and instead picked up handfuls of the letters and placed them in the tins. I am sure she will enjoy this activity a little better when she is older. This is fun activity for older preschoolers, probably 2-3 year olds. When I did this activity in my classroom I would place a colored piece of construction paper in the bottom of the muffin tin and have the children sort different items by color. There are so many items you could sort. For example they could sort pom-poms, felt pieces, foam shapes, colored paper etc.

I also used the muffin tin for counting activities. I put numbers in the bottom of the tin and had the children count that many items out and put them in the muffin tin. Once a child understands what to do they can do this activity independently.

Activities Using Shaving Cream

Activities Using Shaving Cream

Young children love to play with shaving cream. Placing a small amount of shaving cream on the table to play with is a great sensory activity, especially for little ones. But did you know that there are other activities you can do with shaving cream. I would like to share some activities with you.

Teaching about Colors using Shaving Cream
Add a few drops of food coloring to the shaving cream and mix with your fingers. Have your child mix different colors together and discover what happens.

Writing Letters in Shaving Cream
Have your child practice writing lower and uppercase letters with their finger in shaving cream.

Writing Spelling Words in Shaving Cream
Read the words to your child and have them use their finger to write out the words in the shaving cream instead of writing the words on the paper.

Writing Number Problems Using Shaving Cream
Read a math story problem to your child and have them write the number problem out in the shaving cream. You can have them draw the picture that goes with the story problem in the shaving cream too. For example you read, “Tara has 4 apples and Dan has 2 apples. How many apples do they have all together?” Your child can draw 4 circles to represent Tara’s apples and 2 circles to represent Dan’s apples and then write the math problem 4+2=6.

I usually do shaving cream activities on surfaces I know won't get ruined. If you are worried about ruining a table put down a platic tablecloth or keep the shaving cream on a placemat or cookie sheet.

When using food coloring be careful not to stain clothing.

Also be careful not to let your child eat the shaving cream.

Colored Noodle Necklaces

Making Patterns with Noodle Necklaces
Today as I was rummaging through my old teaching materials I found a box of rigatoni noodles. When I taught kindergarten I used the noodles to teach about patterns. We colored the rigatoni noodles ourselves and then made pattern necklaces out them. This is a fun project you can do at home with your child. You will need rigatoni noodles, Ziploc bags, yarn, and food coloring. Place the noodles in the Ziploc bag and put a few drops of food coloring in the bag. Then shake the bag. Place the noodles on a paper towel until they are dry. Let the child pick out the noodles they want to put on their necklace. Practice making different patterns with the noodles. Help your child make a pattern for their necklace. Encourage your child to put the noodles on the yarn themselves; this will help improve fine motor skills. When they are finished putting their noodles on the yarn, tie a knot in the yarn and let them wear their necklace.

This is also a fun activity to teach colors. Little Sweets is obviously too young to understand patterns, but I was able to talk to her about the different colors. She also loves to wear necklaces which is why I decided to do the activity in the first place.

Necklace Making Turns into a Sensory Activity
As you will soon find out I have become an extremely frugal person. I love to come up with new activities with materials we already have. So instead of throwing out the Ziploc bags that still contained some food coloring, I put water in them. Little Sweets loved it. We talked about the color of the water in the bag, then we poured the water into a bowl and played in it. We mixed the different colored water together and talked about the new colors that were made. Little Sweets had a ball. Eventually she figured out she could drink the water and ended up pouring it all over herself. What started out as an activity about colors turned into a fun sensory activity. We made a huge mess all over the floor and all over Little Sweets, but it was worth it. If you do this activity be prepared to clean up a big mess and don't wear nice clothes while doing it. Little sweets ended up wearing only her diaper by the time we were done playing in the water.